Shaftesbury and the Seventeenth Century

• Published in: Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury 1621-1683 pp. 1 - 25
• Main Author: Spurr, John
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom Routledge 2011; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700; Superb; Thomas Scot; Young Man; TNA; Denzil Holles; Royal Divorce; Secretaries Of State; Edward III; Osborn Shelves; French Style Absolutism; MS 63057B; Exclusion Bill; Creon; Exclusion Crisis; Rightful Council; William III; Protectorate Parliament; Exeter House; Conventicle Act; Truthful Claim; Popish Plot; Buckingham; Charles II's England
• DOI: 10.4324/9781315567273-1
• ISBN: 9780754661719; 0754661717

Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, was a giant on the English political scene of the later seventeenth century. For the Shaftesbury of the satirists' imagination, and nothing would stand in the way of self-preservation; if he get through, he drowns the Ship and Crew'. Frontal assaults on Shaftesbury, such as Marchamont Nedham's pamphlet A Pacquet of Advices, wreaked havoc on his reputation in his own lifetime and have been much quoted by historians since then. An occasional individual might hint at the need for a sympathetic study of Shaftesbury, but for several generations no one had the time or inclination to review his reputation and re-examine his career. Haley has clearly succeeded in completing that rehabilitation of Shaftesbury begun by Christie nearly a century ago, while at the same time producing what will certainly be the definitive biography for many years to come', wrote one reviewer.