Dr Alex Beeton

Research Fellow, House of Lords 1640-1660

abeeton@histparl.ac.uk

Current Research/Role

I am a research fellow in the House of Lords 1640-1660 section having joined the History in January 2023 as a postdoctoral research assistant. Before that, I was a DPhil student at the University of Oxford. I am currently researching peers who sat in the Lords in the 1640s and originate from the east Midlands and East Anglia.

Research Interests

My wider research interests include parliamentary records – their creation and use, especially by members of the public, during the early modern period. I am also interested in the political history of the 1640s, parliamentary lobbying, and the role of parliamentary committees. I have written several articles stemming from my DPhil thesis discussing educational reform during the revolutionary period, including a piece on Greek travellers to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. I have recently been preparing several pieces based on my research into the Clerk of the Parliaments, John Browne, for publication.

Publications

Book

Parliament and Politics in Revolutionary Britain and Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming) [editor]

Chapters in Books

‘Introduction’, in A. Beeton (ed.), Parliament and Politics in Revolutionary Britain and Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming)

‘“Wtih his hat in his hand: The Hosue of Lords, participatory politics and parliamentary records, 1640-2’, in A. Beeton (ed.), Parliament and Politics in Revolutionary Britain and Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming)‘The Early Modern College, 1596-1642’, in R. Foster, T. Hands, W. Poole, & M. Ryan (eds.), A History of Winchester College (forthcoming)

Journal Articles

‘Recording a Revolution: The Clerk of the Parliaments and the Journals of the House of Lords, 1640-9’, Historical Research 98 (2025), pp.229-243. 

‘“A true object of Charity”: Greek Clergymen in Interregnum Oxford and Cambridge’, Studies in Church History  61 (2025), pp.384-404 

‘‘That pack horse-roade of private sollicitations’: Educational Reform, Parliamentary Committees, and the Visitation of Winchester College, 1649-50’, Parliamentary History (forthcoming/in press)

‘Memory and University Reform in the English Revolution’, History of Universities 27 (2024), pp.58-84

‘The Mind is its own Place? Early Modern Intellectual History in an Institutional Context’, History of Universities, 36:2 (2023) [co-edited with E. P. Bernstein, E. Kent & R. Winkler]. 

A. Beeton & L. Tidman, ‘A Study in Cumbrian Mythmaking: New Light on The Luck of Muncaster’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society,Series 3, 21 (2021), pp. 161-174

Review Articles

‘Words Turned Upside Down’, a review article of Words at War: The Contested Language of the English Civil War, edited by Andrew Hadfield and Paul Hammond. The Seventeenth Century, 39:3 (2024), pp. 491-5

Book Reviews

Adventurers: The Improbable Rise of the East India Company: 1550-1650, by David Howarth. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History (forthcoming/in press)

Godly Violence in the Puritan Atlantic World: A Study of Military Providentialism, 1636-1676, by Matthew Rowley. Renaissance Studies (forthcoming/in press)

Intelligence and Espionage in the English Republic c. 1600-60, by Alan Marshall. Journal of Early Modern History, 28:3 (2024), pp. 256-8.

The Lord’s Battle: Preaching, Print and Royalism During the English Revolution, by William White. Journal of Ecclesiastical History (forthcoming/in press)

Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism, and the Early Modern World, by Jane Ohlmeyer. Irish Historical Studies (forthcoming/in press)

Oliver Cromwell’s Kin, 1643-1726: The Private and Public Worlds of the English Revolution and Restoration, by David Farr. The Seventeenth Century, 39:1 (2024), pp. 177-9

On Laudianism: Piety, Polemic and Politics During the Personal Rule of Charles I, by Peter Lake. Parliamentary History (forthcoming/in press)

The Palatine Family and the Thirty Years’ War: Experiences of Exile in Early Modern Europe, 1632-1648, by Thomas Pert. History, 109:384-5 (2024), pp. 175-77

The Political Thought of the English Free State, 1649-1653, by Markku Peltonen. Parliamentary History, 43:2 (2024), pp. 253-5.

The Specter of the Archive: Political Practice and the Information State in Early Modern Britain, by Nicholas Popper. Parliamentary History (forthcoming/in press)

Specialisms:  Parliamentary records, the political history of the British Civil Wars and Interregnum, the history of early modern education.