Social history
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Sir William Hart Dyke: Conservative MP, Disraeli’s chief whip – and the ‘inventor of lawn tennis’?
Who created the modern game of lawn tennis? As Dr Naomi Lloyd-Jones discusses, one possibly surprising 19th-century pioneer could have…
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‘A very unequal and a forced maintenance’: The failure of the Quakers Tithe Bill in 1736
In 1736 an almost united bench of bishops in the House of Lords scuppered legislation to relieve Quakers from prosecution…
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Politics, popular celebration and the Trojan War
The recent release of Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey, has sparked debate in many quarters for its depiction of…
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Elizabeth I’s half-brother? Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon
It has long been known that Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon, was Elizabeth I’s closest living male relative. However, it…
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A Disappointed Father: The 1st Earl of Bolingbroke and His Son
Dr Alex Beeton explores the strained relationship of the earl of Bolingbroke and his wayward son and heir, Lord St…
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Interwar literature, politics and East-central Europe
At the IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar on Tuesday 16 June, Dr Juliette Bretan of Cambridge University will be discussing…
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‘One of the greatest Rugby players who ever sat in the House’: Pat Munro MP
With the 2026 Six Nations Championship in full swing, our latest article from Dr Kathryn Rix looks at one of…
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“Wilful murder by persons unknown”: death in an Oxford college (1747)
In the latest post for the Georgian Lords, Dr Robin Eagles examines an unpleasant incident that took place in Oxford…
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‘Abominable, unutterable, and worse than fables’: the campaign to pass the Criminal Law Amendment Bill
At the IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar on Tuesday 11 November, Steven Spencer of Birkbeck, University of London, will…
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The 1832 Reform Act
‘Was the 1832 Reform Act “Great”?’ may not be the standard exam question it once was, but ongoing research about…
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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…
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Did they believe in portents? Severe weather and other extreme natural phenomena in Walsingham’s Chronica Maiora and other late-medieval monastic chronicles
Dr Simon Payling, of our Commons 1461-1504 section, explores the theme of extreme weather in medieval chronicles. It is a familiar…