The Whigs were originally known as the Country Party (the opposition), who believed they represented the interests of the people rather than those of the government, and the Tories as the Court Party, who represented the interests of the king and court. In the mid 1670s, the two parties became known by the derisory names of Whigs (named after the Whiggamores (Scottish Presbyterian rebels), and the Tories, named after Irish brigands.

John Dryden, published November 1681, shortly before Shaftesbury's trial for high treason:

"For wit and fool are consequents of whig and tory; and every man is a knave or an ass to the contrary side. There's a treasury of merits in the fanatic church, as well as in the papist; and a pennyworth to be had of saintship, honesty, and poetry, for the lewd, the factious, and the blockheads; but the longest chapter in Deuteronomy has not enough curses for an Anti-Bromingham (a tory)..."