This volume in the Royal Historical Society's Camden Fifth Series is a comprehensive edition of the only surviving northern medieval letter collection. Of particular value to social and legal historians, Joan Kirby's text contains a wealth of material unavailable to the editor of the previous edition of 1836. The collection offers a vivid day-to-day portrayal of a northern knightly family during a period of decline in the military function of knighthood. Parochial, proud, violent and litigious, as Percy tenants and feed officials their fortunes fluctuated with those of their patrons; loyalty to the Lancastrian cause in 1461, for example, cost both families loss of life, liberty and office. Two protracted lawsuits drew them deep into the complexities of the legal process and the political patronage on which they depended. The resulting correspondence with their lawyers constitutes a unique primary source for all scholars of medieval England.
The origins of World War II and alternatives to appeasement have been the subject of vigorous debate for many decades. However, the least understood and explored aspect of these debates has been the subject of public opinion. This volume addresses the vital phenomenon of elite and intellectual opinion. This unique All Souls 'think-tank' deliberated for almost two years to frame an alternative foreign policy for a country facing the menace of a worldwide threat, stretching from Germany to Italy to Japan. The group represented a wide-ranging selection of the finest individuals of the time with an unmatched wealth and breadth of public and private service. The volume analyses the deliberations of this think-tank as it struggled to frame a consensus for a foreign policy document intended to guide public and government debate, and avoid another world war.
The political journal of John Wodehouse, first Earl of Kimberley (1862–1902) is one of the finest political diaries of the last half of the nineteenth century. Born into an old Tory family, Kimberley followed his forebears in attending Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, but shocked his neighbours by adopting Liberal principles. As Lord Clarendon's protege, he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to Russia following the Crimean War, and under-secretary at the Foreign Office after his return (1859–61). With Lord John Russell's elevation to the peerage in 1861, Kimberley resigned, and shortly after began the journal that he regularly kept until his death in 1902. Uniquely placed as an observer, Kimberley was the only Liberal to serve in every Cabinet of the Gladstone/Rosebery era. The Kimberley Journal is replete with humorous anecdotes, information regarding policy development, and acute observations about politicians and political situations.
This volume publishes the private diary of a senior Conservative Member of Parliament, Sir Cuthbert Headlam, during the period of the Second World War. Clearly written and highly readable, it gives a fascinating inside view of British public life in those years. Because of its length and coverage, this political diary is uniquely important. It covers the period of 'appeasement' and the coming of the war, the conflict itself, and post-war Labour government and the development of the Cold War. It has much to say about figures such as Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan.
Fleet Street, Press Barons and Politics provides a personal account of the tribulations of working as a journalist and editor during the 1930s. Collin Brooks recorded for posterity his observations of the journalistic, political, literary and financial sets in which he circulated. The journals open with Brooks working at the Financial News. His move to the Sunday Dispatch, his rise to the editorial chair, and his intimate friendship with Lord Rothermere ensure that these journals offer a unique insight into the operations and mentality of a press baron. Further, the diaries offer a perspective upon dissident right-wing Conservatism during the leaderships of Baldwin and Chamberlain, giving new insights into the debates over India, rearmament and foreign policy as well as the continued flirtations with Mosley and fascism. These readable, witty and fluent journals, skilfully edited by N. J. Crowson, offer a fascinating snapshot of Britain in the 1930s.
First published in 2000, this book is a modern and accessible edition of a manuscript journal kept by Thomas Juxon, a Puritan Londoner, who produced and traded in sugar. Juxon's journal focuses on public affairs and political and military developments during years of intense political manoeuvring, from the latter stages of the civil war and post-war attempts to reach a settlement with the king, to the crisis of the summer of 1647 and the army's occupation of London. It sheds light on the emergence and course of party and factional politics both within Parliament and in the City of London, and reveals the thoughts and convictions of an informed Londoner who was a committed participant in these events. Keith Lindley and David Scott's substantial introduction provides a full account of Juxon's life, describes the format of the journal, and discusses its historical value, while the text is supported by full scholarly apparatus.
This volume contains a series of Jacobean newsletters written by members of one of the most important Catholic clerical factions of the period. They shed light primarily on matters which most immediately affected the English Catholic community: the strife between different Catholic factions, the conflict between Catholics and the State (especially over the Jacobean oath of allegiance), and the possibility, nevertheless, of obtaining some form of toleration. They also give us Catholic glosses on other news which could be taken to have a bearing on the prospects of English Catholics, such as Court politics, the conduct of Jacobean foreign policy towards European Catholic states, and controversies within the Church of England. This previously unpublished material, extensively annotated by Michael Questier, provides highly illuminating source material for the study of early modern ecclesiastical politics.
This edition consists of official reports sent by British envoys in Germany to the Foreign Office in London. The diversity and number of missions within the German Confederation offers the reader an o
A. L. Kennedy, the son of a British diplomat, began a long career in journalism with The Times before the First World War. When he returned to the newspaper in 1919 - as Captain Kennedy - he began to keep a journal of his activities and ideas, his conversations with politicians, officials and journalists. This book is an edited and annotated selection from his journals between 1932 and 1939, during which period he served as The Times' assistant foreign editor and in which capacity he was responsible for most of the leading articles on foreign affairs. His journals provide a fascinating insight into the complicated relationship between The Times and the government: intriguing to read, they are an extremely valuable source for historians of diplomacy politics and journalism in Britain between the wars and help to illuminate our understanding of 'appeasement'.
This book provides a scholarly edition of the letters of A. S. Rowntree, prominent businessman and Quaker, to his wife, M. K. Rowntree. The letters cover the period 1910–1918, during which he was Liberal MP for York. The edition provides a unique window into the under-explored world of backbench Liberal MPs, especially those committed to the New Liberalism. It shows that the activities and opinions of MPs in this period cannot be understood without reference to the wider context of their lives, especially their religion, business interests and charitable work. The letters also provide significant new information on developments in Quaker thinking on social and political issues, the problems faced by pacifist MPs in World War One and how gender identities were constructed within political marriages in Edwardian Britain.
This collection of hitherto unpublished material sheds important light on the English court and its relationship with a wider political society in the sixteenth century. The 'Journall' of political events covering 1547–52 and 1559–1562, possibly by the 'commonwealth man' John Hayles, offers arresting insights on court politics, foreign affairs and events in the life of London. It is published alongside a related account of the rivalry between the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland. Court religious ceremonial is illustrated through an edition of regulations for the royal chapel. The memoir of Jean Malliet, sent to England to solicit a loan for the beleaguered city of Geneva in 1582–3, demonstrates the 'Calvinist international' at work. A tranche of letters from Sir Robert Cecil to Sir Christopher Hatton offers fresh material on court politics in this period.
This edition publishes official reports written for the Foreign Office by British envoys to the States of the German Confederation (1815–1866). Volume II covers the period of German Vormärz from the July Revolution 1830 to 1847. All despatches are transcribed and annotated for the first time. The following missions are included: Frankfurt (Diet of the German Confederation), Berlin (Prussia), Munich (Bavaria), Stuttgart (Württemberg), Dresden (Saxony), Vienna (Austria) and Hanover from 1837. The selection presents the pluralistic perception of British diplomats of the political, economic, military, cultural, and social situation in the German states. Furthermore, the edition provides insights into the activities of the nineteenth century British diplomatic service.
The Camden volumes, published by the Royal Historical Society, offer collections of skilfully edited primary source material for historians. The Camden Miscellany collections contain a variety of shorter documents and papers. This volume comprises seventeenth-century documents on parliamentary and financial matters. These include the parliamentary papers of Nicholas Ferrar (1624), the letters of Sir Cheney Culpeper (1641–57) and the assessment lists for the Cromwellian decimation tax of 1655.
Henry Herbert Molyneux, fourth Earl of Carnarvon (1831–90), figured prominently in Conservative high politics during four decades of the second half of the nineteenth century, serving under three Prime Ministers in all the Conservative governments between 1858 and 1886. He was also a member of the Cabinet in three of them, appointed as Colonial Secretary twice, and Viceroy of Ireland during the Home Rule crisis of 1885–6. This book is based on the so-far comparatively neglected diaries which he kept meticulously throughout his life. Few such political diaries of Cabinet ministers on this scale and significance have survived. They show him to be a shrewd observer of events, and the records of his conversations with the leaders of the Conservative Party as well as with political opponents are of the greatest interest. This study has also drawn on many archive collections containing Carnarvon's correspondence and memoranda.
The fourteenth century witnessed the emergence of the parliamentary common petition, a statement of grievance and request for reform that provided the basis for much of the royal legislation of the period. In the process of compiling the common petitions, much proposed business was set aside and not committed to the permanent record of the parliament roll. A significant body of that 'lost' material has now been recovered and is published here for the first time, providing a fresh understanding of the full range of preoccupations of the medieval House of Commons as it emerged as the mouthpiece of the political community before the king. Alongside questions over the rights of the church, the corruption of officials and the processes of royal justice, the commons also expressed deep concerns over the many political, economic and social concerns of the period, including the consequences of war, plague and revolt.
President de Gaulle famously called the Second Vatican Council 'the greatest event of the twentieth century'. Vatican II established a landmark not only in Roman Catholic theology, ethics and worship, but also in its ecclesiology and ecumenical relationships with other traditions. Commentators at the time saw the council as nothing short of revolutionary and the later judgements of historians have upheld this view. A defining dimension of Vatican II was the presence of a number of observers invited by John XXIII to represent other traditions and to report the workings of the Council to their own leaders. But it was often felt that they exerted influence, too. The Archbishop of Canterbury employed a representative at the Vatican Council, Bernard Pawley. Pawley's confidential reports and correspondence have often been quoted in secondary studies, and have achieved a considerable academic stature. This book makes them available to scholars, churches and the public.
Cecil Bisshop Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth (1869–1948), was the younger brother of the press proprietors Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere. Although he played a role in the early development of the Harmsworth journalistic empire, Cecil chose a political career. He served as Liberal MP for Droitwich from 1906 to 1910, and for Luton from 1911 to 1922. After holding a number of minor government positions under Asquith, Harmsworth became a member of Lloyd George's War Cabinet Secretariat in 1917, and from 1919 to 1922 served as Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. Harmsworth's diary forms a highly readable record of the politics of the period, detailing late-night Commons sittings and the rough and tumble of the campaign trail, as well as giving skilful pen-portraits of the major figures of the day. Northcliffe complained that Harmsworth lacked the ambition to make it to the front rank of politics, but his diary is a fascinating source.
This collection represents the surviving output of the clerks of the men and women of the most powerful magnate dynasty in England, Wales and Ireland in the thirteenth century. Its greatness was short-lived, but as a result of the Marshals' spread of interests and marriage alliances the charters and letters edited here embrace a remarkable diversity of lordships and societies. That fact and the central place the two Earls William Marshal held at the court of the young Henry III between 1216 and 1231, playing a decisive role in the establishment of Magna Carta, give this collection a unique interest for medieval historians of Britain and France, more so perhaps than for any other contemporary magnate family.
