Legal history
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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…
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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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Hugh Oldham, bishop of Exeter, ‘hath more poison in that grete fowle bely of hys then all the Bysshoppes in Englond’: scandalum magnatum in early-sixteenth century England
For the first article of 2025, Dr Simon Payling of our Commons 1461-1504 Section, explores the use of a unique…
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Somerset v Stewart, 1772: an End to Slavery in Britain?
The campaigning activities of abolitionist MPs such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Fowell Buxton are well-known, but one former MP,…
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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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Poison and the Tudor nobility: the De La Warr peerage case
With House of Lords membership once again on the political agenda, Dr Ben Coates of our Lords 1558-1603 section explores…
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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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Two anniversaries, two impeachments and an election
In 2024 the tercentenaries of the deaths of two important 18th-century figures the fell within weeks of each other. Dr…
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‘Not voting at all’: the election of an imprisoned MP in 1769
2024 represents the 250th anniversary of John Wilkes’s re-election for Middlesex and election as Lord Mayor of London. It was…
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“Get a haircut”Celebrating the career of Lord Chancellor Cowper
10 May 2023 marked the 300th anniversary of the death of William Cowper, Earl Cowper, a rarity among political lawyers…
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The earl of Abingdon and the treatment of American prisoners of war
In the latest post for the Georgian Lords, Dr Robin Eagles highlights the career of one of the House’s more…
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Soft power and stigma: Illegitimate children and the History of Parliament
In 2022, Kate Gibson, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Manchester, published her book Illegitimacy, Family and Stigma…