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This article looks again at the ‘Peterloo massacre’ of 16 August 1819 in Manchester, and offers new evidence from the Home Office Disturbances Papers about how it came about and who was responsible. In Section I the revisionist case that Peterloo was a conflict rather than a massacre is examined and found wanting. Section II argues that in the months before Peterloo, the Home Office had consistently urged the Lancashire magistrates to combat radical agitation ‘either by the law or the sword’; its well-known advice for restraint on 16 August was a piece of qualified back-pedalling which came too late. It also argues that the authorities misinterpreted the peaceful mass platform agitation of 1819 in the light of their experience of the attempted insurrections of 1817. Section III shows that the prosecution at the Peterloo trial privately conceded that its own version of events had been discredited. Section IV suggests that both conservative and progressive versions of what happened at Peterloo are constricted by whiggish assumptions, proposes some questions for further study, and offers a brief summary explanation of the Peterloo massacre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through analysing local administrative records, state administrative records, and personal correspondence, this article demonstrates how Sir John Peyton's role as Lieutenant of the Tower of London (1597–1603) provides us with a hitherto unexamined opportunity for commissioning, extracting, brokering, and obtaining intelligence. In doing so, it makes the case for re‐examining the often‐overlooked contribution of Elizabethan and Jacobean administrators to the history of intelligence‐gathering in early modern England, here focussing on the position of the Lieutenant of the Tower of London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on late Reformation English/British Catholics' engagement in contemporary politics, has, for the most part, focused on regicidal schemes or on Catholic polemical writings. Espionage activities by Catholics in England, however, have been often overlooked. The hundreds of documents endorsed 'avisos de Inglaterra' (reports from England), located in el archivo general de Simancas, are intelligence dossiers about England. These reports were sent to Spain (between 1590–1608) by Hugh Owen, a Welsh Catholic exile, using information gathered by his informants in England. This article seeks to introduce the 'avisos' as a genre of sources by exploring the intelligence they contained and placing them within their broader context of Elizabethan/ Jacobean Catholicism and Anglo‐Spanish relations. In using this largely untapped source of Anglo‐Spanish history, this article reaches broader conclusions about how Catholics in England interacted with the Spanish authorities, and tried to influence the Anglo‐Spanish war to their advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the information‐gathering practices of papal nuncios and legates to argue that they performed much of the same intelligence work, and in a similar manner, as other diplomatic agents in the early modern Europe. It focuses in particular on papal diplomats' efforts to gather information regarding two areas that proved especially challenging for the papacy – England and Poland‐Lithuania – both of which were far from Rome and which contained large numbers of non‐Catholics, who would understandably be wary of these diplomats' intelligence work. The essay explores the mechanisms by which nuncios gathered information, including via ambassadors, members of religious orders, and informal networks of informants; their efforts to verify the information they received; and their methods to securely convey that information to their superiors in the Roman curia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grandparents have been largely overlooked in the otherwise rich historiography of the family in early modern England. This article shows how many were able to play significant roles in family life, in both emotional and practical terms. Some forged close bonds with their young grandchildren, or took them in for a period to relieve hard‐pressed parents, while others were willing to raise and educate the orphaned. Some also provided moral or religious guidance, assuming responsibilities conventionally assigned to godparents, and in some cases even challenging parental decisions of which they disapproved. Grandchildren were almost always remembered in wills, with testators also careful to protect the interests of any potentially at risk. The article then turns to explore the role of grandparents acting as welfare providers, whether voluntarily or through a court order, for grandchildren left as orphans or born to unmarried mothers. It assesses the often contentious issue of grandparents' moral and legal responsibilities under the parish relief system established by the Poor Law in 1601, and disputes between the paternal and maternal kin. Finally, the article touches briefly on grandparents as repositories of information, whose memories and experience could be of value to their community as well as to their own families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins by exploring ideas about physical exercise as outlined in the advice literature that circulated widely in late medieval and early sixteenth‐century England. Whereas other aspects of these popular guides to health have attracted considerable interest on the part of medical and cultural historians, recommendations about exercise have been largely neglected. Yet it was deemed essential for both physical and mental wellbeing. Its principal function was to augment and redistribute the body's innate heat, which functioned as 'Nature's primary instrument', while improving digestion and the elimination of waste, encouraging restorative sleep, and combatting stress. These ideas spread rapidly throughout society, being harnessed to suit the practical needs of many classes of people, especially after the Black Death when keeping fit became a priority. Not even animals could escape current assumptions about the importance of remaining active, while political theorists emphasised the need to purge idle and unproductive elements from the communal body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the representation of the nation through a group of real people, exploring how the romantic figure of the Beefeater became entwined with ideas of national identity. It begins with the reforms introduced by the duke of Wellington, whose appointment as Constable of the Tower of London in 1826 led to sweeping reforms of the Body of Yeoman Warders (popularly known as Beefeaters), who had fallen into disarray after years of neglect and mismanagement. It looks beyond the late 1820s to consider how the Beefeaters' appeal was consolidated during the later nineteenth century, in particular, how increased tourism and the growing depiction of Yeoman Warders in fiction, art and music impacted upon popular perceptions of the Beefeater. So much so that by the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the reinvention of the Beefeater as a patriotic icon was complete. The article is concerned not only with representation of the warder but also how the Beefeater himself helped to construct his own identity. As a living embodiment of the past the Beefeater, via his verbal commentary and participation in the Tower's rich ceremonial life, actively shaped his own image. This research contributes to the debates surrounding the 'invention of tradition' and 'democratic royalism' and popular narratives of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From their outset, the prince of Wales played a politically and symbolically significant part in the English civil wars. But from mid-1646, with Charles I in the hands of his enemies, primary responsibility for the military and diplomatic aspirations of the House of Stuart devolved almost entirely upon the king's eldest son. Indeed, this essential fact was central to the king's own strategic thinking because he had persuaded himself that his opponents must seek an accommodation with him as long as his successor was at large. The threat posed by the prince became violent reality in 1648 when he commissioned a string of mutinies and rebellions across England and Wales and briefly reasserted royal dominion of the seas. Although his martial and maritime escapades came to nothing, they nevertheless gave the prince his first opportunity to wield the instruments of sovereign power in the exercise of an authority independent of his father's. The second civil war also sharpened the contrast between the prince's freedom of action and the king's hapless captivity. The fortunes of the Stuart monarchy had hit rock bottom, but in the eyes of at least some royalists, an obvious solution had also begun to suggest itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Racovian catechism is a famous summary treatise of Socinian thought. It was written in the early seventeenth century by several members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland. It is a common misconception that, upon reading the Latin edition of the Racovian catechism, which was dedicated to him, King James VI & I consigned it to the flames in 1614. Indeed, a comprehensive list of scholars who have repeated this mistake would take up too much space. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is first and foremost to demonstrate that the Racovian catechism was not burnt in England in 1614. This historiographical myth originated and was transmitted because of a series of misunderstandings occurring since the 1670s, whereas not one primary source testifies to the burning of the catechism in England during James's reign. In the process, we will provide essential context, examining relevant developments not only in the British Isles, but also in the Dutch Republic and the Polish‐Lithuanian Commonwealth. Moreover, we will argue that there is no evidence to support the claim that an edition of the Racovian catechism was secretly printed in England shortly after the supposed burning of 1614, although some subsequent editions of the catechism bore a false imprint and had a connected publishing history. Finally, we will explain how these erroneous assumptions entered the historical record together with their subsequent transmission. Our conclusion is that the early history of anti‐Trinitarianism and Socinianism in England must be rewritten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the establishment of Long Parliament by Charles I, King of England. Restriction of arbitrary taxation; Result of the English defeat at the battle of Newburn; Prevention of the Scottish invasion.

Discusses the relationship between organized labor and the English liberal government from 1892 to 1895. Foreshadowing of emergence of issues and interest groups; Transition from Gladstonian to "post-Gladstonian" liberalism; Raised status of labor questions in relation to other aspects of liberal policy.

Elizabeth I is regarded as having been parsimonious in creating new noblemen, allowing the nobility to decrease in size as she sought to maintain the exclusivity of the caste. In reality, the queen created a larger nobility than her Tudor predecessors had done. Her failure to sustain this high number was due not to a policy of limiting the number of noblemen but rather because she did not need so many. Elizabeth had a policy of economy with regard to both creating and using noblemen as she maintained a nobility appropriate for the circumstances of the time, as assessed by her and Lord Burghley. Early Elizabethan peerages honoured her family and restored old titles. Later the choice of candidates was influenced by Burghley's need for more noblemen in parliament and in the counties. However, although Burghley proposed candidates, it was Elizabeth's decision whether to follow his advice and in 1589 she chose to do otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This thought-provoking book contains seventeen essays, some overviews of general themes and some analyses of specific subjects. Insley's conclusion that 1016 left England with an elite singularly ill-equipped to deal with the future is an interesting pointer as to why he thinks that England's eleventh-century rulers apparently failed so spectacularly twice. Timothy Bolton courageously ranges very widely, without, however, truly tackling one central topic, namely, how defeat and the incorporation of England into the exploitative power of two empires impacted on England's short- and long-term history. [Extracted from the article]

This article aims to extend understanding of the rural middling sort by exploring their engagement with cricket. Cricket enjoyed considerable popularity across the south-eastern counties by the mid-eighteenth century; however, very few sources have survived and so our knowledge of the game - especially at the grass roots - is very limited. The article focuses on a unique set of scorecards from a club founded in 1773 in the Kentish village of Wingham, and uses these to examine both who was playing village cricket in this period, and the nature of the social and cultural networks in which it was embedded. As will be seen, those engaging in the game were closely associated with the larger farmers, tradesmen and artisans in the village. The same groups ran the parish vestry, and it is suggested that cricket flourished in this period because it provided a suitable outlet for the middling sort to display their social status both within and beyond the bounds of their own parishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay begins by exploring the difficult personal circumstances in which Pat Collinson completed his final book - suffering from cancer, far from Cambridge and with his private library largely dispersed. It examines how this return to the sources he had pondered for half a century allowed him to make one last effort to get inside the minds of the godly ministers and laymen whose struggle for the soul of the Church of England he had so long admired and struggled to understand. Now he explored them through a study of their close encounters with and battles against their greatest opponent within the Church's establishment, Richard Bancroft, in sequence chaplain to the Lord Chancellor, then bishop of London, and (from 1604) archbishop of Canterbury. It explores Bancroft's obsession (his 'Moby Dick') with a supposed conspiracy of international Calvinism to take over Great Britain. The essay explores Collinson's empathy with Bancroft's puritan opponents and lack of empathy with his Catholic enemies, and concludes by finding much to admire in the heroic engagement with treacherous evidence that often misleads as to its completeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the public attitudes of various religious commentators in Britain towards emigrants and emigration in the mid-Victorian decades. These figures include bishops, Anglican clergy (but also those of some other denominations), those directly involved in ministry to emigrants, and lay proponents of emigration. It also contrasts their views with those of more secular commentators influenced by political economy. The article argues that while religious commentary proposed emigration to be a good thing, for emigrants and for the expansion of Christianity and the British empire, this contrasted with a more sceptical attitude towards steerage immigrants by Thomas Malthus. It also contrasted with a focus on amelioration of conditions for emigrants by those in emigration ministry, who saw emigrants as assisting the extension of the Church rather than the empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article places a new account of the English state's changing framework for economic regulation alongside what economic historians have demonstrated about the phasing and arenas of economic growth between 1660 and 1714. It places studies of parliamentary legislation into a broader examination of the state's means of regulation (which included the privy council and parliament) and sets this account of regulatory actions against a new account of the changing ways in which petitions approached the state as a regulatory body and how the state responded to those approaches. It also offers a more textured account of the changing styles of economic regulation in this period and of the important (though neglected) role played by commercial interests groups. It argues that the executive colluded with these interests during the Restoration period to use the state to increase the scale of England's overseas trade. With the rising importance of parliament after 1689 regulatory initiative diffused to either local interests which focused on infrastructure projects or trading interests bent on defeating regulating statutes in ways that would lead to deregulation as other constitutional means of regulation (especially the privy council) retreated from view. The state continued to regulate to protect manufacturing (which also provided customs revenue) and to support the monopoly of the East India Company (which provided money and materiel for the wars against Louis XIV). As such the article offers a broader and more agile means to understand the economic connotations of constitutional change in this critical period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the roads upon which the Tudor government's postal arrangements rested, the methods deployed by central government for sending and receiving official mail nationwide, and the network of exchequer-funded post-stages that connected London with the south-western periphery of the realm during periods of war, rebellion and political turmoil. The article also uses a large number of postal endorsements to measure objectively the speed and efficiency of the Tudor south-west's royal post-stage service. In doing so, the study's primary goal is to demonstrate that this mode of government dispatch was more rapid and reliable than the majority of historians, who have relied on anecdotal subjective evidence, recognize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between landscape and British national identities by means of a case study of the white cliffs of Dover in Kent, England. The cliffs were important symbols of island-nationhood across the modern period, and demonstrate that even in the age of empire British as well as English national identities could be conceptualized in distinctly insular ways. In particular, the cliffs were seen to be associated with the national homeland, its heritage and historical continuity over hundreds of years, as well as with national defence and a defiant self-asserted separateness from the rest of Europe. The article has implications for the (still relatively neglected) role played by specific landscapes in the construction of national identities, not just in Britain but generally. In functioning as markers of national difference the physical distinctiveness of these landscapes was important, but their associational value mattered more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptions and misconceptions about foreign models for law enforcement and criminal justice often shape reform debates in important ways by excluding certain options and promoting specific agendas, which are claimed to be more effective, humane or legitimate. This article analyses the reception of the ' English police model' in German debates between 1848 and 1914. It argues that the frequent references in German debates to English policing functioned as an important rhetorical device to promote certain reform agendas. Highly diverging projects for police reform were promoted in German debates under the label of the ' English model'. These projects bore only a partial resemblance to English principles of policing as the original model was deliberately misinterpreted or the elements presented as the ' English model' was limited to certain selected elements. Nevertheless, the ' English model' as a label had the important function in German debates of shaping which forms of police reform could be considered. Conversely, negative references to other foreign influences - notably French ones - served to undermine the credibility of existing institutions or competing reform projects. Accordingly the 'englischer Policeman' in German debates bears little connection to the original model and the English Bobby is only discernible as seen through a German monocle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with recent work on the consequences of the lapse of licensing (1695) that has emphasized that many people embraced the new opportunities offered by the end of pre-publication censorship. It is argued here, instead, that many people opposed the press and lobbied enthusiastically for books and authors to be prosecuted. Far from the lapse of licensing being an important precursor to the emergence of a self-confident and modern nation it initiated a period of political and religious turbulence. Nevertheless, the intention here is not to revise a simplistic view of censorship as a series of discrete moments devoid of ideological importance. Rather, this article contends that the consequences of the lapse of licensing can only be understood by considering the interaction between acts of censorship and theories of the freedom of the press. To this end the article considers the disputes between freethinkers and clerics to establish the answers to a series of vital questions: why and when should authors, books and publishers be prosecuted? Who had responsibility to initiate prosecutions - government, church or public? How much publicity should be given to censorship trials so that they acted as forms of deterrence? This article, then, by considering both the promotion of a free press and the subsequent clerical responses, sheds new light on the vitality of the confrontation between freethinker and cleric in the early eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cementing of English political control over Cornwall and the British of the south-west in the tenth century falls between the creation of the Anglo- Saxon kingdoms between the sixth and seventh centuries, and the burst of English expansionism at the expense of the Welsh, Scots and Irish that occupied the two centuries following the Norman Conquest of England. Consequently, the absorption of Cornwall into the English state tends to be a rather neglected subject. This article provides some redress of this neglect and examines, through a consideration of not just the historical narratives but also charters and manumissions, the way in which the kings of the English and their agents extended royal control over Cornwall between the late ninth century and the mid-eleventh. These processes, while making Cornwall part of the new kingdom of the English, also allowed the maintenance of a highly distinctive local identity well into the later medieval period and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces a critical phase of change in the history of English sleeping practices. It examines the emergence of a new set of 'sociable' sleeping habits among certain sections of English society in the years 1660 to 1760. These habits were characterized by late hours of rising and retiring, the increased mobility of sleepers through different beds, chambers and houses, and the emergence of distinctive forms of sleep-etiquette. All of these experiences were linked to the pursuit of new modes of public and domestic sociability that were underpinned by socio-economic change, physical shifts in the urban landscape and domestic household, and by shifting medical and philosophical understandings of sleep. The article uses household inventories, account books, personal testimonies and a wide range of published treatises to examine how sociable sleeping habits became established as a lifestyle choice in the years after 1660. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1581 the archbishop of York, Edwin Sandys, resided overnight at a Doncaster inn whilst making a visitation of his archdiocese. This seemingly innocuous visit triggered a series of events that cast light on early modern ideas regarding respectability, reputation and wider views of Protestantism. The trigger for all of this occurred when Sandys was found in bed with the innkeeper's wife. He claimed this was all part of an elaborate plan to blacken his name by associating it with sexual scandal and that moreover this was an attack on the reformed Church. The observer to the events at the inn and the accused in the subsequent legal proceedings was a local gentleman, Sir Robert Stapleton, who was accused of blackmailing and slandering the archbishop. This article will not seek to condemn or exonerate either Sandys or Stapleton, but rather to examine the motives and actions of all involved. The nature and fragility of reputation in early modern England in relation to both sexual behaviour and religion will be discussed and the importance of preserving one's good name will be seen to be paramount to both men. In addition the interaction of regional and national tensions will become evident as a minor incident turned into a cause célèbre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fortification of the British coastline under threat of German invasion is a neglected dimension of the Second World War. While the various national defence programmes enacted during the conflict are well known, the mechanisms by which these schemes were actually established are poorly understood. This article sheds new light on the origins of Britain's coastal 'crust' via a case study of Walberswick in Suffolk. It demonstrates that the defences erected during the invasion crisis of 1940 were as much a product of local decisions made on the ground as they were of top-down planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the extraordinary political swing that occurred in the Durham coalfield in the 1931 general election. Having won all eleven county seats in 1929, Labour lost all but two in 1931. This was despite the dominance of the coal industry, the strength of the miners' union, and the increasing pre-eminence of Durham's Labour organization. While the circumstances of the election certainly motivated a traditional anti-socialist base, the article suggests that previous explanations have failed to acknowledge the extent to which mining constituents may also have been responsible for the result. Rather than any uniform political identity amongst the mining community, it finds that allegiances were fluid and complex, swayed by factors such as political charisma (particularly with regard to Ramsay MacDonald, re-elected at Seaham), specific local concerns, and paternalistic loyalties. In doing so, it reveals the fragility of the Labour Party's appeal even amongst its 'core' supporters. The National success in 1931 demonstrated that Labour's dominance in Durham remained recent, limited and as yet provisional, a finding that has significant implications for the wider picture of Labour's national advance, revealing that Labour's progress in the inter-war years was conditional and erratic even in its most 'natural' strongholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally held that the monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII and his leading minister Thomas Cromwell for financial reasons. This article suggests that more important factors were Henry VIII's determination to assert his royal authority and more clearly religious reasons, especially an erasmian scepticism about the value of institutions that set their face against the world and in which superstition flourished. At first Henry sought reform, dissolving the smaller monasteries while allowing monks and nuns to transfer to larger houses, but in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a great rebellion directed above all against that dissolution, the king aimed at and achieved total dissolution, a striking feature of which was the way in which monks and friars when surrendering their houses to the king subscribed to principled denunciations of their past way of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the passage of legislation making witchcraft a capital crime during the mid-sixteenth century, magistrates across England found themselves under increasing pressure to investigate the activities of supposed 'witches'. The present article explores how the Justices of the Peace of one urban community - the city of Exeter - reacted to those pressures. The article shows that, in the immediate aftermath of the passage of the Elizabethan statute of 1563, the Exeter magistrates were still prepared to punish those who had been accused of witchcraft in the 'traditional' way - by simply banishing them from the city. Attitudes soon became harsher, however, and by 1581, at the very latest, the first execution of a convicted witch at the city gallows can be shown to have occurred. At least one further execution was to follow, in 1610, but - although these cases reveal that the hanging of supposed witches in the south-west began at least a century earlier than was previously thought - the evidence suggests that the Exeter JPs were generally more keen to restrain than to encourage the popular enthusiasm for witch-hunting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liverpool remained the UK's second port into the late 1960s, and, at the same time, its overseas trade remained highly skewed towards the empire-Commonwealth. By the 1980s, however, Merseyside had become almost a byword for British economic decay. Through focusing upon Liverpool's leading shipping group - the Blue Funnel/Elder Dempster complex, representing the premiere UK lines to eastern Asia and western Africa - this article provides a testing ground for recent debates on economics and the end of empire. It confirms that in line with other UK imperial business leaders, Liverpool shipowners were disaffected with the process of decolonization. Yet, whereas the historiographical consensus has pointed to a limited impact of imperial dissolution on the British economy as a whole, the diversification strategies pursued by these disgruntled Liverpudlian 'gentlemanly' businessmen unwittingly contributed to the port city's late twentieth-century downturn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite his reputation as one of the most successful English monarchs of the middle ages, Edward I has never been seen as a generous king. This article looks afresh at the accepted view of Edward I as a miserly king and, by examining his relationship with his earls, seeks to demonstrate that Edward had a sophisticated and judicious approach to patronage which was based upon rewarding good service. The article attempts to place Edward I's patronage in line with the later template of Edward III. In reassessing the judgements of K. B. McFarlane and M. C. Prestwich, the article reconsiders Edward's policy of land grants in England, Wales and Scotland, and also draws upon new material such as the king's grants of deer from the royal forests, charters of free warren and the remission of debts to the exchequer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clearer understanding of Henry VII's reign is hindered not only by practical problems, such as deficiencies in source material, but also by its liminal position in historical study, at the end of the period conventionally studied by later medievalists and the beginning of that studied by early modernists. This makes it harder to evaluate changes in the judicial system, in local power structures, in England's position in European politics, in the rise of new social groups to political prominence and in the ideas behind royal policy. However, thoughtful combination of the approaches taken by different historical schools and reflection on wider processes of change at work in Henry's reign, such as in England's cultural and economic life, can make a virtue out of Henry's liminality. Together with the use of more unusual sources, such an approach enables investigation for Henry's reign of many themes of current interest to historians of the later Tudor period. These include courtly, parliamentary and popular politics, political culture, state formation and the interrelationships of different parts of the British Isles and Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the third earl of Malmesbury's friendship with Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as a prism through which to view the Conservative Party's handling of Anglo-French relations during the period when Bonaparte was cementing his hold over France. After noting the long-term historiographical neglect of the subject, it explores Malmesbury's discussions with Louis Napoleon between 1848 and 1852, and indicates what they revealed about the assumptions underpinning Conservative foreign policy. It suggests that analysis of Malmesbury's role illuminates British domestic politics by placing his appointment to the Foreign Office in a clearer context than has been the case hitherto. It then examines the management of Conservative foreign policy in detail, describing how the 1852 Derby government recognized the new French empire and nurtured an Anglo-French entente without alienating Russia, Austria or Prussia. This was a significant diplomatic and political achievement, helping to demonstrate that Conservative diplomacy had a distinct identity and that mid-Victorian Britain did not view the world merely through a Whig or Palmerstonian lens. The article concludes that the events of 1852 represent an important and overlooked phase in the history of Anglo-French relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates that in the months following the duke of Buckingham's assassination in August 1628 Charles I's ‘patriot’ privy councillors, apparently with the blessing of the king, put together a ‘new deal’ for co-operation between crown and people. This was based on settling grievances over Arminianism and tonnage and poundage, re-launching the war against Spain, and re-establishing a harmonious relationship with parliament. The scheme broke down when parliament met in January 1629 and radical elements in the House of Commons implemented their alternative strategy of punishing the king's ‘evil counsellors’. Had it succeeded it could have provided the basis for an alternative to Charles I's Personal Rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electoral politics in the small towns of England and Wales between the First (1832) and Second (1867) Reform Acts have been dismissed by historians as corrupt or controlled by influential patrons. This article uses qualitative and quantitative data to reveal that voters in these small boroughs demonstrated a surprising degree of party loyalty, with the politics of influence less obvious that those of principle. The article concludes that these towns, which elected almost one-third of the membership of the House of Commons, exhibited a far more vibrant political milieu than was previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nineteenth-century assisted emigration has long been associated with the phrase ‘shovelling out paupers’. This view is challenged by the actions and attitudes of the sponsors of parish-assisted emigration who invested considerable time and energy in supporting the emigration of their poor. Close investigation of the policy that was applied at the local level for the rural counties of Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Norfolk suggests that assisted emigration was seen as a policy in which rich and poor interacted to secure mutual benefits. Assisted emigration was conceived as a way of helping individual paupers while simultaneously displaying a continued concern for the labouring population. Faced with the challenges of the New Poor Law, the farming class viewed assisted emigration as part of an older tradition of paternalistic help for the ‘deserving poor’. Sponsors were well aware of the ambivalence of the subject and sought to develop a conscious ideology of assisted emigration, which focused on the hope of a better life, for those who left and for those who remained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In 1559 the Book of Common Prayer ordered that bread should be used at communion services in English churches, but the royal Injunctions prescribed wafers. At first, Archbishop Parker and most of his bishops tried to enforce wafers, as Queen Elizabeth commanded, but this led to protests from Protestant clergy and some laypeople, who regarded the wafers as popish. After Parker's death in 1575, however, the bishops were more inclined to enforce the use of bread – which led to widespread objections from parishioners who wanted the customary wafers. ‘Bread or wafers’ became a divisive issue in many parts of England, with Protestants refusing wafers when offered and traditionalists refusing bread. By the mid-1590s, however, most congregations had got used to bread, and after the Canons of 1604 the last of the wafer-using parishes came into line. Bread had won the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the activities of the Puritan commissioners and major-generals in the provinces of England in the 17th century. Responsibility for improving security and bringing about moral reformation; Imposition of decimation tax on royalist neighbors; Removal of suspect clergymen from the ministry; Suppression of immorality by closing down unlicensed beerhouses.

Traces the emergence of a distinct conception of the Devil among Protestants in England in the early 17th century. Role of Satan as a spiritual force with great powers over human affairs; Depiction of the Devil in crudely physical form in an older tradition; Willingness of Protestants to utilize folk images of the Devil to promote their own religious agenda.

Links the land used to endow Reading, England with those of late Saxon queens and of female communities themselves linked to the queens. Lay control of such communities; King Henry I's establishment of the Reading abbey; Motive for its foundation as a male Cluniac house.

Reports that the Sound Records Department of the Imperial War Museum in London, England wishes to launch to historians its facilities for research. Collection of recordings made since 1972 in the oral history program; Coverage of topics such as the armed forces from 1910 to 1945; Availability of readings by war poets.

The word "crisis" has perhaps been overworked by historians in recent years. Tudor scholars have, however, long regarded the 1590s as a decade deserving the description: high prices, food shortages and heavy taxation and major wars against Spain and in Ireland combined to create unusual difficulties for government. Among the many problems of the decade inflation was the most pervasive. The failure of four successive harvests from 1594 to 1597 was the cause of a rise in prices dramatic even by the standards of the sixteenth century and the effect on real wages. England shared in this inflation. The article discusses the crisis of the 1590s.

Analyzes the franchise and electoral politics in England and Ireland during 1832-1885. Problems of focus and nomenclature inherent in British politics during the 19th century; Dominant political parties during the period; Differences between the electoral systems of the two countries; Factors affecting politics in the countries during the period; Peculiarities of the Irish electoral system; Legislation passed during the period that influenced the countries' electoral politics.

Explores the potential for absolutism in later Stuart England. Pursuit of absolute monarchy during the reigns of Charles II and James II; Theoretical characteristic of absolutism; Political possibility of an authoritarian regime; Constitutional and institutional differences between France and England relevant to understanding absolutism.

Analyzes the concept of "anticlericalism" in the context of the English reformation. Figures on clerical abuse; Legislative action targeting the Church; Weakness of literary, legislative and litigatory evidence used by historians to demonstrate "anticlericalism."

Discusses how King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, unifying the two nations which were actively or passively hostile since the late 13th century. Observation that James' accession in 1603 brought the benefits of a peaceful solution to the English succession, and Scottish pride in having given England a king; Problem of an absentee king for the Scots; Scottish fear of neglect as early as 1603.

Discusses the content of history in England. Assumptions and interpretations of national history; Significance of history in the revival and restoration of the language and customs of ancestors; Utilization of history for the purpose of indoctrination.

Explores the last phase of the distraint of knighthood in England. Shift of royal attention to the revenue that could be raised from fines for refusing to become a knight; Association of the general summons with coronations or other state occasions such as the marriage of a prince; Subsidies granted by the parliament which passed the Petition of Right.

Focuses on the role of Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, England in the religious persecutions during the reign of Mary Tudor. Profile of Bonner's character; Activities and offices; Conflicts with civil authorities; Description of the religious and civil situations in Bonner's time; Interest of Bronner in heresy trials; Reaction of various sectors to the bishop's policy.