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In 1643 the Long Parliament created a number of new taxes to finance the army it had raised to fight Charles I. The pressure of civil war forced them to innovate. The result was a fundamental transformation in the nature of English parliamentary taxation. These were also some of the most important...
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Professor Chris Kyle, from Syracuse University, explains how close people could get to Parliament in the seventeenth century.
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Public bills ostensibly affecting the entire realm could be significantly influenced and shaped by the self-interest and prejudices of the legislators dealing with them. The Irish Cattle Bill was introduced in the autumn of 1666 in order to benefit English landowners by prohibiting the import of...
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The Independents were arguably the most powerful and successful of the political factions in the Long Parliament. They played a major role in some of Parliament’s boldest political initiatives and, consequently, in helping to win the civil war against Charles I. The creation of the Long...
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The Hanover Club was a society of prominent and active Whigs dedicated in particular to championing support for the Hanoverian succession, and for the Whig cause generally, both in Parliament and the constituencies. The club had come into existence by the spring of 1712, though there is evidence...
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The duke of Cambridge was the English title bestowed in 1706 on George Augustus, the electoral prince of Hanover (and future British king, George II). Although the prince did not actually set foot on British soil until his arrival with his father in September 1714, his name was frequently at...
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During the reigns of William III and Queen Anne backbench concerns about the vast sums of money spent on war led to a series of parliamentary commissions to investigate government expenditure.
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The societies for the reformation of manners were established through local initiatives in many of England’s larger urban areas during the 1690s to eradicate vice and immorality. Civic leaders, magistrates and lawyers dedicated themselves to seeking out and punishing those who infringed laws...
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Religion was central to the political identities of politicians in the 1690s and early 1700s. In part this was because of the Church of England’s difficulties with the Revolution of 1688-9. Having developed firm views on the unlawfulness of resistance to kings, some of its clergy found it...
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The Interregnum of 1649-60 had seen the dismantling of the authority of the Church in England. The attempt to recreate it after the Restoration, and what was seen as the infiltration of Roman Catholics into the highest levels of government, were among the most divisive issues in English politics.
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We think of Parliament before the publication of its proceedings was generally allowed in the 1770s as a secretive place. But here Jason Peacey, from University College London, talks about how widely information about what was said and done in the House of Commons was distributed throughout the...
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The last of our articles for Parliament Week, 2012. Dr Paul Seaward discusses the passing of the bill of attainder against Sir John Fenwick, a jacobite conspirator, that would lead to his exectuion for treason in what many considered to be a politically-motivated murder.
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The fifth of our articles for Parliament Week, 2012. Dr Vivienne Larminie discusses press regulation in the 17th century, and what prompted Milton to publish his 'Areopagitica' in 1644.
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In our third article for Parliament Week 2012, Dr Andrew Thrush discusses the parliamentary debates on James VI & I's proposed union between England and Scotland.
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Our first article for Parliament Week, 2012: born on this day, 1600, Charles Stuart, later Charles I. Dr Andrew Thrush discusses Charles' early life and relationship with parliament.
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The London Orphans’ Debt was the substantial debt of money which was owed by the Corporation of the City of London to widows and orphans of freemen for whom legacies had been deposited in the City’s treasury. Over the course of the seventeenth century these funds had been frequently raided to...
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Fast sermons were preached to Parliament by prominent clergymen on pre-arranged occasions. They provided opportunities to promote unity, galvanise Members into action and steer them towards particular policies. Usually published by request and with official authority, they also reflected...
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In 1707, under the terms of the Treaty of Union, England and Scotland became a single state – the United Kingdom of Great Britain – and the parliaments at Westminster and Edinburgh were replaced by a single ‘Parliament of Great Britain’. The arrangements for establishing the new...
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By 1660, England, with its powerful army and navy, was a new force to be reckoned with in Europe. But its alignment was uncertain, and until the Revolution of 1689 placed it firmly in the anti-French camp, the question of whether to ally with the main regional power, France, or with its enemies,...
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The sudden death of Henry, Prince of Wales from typhoid fever on 6 November 1612 sent shock waves through the Court of James VI and I. The unexpected death at the age of eighteen of the heir to the thrones of England and Scotland was a major blow to the Stuart dynasty, just as the equally...
