England's 'little sisters without breasts': Shaftesbury and Scotland and Ireland

• Published in: Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury 1621-1683 pp. 183 - 205
• Main Author: Harris, Tim
• 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; Charles II's Request; Highland Host; Young Man; Secretary Of State; Scottish Privy Council; TNA; Denzil Holles; Heneage Finch; Talk Of The Town; Edward III; Osborn Shelves; MS 63057B; Grand Question; Exclusion Crisis; Charles II; Arbitrary Government; William III; Exeter House; Shaftesbury Papers; George Hickes; Popish Plot; Irish Plot
• ISBN: 9780754661719; 0754661717
• DOI: 10.4324/9781315567273-8

This chapter includes Anthony Ashley Cooper involvement with the expansion of England's overseas colonies, his relationship with John Locke, his connections with Scotland and Ireland and his high profile public reputation. It explores the nature of Shaftesbury's concerns about Scotland and Ireland, and the relationship between Shaftesbury's views and those of the first Whigs more generally. The Britannic perspective, it will be shown, gives us a more realistic understanding of why Shaftesbury and many Whigs were so concerned about the threat of popery and arbitrary government in the aftermath of the Popish Plot. The chapter highlights the extent to which many of the key issues that were to divide the nation during the Exclusion Crisis were already in play well before Titus Oates made his revelations in the summer of 1678. It seems clear that there was no Irish Plot, and the Irish witnesses were less credible than Titus Oates.