Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
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.
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.
Cooper was a member of the commonwealth council of state during the time of Oliver Cromwell.
During the English Civil War he was originally a supporter of the crown but switched sides and joined the parliamentarians in 1644 due to his concerns about Charles I. He supported the restoration of Charles II.
In 1663, the Earl of Shaftesbury was one of eight Lords Proprietors given title to a huge tract of land in North America which became the Province of Carolina.
After the fall of Lord Clarendon in 1667, Cooper, now raised to the peerage as Lord Ashley, became a prominent member of the Cabal, in which he formed the second "A". Ashley became Lord Chancellor in 1672, and was raised to become Earl of Shaftesbury.
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.
| Preceded by: Edward Hyde | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1661-1672 | Followed by: Sir John Duncombe |
| Preceded by (Lord Keeper): Sir Orlando Bridgeman | Lord Chancellor 1672-1673 | Followed by: The Lord Finch |
| Preceded by: --- | Lord President of the Council 1679 | Followed by: The Earl of Radnor |
| Preceded by: New Creation | Earl of Shaftesbury | Followed by: Anthony Ashley Cooper |