Shaftesbury, Third Earl of (1671–1713)

The third earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, was the leading opponent of Stuart absolutism, chief organizer of the Whig political movement, and John Locke's patron and collaborator. The third earl was the grandson of the first earl, who held the position of Lord Chancellor under Charles II until having fallen from favor when he was implicated in Monmouth's Rebellion. The third earl thus came from a family noted for its opposition to tyranny.

One of Locke's tasks was to supervise the education of the young Shaftesbury, who was fluent in Greek and Latin by age 11. Although Shaftesbury shared the political views of his grandfather (known as Real, or Radical, Whiggism) and served for a number of years in Parliament, his first loves were philosophy ...