Cabal ministry
The Cabal ministry or the CABAL /kæˈbɑːl/ refers to a group of high councillors of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to c. 1674.
The term Cabal has a double meaning in this context. It refers to the fact that, for perhaps the first time in English history, effective power in a royal council was shared by a group of men, a
Through the Foreign Affairs committee and their own offices, the five members were able to direct government policy both at home and abroad. The notion of an organized group in government, as opposed to a single royal favourite holding clear power, was seen by many[who?] as a threat to the authority of the throne. Others saw it as subverting the power of the council or of Parliament, whilst Buckingham's close relationship with the king made the Cabal unpopular with some reformers. The title "Cabal" resulted from the perception that they had conspired in Clarendon's fall and prosecution, and in its increasingly secretive conduct of government, and was helped by the fact that the initial letters of their names could be arranged to form CABAL as an acronym.[1] However, there were sharp ideological divisions among the five, ranging from the Parliamentary idealism of Ashley to the autocratic absolutism of Lauderdale.[2]
- Members of the Cabal ministry
-
The Lord Clifford of Chudleigh
(1630–1673) -
The Earl of Arlington
(1618–1685) -
The Duke of Buckingham
(1628–1687) -
The Lord Ashley
(1621–1683) -
The Duke of Lauderdale
(1616–1682)
Membership and rise
Following the end of
The linchpin of the Cabal was probably George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Although he only held the household office of Master of the Horse, with responsibility for overseeing the King's travel arrangements, Buckingham was a long and close associate of King Charles II, having been practically raised together since they were children, during the close association of their fathers, Charles I and the first Duke of Buckingham, a relationship they consciously compared themselves to in adulthood, and might have replicated had the younger Buckingham possessed the skills of his father. Nonetheless, Buckingham was in constant contact with and a clear favourite of the king, and the centre of the Cabal's grip on power. Gilbert Burnet, who knew some of its members personally, said that Buckingham stood somewhat apart from the rest of the Cabal, hating them and being hated in return.[3]
The Lord High Treasurer Wriothesley having died just before Clarendon's departure, the Treasury went into commission in 1667, under the nominal chairmanship of George Monck (Duke of Albemarle). But as Monck was practically retired from public life, control of the Treasury commission was taken up by Sir Thomas Clifford (Comptroller and soon Treasurer of the Household) and Anthony Ashley Cooper (Chancellor of the Exchequer). With the assistance of their close associates John Duncombe (Ashley's deputy at the Exchequer), Stephen Fox (the Paymaster of the Forces) and notably Sir George Downing, the highly capable secretary to the Treasury commission, Clifford and Ashley overhauled the monarchical finances, placing them in a much more solvent state than before.[4]
Foreign affairs was principally directed by Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington (Secretary of the South), with occasional assistance from George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.[1] (Although foreign affairs were notionally in the purview of the Secretary of the North, the Cabal bullied Sir William Morice into selling the seat to Sir John Trevor, and then sidelined the latter.)
John Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale (Secretary of State for Scotland) had already consolidated his position in 1663 by securing the dismissal of his principal rival, John Middleton (Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland) and his replacement by the more pliable John Leslie, Earl of Rothes. In 1669, Lauderdale went one step further, and got Leslie dismissed and the Lord High Commissioner position for himself, consolidating his hold and ruling Scotland as a virtual autocrat for the remainder of his career.
Sir Orlando Bridgeman, the Royalist lawyer who had prosecuted the Regicides, and who took over Clarendon's duties as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in 1667, was outside of this inner circle, although cooperative with their goals.
Despite their comparative energy and efficiency, the Cabal were a fractious and unpopular lot.
Split and fall
The Cabal began to split in 1672, particularly over the autocratic nature of the King's
The Cabal was later called by Lord Macaulay, British historian and Whig politician, "the first germ of the present system of government by a Cabinet".[12]
Ministry
These five members made up the "cabal" (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale), which held most of the power within the government.
| Office | Name | Term | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master of the Horse | The Duke of Buckingham | 1668–1674 | |
| Southern Secretary | The Lord Arlington | 1667–1674 | appointed 1662; created Earl of Arlington in 1672
|
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | The Lord Ashley |
1667–1672 | created Earl of Shaftesbury in 1672 |
| Lord Chancellor | 1672–1673 | ||
First Lord of Trade |
1672–1674 | ||
| Secretary of State for Scotland | The Earl of Lauderdale | 1667–1674 | created Duke of Lauderdale in 1672
|
| Comptroller of the Household | Sir Thomas Clifford | 1667–1668 | created Baron Clifford of Chudleigh in 1672 |
| Treasurer of the Household | 1668–1672 | ||
| Lord High Treasurer | 1672–1673 |
The remaining members of the ministry, as would be expected, held less power than the cabal.
| Office | Name | Term | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lord Keeper | Orlando Bridgeman, Bt. | 1667–1674 | |
| First Lord of the Treasury | The Duke of Albemarle | 1667–1670 | |
| Lord Privy Seal | The Lord Robartes | 1667–1674 | also Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1669–1670) |
| Northern Secretary | Sir William Morice, Bt. | 1667–1668 | |
Sir John Trevor |
1668–1672 | ||
| Henry Coventry | 1672–1674 | ||
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | Sir John Duncombe | 1672–1674 | |
| Master-General of the Ordnance | In commission | 1667–1670 | |
| Sir Thomas Chicheley | 1670–1674 | ||
| Paymaster of the Forces | Sir Stephen Fox | 1667–1674 |
References
- ^ a b c d e Kenyon, J. P., The Stuarts (Fontana, 1970), p. 117.
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, King Charles II (Mandarin, 1993), p. 255.
- ^ a b c Burnet, Gilbert, History of his Own Time (Everyman's Library abridgement, 1979), p. 125.
- ^ Kishlansky, Mark, A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603–1714 (Penguin, 1996), p. 244.
- ^ Kishlansky, p. 244.
- ^ Kenyon, J. P., Stuart England (Pelican, 1978), p. 212.
- ^ Kenyon 1970, p. 11.
- ^ Fraser, p. 264.
- ^ Fraser, p. 317.
- ^ Fraser, p. 322.
- ^ Kenyon 1970, pp. 121–2.
- ^ Girdlestone, Henry Clapcott (1926). Europe: Its Influence on South Africa (11th impression, revised & enlarged by Cecil Lewis ed.). Cape Town: Juta & Co. p. 178.
