|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Wiley-Blackwell Historical Research Since 1923, Historical Research has been a leading British historical journal. Historical Research publishes the work of established historians as well as assisting new researchers with their first articles. Its articles cover a wide geographical and temporal span, from the early middle ages to the twentieth century. It encourages the submission of articles from a broad variety of approaches, including social, political, urban, intellectual and cultural history. Quarterly: February, May, August, November Odda's chapel, Ealdred's inscriptions? The Deerhurst inscriptions in some continental contexts
This article examines the inscriptions associated with Odda's chapel, Deerhurst, in the light of a quantitative analysis of terminology in early medieval lapidary inscriptions in Rome, western Germany and Normandy, and in the Liber Pontificalis. It suggests that they were the first fruits of a campaign by Bishop Ealdred to revive the practice of installing correctly formulated dedicatory inscriptions in churches in England, but that the campaign petered out as a result of the Norman Conquest. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 1-45 The comital military retinue in the reign of Edward I
This article offers a detailed examination of the military retinues of the earls during Edward I's wars in the twelve-nineties and early thirteen-hundreds. While work has been done on the English armies in the Hundred Years' War, military retinues in Edward I's reign, the first for which voluminous records survive, have been largely neglected. The article discusses the sources available, analyses the various ways in which the earls created their military followings and argues that continuity of service was much greater than has previously been imagined. Such findings have important implications both for studies of the nobility in the late thirteenth century and for work on military retinues in the Hundred Years' War. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 46-59 New light on the life and manuscripts of a political pamphleteer: Thomas Fovent
This article offers new information regarding a little-known manuscript of the Historia Mirabilis Parliamenti by Thomas Fovent, found in a private collection in New York, and presents a more complete portrait of the author's life. Fovent's Historia is a lively account of the Merciless Parliament of 1388 and has long been known to scholars from May McKisack's 1926 edition published in the Camden Miscellany, based on the only known manuscript in the Bodleian Library. The recent digitization of Thomas Fovent's will by The National Archives provides readily available definitive proof that Fovent lived and worked as part of London's bureaucratic milieu in the later fourteenth century. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 60-68 William Lambarde on the politics of enforcement in Elizabeth England
The political life of early modern local communities has been the focus of intense historical attention in recent years. The question of how local politics were connected to national political debates remains obscure, however. An insight into this problem is provided by the document printed here, in which the antiquary and Kent J.P. William Lambarde lays out his views on the political motivations underpinning contributions to militia service and other local burdens. As well as illustrating the dynamics of policy formation within Elizabethan central and local government, he suggests that issues of national politics were of considerable importance in shaping local responses to government initiatives, among the 'middling sort' as well as the nobility and gentry. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 69-82 ‘For the better uniting of this nation’: the 1649 Oath of Engagement and the people of Lancashire
On 2 January 1650, the Act for subscribing the Engagement was passed. By this, the English republic's oath of loyalty was extended to 'all men whatsoever within the Commonwealth of England, of the age of eighteen years and upwards'. Although the controversy surrounding the Engagement has been much studied, the administration of the oath has drawn little attention. This is not surprising given that very few returns survived the 1661 order for their destruction. Yet, among these scanty records, there survive two separate sets of returns for Lancashire: the first was collected between June 1650 and April 1651 at Blackburn, Bury, Heywood, Middleton, Preston and Wigan; the second was compiled at Manchester between February and December 1651, and has been previously unnoticed by historians. These two documents provide valuable evidence of the government apparatus by which the oath was administered, and of the kind of people who took it. The returns enhance our understanding of the motivation for taking the Engagement, and measure commitment to the new regime. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 83-101 The ‘Nabob of the North’: Sir Lawrence Dundas as government contractor
This article examines the career of the military contractor and businessman Sir Lawrence Dundas (1710–81). In a controversial career, Dundas achieved notoriety for the fortune that he acquired from government contracts. In historiographical terms, the identification of contracts with patronage and jobbery, by contemporary and modern observers, has obscured the importance of contractors to the British army. In detailing Dundas's activities, largely from official source material, this article argues that the organizational capacity, logistical expertise and management skills of Dundas, and many other contractors, were a vital co-ordinating element within, and component of, the power of the 'fiscal-military state'. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 102-23 Spiritual slavery, material malaise: ‘untouchables’ and religious neutrality in colonial south India
The policy of religious neutrality in colonial India, the forebear of post-colonial secularism, was radically reshaped in the process of implementing governmental welfare measures directed at 'untouchable' Pariahs. This article reveals how caste came to be understood as a matter of religion – and therefore outside the purview of legitimate state intervention – in a series of conflicts involving state agents, European missionaries, Indian landlords and Pariah agricultural servants in late nineteenth-century Madras Presidency. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 124-45 Bereaved and aggrieved: combat motivation and the ideology of sacrifice in the First World War
This article re-examines the role of sacrificial ideology in motivating Germans and Britons to fight between 1914 and 1918. Contrary to current historiography, it contends that the ideology remained relevant in the war's mass slaughter and even exacerbated the violence. It begins by noting the ubiquity of sacrificial rhetoric and symbolism during peacetime and explains their importance in the mobilization of August 1914. It then explores how the ideology adapted to the circumstances of modern combat. The article shows that concepts of sacrifice not only remained resonant for most soldiers, but actually encouraged them to endure and seek vengeance to vindicate their dead. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 146-64 The warship as the ultimate guarantor of Britain's freedom in 1940
This article undermines a prop supporting the popular belief that Britain was directly saved from invasion in 1940 because the R.A.F. held control of the air in the Battle of Britain. Primary source evidence shows that even without adequate air cover, warships retained considerable potential to resist bombing attacks. While weaknesses in the system of air defence are acknowledged, the Luftwaffe possessed significant shortcomings when operating against the Royal Navy. Germany achieved temporary local air superiority over Kent and Sussex in September 1940 and it is suggested that German leaders were disinclined to recognize this because they expected that warships would smash the invasion anyway. Vol. 83, no. 219, February 2010 - pp. 165-88 The Alexis Quire and the cult of saints at St. Albans.
The Alexis Quire is often considered to be an integral part of the St. Albans Psalter but was originally a stand-alone booklet and was only later added to the larger manuscript. This article examines the context surrounding the production of the booklet, and it is argued that the Alexis Quire is best understood as an expression of the concerns of the entire monastic community of St. Albans. The manuscript was one component of the community's efforts to establish a cult of St. Alexis, and is here considered in light of the two other illustrated hagiographical manuscripts made in Anglo-Norman England in the first half of the twelfth century. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 593-612 The Galloway roll (1300): its content, composition and value
David Simpkin Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. The Galloway roll is one of eighteen extant English rolls of arms dating from the reign of King Edward I. Drawn up at the height of that king's wars, it commemorates around 250 knights who served in south-west Scotland in 1300. It is the first armorial of its type to record the names of a large number of knights bachelor and to arrange them into the retinues in which they served. This article considers how this roll of arms came into being, what it adds to our knowledge of the English army in 1300, and how it highlights the gentry's service during this period of heavy campaigning. 613-34 'Testimony (to some extent fictitious)': proofs of age in the first half of the fifteenth century
This article offers an assessment of the reliability and value of proofs of age produced c.1400–50. It argues that the testimonies recorded in these proofs must be treated with considerable scepticism. From around 1420 onwards, proofs with demonstrably fictitious or conventional testimonies were produced in increasingly large numbers. The documents had become something of a formality, and it was not expected that they would be closely scrutinized. But despite these caveats, proofs of age cannot simply be dismissed. Many are not obviously conventional in their contents; and even in certain apparently fictitious documents, care was taken to provide some accurate information. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 635-54 New light on ‘the commotion time' of 1549: the Oxfordshire rising
In July 1549 the Oxfordshire commons rose in large number, and without gentry support. Somewhere in the region of several hundred armed participants marched from the south-east to the north-west of the county, pillaging parks as they went, until eventually retreating into the town of Chipping Norton. The principal catalyst for the 1549 rising seems, given the rebels' targets and timing, to have been the common perception that the goods of the county's churches were about to be seized by the commissioners for church goods. Consequently, Oxfordshire's rebels did not head for London – they were not opposing religious reforms per se, but were contesting the Edwardian reforms as they had been imposed within their parishes. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 655-76 The great purge of 1625: ‘the late Murraine amongst the Gentlemen of the peace’
It is known that late in 1625 some county J.P.s were dismissed, but close investigation reveals there was in fact a major purge. On 22 December 1625, chancery issued new commissions of the peace to remove justices. But how can we discover who, how many, and why? For at least 20 counties we can reconstruct the composition of the commissions of the peace, and show that between thirty and forty per cent of J.P.s were abruptly dismissed. It was not only the lazy or the insignificant that lost their places, but nobles, knights and those who had carried the burden of sessions work – especially if they had opposed King Charles and the duke of Buckingham. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 677-93 Health care in the Georgian household of Sir William and Lady Hannah East
This article considers the manner in which a late Georgian family managed ill health. The source, Lady Hannah East's diary, covers the period from January 1791 to June 1792. She records her own ailments as well as the daily care that she and others gave her husband, Sir William East, Baronet, during an eight-week period when he suffered an attack of gout. Cognisant of cultural context, this manuscript sheds new light on the English medical landscape, and specifically on attitudes to medication, to regimen and to medical practitioners. In addition, it reveals much about the relevance of personal relationships between spouses, within the family and with servants and neighbours when sickness struck. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 694-714 The social origins and career patterns of Oxford and Cambridge matriculants, 1840–1900
Education at Oxford and Cambridge universities has invariably been taken in modern times as a prime marker of 'establishment' status. Nevertheless, few searching studies of the social origins and subsequent career patterns among Oxbridge students have been undertaken. This article reports on a study of approximately 100 randomly selected students matriculating each at Oxford and Cambridge universities in 1840, 1870 and 1900 – a total of over 600 students. Precise information on the occupation, status and wealth of the father of each matriculant, their secondary schooling, and subsequent occupation, status and wealth was gathered from a wide variety of sources, many unused before. The picture which emerges is of matriculants drawn for the most part from the lower part of the solid middle classes, with surprisingly few landowners or aristocrats. There were also more businessmen fathers than found in previous studies. Most matriculants subsequently pursued very similar professional careers to their fathers, with extraordinary numbers of Anglican clergymen among the 1840 and 1870 cohorts. Despite the role of Oxbridge as the nursery of Cabinet ministers and the Whitehall-City elite, its function as the progenitor of modern Britain's elites is somewhat ambiguous, and it did not automatically provide a route to the very top. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 715-30 The Declaration of London: a matter of operational capability
The Declaration of London (1909) has proven problematic for historians. The standard historiography has it that the first sea lord, Admiral Sir John Fisher, allowed the Declaration to be negotiated only because he intended to tear it up, along with any other inconvenient international obligation, in the event of war. In reality, the London Naval Conference offered the British admiralty and Fisher – who was very aware of the effect of new technology on naval warfare – an opportunity to modernize the laws of war at sea. Accordingly, the British admiralty devised, negotiated and agreed the Declaration so that it matched commercial blockade rules to the operational capability of the larger, faster, modern oil-fired vessels to allow for maximum operational flexibility. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 731-55 The Labour party and the Co-op, 1918–58
This article examines Labour's relationship with the Co-op in the period between the formation of the Co-operative party and the 1958 publication of the report of the Co-operative Independent Commission written by Anthony Crosland. It shows how the Co-op's increasingly poor economic performance shaped that relationship and how the Co-op's principles of voluntarist consumerism caused conflict with the Labour party. The tension generated by the Co-operative party's refusal to affiliate to the Labour party is examined, with particular attention being paid to the Attlee years. Finally, Crosland's report on the Co-op is presented in the light of the fraught relationship detailed over the preceding period. Vol. 82, no. 218, November 2009 - pp. 756-78 Politic history, New Monarchy and state formation: Henry VII in European perspective
Historians have repeatedly compared Henry VII with his continental contemporaries, Louis XI of France and Ferdinand of Aragon. Around 1600 the writers of politic history emphasized Henry's wisdom in drawing lessons in statecraft from his fellow monarchs. By 1900 analysts of the 'New Monarchy' placed more stress on the common circumstances that underlay the revival of monarchical power, but thereby raised awkward questions about similarities and differences in the development of national states. Latterly a model of European state formation has been constructed which sets Henry's kingship less comfortably alongside those of Louis and Ferdinand. This should lead us not to abandon, but to reshape the attempt to set Henry in his European context. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 380-392 Household, politics and political morality in the reign of Henry VII
Late fifteenth-century England, it has recently been suggested, experienced its own 'pre-Machiavellian moment', when the rules of politics and political morality were redefined in the crucible of civil war. Moreover, this was part of a wider western European shift in the nature of politics and one with which Henry, as an exile in Brittany and France, was personally acquainted. The Spanish ambassador's comment, therefore, that the king wished to rule in the 'French fashion' can be interpreted in terms of politics and morality as well as government and administration. This article will argue that the redefinition of political morality in Henry's reign centred upon a redefinition of the nature of the household and the role of household servants. It was manifested through changes in the institution of the royal household itself (the development of the privy chamber and financial machinery of the chamber) and through conflict over the role and meaning of the household. The unease and crisis around this redefinition of one of the cornerstones of late medieval political and social life was also reflected in discourse, such as in the poems of Skelton and in contemporary chronicles. Despite this disquiet, the alteration in political culture was lasting and defined the practice of politics throughout the remainder of the sixteenth century. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 393-411 Policy and prosecution in the reign of Henry VII
Henry VII inherited a society long accustomed to utilizing written obligations for the performance of numerous transactions of everyday business and judicial proceedings – a cultural polity not always appreciated by historians. He staffed his government with family officials and government administrators well versed in keeping household accounts and administering government finance and law through the use of these bonds. Modelling a policy based on the administration of England's largest household – the duchy of Lancaster – Henry and his working councillors raised the level of bond-taking, prosecution and collection to establish law and order while creating a financially stable monarchy. This article discusses the development of that 'bond policy' from the ground up, showing that English men and women of all stations in life were involved in this intensified use of bonds as a pragmatic means for the king to rule England. The ramifications of this policy were not only a greater understanding of, and respect for, the law but also a centralization of law enforcement and finance, key attributes for the development of the modern state. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 412-458 Loyalty and the usurper: recognizances, the council and allegiance under Henry VII
The modern assessment of Henry VII's use of bonds and recognizances to control the behaviour of his subjects is based upon incomplete evidence. This article focuses on new material from The National Archives of the U.K. to begin an analysis of the early Tudor deployment of bonds to address disloyalty and conspiracy. Memoranda of bonds agreed in chancery indicate that Henry VII quickly adopted such tools of enforcement to confront the backlash against his own usurpation in 1485. The success of these measures in keeping King Henry on the throne during his deepest crises helps to explain their more familiar use as instruments of policy after 1500. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 459-481 The enforcement of the penal statutes in the 1490s: some new evidence
Henry VII's reputation for avarice partly rests on the enforcement of penal statutes. From about 1505, according to contemporaries, the increasingly grasping king exploited statutory penalties to raise revenue. However, the regime's behaviour should be contextualized by examining the whole reign. Two sources connected with the 1495 parliament shed light on the subject: in one, the king reported his intention to implement existing legislation; in the other, he pardoned offences committed before the opening of the parliament. Royal commitment at this stage challenges the ready association between the enforcement of the penal statutes and the king's alleged rapacity later on in the reign Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 482-492 Urban policy and urban political culture: Henry VII and his towns
Henry VII has established a widely-recognized reputation for the assiduousness of his governance. For all the research conducted on Henry's handling of central government machinery, however, little scholarly effort has concentrated on the king's political interaction with provincial government, and particularly with the king's provincial towns. This article examines Henry's relations with urban polities and argues that in the king's political interaction with larger provincial centres in politically sensitive areas, such as Bristol, York and Exeter, can be witnessed a burgeoning urban policy. In contrast to processes of political centralization at work during Henry's regime, however, the king's policy in this regard helped to promote a degree of autonomy for urban governments, and thus also paved the way for the formation of later, distinctive elite urban political cultures. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 493-510 Reaction to Henry VII's style of kingship and its contribution to the emergence of constitutional monarchy in England
London was no exception to the general tendency for the cities of ancient and medieval Europe to serve, at least sporadically, as forcing houses for radical political ideas and constitutional experiments. By 1485 the city had developed a constitution in which the rights of the governed were recognized and there were clearly-articulated notions about what constituted 'proper' government. Consequently, Henry VII's 'arbitrary' style of kingship – in particular a tendency for his ministers not only to share roles among themselves but to usurp other men's, and the serious challenge this posed to the authority of London's governors – generated a strong reaction at his death which found a voice in the writings of Londoners such as Thomas More. These writings were not only part of an ancient debate about how to bridle the essentially ungovernable wills of English kings, but helped to move the debate on from attempts to persuade kings to exercise self-control to attempts to deprive them of real power. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 511-525 Henry VII, France and the Holy League of Venice: the diplomacy of balance
This article discusses Henry VII's reaction to Charles VIII's 1494 invasion of Italy and conquest of Naples, and it examines the complex negotiations leading up to Henry's July 1496 entry into the Holy League of Venice, which had been formed seventeen months earlier to force the French from Italy. The article challenges the standard view that Henry was not concerned about the French conquest of Naples because he thought Italy too distant from England, and it refutes the idea of some historians that Henry encouraged Charles to invade. It also questions the view that Henry joined the Holy League only as a means to strengthen his political ties with leading European powers better to secure his dynasty, and only after he was exempted from the League's military and financial obligations. This article shows that Henry had a perceptive understanding of Italian affairs, and that he wanted a unified League that could counterbalance French power and deter another French invasion of Italy. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 526-546 'Of good name and fame in the countrey': standards of conduct for Henry VII's chamber officials
Over the past forty years historians have argued at length about the nature and function of Henry VII's chamber machinery. This article looks at some of these issues through the lens of two documents produced by auditors in the office, one a comment on a 1512 statute, the other a pay dispute. It argues that attention to the personnel who made up the office and their assumptions and expectations suggests that while Henry VII did innovate in his methods and processes, such innovation had always to contend with the traditions of the office and the needs of the common law. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 547-559 Henry Tudor's treasure
Both contemporary and modern commentators have speculated on Henry VII's wealth, the latter reducing his alleged fortune to modesty or insolvency. Such a discrepancy could bear on the financial and political ramifications of his son's monarchy beginning in 1509. This article looks at one source of income cultivated by Henry and his councillors – payments and forfeitures on obligations and recognizances – with attention to the chancery calendars of close rolls. Although no definitive conclusion regarding amounts collected can be ascertained, it becomes clear that such bonds could have provided the prodigious sums of money Henry VIII used to mount his first war against France, the source of which remains unknown. This article also illustrates the break from the Yorkists for enrolling debts and the intensification of Henry VII's bond policy during his reign. Volume 82 - Issue 217 - August 2009 - pp. 560-579 The earliest Norman writs revisited
This article revises the view set out by David Bates in 1985 that writs were seldom used in the duchy of Normandy in the period up to 1135. It reconsiders and re-evaluates how writs, writ-charters and charters should be characterized and provides some definitions for these documents. The article then goes on to consider the method of production of writs and writ-charters in or for Normandy, and what these acts can tell us about the public structures and administration of the duchy in this period. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 181-205 Advocates unlimited: the numerus clausus and the college of justice in Scotland
The college of justice established in Edinburgh in 1532 provides an interesting case study of the operation of the numerus clausus rule by which a limit was placed on the number of advocates permitted to practise there. Such a rule is found in a number of European jurisdictions; however in Scotland's central court it was unusually short-lived, and lasted for less than two decades. The focus of this article is on why the rule was so briefly employed and what consequences this had for the legal profession, the court and wider Scottish society. As well as analysis of the contemporary court record, and consideration of the growth of the legal profession subsequent to the relaxation of the rule, discussion of some of the relevant considerations is informed by a debate on the same issue to be found in some inferior courts in the eighteenth century. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 206-228 Edward VI's 'speciall men': crown and locality in mid Tudor England
Court politics was to some degree factional during Edward VI's reign (1547–53), but the danger of this happening on a wide scale in the counties was recognized. The dukes of Somerset and Northumberland could not afford to alienate the nobility and gentry by monopolizing local offices. Therefore, they built working relationships between centre and localities through the judicious use of patronage, including expanding the commissions of the peace. Maintaining goodwill and effective lines of communication was vital to crown-county relations and the office of lord lieutenant (established from 1548) was critical. It was political failure, not faction, that brought down Somerset's and Northumberland's regimes. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 229-251 Uncovering a protectoral stud: horses and horse-breeding at the court of Oliver Cromwell, 1653–8
According to the traditional view, the breeding of high quality horses collapsed after the execution of Charles I and the dispersal of the royal stud at Tutbury. This article questions this assumption by looking at Oliver Cromwell's interest in horses and in particular his efforts as protector to import Neapolitan coursers, Barbs and Arabian horses to improve English bloodstock. The effects of this on the development of the thoroughbred is debateable, but Cromwell's activities had important political by-products, as foreign dignitaries were impressed, aristocratic breeders were drawn into government circles, and the protector himself grew closer to those civilians at court who shared his love of horses. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 252-267 Creole languages and their uses: the example of colonial Suriname
This article describes the sources for, and the origins and uses of, the creole languages in the Dutch colony of eighteenth-century Suriname – those created and spoken among slaves on the plantations, among the free black Maroons in the jungle villages and among the mixed population (freed/slave, Christian/Jewish, French/Dutch, etc.) of the town of Paramaribo. The rich sources derive especially from plantation managers and Moravian missionaries, at their best working with black or coloured collaborators. These creoles, both the English-based Sranan and the Portuguese-based Saramaccan, allowed generations of Africans and Surinamese-Africans of diverse background to discuss matters of family, health and religion, to tell stories, to establish intimacy and mount quarrels with each other, to consider relations with masters and settlers, to plot resistance and sometimes to construct a past history. The uses of the creole languages by settlers are described, including their limited employment for religious conversion. The article concludes with the Dutch and Sranan poems published in the seventeen-eighties by a Dutch settler married to a mulatto heiress, poems casting in doubt hierarchies of colour. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 268-284 The problem with Punch
The comic periodical Punch is a popular source with academics working on the Victorian period and it has often been regarded as a 'national institution'. This article takes a more nuanced view, arguing that Punch was primarily aimed at a metropolitan and middle-class audience, although it did have considerable reach. Punch largely ignored provincial Britain and had little understanding of its mighty movements like Chartism, the Anti-Corn Law League and the temperance movement. To get a better sense of public opinion in Victorian Britain as a whole, rather than just London, this article looks at the local comic periodicals which flourished all over Britain from the late eighteen-sixties to the nineteen-hundreds. The cartoons in these periodicals were very different from London cartoons, and national symbols of identity like John Bull and Britannia were surprisingly absent. Local identities were often personified instead. The 'nationalization' of the press from the eighteen-nineties presaged the disappearance of these local comic periodicals and cartoons in the Edwardian period. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 285-302 'The Iron Duke': land reclamation and public relations in Sutherland, 1868–95
This article examines the little known episode of land reclamation carried out by the third duke of Sutherland on his highland estates from 1868 to 1895. The land reclamations were an attempt to increase the amount of arable land, and therefore the rental value, of an otherwise financially troubled landed estate – unfortunately for the duke, they failed in both technical and financial aspects. This article also looks at the impact of the reclamation works on the reputation of the ducal family and estate of Sutherland, in the light of later political unrest in the highlands and the family's reputation as great clearance landlords. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 303-319 The Creighton century: British historians and Europe, 1907–2007
The series of Creighton memorial lectures, delivered annually since 1907, reflects changing interests and priorities within British historiography. This centenary address seeks to illustrate attitudes to the history of Europe as revealed especially in the lectures, but also in the context of the development of the historical profession in this country as a whole. Many of the issues raised were already adumbrated in the work of Mandell Creighton himself. How far was Britain a part of Europe for historiographical purposes? Did a British perspective involve any particular presuppositions or yield particular insights? And in what ways did the study of individual foreign countries interplay with attitudes to Britain, and to the Continent as a whole? Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 320-339 'No mere silent commander'? Sir Henry Horne and the mentality of command during the First World War
This article illuminates the little-known high-command experiences of Henry Horne. Drawing predominantly upon his (largely unused) papers, it identifies three major preoccupations – ambition, optimism and religiously-based moral outrage – behind his mentality, and contends that these concerns contributed significantly to his daily exercise of command. While addressing current debates about command, the article also discusses Horne's reactions to perceived German atrocities – an issue generally overlooked in other studies – and suggests that, rather than pursuing a 'depersonalised' approach to the investigation of First World War generalship, more attention must be given both to this subject and to the complex mentalities behind command decisions. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 340-359 Medicine, public health and the media in Britain from the nineteen-fifties to the nineteen-seventies
Health campaigns now use striking visual and verbal imagery and the full resources of the mass media to advocate change in individual lifestyle. Politicians also advocate behaviour change. The origin of this approach lay in the post-war decades with the rise of a new style of public health underpinned by chronic disease epidemiology. In stressing individual responsibility for good health, it reconfigured what citizenship and health were about. The new health agenda laid particular emphasis on the visual, and on techniques of mass persuasion. It had a view of the public which was distinctively different from the wartime concept. Its immediate roots lay in transatlantic influence, in the emergence of mass consumption in the aftermath of wartime restrictions; but also in structural changes in responsibility for health and the central/local tension which has characterized much of British health policy. Volume 82 - Issue 216 - May 2009 - pp. 360-373 Secular power and its rewards in Dorset in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries
Secular administration was in large part the business of the readily identifiable holders of specific offices in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, but alongside these operated individuals who held more informal authority. Its very intangibility has made any assessment of the importance and power of those who wielded such authority difficult. Both categories of functionary, however, operated on behalf of, and were rewarded by, the crown. Through tracing the changing allocation of resource and reward to different officers, this article presents an understanding of the fluctuating relative power of sheriffs and other functionaries over decades when new functions were altering the patterns of secular administration. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 2-16 Kings and sons: princely rebellions and the structures of revolt in western Europe, c.1170-c.1280
Uprisings by royal sons against their fathers were a common phenomenon in the politics of medieval Europe, but one that, so far, has not been fully explored in the context of the thirteenth century. This was, however, a period during which numerous norms and mechanisms were developed that continued to define the Latin West well into the early modern period. This article uses three case studies (England 1173; Germany 1234; and Castile 1282) to outline both shared features of medieval European politics at large, and characteristic differences between central regions of the medieval West. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 17-40 A county community or the politics of the nation? Border service and baronial influence in the palatinate of Durham, 1377-1413
This article considers gentry service and community in Durham, 1377-1413. The Durham gentry were increasingly constrained by the ongoing reform of the bishop's palatine administration - which favoured his own men - even as the focus of gentry service was shifting northward, to the Scottish border. Brought on by the Scottish wars and border instability, the great beneficiaries of this shift were the Nevilles and Percys, who gained power and prestige as royal march wardens, and who amassed still greater private retinues. These shifts altered the character of gentry service and community in the region, even as some talented gentry men redefined their roles and forged successful careers. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 41-61 England's reconciliation with Rome: a news event in early modern Europe
Mary Tudor's reign is still mainly perceived through the eyes of her opponents who, with the help of English printed propaganda, created a lasting image of cruelty and failure. The fact that several incidents of her reign were publicized and celebrated all over western Europe has so far been widely neglected. This article shows how and why England's reconciliation with Rome was made known to her European neighbours and how they perceived it. By examining the networks behind the propagation of news from England and analysing the forms and contents of twenty-three Italian, Latin, Spanish, Dutch and German publications, it will show that England's official return to Catholicism was a perfect opportunity for different Catholic powers to celebrate religious unity in Europe and to ensure awareness of their contribution to its achievement. It will thus demonstrate that news from Marian England could be of great propaganda value and could trigger expressions of joy and hope all over Catholic Europe. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 62-73 The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England
Were politics and religion in Elizabethan England two distinct substances? The practice of religion, specifically of the religion defined by the Act of Uniformity and the Book of Common Prayer, was compulsory, and enforced. The structures of church and state were analogous. Yet, politics and religion were prised apart both in the justification offered for the persecution of Catholics and in the Catholic response. There were areas of religion which were private and voluntary, but they were far from apolitical. The politics of religion in Elizabethan England was heightened by the inability of the state to enforce strict religious uniformity. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 74-92 Soldiers, statesmen and scribblers: London newsbook reporting of the Marston Moor campaign, 1644
London newsbook coverage of the Marston Moor campaign is the first example of regular extended military reporting in English journalism. This article demonstrates the value of early newsbooks as historical sources for giving a fresh perspective on previously well-researched events. It investigates the mechanics of the Marston Moor news coverage: its sources, the speed of relaying information to the public, and the accuracy of reporting. The article reveals an increasing awareness by the military of the value of the serial press for raising their public profile and it suggests that leaders of the parliamentary war party, already appreciative of the newsbooks as political tools, were using revelations of vital military intelligence in specific journals to exacerbate royalist divisions. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 93-113 Scots, Britons and Europeans: Scottish military service, c.1739-1783
This article explores eighteenth-century Scottish military service in a way that moves beyond debates about its role in the formation of Britishness. It makes some comparisons with Irish experience, and argues that many Scottish soldiers of the time were part of a wider European fraternity of military men. A study of their lives provides us with a window onto a comparatively neglected bigger subject - European consciousness among the eighteenth-century British and Irish. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 114-130 Deviation and discipline: anti-Trotskyism, Bolshevization and the Spanish Communist party, 1924-34
This article examines the campaigns to suppress dissent and create conformity within international communism, focusing on the Spanish Communist party in the period before the Great Terror in the Soviet Union. This was not a simple process of 'Stalinization' forced upon the Spanish party by the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow but required the active participation of party members in order to create a culture of compliance. A range of competing considerations, local imperatives and personal agendas conditioned this involvement, which took forms that served particular purposes within the party and which were often at odds with the wishes of the Comintern. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 131-156 Working for the Germans: British voluntary societies and the German refugee crisis, 1945-50
This article evaluates the relief work carried out by British voluntary societies among German civilians between 1945 and 1950. Drawing on the archives of voluntary societies and on interviews with relief workers, the article highlights the centrality of the German refugee crisis and the importance of the sometimes conflictual relationship between attitudes at home and realities on the ground in explaining the development, direction and significance of the British relief effort in post-war western Germany. It concludes that volunteers in Germany and observers at home ultimately found a greater value in the 'spirit' in which voluntary societies approached their work than in any of the limited material results arising from it. Volume 82 - Issue 215 - February 2009 - pp. 157-175 The slow death of the Angevin empire
Looking at the attitude(s) of the cathedral churches of Normandy and Greater Anjou towards their English possessions after the conquest of these regions by the French king Philip Augustus in 1204/6, this article examines the slow death of the Angevin empire. Three phases can be distinguished. In the first phase, lasting until about 1230, bishops and canons continued their pre-conquest policy of defending their property even in the most adverse of conditions. In the second phase, between roughly 1230 and 1250, the cathedral churches changed their attitude towards their English property. They began to regard their English lands as disposable assets. The principal causes for this were political and social. Henry III's failure to recover Normandy and Greater Anjou and a contemporaneous change of generation among the bishops and canons led to a different attitude towards the English holdings. The new generation saw their future within the Capetian kingdom. The third, comparatively long phase, lasted from c.1250 to c.1340. Unlike Aquitaine, the remaining English possessions of Norman cathedral churches carried hardly any political weight in this period. Normandy and Greater Anjou were no longer dominions for which the English kings would engage in a war. Volume 81 - Issue 214 - November 2008 - pp. 553-584 Faith, hope and money: the Jesuits and the genesis of fundraising for education, 1550-1650
The Society of Jesus in the early modern period produced the largest network of schools the world had known and left an indelible mark on the structures of schooling in Europe into modern times. The distinctive schools were substantial and offered a mixture of civic humanism based on classical texts and theological studies but also, according to place, languages and mathematics, all offered without cost to parents. How was the money raised to build and sustain these institutions by a mendicant order? It is here argued that we see the first indications of the kind of fundraising activities practised by modern front-rank American universities, including building up significant friends, producing newsletters and publications, suppressing mention of failures and accentuating successes and involving a broad spectrum of influential people of both sexes in the expansion process. The author's intent is to argue for a more nuanced approach to the motives of donors than that current in recent historiography. Volume 81 - Issue 214 - November 2008 - pp. 585-609 Ormond's alternative: the lord-lieutenant's secret contacts with Protestant Ulster, 1645-6
This article explores a series of contacts between the marquis of Ormond and the Ulster Protestant forces in 1645-6, using sources that include the Carte manuscripts, parliamentary papers, pamphlet material, and other political correspondence, both manuscript and printed. It is argued that Ormond's Ulster contacts were as least as important as the concurrent negotiations with the Catholic confederates, which up to now have been prioritized by historians, and that his Ulster strategy was designed to avoid further negotiations with the Catholic Irish by regaining Protestant Ireland's support for the royalist cause. Volume 81 - Issue 214 - November 2008 - pp. 610-635 Practical economics in eighteenth-century England: Charles Smith on the grain trade and the corn laws, 1756-72
This article examines the role of the writings of Charles Smith in the eighteenth-century debates about the corn laws and the corn trade. Smith stood in between enlightenment theory on the grain trade and its practical application and results. Although his writings are known by economic historians, attention has focused solely on his estimates of wheat consumption, rather than on his economic ideas and their influence. He advocated a pragmatic approach to change, factoring into his analyses regional differences, popular hostility to technical and commercial innovation, the significance of traditional institutions such as the assize of bread, and the limits of 'market integration'. Volume 81 - Issue 214 - November 2008 - pp. 636-662 Belgium - country of liberals, Protestants and the free: British views on Belgium in the mid nineteenth century
This article analyses the different British views of, and attitudes towards, Belgium during the period 1830-70. The rise and fall of the myth of Belgium as 'a little Britain on the Continent' is central in this analysis. This myth originated during the first years after the Belgian Revolution of 1830 and represented a major U-turn in British sympathies. It was built around Belgium's supposed gratitude towards Britain, its liberalism, constitutionalism and the close ties between the royal families of both countries. Furthermore, the British believed that British and Belgian national identity were very similar and that the nature of Belgian national identity was inherently Protestant. However, during the eighteen-fifties and sixties, disagreement on free trade, on France and on the continuing strength of Belgian Catholicism, led to Belgium becoming seen as just 'another' continental country. Volume 81 - Issue 214 - November 2008 - pp. 663-678 The 'high politics' of Labour party factionalism, 1950-5
This article applies the methodology of the 'high politics' school to Labour history between 1950 and 1955, seeking to draw out the power-political, rather than the ideological, aspect of the internal conflict that occurred during this period - an aspect which has sometimes been overshadowed in existing accounts. It uses a combination of official party sources and, particularly, material such as diaries in order to examine afresh how politicians conceived of their actions at what is often seen as a high point of ideologically driven factionalism. It concludes by suggesting the merits of a closer integration of this approach within Labour party history. Volume 81 - Issue 214 - November 2008 - pp. 679-709 Challenging the 'refuse revolution': war, waste and the rediscovery of recycling, 1900-50
This article argues that the experiences of war played an important role in reshaping the social practices of waste disposal between 1900 and 1950. Before 1914 recycling was declining in the face of the challenge presented by the emerging culture of hygiene and the introduction of incinerator technology. This decline was partially reversed between 1914 and 1945 by the wartime imperative to utilize resources efficiently. The need to preserve both valuable shipping space and foreign currency reserves compelled wartime governments to seek stricter recycling measures from local authorities. One consequence of this was that waste management professionals, whose duties had previously been confined to the maintenance of the public health, suddenly reconstituted themselves as experts in resource management. In turn they transformed their attitude to waste, developing new salvage technologies that promised to increase levels of reuse and recycling. During this period there emerged a brief challenge to the nascent throwaway society. However, wartime salvage efforts did not prosper with the removal of the campaign for national survival. Even the economic problems of the late nineteen-forties proved insufficient to maintain the level of recycling without the drive provided by patriotism and Britain quickly slipped back into a throwaway culture. Volume 81 - Issue 214 - November 2008 - pp. 710-731 The Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani: litigation and history at St. Albans
This article reconsiders the domestic history of St. Albans abbey, known as the Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, and concludes that the monks resorted to the fabrication of history in compiling a chronicle that rebutted the hostile claims of the monks of Ely and the bishop of Lincoln. The Gesta is used in conjunction with other documents produced at St. Albans, Domesday Book and the narratives produced at monasteries including Battle and Le Bec. The argument also reveals that the relevant parts of the Gesta were almost certainly written by Adam the cellarer or his clerk, Bartholomew, in the eleven-seventies or eleven-eighties, with the material incorporated into the Gesta by Matthew Paris decades later. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 373-398 Seigniorial control of villagers' litigation beyond the manor in later medieval England
Medieval villagers were assiduous users of legal structures in defence of private interests. To enforce contracts against and recover debts from residents of other villages, rural plaintiffs had to prosecute in courts situated beyond the boundaries of their 'home' manors. The ability to sue elsewhere than the local manor court was thus crucial to commercial development in the countryside. This article explores the obstacles to such litigation, challenging the claim that servile villeinage acted to restrict villagers' choice of court. It lays the foundation for a larger investigation into the importance of villagers as civil litigants in ecclesiastical and royal jurisdictions. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 399-422 The State of Christendom: history, political thought and the Essex circle
The State of Christendom, published in 1657, is a forgotten Elizabethan treatise, and a significant but neglected work of late Elizabethan scholarship and political thought. It is argued that the treatise was authored by members of the circle of Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex in the mid fifteen-nineties, and that it reflects the political and scholarly concerns of Essex and his followers, especially Anthony Bacon, and their engagement with Catholic politics and polemic. The scholarly methodology of the author and the political arguments of the treatise are analysed, in particular the author's interest in tyranny and the remedies for the restraint of tyrants, which shed light on the contexts that shaped the discussion of political ideas in late Elizabethan England and the mental world of the Essex circle. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 423-446 Trade and traders: Edinburgh's sixteenth-century exporting community
This article examines sixteenth-century exporters in Edinburgh, the most important trading centre of Scotland. Unlike London, Edinburgh's export trade was not controlled by a tiny body of merchants in restrictive trading companies. Rather, the burgh's trade was handled by a large numbers of traders, most of whom operated on a limited scale. Foreign merchants, inhabitants of other Scottish towns, craftsmen, professionals and women were all involved and were represented among the largest traders. The vast majority, though, were merchants of Edinburgh, who generally exported more, especially over the course of their careers. Their success in the export trade was due in part to their ability to monopolize the retail trade in luxury imports within Edinburgh. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 447-462 Chartism from above: British elites and the interpretation of Chartism
Chartism existed to exert pressure on the parliamentary classes, yet the interaction between Chartism and its audience has rarely been closely examined. Studies of the political engagement with Chartism have usually focused on questions of policing and control, but such an emphasis was only possible if Chartism was first delegitimized as an authentic popular voice. This article explores the upper-class engagement with Chartism, arguing that it was interpreted not as a political movement but as a social pathology. Neither the charter nor its spokesmen were accepted as representative of the people, with observers instead projecting their own interpretations onto the movement. As a result, the Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate or to confront M.P.s with a compelling popular authority distinct from their own. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 463-484 The power of peripheral governments: coping with the 1891 financial crisis in Portugal
In 1891 a financial crisis led Portugal to abandon the gold standard and partially to default by cutting interest payments on domestic and foreign debt. As a consequence, the country was banned from borrowing in international financial markets until an agreement with foreign bondholders was reached in 1902. The financial crisis was the result of large current account and government deficits. Yet, the abandonment of the gold standard and default were not imposed only by financial difficulties. This article shows that such options were taken because of the growing domestic consensus regarding the need for a change in monetary policies. This concern about the domestic economy was more important to successive Portuguese governments than the fear of a negative reaction from foreign bondholders. Insufficient information about the sustainability of government debt and lack of co-operation between borrowers left Portuguese governments with space to manoeuvre according to their domestic political interests. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 485-506 'Rival foundlings': the Ross and Cromarty by-election, 10 February 1936
This article examines the campaign in the Ross and Cromarty by-election of 1936. Although this election has received some attention by virtue of the prominent personalities - especially Randolph Churchill and Malcolm MacDonald but also Hector McNeil, later a minister in the 1945-51 Labour governments - who contested it, the issues discussed during the campaign have been neglected. By emphasizing the Scottish - and indeed highland Scottish - dimension of the campaign an opportunity is provided for examination of Scottish politics in the mid nineteen-thirties. The appeal of the National Government by 1935 can be assessed, as can the extent to which Labour were recovering confidence and strength after the debacle of 1931. The struggles of the Liberal party to find a candidate in a seat which they had held since 1832, and the weakness of support for that candidate, provides more evidence for the extent of their marginalization in Scottish politics by the mid nineteen-thirties. The discussion of these Scottish contexts is complemented by an attempt to assess the wider significance of the election, especially with reference to the foreign policy of the National Government and the position of Winston Churchill. Some comparisons with Randolph Churchill's earlier independent Unionist candidature at the Liverpool Wavertree by-election are offered. The concluding section will also offer some comparisons with other Scottish by-elections of the period. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 507-530 Service clubs, citizenship and equality: gender relations and middle-class associations in Britain between the wars
This article explores the changing character of gender relations in inter-war Britain through the prism of a little-studied set of middle-class organizations known as service clubs. Drawing on organizational records, the article uncovers the gendered meanings which men and women attached to the ideology of good citizenship promoted within the movement, and analyses the separate club structures which ensured that members associated primarily with others of their own sex. Despite this segregation, the article concludes that the decades after 1918 witnessed a shift towards greater equality within middle-class associational life, a phenomenon which can only be fully understood by integrating recent studies of men and masculinity with longer-established accounts of women and femininity. Volume 81 - Issue 213 - August 2008 - pp. 531-552 The war against heresy in medieval Europe
Both the level of clerical anxiety about popular heresy in the century or so after 1140 and the breadth and vigour of measures adopted to suppress it, initially in the Languedoc, were disproportionate to its extent, coherence and support. This article therefore seeks an alternative explanation for the launching of the 'war against heresy' in thirteenth-century Europe, and finds it primarily in the developing self-consciousness of the new administrative elite produced by the demographic and cultural transformation of Europe in the eleventh century. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 189-210 Royal charter witness lists and the politics of the reign of Edward IV
Historians of medieval England have excelled at getting the most information out of what often seem to be the least giving of sources, yet they have tended to shy away from the witness lists to royal charters. A study of the role and purpose of these charters shows that they deserve a second look, and an examination of the charter witness lists from the reign of Edward IV reveals just how useful they can be in the study of late medieval politics. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 211-223 Alwyn Ruddock: 'John Cabot and the Discovery of America'
Dr. Alwyn Ruddock was one of the best scholars to work on the North American discovery voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot (1496-1508). For thirty-five years scholars in this field awaited the groundbreaking volume Ruddock was said to be preparing on this subject. Yet, when Dr. Ruddock died in December 2005, aged eighty-nine, she ordered the destruction of all her research. This article examines the research claims she made in her 1992 book proposal to the University of Exeter Press and in her later correspondence with U.E.P. Her findings are so extraordinary that they will, if proved correct, transform our entire conception of the scale, nature and importance of John Cabot's achievements. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 224-254 Tudor dynastic problems revisited
This article reassesses Henry VIII's succession acts. It argues that the first was primarily concerned with the breach with Rome, but that the second and third revolutionized succession law. Parliament accepted Henry's right to limit the succession to legitimate 'heirs of his body', so excluding collaterals, and to designate in their place whoever he wished to succeed. This allowed him to deny the crown to Mary and Elizabeth because of illegitimacy, but enabled them to succeed as his nominees. The original legislation shows an awareness of the contradiction in this. The consequent difficulty in reconciling common law and statute was at the heart of the 1553 crisis, the claims of both Mary and Elizabeth and the ongoing Elizabethan succession debate. The accession of James I punctured Henry's scheming and marked a return to common law rules. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 255-279 A necessary and fruitful labour: the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris and the formation of a native clergy in Korea, c.1836-66
A principal aim of the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (M.E.P.) was the formation of a native clergy in its mission areas. Those M.E.P. missionaries who entered its Korean vicariate from 1836 began work immediately to realize this. The initial results were promising and two Korean priests were ordained before 1850. However, the missionaries faced a society intractable to the appeal of a celibate priesthood, and their endeavours were dogged for much of the nineteenth century by chronic shortages of manpower and the ever-present threat, or reality, of violent and devastating persecution. These factors conspired to ensure that the task became increasingly slow and difficult, with only another ten Koreans being ordained by 1900. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 280-291 Jesse Collings and land reform, 1886-1914
The debate on the 'land question' occupied a central place in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century politics. Jesse Collings played a major part in this debate. Yet historians have paid little attention to him, particularly in regard to his time as a Unionist M.P. after 1886. This article provides the first sustained scholarly examination of Collings's agrarian politics, and re-assesses his influence within Unionism. Drawing on published and unpublished sources, it argues that Collings's land reform proposals were founded on patriotic concern for the nation's welfare, and that, to a large extent, the Unionist party adopted his analysis before 1914. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 292-314 The 'Last Night of the Proms' in historical perspective
This article traces the history of the 'Last Night of the Proms', from the foundation of the Promenade Concerts in 1895, through the troubled early decades of the twentieth century and the subsequent commitment of the B.B.C., to its current iconic status. It examines the often contentious reception of this 'invented tradition' and its unique contribution to notions of Britishness, both at home and abroad. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 315-349 Local history, family history and the Victoria County History: new directions for the twenty-first century
The study of local history has a long and varied past, but its modern form can be dated to the post-Second World War era. The Victoria County History, although dating from 1899, has been transformed in the years since 1945, and is going through a further mini-revolution as a result of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to run a project entitled 'England's Past for Everyone' (E.P.E.). This article provides the background to these developments, including the various changes of focus of the V.C.H., and then argues that the impact of E.P.E. is to offer the V.C.H. the opportunity to transform itself into the recognised quality standard for local history. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 350-365 Caspar Van Senden, Sir Thomas Sherley and the 'Blackamoor' project
This article investigates the project of Caspar Van Senden, a Lübeck merchant, and his patron Sir Thomas Sherley, who sought crown permission to collect 'negars and blackamoores' in England and sell them in Lisbon. By examining the reports of Robert Cecil's agent in Lisbon and letters written to Cecil by Van Senden and Sherley, it explains how unsuccessful their project was, and how it may have had political as well as financial motivation. It also reinterprets the privy council order of 1596, and concludes that a similar document of 1601, conventionally listed as a proclamation, is likely never to have gone beyond draft form. The article concludes that Elizabeth's government never envisaged an expulsion of blacks, but was merely trying to fend off another debtor with a patent. Volume 81 - Issue 212 - May 2008 - pp. 366-371 The shiring of East Anglia: an alternative hypothesis
The purpose of this article is to re-examine the evidence for the shiring of East Anglia and to challenge the widely-held assumption that the creation and imposition of this West Saxon administrative structure was an immediate consequence of Edward the Elder's campaigns of 917. Instead, it will be argued that 917 marked only the beginning of what turned out to be a century-long process as the former kingdom was gradually integrated into the political and administrative apparatus that characterized West Saxon/English regional governance. Evidence will be given that East Anglia was still a functioning political unit during the reign of Æthelred II and it will be suggested that the process of 'shiring' actually took place as part of a package of religious and administrative reforms during the reign of Cnut (1016-35). Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 1-27 The curious letters of Friar Brackley
Surviving letters in the Paston collection make it clear that Friar John Brackley played a key part in the famous dispute between William Worcester and John Paston over Sir John Fastolf's will. Unhappily, those written by Brackley himself, variously in Latin and English, have presented problems for historians and editors alike. Their chronology has also been confused. This article seeks, for the first time, to give a full picture of the man and his concerns. Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 28-51 'For refreshment and preservinge health': the definition and function of recreation in early modern England
Society accepts that people need time for recreation, and that we are naturally inclined towards play and seeking pleasure. Recreation time helps us to recharge our batteries and relieve stress, and makes us more able to function within our respective social and economic roles. By using evidence taken from diaries written between 1500 and 1700 this article seeks to examine the role and function of recreation in English society within the context of the early modern period. This contemporary writing shows how language was employed to describe the functions of recreation and in particular its association with the concept of refreshment and regeneration in terms of mind, body and soul. Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 52-74 Nature, production and regulation in eighteenth-century Britain and France: the case of the leather industry
Leather was, in the pre-industrial economy, a scarce material used in the production of a wide range of goods. The supply of leather was influenced by the national cattle asset and its slaughtering rate. The difficulty in increasing leather production to meet the demands of a 'consumer revolution' was the subject of theoretical debates and practical intervention. The state controlled and organized the leather market through fiscal and commercial policies. This article offers a comparative analysis of the French and the British leather markets in the eighteenth century. In France, the state assumed an organizational function in the creation of a national leather market. In Britain, by contrast, the state simply regulated an existing market. These different political interventions influenced the dynamics of development of leather production and the leather trades in the two countries. While France suffered from an endemic absence of leather, Britain was able to satisfy its increasing demand efficiently. Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 75-99 The territorial foundations of the early nineteenth-century census in England
Census data has long underpinned work on the social and economic history of England. While the validity of census data has been extensively scrutinized, the spatial basis of its construction repays closer examination. This article examines in detail the first four censuses, 1801-31, and explores how their compilers, notably John Rickman, laid bare the complex ancient administrative geography of England, drawing extensively on local knowledge and adapting it to form a reliable and durable spatial framework for collecting and comparing demographic data over time. While flaws in the accuracy of the early census are acknowledged, this article argues that in the context of the difficulties faced, the achievement of Rickman and his staff was considerable. It is shown that the early census provides historians with a definitive listing and comprehensive record of England's ancient administrative units and their hierarchy on the eve of their reform. Principles developed by Rickman informed practice in later censuses. The authoritative data of the census was indispensable to demographers, social theorists and reformers in an era which saw increasing scrutiny by central government. Indeed, it became a staple underpinning for an emerging democracy. Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 100-122 Chief officers and professional identities: the case of fire services in English municipal government, c.1870-1938
This article examines the changing relationship between chief officers and English municipal government between the eighteen-seventies and the nineteen-thirties, focusing specifically on the emergence of a new cadre of municipal experts, the chief fire officers. The article locates the chief officer within debates about the changing role and status of professional elites, and continues a long tradition of urban historical research through the comparative case studies of Birmingham and Leicester. It is argued that the chief fire officer's increasing indispensability to modern municipal government was shaped by a combination of functional reforms and unexpected crises, through which he established a position as the interface between the local state and civil society. Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 123-149 Strange hells: a new approach on the Western Front
Recent scholarship has reinvigorated the study of the battlefields of the Western Front. Inspired by these advances and, especially, the advent of an archaeological agenda on the former fields of conflict, this article examines how British soldiers reacted with the landscape and materials which surrounded them. Using archive material to build an ethnographic study, the article investigates violence and death in the battlefield and how the soldiers responded to this hostile environment. Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 150-166 What are historians for?
This lecture addresses the general issue of the public function of academic history. In doing so, it considers the changing role of 'history' (both the practice and the form) from the Greeks to contemporary times, by exploring ways in which the muse Clio has been represented. It raises questions about the nature of public history in the U.K., by comparison with the so-called 'History wars' in North America and Australasia. It also engages with the relationship between the supposedly disinterested nature of historical enquiry and the ethical assumptions of historians as agents in society. By reflecting upon the tensions between the claims of historical writing as 'scholarship' and its literary form as a means of communicating with an audience, it argues that a priority for the discipline is to engage with pertinent matters of public concern. Volume 81 - Issue 211 - February 2008 - pp. 167-188 Kinship: the canon law and the common law in thirteenth-century England
England's common law is stereotypically insular and immune to influence from the learned laws. However, manuscript discoveries reveal that in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries some common lawyers turned to the canon law to illustrate and ornament their own kinship system. Canon law kinship treatises, aimed at beginners, occur in some common law manuscripts, as do arbores consanguinitatis (trees that illustrate the structures of the canon law kinship system). Some were adapted by common lawyers and the influence of this material was to extend even into common law courts. Volume 80 - Issue 210 - November 2007 - pp. 443-468 The Johnson family and the Reformation, 1542-52
The Johnsons were a family of merchants who left behind an extensive body of correspondence, covering the period 1542-52, preserved in The National Archives. By 1542 the Johnsons and many of their social network were already 'Protestant', although when they converted and why is unknown. Through their letters we get a first-hand account of many of the events of the Reformation, both in England and Europe, and their authors' opinions on them. Using the correspondence, which remains almost completely unknown, this article analyses the nature of their Protestantism within the context of the early Reformation. Volume 80 - Issue 210 - November 2007 - pp. 469-490 The politics of British union in 1642 and the purpose of civil war pamphlets
This article demonstrates that there is more than one context in which to place early modern polemical pamphlets, and by submitting one particular tract from 1642 to intellectual, political and bibliographical contextualization, it highlights the implications for our understanding of a particular work's 'meaning' and purpose. By means of a close textual reading, as well as a detailed archival examination of 'three kingdoms' political manoeuvring, and examination of copy-specific information, it indicates that early modern politicians had a subtle understanding of the utility of print, and of the need to reach out to different political audiences in different ways. Volume 80 - Issue 210 - November 2007 - pp. 491-517 Popular politics in Angus and Perthshire in the seventeen-nineties
While a great deal of work on England and Ireland in the seventeen-nineties has been published in recent decades, Scotland has attracted far less attention. This article uses a series of uniquely rich archival collections to reconstruct in detail currents of opinion and political developments in two Scottish counties, Perthshire and Angus, in this period. It presents new evidence on the scope, social depth and resilience of radicalism and loyalism, and examines the nature and limitations of political stability in this region. In doing so, it brings into question the notion of 'massive political stability' in Scotland in the seventeen-nineties and the sharp contrasts which are sometimes drawn between popular politics in England and Scotland in the age of the French Revolution. Volume 80 - Issue 210 - November 2007 - pp. 518-544 'Burying the dead': making Muslim space in Britain
This article explores how far, and to what extent, burial has contributed to the establishment of a Muslim presence in Britain over the past 200 years. By discussing various ways in which Muslims have buried their dead over this period, and some of the problems that they have encountered, it addresses the significance of ritual and place-making in relation to notions of belonging and the construction of identity. In many ways, burial grounds for Muslims in Britain have operated as symbolic devices for community narratives and shared values, which in turn have nurtured forms of identification with place and community. As this article argues, they have helped to create space that demonstrates the changing nature of Muslim 'rootedness' within the British environment. Volume 80 - Issue 210 - November 2007 - pp. 545-566 Nigel, bishop of Ely, and the restoration of the exchequer after the 'anarchy' of King Stephen's reign
This article addresses the reconstruction of the exchequer after 1154 by examining through various classes of charter evidence the careers of some of those individuals most closely involved, rather than by considering the sparse institutional records of the exchequer itself. This approach allows the chronology of the reconstruction to be better understood. More widely, consideration of the connections and interests of some of the parties helps to explain the particular trajectory of development of this institution after 1154, and to assess the role of Henry II in the reconstruction of this part of the administration. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 299-314 Sir Francis Knollys's Latin dictionary: new evidence for Katherine Carey
A Latin dictionary once owned by Sir Francis Knollys has come to light containing his records of his marriage to Katherine Carey, daughter of Mary Boleyn, and the births of their fourteen children. These previously unpublished details (here transcribed) strengthen the argument that Katherine was an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, born during his affair with Anne Boleyn's sister. Sir Francis's handwritten notes also reveal his wife's remarkably successful series of pregnancies; and the birth date of his daughter Lettice - branded a 'she-wolf' by Elizabeth I - who turns out to be younger than is usually claimed when she married Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 315-323 Sir Francis Knollys's Latin dictionary: new evidence for Katherine Carey
A Latin dictionary once owned by Sir Francis Knollys has come to light containing his records of his marriage to Katherine Carey, daughter of Mary Boleyn, and the births of their fourteen children. These previously unpublished details (here transcribed) strengthen the argument that Katherine was an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, born during his affair with Anne Boleyn's sister. Sir Francis's handwritten notes also reveal his wife's remarkably successful series of pregnancies; and the birth date of his daughter Lettice - branded a 'she-wolf' by Elizabeth I - who turns out to be younger than is usually claimed when she married Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 315-323 Royal ecclesiastical supremacy and the Restoration church
The nature and extent of the royal supremacy over the Church of England proved contentious in Restoration England, especially when Charles II and James II sought to use their ecclesiastical prerogative to legitimate Nonconformist worship. Although the supremacy was a long-established institutional fact of the English church-state, it could be presented in diverse ways. This article outlines six versions of royal supremacy which were expressed, arguing that it was a contested and multiform entity which was manipulated by polemicists for their own purposes. Its location in the monarch alone, in crown-in-parliament, or in delegation to a lay vicegerent was unclear. Its character could be presented as purely jurisdictional or partly sacerdotal. The Declaration of Indulgence of 1672 led to the paradox of Nonconformists upholding the supremacy while the established church limited it. The political and religious insecurities of the Cabal era (1667-73) highlighted tensions and divergences which had been latent in concepts of the supremacy since its establishment under the Tudors. It is therefore vital to contextualize Restoration arguments in Reformation debates. Recognizing that 'royal' 'supremacy' was neither invariably monarchical nor inevitably absolute is significant for our understanding of the character of both the Restoration ecclesiastical polity and those who governed it. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 324-345 'No more to be said'? Reactions to the death of Frederick Lewis, prince of Wales
The untimely death of Frederick, prince of Wales, in 1751 has inevitably had an impact on the way in which he has been treated by historians. While some have considered the influence his opposition grouping at Leicester House had on the policies of his son, George III, most have been happy to rely on a few well-known sources in considering the immediate repercussions of his death. This article seeks to reappraise the reaction to Prince Frederick's unexpected demise by considering the politics behind the ceremonial of his funeral, the debates in parliament over the drawing up of the Regency Bill, and the wider public response as revealed in newspapers, sermons and verse. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 346-367 Gladstone and Laura Thistlethwayte, 1865-75
Gladstone's recent biographers - most notably H. C. G. Matthew - have discussed his friendships with women, ranging from aristocrats to courtesans. Regarding his thirty-year friendship with Mrs. Laura Thistlethwayte biographers retain a largely protective view - that Gladstone was tempted into a situation in which he became bound, yet maintained control. In re-assessing this intriguing relationship for the most intense period, 1865-75, this article suggests the reverse - that Gladstone had free choice and, for much of this time, was acting under circumstances more serious, and therefore more challenging of that control, than acknowledged. The precise nature of the relationship remains a mystery. However, re-examination of documentary sources and study of information previously omitted, as well as additional diaries, correspondence and Gladstone's reading, facilitate further understanding of that relationship and of Gladstone himself. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 368-392 Secularization, the growth of militancy and the spiritual revolution: religious change and gender power in Britain, 1901-2001
The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and since, have altered perceptions of religious change in Britain in the last century. This article proposes that three key trends encapsulate the most significant developments - secularization, the rise of religious militancy, and the evolution of the New Age. It seeks to refine the periodization and definitions of these, and the interconnections between them, focusing on gender as the major category of analysis, and using the demographic consequences of secularization to highlight the central role of women to British religious change from 1960 to 2000. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 393-418 'Changed Utterly'? Transformation and continuity in late twentieth-century Ireland
From about 1970, Irish history moved into a fast-forward phase culminating in an extraordinary economic boom for the Republic. This took place against the background of violence in Northern Ireland, up to the uneasy resolution of Good Friday 1998. It is now possible to try and analyse this era from a variety of sources, such as the reports of tribunals investigating corruption, contemporary memoirs, political records and investigative journalism. This article considers the forces and events behind dramatic and unforeseen change in politics, economics, cultural influence, religious profession and gender roles, and discusses how far the 'key' is to be found in American rather than European models and influence. Moreover, 'liberalization' in economic, religious, sexual and other spheres has been accompanied, on other levels, by a retreat into atavistic attitudes - particularly concerning the construction of Irish 'identity' and the packaging of Irish history. This masks a less-noticed revolution in attitudes over the last thirty years of the twentieth century - the strengthening of partitionist attitudes in the Republic, and the copper-fastening of the border between North and South. Volume 80 - Issue 209 - August 2007 - pp. 419-441 Drogo the sheriff: a neglected lost romance tradition and Anglo-Norwegian relations in the twelfth century
The 1148 entry in the fourteenth century Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense includes the story of one Drogo, sheriff of Lincoln. Outlawed for abuse of office, he headed for Norway, fought for the kingdom, married the king's daughter and became his heir. Of course, this episode never happened, but it is first suggested here that it is based on a historical individual and its separate twelfth-century historical and fourteenth-century literary contexts are then explored. Contemporary Anglo-Norwegian connections are shown to have been much more significant than is generally allowed, while the story's unique characteristics make it a useful addition to the corpus and interpretation of medieval English romance. Volume 80 - Issue 208 - May 2007 - pp. 157-184 Rebellion in south-western England and the Welsh marches, 1215-17
This study attempts a reassessment of the rebellion of 1215-17 in two regions: south-western England and the Welsh marches. After examining the historiography of the 1215-17 conflict and some problems with the evidence, the article deals with the two regions in turn. In the first, the rebellion is found to be somewhat stronger than has been appreciated and to be, to a considerable extent, one of local county communities, rather than of great barons. In the second, the rebellion is seen as much stronger than it has been portrayed, although here the great rebel barons play a significant role. In both regions, the rebellion appears as one directed against an exploitative and intrusive central government and its aggressive curial servants, while also, in the outcome of the rebellion, a degree of common interest between the rebels and baronial loyalists is suggested. Overall, although there are some contrasts between the two regions, the study stresses the elements of a common cause in the rebellion. Volume 80 - Issue 208 - May 2007 - - pp. 185-224 'The pooreste and sympleste sorte of people'? The selection of parish officers during the personal rule of Charles I
The successful implementation of Charles I's personal rule relied much on the co-operation of parish officers whose workload increased significantly in the sixteen-thirties. There is little evidence that the mounting pressure and conflicting loyalties Charles I's reform projects caused resulted in widespread unwillingness to serve as parish officer or led to a changing social composition among office-holders. Local customs continued to determine the appointments of officers. The frequent use of rotas in allocating parish offices, the fact that many parishioners served several terms of office, and the presence of men from all social strata of local communities among parish officers all suggest that Caroline parochial government was considerably inclusive and that the village élites continued to serve for crown and parish. Consequently, parish offices, including the demanding office of petty constable, did not experience a loss of prestige during the personal rule, but parishioners served because they accepted their turn or appreciated the status of the office. Many contemporaries may also have valued parish offices because they provided opportunities to adapt government policies to the political culture of the parish and to enforce only selectively some of the controversial schemes of the sixteen-thirties. Volume 80 - Issue 208 - May 2007 - pp. 225-260 The reward of public service: nineteenth-century testimonials in context
Testimonials were a ubiquitous form of public ritual in nineteenth-century Britain, and probably the most important way in which individual public service was recognized and rewarded. This article charts the emergence, development and decline of the testimonial, using accounts in the press, biographies and privately printed pamphlets. By placing them in their cultural context, it demonstrates the complex patterns of meaning that could be developed through these rituals, and uses them to throw new light on the controversy over paternalism and deference in factory culture, arguing that the role of testimonial occasions in that culture has been fundamentally misunderstood. Volume 80 - Issue 208 - May 2007 - pp. 261-285 Imagining Muslim futures: debates over state and society at the end of the Raj*
India in the inter-war decades was alive with multiple competing ideologies whose spokesmen made their arguments in Islamic terms and claimed to speak authentically for 'Islam', among them the 'Islamist', Maulana Maududi; the 'Modernist' poet, Muhammad Iqbal; and the 'Traditionalist' Islamic scholar, Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani. A significant advantage of looking at these early movements is that, more than fifty years on, we are able to see them as products of their times, subject, moreover, to considerable change in the new nation states that emerged. Their histories exemplify the limits of stressing the 'genealogy' of any given movement - whether to Quranic chapter and verse or to some putative founder - as well as of imputing rigidity to Islamic thought. Volume 80 - Issue 208 - May 2007 - pp. 286-298 Archidiaconal and vice-archidiaconal acta: additions and corrections
This article publishes newly discovered additions to Twelfth-Century English Archidiaconal and Vice-Archidiaconal Acta, edited by B. R. Kemp (Canterbury and York Soc., xcii, 2001), along with corrections to that volume. Fifteen 'new' archidiaconal acta from nine archdeaconries are included, all but one being full texts, with one 'new' vice-archidiaconal actum, from the archdeaconry of Lincoln. This last and eight of the archidiaconal acta survive as originals. Two archdeacons not previously included are now represented, but Thomas, archdeacon of Norwich, disappears, since the single actum attributed to him in 2001 is now assigned to Steingrim, archdeacon of Norfolk. Volume 80 - Issue 207 - February 2007 - pp. 1-21 The household rolls of King Henry III of England (1216-72)
The household rolls of King Henry III are the first to survive for any English king. In broadest terms they record the daily expenses of the various household departments, the most important being the pantry, buttery and kitchen, in supplying the court with its food and drink. The interest of Henry III's rolls is great, even if the portion of them which survives is small. They constitute the only direct evidence we have for the daily cost of the household's victuals, and thus throw considerable light on the scale and purposes of royal hospitality. They also illuminate the place of the queen at Henry's court. The vestigial rolls of Queen Eleanor of Provence are themselves the first to survive for any English queen. This article describes the surviving Henrician rolls, discusses their meaning and function, and demonstrates some aspects of their value to historians. Volume 80 - Issue 207 - February 2007 - pp. 22-46 The Tudor polity and the pilgrimage of grace
A striking feature of the pilgrimage of grace was its concern for lost or threatened rights and liberties. This article considers the light that this throws on the revolt itself and on early Tudor attitudes towards state and society. It examines the nature of the pilgrims' constitutional concerns and their relationship with the law, the manorial system, the society of orders and the concept of the body politic. It questions the view that the constitution was not in contention at this time by analyzing the concept of tyranny that the pilgrims used. It also suggests that society's general acceptance of the manor and the society of orders did not necessarily result in social cohesion and harmony because commons and gentlemen were inclined to place conflicting interpretations upon the differential rights and obligations that they warranted. It finally proposes that, in spite of being sanctioned by reference to tradition, the rights claimed were far from static but could undergo revision and renovation. Volume 80 - Issue 207 - February 2007 - pp. 47-72 The Long Parliament goes to war: the Irish campaigns, 1641-3
As England lurched towards war in 1642, the Westminster parliament had already become embroiled in a lengthy and costly war of reconquest in Ireland. An examination of the war effort in Ireland reveals the scale of parliament's commitment to sustained long-distance warfare, the range of initiatives developed to harness the necessary political and material resources, and its increasing reliance upon an emerging war interest of investors and suppliers. The outbreak of civil war in England saw parliament deploy a similar gamut of initiatives, nationally and locally, to those used in Ireland, but in very different strategic and political contexts. Parliament was engaged in a smaller-scale version of the multiple-front conflicts of the great European powers and disengagement from Ireland, England's Flanders, was not an option. Volume 80 - Issue 207 - February 2007 - pp. 73-99 The Church and politics in 'disaffected' Manchester, 1718-31
Historians have given contradictory pictures of early eighteenth-century Manchester: as a growing industrial centre, and as a bastion of religious and political disaffection. This article aims to integrate these two elements and to elucidate the ecclesiastical and civic contentions of Mancunians, specifically as they relate to Church appointments and to the workhouse trust. Local disputes involved the dignitaries of the Church of England, individual M.P.s and the government, and the rivalry among three religious affiliations, alongside the party politics of the age, doomed many public schemes to failure. Out of these same contentions, however, an incipient public sphere was developing. Volume 80 - Issue 207 - February 2007 - pp. 100-123 Electoral violence in mid nineteenth-century England and Wales
Many assumptions about the frequency and scale of electoral violence in mid Victorian England and Wales have previously been made but there has been no attempt at a comprehensive quantitative analysis. This article, which draws upon home office papers, election petition reports and contemporary newspapers, identifies and differentiates between riots, disturbances and incidents at general elections from 1857 to 1880. It concludes that electoral violence was more widespread and serious than generally believed, that it usually occurred in cities rather than small towns, and that it was directly related to the number of contested constituencies. Volume 80 - Issue 207 - February 2007 - pp. 124-155 Alien knights in a hostile land: the experience of curial knights in thirteenth-century England and the assimilation of their families
Volume 79 - Issue 206 - November 2006 - pp. 451-476 Tax-collecting in Colchester, 1489-1502
Volume 79 - Issue 206 - November 2006 - pp. 477-487 Servants and citizens: Robert Beale and other Elizabethans*
Volume 79 - Issue 206 - November 2006 - pp. 488-511 Persuading the citizens? Charles I and London Bridge
Volume 79 - Issue 206 - November 2006 - pp. 512-533 Between Nicodemism and 'honest' dissimulation: the Society of Jesus in England*
Volume 79 - Issue 206 - November 2006 - pp. 534-553 Joseph Chamberlain, the Conservative party and the Leamington Spa candidature dispute of 1895
Volume 79 - Issue 206 - November 2006 - pp. 554-577 The Mauryan empire in early India
Volume 79 - Issue 205 - August 2006 - pp. 287-305 Soup and sadaqa: charity in Islamic societies
Volume 79 - Issue 205 - August 2006 - pp. 306-324 'Agree with the king': Henry VII, Edmund Dudley and the strange case of Thomas Sunnyff
Volume 79 - Issue 205 - August 2006 - pp. 325-366 The difficulties of empire: present, past and future
Volume 79 - Issue 205 - August 2006 - pp. 367-382 A measure of worth: probate valuations, personal wealth and indebtedness in England, 1810-40
Volume 79 - Issue 205 - August 2006 - pp. 383-403 Gladstone's Gladstone? The chancellorship of Robert Lowe, 1868-73
Volume 79 - Issue 205 - August 2006 - pp. 404-428 Small steps towards new frontiers? Ideas, concepts and the emergence of a détente strategy in the thinking of Willy Brandt and John F. Kennedy
Volume 79 - Issue 205 - August 2006 - pp. 429-449 Empires: a problem of comparative history
Volume 79 - Issue 204 - May 2006 A Scottish problem with castles
Volume 79 - Issue 204 - May 2006 A poet in politics: Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst and first earl of Dorset (1536-1608)
Volume 79 - Issue 204 - May 2006 Newton's treatise on Revelation: the use of a mathematical discourse
Volume 79 - Issue 204 - May 2006 The Labour party and the land question, 1919-51
Volume 79 - Issue 204 - May 2006 Gender studies in Russian historiography in the nineteen-nineties and early twenty-first century
Volume 79 - Issue 204 - May 2006 Memory and truth: the strange case of the witness enquiries of 1216 in the Braga-Toledo dispute
Volume 79 - Issue 203 - February 2006 A parliament full of rats? Piers Plowman and the Good Parliament of 1376
Volume 79 - Issue 203 - February 2006 By the book or with the spirit: the debate over liturgical prayer during the English Revolution
Volume 79 - Issue 203 - February 2006 Did serfdom matter? Russian rural society, 1750-1860
Volume 79 - Issue 203 - February 2006 Radical agitation and the Canada question in British politics, 1837-41
Volume 79 - Issue 203 - February 2006 Constructing a Tory world-view: popular politics and the Conservative press in late-Victorian Leeds
Volume 79 - Issue 203 - February 2006 Monarchy to protectorate: re-drafting the Humble Petition and Advice, March-June 1657
Volume 79 - Issue 203 - February 2006 1066: does the date still matter?
1066 was once regarded as the date everyone knew. It remains widely known among the large numbers of the general public with an interest in history. This article suggests that popular perceptions of 1066 are a range of at times confused memories and that so-called academic history has in the last fifty years had little impact on them. It acknowledges that revolutionary changes in contemporary historians' approaches to the past have made 1066 less significant as a date, yet argues that the date's very popularity with the general public and the centrality of change to historical analysis makes a clear perception and extensive dissemination crucial. It suggests that 1066 was ultimately an act of legitimated and purposefully directed violence and needs to be discussed as such. It is necessary to guard against automatically associating every change in the decades after 1066 with the impact of the Conquest and to see them instead as often being aspects of wider processes. It is also crucial to see 1066 as an event of European significance and to set it within the multicultural history of the British Isles. It had consequences which fundamentally shaped English and British history. Perhaps surprisingly, new information and new interpretations of long familiar sources are possible. Volume 78 - Issue 202 - November 2005 A window on mid-Tudor Ireland: the 'Matters' against Lord Deputy St. Leger
This article seeks to contextualize an anonymous set of allegations written in late 1547 which helped to collapse the government of Sir Anthony St. Leger, the lord deputy of Ireland. Often thought to be a symptom of the mid-Tudor crisis, this document reveals that the Edwardian regime's decision to replace the popular Irish deputy was greatly influenced by elements within Ireland. In his effort to effect a change in Tudor policy toward Ireland, the author of this eclectic and lengthy assortment of allegations against the St. Leger-led government has provided a window into many aspects of Irish political life at the outset of Edward VI's reign. Volume 78 - Issue 202 - November 2005 The culture of judgement: art and anti-Catholicism in England, c.1660-c.1760
Art produced in Italy and France was highly prized in England during the long eighteenth century even though much of it was Catholic in subject matter. A number of strategies of mediation were developed to manage this problem that allowed the prestige of this culture to accrue to the English élite. At the same time, the role of visual culture in the Church of England was being contested between those who were confident that the Reformation had been effected and those who believed it to be still incomplete. Central to both these phenomena was the idea that popish pictures and art in churches could be acceptable if, and only if, the spectator could be trusted to look 'properly'. Volume 78 - Issue 202 - November 2005 Combined operations and the European theatre during the Nine Years' War, 1688-97
This articles assesses the strategic and operational purpose of England's combined army-navy operations within the European theatre during the Nine Years' War, 1688-97. Specifically, the historical consensus that these operations were simply a compromise product of the contemporary political discourse, and consistently suffered from poor preparation and implementation, is reassessed. In so doing, the article considers the combined service descents planned and executed against the northern French coastline between 1691 and 1694, including in particular the renowned operation at Brest in June 1694, and also those operations undertaken by Admiral Russell's Mediterranean fleet in 1695. Accordingly, the article argues that the strategic and operational dismissal of combined operations is based upon a misunderstanding of their contemporary purpose, and that these actions were in fact promoted by both the court and the ministry as strategic handmaidens to the wider continental and maritime strategies. Volume 78 - Issue 202 - November 2005 The Shoreditch tax frauds: a study of the relationship between the state and civil society in 1860
The incidence of white-collar frauds in the tax administration of the eighteen-fifties exposed problems which extended far beyond questions simply about crime and punishment. Rather, they were symptomatic of a growing tension between the state and civil society which found expression in the call for reform of the socio-legal structures and disciplines which permitted them to happen at all. One such episode enables us to glimpse more intimately national concern with, and the obstacles to, law enforcement in this sphere; and how existing criminal and remedial laws were, to some extent, rejected by the agencies of government, not so much on moral or political, as on essentially practical grounds, in favour of less formalized, and more private, ways of dealing with the matter. Volume 78 - Issue 202 - November 2005 Margaret Pole and Syon abbey
In Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, 1473-1541, Hazel Pierce was unable to corroborate Richard Morisyne's assertion that as a young widow Margaret Pole made her home with the other Bridgettine nuns at Syon abbey. However, the household accounts of Lady Margaret Beaufort (held at St. John's College, Cambridge) reveal that this was indeed the case, recording payments to her from May 1505 until May 1509, the month before Lady Margaret Beaufort's death. This article provides evidence from these accounts, together with a brief analysis of the context in which they were made, and includes details of payments made by Lady Margaret Beaufort to another Syon incumbent, her goddaughter and, at the time of the Dissolution, prioress of Syon, Margaret Windsor. Volume 78 - Issue 202 - November 2005 The clergy in early Anglo-Saxon England
The presence of the clergy in the early Anglo-Saxon church has been neglected because of the concentration on monasticism and the view that there was no contemporary differentiation between monastic establishments and clerical ones. This article addresses the evidence for the clergy by reviewing the terminology for both institutions and their personnel. It argues that the clergy were an important part of religious life in early Anglo-Saxon England and that a more nuanced approach should be taken to religious houses and churches in this period. The Latin words deployed by early Anglo-Saxon writers show a variety of establishments. Further, contemporary strictures concerning clerical celibacy shed new light on Bede's letter to Ecgbert and may indicate the presence of local churches and priests serving them. The article therefore questions the 'minster model' and is a further contribution to the debate over the nature of pastoral care in Anglo-Saxon England. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 Translating Trent? English Catholicism and the Counter Reformation
This article offers a series of reflections on some aspects of the historiography of English Catholicism, set within the context of recent developments in research on the Continental Counter Reformation. Focusing on the question of how far the reforms ordered by the Council of Trent could be pursued and implemented by a missionary priesthood against the backdrop of Protestant persecution, it suggests that the relationship between post-Reformation Catholicism in England and the wider European and extra-European movement for Catholic renewal may be more complex and interesting than the existing literature implies. In particular, it argues that the condition of repression and prescription had contradictory effects: in certain contexts it facilitated the process of evangelical and pastoral rejuvenation, while in other respects it operated as a significant inhibitor to it. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 New light on the 'Drummer of Tedworth': conflicting narratives of witchcraft in Restoration England
This article presents hitherto unpublished early texts concerning the 'Drummer of Tedworth', a poltergeist case that occurred in 1662-3 and became famous not least due to its promotion by Joseph Glanvill in his demonological work, Saducismus Triumphatus. The new documents show how responses to the events at Tedworth evolved from anxious piety on the part of their victim, John Mompesson, to confident apologetic by Glanvill, before they were further affected by the emergence of articulate scepticism about the case. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 Social Democratic Federation membership in London
The Social Democratic Federation (S.D.F.) was one of the founding elements of the Labour party in Britain. Many activists who would later become prominent in the labour movement and parliamentary politics obtained their introduction to political life through the S.D.F. This article aims to provide a membership profile of the London region, an area where the S.D.F. had some influence. The data gathered make possible an analysis of the branch size and turnover as well as of gender, age and occupational structure. They also illustrate in general the development of the socialist and labour movement of the capital in this period. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 Feminist and anti-feminist encounters in Edwardian Britain
This article highlights anti-feminism as a neglected source in British debates about gender in the early twentieth century. It examines Edwardian feminism and anti-feminism within the 'little magazines' of 'advanced' or modernist circles, and explores the lack of conceptual distinctness of thinkers who identified themselves, or have been subsequently identified, as on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Through an examination of articles within the English Review and the New Age, the author argues that Edwardian anti-feminists were not, as they have been frequently portrayed, firmly reactionary, inhabiting a polarized position in relation to feminism. Nor can the idea of 'separate spheres' sum up their beliefs. Instead, a shared set of ideas about gender emerged within these texts, as well as a playful ambiguity around the identities of 'feminist' and 'anti-feminist'. The author calls for more attention to the self-description of historical subjects in identifying their politics, as well as greater awareness of the nuances of their arguments, thus preventing a tendency to identify all culturally and politically active Edwardian women as feminists. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 Official history: how Churchill and the cabinet office wrote The Second World War
Winston Churchill published The Second World War between 1948 and 1954. Much more than memoirs, his six volumes included a large amount of Churchill's wartime documents and drew extensively on material in the Whitehall archives. This was only possible because of a unique partnership between Churchill and two cabinet secretaries, Edward Bridges and Norman Brook. The assistance that they provided, and their reasons for doing so, are explored in this article, which is based on research in the Churchill papers and the files of the cabinet office. This story also throws light on the general procedures for official vetting of political memoirs as they have evolved during the first half of the twentieth century. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 Beyond the powerhouse: understanding the country house in the twenty-first century
Contrary to expectations, the country house has survived into the twenty-first century, and in its quiet way is flourishing. To understand how it has survived the loss of its traditional role as 'powerhouse', the home of a dominant landed élite, it is important to appreciate that this political aspect of the country house was only one role that the country house fulfilled. By studying the other roles played by the country house, including villa, sporting lodge and family shrine, we not only gain a broader understanding of the country house's history but also of its future. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 The battle of Sandeford: Henry Tudor's understanding of the meaning of Bosworth Field
This article considers the way in which Henry Tudor understood the significance of his victory on 22 August 1485 at Bosworth Field. It does so by examining the reasons why the battle was initially associated with the name 'Sandeford', relating these to the prophetic traditions of the time. This allows a direct insight into the new king's understanding of his place in history: at the end of a long period of civil strife, and potentially at the beginning of a new phase of expansion and crusade. Volume 78 - Issue 201 - August 2005 |
|||||||||||||||||
