17th Century history
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The Baronial Context of the 1641 Triennial Act
Dr David Scott, Editor of the 1640-60 House of Lords section, explores the role of the peers in securing the right of Parliament to meet regularly. The Triennial Act of February 1641 was the first piece of legislation passed by…
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The passing of the bill of attainder against the Jacobite Sir John Fenwick
On 25 November 1696 the House of Commons, after a bitter series of debates, finally passed a bill that would result in the execution of the Northumbrian baronet Sir John Fenwick, for treason in January 1697. As Dr Paul Seaward…
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‘Confirmation of the People’s Rights’: commemorating the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688
For many, the beginning of November means the advent of longer nights as the year winds down to Christmas. Some may still enjoy attending firework displays marking the failure of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. In November 1788, though, serious efforts…
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John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes of Truro (later earl of Radnor): reading in the revolution
In this guest article, Dr Sophie Aldred, lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford, explores the library of Lord Robartes and what it tells us of his political position during the revolutionary years of the 1640s. Variously…
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Descended from a giant: the Worsleys of Hovingham
The recent death of HRH the Duchess of Kent, who was married to the late queen’s cousin at York Minister in 1961, reminds us of her family’s long association with Yorkshire. This has included two brothers who served as archbishop…
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John Potter, an unusual Archbishop of Canterbury
In the latest blog for the Georgian Lords, Dr Robin Eagles examines the career of one of the lesser known Archbishops of Canterbury, who was able to make use of his August 1715 sermon celebrating the accession of George I…
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‘Good for nothing and lived like a hog’: the destructive obsession of Francis, Lord Deincourt
Dr Patrick Little of the 1640-60 Lords section, explores the strange life of a peer who valued money above everything. It had started so well. Francis Leak, the son of Sir Francis Leak, a prosperous landowner in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire,…
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Parliament and the Church, c.1530-c.1630
In this blog, Dr Alex Beeton reviews a fascinating colloquium, held recently at the History of Parliament’s office in Bloomsbury Square. In the early modern period, both England’s Church and its Parliament changed. A Catholic country split from Rome and…
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Oliver Cromwell’s ‘Other House’ and the perils of Lords ‘reform’
In this guest post, Dr Jonathan Fitzgibbons of Lincoln University, looks at a constitutional issue from the 1650s with obvious contemporary relevance: the place of the House of Lords. As politicians continue to debate the House of Lords’ future, including…
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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 take an active role in a papal Conclave, when he participated in the election of Pope Pius VII at Venice…
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Approaching the ‘great Court of Justice now sitting’: petitioning and parliamentary memory in the Long Parliament (1640-1642)
Ahead of next Tuesday’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Dr Ellen Paterson, Keble College, University of Oxford. On 11 March Ellen will discuss petitioning and parliamentary memory in the Long Parliament (1640-1642). The seminar takes place on 11…
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Lord Saye and Sele and the Battle for Oxford
In our first ‘Revolutionary Stuart Parliaments‘ article of 2025, Editor of the 1640-60 House of Lords section, Dr David Scott, considers the leading parliamentarian peer, Viscount Saye and Sele, and his relationship with the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. ‘The…