Social history
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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…
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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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Disraeli and One Nation Conservatism
In this article our former colleague Dr Henry Miller explores the origins of the phrase ‘One Nation’, which is famously…
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The story of a manor in memorials: the early tombs in the Shropshire church of Kinlet
The Shropshire church of Kinlet stands isolated in parkland, the village it once served re-sited in the early-eighteenth century on…
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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…
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Robert Burns in Edinburgh: peers, patrons, and politics
In the wake of Burns Night, it is worth considering how the patronage of a small number of Scottish nobles…