Our ‘Named Parliaments’ series continues. Today Paul Seaward, British Academy/Wolfson Research Professor at the History of Parliament Trust explores the Cavalier Parliament, the first Parliament after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660… The Parliament elected in April 1661 was designed to sweep away the last vestiges of the English Revolution and restore the monarchy to its pre-Civil War glory. It was the Convention of … Continue reading The Cavalier Parliament
The recent stream of votes in the Commons surrounding Brexit has thrown into relief the practice of ‘whipping’ MPs into supporting their party line. Dr Vivienne Larminie of the House of Commons 1640-1660 section examines the emergence of an early prototype. In the summer of 1647 several years of escalating faction-fighting in Parliament came to a head. With Charles I now defeated and in captivity, … Continue reading ‘“The Parliament driver”: Walter Long, party politics and the whip
For the final blog in our series on the events during the winter of 1648-9, Dr Patrick Little of the House of Commons 1640-1660 section considers the transition from monarchy to republic after the execution of Charles I… After the dramatic events of December 1648 and January 1649, which saw the purging of Parliament and the trial and execution of the king, the far-reaching, ‘hard’ revolution that some hoped for … Continue reading Crashing out of Monarchy: February 1649 and the making of the English republic
