The History of Parliament

Who created the modern game of lawn tennis? As Dr Naomi Lloyd-Jones discusses, one possibly surprising 19th-century pioneer could have been Sir William Hart Dyke, a champion sportsman best known as Disraeli’s chief whip, who claimed to have pla...

Producing biographies on late-medieval MPs comes with its unique set of challenges, notably the lack surviving records indicative of their character. Dr Simon Payling of our 

In 1736 an almost united bench of bishops in the House of Lords scuppered legislation to relieve Quakers from prosecution for their refusal to pay tithes. In his first post for the Georgian Lords, Dr Ben Rogers considers how this controversy reignited disputes between the government, the Church of England, and religious dissenters, and led to an irretrievable breach betwe...

The recent release of Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey, has sparked debate in many quarters for its depiction of Odysseus’ efforts to get back home after the tribulations of the Trojan War. In this latest post, Dr Robin Eagles consi...

In June, The History of Parliament and St James’s House celebrated the publication of their latest collaboration, Monarchy and Democracy: a History of Leadership. Jennifer Davey, Director of the History of Parliament , discusses the conten...