Georgian Lords
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Putting ‘spirit in the conduct of the war’: the November 1775 government reshuffle
In his last post for the Georgian Lords, From bills to bullets: Spring 1775 and the approach to war in America, on the advent of the American War of Independence, Dr Charles Littleton left things hanging with the prorogation on…
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‘The Tartan Rage’: Fashion, High Society, and Scottish Identity in Eighteenth-Century London
At the IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar on Tuesday 25 November, Dr Natalee Garrett of The Open University, will be discussing Jane, duchess of Gordon and the Romanticisation of Scottish Identity in London, c.1780-1812. The seminar takes place on…
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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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‘The sect of Alarmists’: The Third Party and the reluctant leadership of William Windham, 1793-4
In this latest post, the Georgian Lords welcomes a guest article by James Orchin, PhD student at Queen’s University, Belfast, re-examining William Windham’s ‘Third Party’, known as ‘The Alarmists’. The group was mostly made up of former Foxite Whigs, who…
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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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The Foxite Whig Rump
The death of Charles James Fox on 13 September 1806, just over eight months after that of his long-term rival, William Pitt the Younger, robbed British politics of a titan who had dominated affairs since the 1780s. And yet, in…
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From Jockeys to Ministers: How Horse Racing Shaped Rockingham’s First Ministry
In the latest post for the Georgian Lords, we welcome Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri from the University of Aberdeen, who considers the importance of horse racing in the formation of the Rockingham administration of 1765. The structure of mid-eighteenth-century politics…
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Canning’s ‘little senate’, 1798-1813
George Canning (1770-1827) was the most talented Member of the House of Commons of his generation, but his political career, which took him (briefly) to the pinnacle, was chequered and controversial. He entered the House in 1793 as a devoted…
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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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The Duke of Cambridge and the Hanoverian Succession, 1706-14
Early modern monarchs often were jealous of their heirs. In the early 18th century this was especially the case when the childless Queen Anne faced the prospect of seeing her crown pass to foreign cousins. In this article, marking the…
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From bills to bullets: Spring 1775 and the approach to war in America
A recent article in this series [Background to the American Revolution] looked at the debates in the House of Lords in early February 1775 on a bill for conciliation with the American colonies. After its rejection the imperial crisis continued…
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Bloomsbury Square and the Gordon Riots
For almost 20 years, Bloomsbury Square has been the home to the History of Parliament. In the latest post for the Georgian Lords, Dr Robin Eagles considers the history of the square in one of its most turbulent periods. Bloomsbury…