Shaftesbury and the Rye House Plot

• Published in: Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury 1621-1683 pp. 233 - 268
• Main Author: Milton, Philip
• 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; Roger Morrice; Young Man; TNA; General Insurrection; Denzil Holles; Robert West; Secretaries Of State; Edward III; Osborn Shelves; MS 63057B; John Ayloffe; Exclusion Bill; Rye House Plot; Good Lives; Assassination Plot; William III; Thomas Shepherd; Insurrection Plot; Moor Park; Charles II's England; Lord Shaftesbury; King's Bench Prison
• DOI: 10.4324/9781315567273-10
• ISBN: 9780754661719; 0754661717

Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, was a giant on the English political scene of the later seventeenth century. Few episodes in Shaftesbury's career have been quite as controversial as his apparent involvement in the conspiracies that have come to be known as the Rye House Plot. Although the attempt to indict him failed, Shaftesbury knew that his future safety depended on the Whigs retaining control of the City of London, especially the shrievalty. Wyche sought to rescue Shaftesbury's reputation from what he saw as Burnet's distortions; their accounts have much in common. The reliability of Howard's testimony remains uncertain, most historians accept that by early October Shaftesbury had disappeared from public view and was continuing to press for an insurrection. According to Howard and to believe Shaftesbury thought Monmouth aimed at nothing than advancing himself whilst they could not hope that ever their liberties should be well secured for the future, but under the government of a commonwealth.