In the summer of 1720 a schism that had divided the Whig Party into competing factions was finally healed. Dr Charles Littleton, senior research fellow in the House of Lords 1715-90 section, considers how this came about and how those involved were compensated or rewarded to help reunite them. A previous blog has described the origins of the Whig Schism of 1717, as an example … Continue reading Friends reunited? The end of the Whig Schism
The latest blog for the Georgian Lords considers the topical issue of quarantine. In the 1720s the government was forced to update its quarantine legislation, but as Dr Charles Littleton of our Lords 1715-1790 project shows, it received spirited opposition from members of the House of Lords… In the face of pressure from opposition parties and its own back-benchers, the Johnson government substantially amended the … Continue reading ‘Where the disease is desperate, the remedy must be so too’: debating the 1721 Quarantine Act
Unusually for a profile of one of our Oral History Project interviewees, Chris Smith has not recently passed away! Yet as the first sitting MP who chose to publicly come out, his is a fascinating interview to focus on this LGBT history month. Dr Emma Peplow, our Oral History Project lead, explores his parliamentary career… Chris Smith, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury 1983-2005, … Continue reading Voices from the Oral History Project – Chris Smith
Ahead of this evening’s IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, Dr Max Skjönsberg from the University of Liverpool revisits his paper from the previous session, discussing political philosopher and MP Edmund Burke’s alignment with the Whig party… Edmund Burke (1729/30-97) is the best-known proponent of party in parliamentary history and the history of political thought. In his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Edmund Burke and the Rockingham Whigs
Ahead of this evening’s IHR Parliaments, Politics, and People seminar, we hear from Dr. Roland Quinault, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, about his paper from our previous session. Britain was slow to adopt the constitutional device of a referendum – the practice of referring political issues directly to the judgment of the people without recourse to Parliament. It was only … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics, and People: The Referendum issue & the constitutional crisis before the First World War
In the latest blog for the Georgian Lords, Dr Stuart Handley, senior research fellow on the Lords 1715-90 section, considers the significance of one of the central characters of the court of Queen Anne who failed to make it into the film, The Favourite The Oscar and BAFTA winning film, The Favourite, brought Queen Anne’s reign to the attention of the nation. The more observant … Continue reading The Favourite: The Missing Duchess
In this new blog for our ‘Women and Parliament’ series, Dr Paula Bartley gives an overview of the political career of the first woman Cabinet Minister, Margaret Bondfield, who was appointed as such 90 years ago today. This blog is inspired by Paula’s research from her newly published book, Labour Women in Power, which examines the lives of Margaret Bondfield, Ellen Wilkinson, Barbara Castle, Judith … Continue reading The First Woman Cabinet Minister: Margaret Bondfield, 1873- 1953
In the last session of our IHR seminar, Parliaments, Politics and People, we enjoyed a paper from Professor Emeritus of Politics from the University of York, David Howell. Below he summarises his paper on patriotic Labour in the wake of the Great War… Lloyd George rapidly called an election following the signing of an armistice on 11 November 1918. Three days later an already scheduled … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People: Patriotic Labour 1918
Next up in the Women and Parliament series we hear from Dr James Parker of the University of Exeter. He explores the sponsorship of Leah Manning’s candidature by the National Union of Teachers… Leah Manning (1886-1977) was the thirteenth woman to be elected as a Labour Member of Parliament, representing Islington East in the House of Commons from February to October 1931 and later serving … Continue reading ‘I am a political animal, but I am not a politician’: Leah Manning as a sponsored parliamentary candidate in the 1930s.
In this latest blog for the Georgian Lords, Dr Charles Littleton offers some insights into the political background of the world presented in the award-winning movie The Favourite. The critical reception that has greeted Yorgos Lanthimos’s film provides an excellent opportunity to re-examine the role of politics and the court in the reign of Queen Anne, a critical time in the development of the British … Continue reading The politics of the royal bedchamber: what The Favourite does (and does not) tell us about party, Parliament and the court of Queen Anne
