The campaigning activities of abolitionist MPs such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Fowell Buxton are well-known, but one former MP, who had become a member of the House of Lords, was involved in this question in a rather different way. Joe Baker – Public Engagement Assistant for the History of Parliament – looks at the landmark decision made by Lord Mansfield in the case of ..read more

In October 1788, George III fell ill with an unknown ‘malady’ which rendered him unable to fulfil his duties as sovereign: the beginning of the king’s famous ‘madness’. In the latest post for the Georgian Lords, we welcome Dr Natalee Garrett, who considers the role of Queen Charlotte during the period of the king’s illness, and more broadly. As the Prince of Wales was 26 ..read more

Ahead of next Tuesday’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Dr Alex Beeton. On 10 December he will discuss the creation and use of the Lords Journals during the 1640s. The seminar takes place on 10 December 2024, between 5:30 and 6.30 p.m. It is will be hosted online via Zoom. Details of how to join the discussion are available here. Should the ..read more

The current BBC production of Wolf Hall: the Mirror and the Light, the last of Hilary Mantel’s novels charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, is a reminder that Cromwell’s dynasty did not end with him on the block. In this post, Dr Robin Eagles considers the careers of some of the direct heirs and how Cromwell’s descendant, Elizabeth, attended the coronation of Queen ..read more

On this day, 1499, Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the English throne, was hung for treason, bringing an end to one of the most significant threats to Henry VII’s reign. Dr Hannes Kleineke, editor of our House of Commons 1461-1504 section, recounts the story of the Warbeck Conspiracy. Some three years after Lambert Simnel had taken up his post as Henry VII’s kitchen boy, another ..read more

Continuing her series on the 1883 Corrupt Practices Act, Dr Kathryn Rix looks at its impact on electioneering, focusing on the November 1883 York by-election, which was the first parliamentary election held in England under the Act’s terms. The 1883 Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, a landmark reform aimed at tackling the corruption and expense of elections, received royal assent on 25 August 1883 ..read more

Ahead of next Tuesday’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Dr Duncan Sutherland. On 26 November he will discuss how peers settled their titles in the twentieth century. The seminar takes place on 26 November 2024, between 5:30 and 6.30 p.m. It is fully ‘hybrid’, which means you can attend either in-person in London at the IHR, or online via Zoom. Details of how to ..read more

It is with great sadness that the History announces the death of Dr Simon Healy. One of its longest serving members of staff, Simon joined the History in 1990, where, for the next thirty years, he worked on both the early Stuart House of Commons and House of Lords volumes, published in 2010 and 2021 respectively. During that time, Simon wrote no fewer than 334 ..read more

While Caroline Lucas is commonly referred to as Britain’s first Green Member of Parliament, Cynog Dafis, who entered parliament as the Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion and North Pembrokeshire nearly twenty years earlier, could also claim this title. Alfie Steer explores Dafis’ political career, and the unusual electoral alliance between Plaid Cymru and the Green Party in the 1990s. The 2024 general election saw the ..read more

In the latest Revolutionary Stuart Parliaments article, Dr Patrick Little looks at the relationship between two brothers-in-law who ended up on opposing sides during the civil war. William Seymour, 2nd earl (and later 1st marquess) of Hertford married Frances Devereux, sister of Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, in 1617. This was a match between two powerful families, both of which had experienced the ups ..read more