Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, was an English statesman. He held senior political office under both the Commonwealth of England and Charles II, serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer
Portrait by John Greenhill, c. 1672–1673
The Gate of Lincoln's Inn. Cooper attended Lincoln's Inn, beginning in 1638 at age 17, to receive an education in the laws of England. Throughout his political career, Cooper posed as a defender of the rule of law, at various points in his career breaking with both Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) and Charles II (1630–1685) when he perceived they were subverting the rule of law and introducing arbitrary government.
Cooper's father-in-law Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry (1578–1640), who served as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal from 1625 to 1640. Cooper first entered politics under Lord Coventry's tutelage.
Maurice of the Palatinate (1620–1652), depicted as Mercury. Prince Maurice attempted to block Cooper's appointment as governor of Weymouth and Portland.
The Whigs were a political party in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, t
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
…1679–1681), Shaftesbury headed the movement to bar the Catholic heir, James II, from the royal succession, which is often seen as the origin of the Whig party. He was the first patron of John Locke, who, when they met was a quiet Oxford don and practising physician; as part of Shaftesbury's household and…
Equestrian portrait of William III by Jan Wyck, commemorating the landing at Brixham, Torbay, 5 November 1688
A c. 1705 portrait of John Somers, 1st Baron Somers by Godfrey Kneller
In A Block for the Wigs (1783), caricaturist James Gillray caricatured Charles James Fox's return to power in a coalition with Frederick North, Lord North (George III is the blockhead in the centre).