Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper’s Regiment of Foot

Royalist Dorset infantry regiment whose Colonel changed sides and fought for Parliament

• Raised in Dorset
• July onwards: Garrison of Weymouth and Portland
• October: Action at Weymouth

• January: Ashley-Cooper defects to the Parliamentarians

A short-lived regiment of foot, that appears to have disbanded after Ashley-Cooper’s defection to the Parliamentarians.

Coat colours and flags are unknown..

A list of the regiment's officers is shown in Officers and Regiments of the Royalist Army by Stuart Reid (Partizan Press).

Ashley-Cooper (1621-1683) is better known as the First Earl of Shaftesbury, a prominent statesman and politician during the Inter-regnum and Restoration. Despite being only 19 he represented Tewkesbury in the Short Parliament. After some vacillation he raised a regiment of foot and a troop of horse, and was appointed a Royalist commissioner for the surrender of Dorchester, coming into dispute with Prince Maurice whose men plundered the town contrary to the terms of surrender. Appointed temporary governor of Weymouth and Portland, the position of High Sherriff of Dorset was promised to him. Despite this he defected to the Parliamentarians where he led a brigade of Dorset troops during 1644 at the siege of Wareham, storm of Abbotsbury House, taking of Shaftesbury and the relief of Taunton. In 1645 he resigned from the Parliamentarian army at the Self-Denying Ordinance. Patently a skilled politician, he continued in government throughout the Commonwealth and Protectorate, then became Chancellor of the Exchequer under Charles II and member of the ‘Cabal’ ministry. He went on to further high office and was instrumental in formation of the Whig party. Fearing that Charles II and James would impose Catholicism he formented various Protestant rebellions but had to flee abroad and died in Amsterdam.

• Colonel Charles Fleetwood’s Regiment of Horse, commanded briefly by Ashley-Cooper in 1660.