According to www.dictionary.com<\/a>, cabal<\/em> means \u201c1. a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority; 2. the plots and schemes of such a group; intrigue; and 3. a clique, as in artistic, literary, or theatrical circles.\u201d It can also be used as a verb, meaning \u201cto form a cabal; intrigue; conspire; plot.\u201d<\/p>\n According to www.etymonline.com<\/a>, the word entered the English language in the \u201c1520s, \u2018mystical interpretation of the Old Testament,\u2019 later \u2018an intriguing society, a small group meeting privately\u2019 (1660s), from French\u00a0cabal<\/em>, which had both senses, from Medieval Latin\u00a0cabbala <\/em>(see\u00a0cabbala<\/strong><\/a>). Popularized in English 1673 as an acronym for five intriguing ministers of Charles II (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale), which gave the word its sinister connotations.\u201d Note that in this etymology, the word intriguing<\/em> does not mean \u201cfascinating,\u201d as we would generally think of it. It means \u201cengaging in intrigues or plots.\u201d<\/p>\n On this date in 1663, King Charles II, the son of the King Charles who lost his head in disputes with the Puritans back in 1649, signed the Carolina Charter, giving authority over a new colony in the New World, to be called Carolina. The \u201ceight men, and their heirs and assigns, were identified by the charter as \u2018the true and absolute Lords Proprietors\u2019 of Carolina.\u00a0 They were to \u2018have, use, exercise, and enjoy\u2019 the colony \u2018in as ample a manner as any bishop of Durham in our kingdom of England.\u2019\u00a0 This meant that the Lords Proprietors possessed broad feudal powers to profit from the colony and bore the considerable responsibility of managing and protecting it in the interests of England.\u00a0 They were conferred \u2018full and absolute power . . . for the good and happy government of the said province,\u2019 including the power of \u2018enacting . . . laws\u2019 (the legislative power), to \u2018duly execute [the laws] upon all people within the said province\u2019 (the executive power), and to impose \u2018penalties, imprisonment or any other punishment\u2019 (the judicial power)\u201d (http:\/\/northcarolinahistory.org\/encyclopedia\/carolina-charter-of-1663\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n These eight men were \u201cEdward Earl of Clarendon, our high chancellor of England, and George Duke of Albermarle, master of our horse and captain general of all our forces, our right trusty and well beloved William Lord Craven, John Lord Berkley, our right trusty and well beloved counsellor, Anthony Lord Ashley, chancellor of our exchequer, Sir George Carteret, knight and baronet, vice chamberlain of our household, and our trusty and well beloved Sir William Berkley, knight, and Sir John Colleton, knight and baronet.\u201d If you\u2019re familiar with South Carolina, you might just recognize some of these names. County names in South Carolina include Berkeley, Clarendon, and Colleton. \u201cAnthony Lord Ashley\u201d is Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st<\/sup> Earl of Shaftesbury, and there is, of course, an Ashley River and a Cooper River.<\/p>\n The first settlers of the new colony landed at what would become the port of Charleston in 1670, mostly from Barbados, wealthy planters and their slaves. Eventually, the proprietors would sell their shares in the new colony back to the crown, and around 1729 the northern and southern parts would split into two colonies, North Carolina being a crown colony.<\/p>\n You might wonder who the Carolina was for whom the new colony was named, but you may be disappointed. Carolus is the Latin form of Charles, and so anything with Carolina in it is probably named for one of the two kings named Charles.<\/p>\n Charles II reigned in England from 1660 (the end of the Commonwealth) until 1685. He was king during the Great Fire of London in 1666. He was the king of the Restoration, which introduced female actors to the London stage. I am not sure that signing the Carolina Charter in 1663 should go down as one of the great accomplishments of his reign, but it certainly is an important date for those of us who live in South Carolina. The end of his reign proved somewhat controversial. He did not have a legitimate heir, so he declared that his brother would succeed him on the throne. Unfortunately, James II was a Roman Catholic, and the English did not want to have a Roman Catholic king. James ruled for three years, at which time the English rebelled in what is now called the Glorious or Bloodless Revolution, so-called because it was pretty much bloodless.<\/p>\n One of the lords of England most opposed to James\u2019s becoming king was Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st<\/sup> Earl of Shaftesbury, who was also a member of the group of ministers in Charles\u2019s court known as the cabal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The image is a portrait of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st<\/sup> Earl of Shaftesbury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Schleifer According to www.dictionary.com, cabal means \u201c1. a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority; 2. the plots and schemes of such a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2734,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions\/2734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}