Although now able to affirm, before the late 19th century members of the House of Commons and Lords were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown.
As Dr Kathryn Rix explores, this posed a problem for Joseph Pease, whose religion precluded him from being able to take oaths.
One of a number of *fully-funded* PhD studentships associated with our new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery and War. I'll be co-supervising with the Centre director, Maeve Ryan: an interdisciplinary collaboration with War Studies. PlHappy to answer questions/offer advice!
🗃️#EarlyModern
Marble Arch in situ, as originally intended as the gateway to Buckingham Palace...
Unusual report of a botched burial at sea in the 1730s.
Samuel Baldwin of Lymington, had wished to be buried off the Needles, but when they came to do so, the coffin refused to sink - even though he was encased in lead.
Some last minute boreholes persuaded the coffin at last to behave itself.
painting of a man sitting in a chair wearing red and ermine robes, with a short light grey curled wig on his head. He holds a book in one hand and a short quill pen in the other.
Died #OnThisDay 1761 Archibald Campbell, 3rd duke of Argyll (formerly earl of Ilay), younger brother and 'right hand' to the 2nd duke:
'prickly and unreliable', according to the earl of Dartmouth, he possessed all of the 2nd duke's 'bad qualities, without one of his good'...
Excellent to see this piece in @historytoday.com by our @histparl.bsky.social colleague, Andrew Thrush...
The Parliament of 1523, which opened on this day 503 years ago, is the subject of the earliest near-contemporary image of Parliament.
However, as Dr Paul Hunneyball has explored in an article for #HistParl, its depiction is not entirely accurate.
In case you missed it, in the latest entry for 'Scribble Book', @jhdavey.bsky.social has explored some of the notable individuals who have served as Clerk of the Parliaments in the role's 700 year history.
Click the link below to read and subscribe!
substack.com/home/post/p-...
18th-century newspapers always know how to cut to the chase:
"the late earl of Uxbridge had the largest stud of horses of any nobleman in Europe, keeping the amazing number of 720 horses and mares, and never rode one of them"
#HistParl
Nice little story about the Pagets (earls of Uxbridge):
The first Lord Paget (William) was made a knight of the Garter by Henry VIII; Edward VI decided he was not a gentleman, so ordered the Garter stripped off his leg; Queen Mary thought otherwise, so personally reattached it...
#skystorians
Our #1832AtoZ is at an end, with Z for Zoo. Nicholas Vigors, an Irish MP, played a leading role in the early development of London Zoo and was the first secretary of the Zoological Society of London. For more on his scientific and political careers, see victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2020/07/10/m...
#HistoryJob - our friends @leicsvcht.bsky.social are advertising for a fixed term role as Editor/Volunteer Coordinator for a community-based history project funded by Charnwood Forest Geopark and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Role includes research and writing and might suit an #ECR 🗃️
**Symposium News** We have a few spaces available at our symposium in Oxford next Friday (17 April) on the theme 'When there are no sources'. The event is free, but please sign up using the link below. Our speakers are John Arnold, Hannah Murphy, Jonathan Saha, Miranda Spieler and Tess Wingard.
"The Mouse (according to Order) was adjourned during Pleasure"
Today's surprise reading from the Lords Journals...
#HistParl
This is a very interesting read, and the story of horses and politics continues with our own 19th century take: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2023/02/10/t...
With the Grand National taking place this weekend at Aintree, another chance to consider the importance of horse racing for the politics of Georgian society:
historyofparliament.com/2018/08/02/p...
#HistParl #grandnational
You could always sneak in with something on Ashby de la Zouche?
We have the Nassau van Zuylesteins to fall back on.
A very warm reminiscence of the late and much missed Frank O'Gorman now available to view online in the Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies.
Many thanks to @historymatt.bsky.social for putting this together.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...
229 new individuals added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography today, representing those who died in 2022 - Sir Ray Tindle, Mona Hammond, June Brown, David Warner among them, and of course Queen Elizabeth II. The introduction can be read here: www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/939...
New post from the Georgian Lords this morning by Robin Eagles (not an April Fool), on the role of robes ancient and modern in the House of Lords...
historyofparliament.com/2026/04/01/r...
Not at all!
#skystorians #hivemind I have a family taking 5 rooms at the Tower Inn in Verona in 1796. They pay 20 Venetian lira per day - 6 lira per person/day for dinner, & 4 lira per person/day for servants' dinner & supper. Was this cheap or expensive? What would it have been in £? #c18th #Italy
Not everyone appreciated Grafton's qualities. Hervey, who was his deputy at Court, was damning (unsurprisingly). Swift similarly so:
"Grafton the deep,
Either drunk or asleep."
miniature painting in an oval frame showing a man with a shaved head wearing a red cap and a red coat with frogging over a white shirt.
It's a new reporting period here at @histparl.bsky.social, getting to work on our next pieces. Could there be a better start for the Feast of All Fools than the 2nd duke of Grafton:
"He had the greatest penetration in finding out the foibles of men that ever I knew and wit in teazing them" [Walpole]
As the last of the hereditary peers prepare to depart the House of Lords, with some of them may also go hand-me-down robes, worn by generations before them.
Dr Robin Eagles for @georgianlords.bsky.social considers the symbolism of those robes worn by members of the Lords.
Congratulations to @iaindale.bsky.social on a super review of British By-Elections 1769-2025, which features pieces by Robin Eagles of the Georgian Lords and chair of the @histparl.bsky.social Trustees, @lordnortonlouth.bsky.social
bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/03/30/p...
Great to see this new collection out, edited by one @histparl.bsky.social colleague (Naomi Lloyd Jones) and featuring articles by another current colleague @kathrynrix.bsky.social and former colleague @henryjmiller.bsky.social
Lecturer (Teaching and Scholarship) in Early Modern Art and Architecture (Renaissance and Baroque) - The University of Manchester - School of Arts, Languages and Cultures #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQZ988/l...
New post from the Georgian Lords this morning by Robin Eagles (not an April Fool), on the role of robes ancient and modern in the House of Lords...
historyofparliament.com/2026/04/01/r...
Thank you for that point. Should have made it clearer.