‘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 be discussing the campaign to pass the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. The seminar takes place on 11 November 2025, between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. It is fully ‘hybrid’, which means you can attend either in-person in London at the IHR, or online via Zoom. … Continue reading ‘Abominable, unutterable, and worse than fables’: the campaign to pass the Criminal Law Amendment Bill
The ladies’ gallery in the temporary House of Commons
This article from Dr Kathryn Rix, Assistant Editor of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 section, looks at the provision made for women to witness debates in the temporary chamber used by the Commons between 1835 and 1852. In the chamber used by the House of Commons before the catastrophic fire of October 1834, women – officially barred from the chamber itself since February 1778 – had … Continue reading The ladies’ gallery in the temporary House of Commons
John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes of Truro (later earl of Radnor): reading in the revolution
In this guest article, Dr Sophie Aldred, lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford, explores the library of Lord Robartes and what it tells us of his political position during the revolutionary years of the 1640s. Variously described as of an ‘unsociable nature and impetuous disposition’, ‘sour’, ‘surly’, and a ‘destroyer of every body’s business’, John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes of Truro … Continue reading John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes of Truro (later earl of Radnor): reading in the revolution
The Speakers and the Suffragettes
At the IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar on Tuesday 28 October, Dr Mari Takayanagi will be discussing ‘The Speakers and the Suffragettes’. The seminar takes place on 28 October 2025, between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. It is fully ‘hybrid’, which means you can attend either in-person in London at the IHR, or online via Zoom. Details of how to join the discussion are available … Continue reading The Speakers and the Suffragettes
The Westminster Fire of 1834
In this guest article, Dr Caroline Shenton, author of ‘The Day Parliament Burned Down‘ and ‘Mr Barry’s War: Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament after the Great Fire of 1834‘, describes the dramatic events that took place at the Palace of Westminster on 16 October 1834. By the late Georgian period, the buildings of the Palace of Westminster had become an accident waiting to happen. The rambling … Continue reading The Westminster Fire of 1834
Michael Rush and the Database
We were sad to hear recently of the death of Professor Michael Rush of the University of Exeter. Michael was a pioneering and indefatigable scholar of parliament, whose book, The Role of the Member of Parliament since 1868: from Gentlemen to Players (Oxford 2001), was the first serious study of its kind into the social background and political formation of MPs from the nineteenth century … Continue reading Michael Rush and the Database
The 1832 Reform Act
‘Was the 1832 Reform Act “Great”?’ may not be the standard exam question it once was, but ongoing research about the Act’s broader legacy and impact on political culture, based on new resources and analytical techniques, continues to reshape our understanding of its place in modern British political development, as Dr Philip Salmon of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project explains. For a 20 minute … Continue reading The 1832 Reform Act
‘The sect of Alarmists’: The Third Party and the reluctant leadership of William Windham, 1793-4
In this latest post, the Georgian Lords welcomes a guest article by James Orchin, PhD student at Queen’s University, Belfast, re-examining William Windham’s ‘Third Party’, known as ‘The Alarmists’. The group was mostly made up of former Foxite Whigs, who had split from Fox over the French Revolution, and found itself positioned somewhat unhappily between Pitt the Younger’s administration and the Foxite opposition in the … Continue reading ‘The sect of Alarmists’: The Third Party and the reluctant leadership of William Windham, 1793-4
‘A place of business’: the temporary chamber of the House of Commons, 1835-1851
As part of our series on parliamentary buildings, Dr Kathryn Rix of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project looks at the temporary chamber used by the House of Commons from 1835 until 1851, after its previous chamber was destroyed by fire in October 1834. The devastating fire at the Palace of Westminster on 16 October 1834 made the House of Commons chamber in the former … Continue reading ‘A place of business’: the temporary chamber of the House of Commons, 1835-1851
Parliament and Politics in the Later Middle Ages
Dr Simon Payling, of our 1461-1504 section, tracks the development of Parliament and Politics in the Later Middle Ages, from its Anglo-Saxon roots to the more formal split between the House of Commons and House of Lords that we recognise today… All long-lived institutions have their antecedents, and the antecedents of Parliament (or, perhaps more accurately put, the origins of the House of Lords) are … Continue reading Parliament and Politics in the Later Middle Ages
