Parliamentary Life
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What price a peerage? John Roper and the Jacobean trade in titles and offices
Accusations of political sleaze are on the rise again, but the concept of government insiders profiting from the system is…
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‘Restless, turbulent, and bold’: Radical MPs and the opening of the reformed Commons in 1833
MPs and peers returned to Westminster earlier this month after over a year of upheaval, disruption, and online chambers. In…
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Postwar MPs’ Memories of Summer Holidays
This year we’ve been looking into the holiday habits of parliamentarians throughout history. In our latest blog Emme Ledgerwood has…
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What did the Elizabethan House of Lords look like?
This might seem like a simple question but, as Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Lords 1558-1603 project explains, the answer…
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‘It was the dissimulation of this one man that stirred up that whole plague of evils which followed’: William Catesby, Speaker in the Parliament of 1484, and the accession of Richard III
On 25 August 1485 William Catesby, Speaker of the House of Commons, was executed. But what brought about the downfall…
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Victorian MPs and holidays
With the summer holiday season well under way, our blog today looks at how nineteenth-century MPs spent their vacations, and…
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The ‘Glorious Twelfth’
Did you know that the twelfth of August was an important date in the Victorian and Edwardian political – and…
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The Graphic Parliament: Picturing the House of Commons 1880-1920
At the end of June, History of Parliament Director Dr Paul Seaward joined House of Commons photographer Jess Taylor to…
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Do as you will? Behind the scenes of ‘the Hellfire Club’
As hospitality venues and social spaces in much of the UK reopen after lockdown this week, in today’s blog Dr…
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Edward, Lord Stafford and the 1621 parliamentary protections scandal
Four hundred years ago this month, in an unprecedented move forced on it by circumstances, Parliament adjourned for more than…
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‘leaping and creeping’: Honours in the early 18th century
Ahead of the Queen’s official birthday this weekend and its accompanying honours list, in today’s blog Dr Robin Eagles, editor…
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An Indispensable Member? Legal expertise in the Long Parliament, ‘an ancient lawyer’ and civil war intimidation
In the past, as with now, it was not uncommon to find those trained in the practice of law seated…