Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683) was a prominent English politician of the Interregnum and during the reign of King Charles II.

Cooper, born in Dorset County, suffered the death of both his parents at a young age and was raised by relatives and family friends, while being subjected to financial mulcting through the neo-feudal Court of Wards. He inherited baronetcies from both his father and his maternal grandfather, Anthony Ashley. Educated largely by Puritan tutors, he attended Exeter College at Oxford. While there he fomented a minor riot and left without taking a degree; nevertheless, he was admitted into Lincoln's Inn.

Sir Anthony was elected to the Short Parliament for the borough of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, where his family owned land. He was elected to the Long Parliament for Poole in his native Dorset. But Denzil Holles, soon to rise to prominence as a leader of the opposition to the king and a personal rival of Sir Anthony's, blocked his admission to the parliament. It was probably feared that Sir Anthony, as a result of his recent marriage to the daughter of Charles I's Lord Keeper Coventry, would be too sympathetic to the king.

When the Civil War began, Sir Anthony supported the king (somewhat echoing Holles's concerns), but changed sides soon afterward, citing the king's policies as being "destructive to religion and State." He eventually joined Cromwell's Council of State, but resigned in 1655, protesting against Cromwell's dictatorial politics. Four years later, George Monck, a prominent royalist military officer, recruited Cooper in the Restoration of Charles II.

In October 1660, shortly after the Restoration's success, Sir Anthony was on the commission that controversially tried the Regicides (those who had participated in the trial and execution of Charles I). The commission eventually found ten surviving members guilty, and another four were posthumously convicted (their bodies were exhumed and hung publicly). One year later, he was created Baron Ashley and appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In that position, Lord Ashley served on the Clarendon Ministry as one of its less prominent members; he frequently quarreled with the head of government, Lord Clarendon, especially upon matters of religious toleration (which Ashley supported but Clarendon opposed). In 1663, Ashley was one of eight Lords Proprietors given title to a huge tract of land in North America, which eventually became the Province of Carolina.

After the fall of Lord Clarendon in 1667, Lord Ashley became a prominent member of the Cabal, in which he formed the second "A". Ashley became Lord Chancellor in 1672, and was created Earl of Shaftesbury and Baron Cooper of Pawlett. He was also appointed First Lord of Trade. He would serve as Chancellor for one year, but would remain First Lord of Trade until 1676.

Due to his intriguing with the Duke of Monmouth against the succession of the Catholic Duke of York, Shaftesbury fell from favor, and became a leader of the radical Whigs. In 1681, Shaftesbury was charged with high treason, but the charges were later dismissed. Nonetheless, he fled to Holland, where he died two years later.

References

• Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page

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The Earl of Radnor