This week will see the State Opening of Parliament.

The great European statesmen of the 19th century understood that diplomacy is a fine art, which requires a cultivated mind and the courage to cross narrow disciplinary boundaries.

Dr Kathryn Rix, of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project, explores the history and significance of prime ministers in the Lords.

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By Zack White In a well-received analysis of the British Army in the West Indies, Roger Norman Buckley described that the force’s military justice system as “capricious and arbitrary.”[1] Buckley’s…

Dutch newspaper AD says it has traced Giuseppe Ghislandi’s Portrait of a Lady to house near Buenos Aires More than 80 years after it was looted by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, a portrait by an Italian master has been spotted on the website of an estate agent advertising a house for sale in Argentina. A photo shows the painting, Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by the late-baroque portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi, also known as Fra’ Galgario, hanging above a sofa in the living room of the property, in a seaside town near Buenos Aires. Continue reading...

In the second of our videos on parliamentary leadership, Dr Robin Eagles explains the complex process by which Robert Walpole came to be considered the first Prime Minister and how he stayed at the…

Inspired by the #OnePlaceServants blogging prompt from the Society for One Place Studies, we turn our focus away from MPs to looking at the staff who kept the Palace of Westminster running, from th…

Virtual Treasury

For a 20 minute talk about the Reform Act by Dr Philip Salmon please click here. This month marks the 190th anniversary of the passing of the 1832 Reform Act, one of the iconic milestones in modern…

April 3 marks the 300th anniversary of Robert Walpole becoming first lord of the treasury and, with it, assuming the title 'Prime Minister' for the first

Continuing our series on the different buildings occupied by the House of Commons between 1832 and 1868, this blog looks at the makeshift arrangements made for the prorogation in the aftermath of t…

On 16 October 1834 an immense fire started by the over-zealous burning of waste took hold in the old Palace of Westminster, completely destroying the medieval Commons and Lords chambers as well as …

The University of Sheffield and the History of Parliament are offering a fully-paid PhD studentship on Irish MPs in the Victorian Commons. Deadline for applications: 5 March 2025. Full details of t…

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of a new member of the royal family, Dr Charles Littleton, senior research fellow in the House of Lords 1660-1832

Museums and galleries announce festival of events and exhibitions to celebrate influential British artist

Most of the nuclear near-misses during the Cold War were kept under wraps, and they still make for unnerving reading in the twenty-first century.

The Baring family was one of the most influential families in nineteenth-century Britain. They held great financial power through the merchant bank Baring Brothers, political influence as members o...

Podcast Episode · The Napoleonic Wars Podcast · 13/11/2024 · 1h 9m