Factions
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‘of all others most desirable’: Pitt the Younger and elections for Cambridge
From the onset of his lengthy political career, William Pitt the Younger had his eyes fixed on representing his alma…
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Some thoughts on William Pulteney, earl of Bath
The 31 May 2025 marks Dr Stuart Handley’s last day at the History of Parliament. One of his last biographies…
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The Last of the Jacobites: Henry Benedict
Henry Benedict, Cardinal York (1725-1807), born 300 years ago this March, was the last member of the royal family to…
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‘A Socialist Identity in Parliament’? The Campaign Group of Labour MPs, 1982-2015
Ahead of next Tuesday’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Alfie Steer of Hertford College, University of Oxford. On…
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Robert Burns in Edinburgh: peers, patrons, and politics
In the wake of Burns Night, it is worth considering how the patronage of a small number of Scottish nobles…
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A Meddlesome Mother? Queen Charlotte and the Regency Crisis
In October 1788, George III fell ill with an unknown ‘malady’ which rendered him unable to fulfil his duties as…
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The day Parliament was invaded
In the summer of 1780 London, and several other cities across England, experienced some of the worst rioting they had…
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Arthur Latham and the rise of the Labour Left
On this day, 1930, Arthur Latham was born. Labour MP for Paddington North (later Paddington) from 1969 to 1979, his…
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Election Chairing Ballads: The Songs and Music of Electoral Victory from Handel to ‘Things Can Only Get Better’
In today’s blog for the Georgian Elections Project, Dr Kendra Packham (Institute of English Studies, University of London and Newcastle…
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Breaking the Political Mould: a new 18th-century political party
With a multiple of parties vying for your vote in the 2024 General Election, the Whig and Tory monopoly of…
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Winchester v. Winchester: rivalries and election-rigging in 1560s Hampshire
Whatever the outcome of a modern election, the process of voting is predictable, reliable, and well-understood. However, in the sixteenth…
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Tory to Whig – or helping out the Family?
Historians J.B. Owen, J.H. Plumb, and Linda Colley have all alluded to the post-1714 drift of the Tories into the…