Earl of Shaftesbury

Common card · No. 439321

Earl of Shaftesbury is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1672 for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley, a prominent politician in the Cabal then dominating the policies of King Charles II. He had already succeeded his father as second Baronet of Rockbourne in 1631 and been created Baron Ashley, of Wimborne St Giles in the County of Dorset, in 1661, and he was made Baron Cooper, of Paulett in the County of Somerset, at the same time he was given the earldom. The 1st Earl was also a founding officer of the Royal African Company, England's slave-trading monopoly, serving as its sub-governor in 1672–73, and co-authored the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, which sought to found a hereditary aristocracy in North America and gave slaveholders "absolute power and authority" over enslaved people. These titles are also in the Peerage of England. Baron Ashley is used as a courtesy title by the Earl's eldest son and heir apparent. The Cooper baronetcy, of Rockbourne in the...

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