Early Modern History

Forthcoming events

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:34:03 GMT

The University of Sussex will be holding a postgraduate conference between 9th and 11th September on 'Text and Image in Early Modern Society'.

Nicholas Orme will deliver a lecture in the British Library's Conference Centre at 6 p.m. on 1st October on Everard Digby's De Arte Natandi (1587).

Oliver Cromwell as Bailiff of Huntingdon in 1626

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:52:39 GMT

The three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Oliver Cromwell's death falls in the next few days. The exact date depends upon one's view of the calendrical changes accepted in England in the eighteenth century. Whichever date one chooses, Cromwell's death marked the end of one of the most remarkable lives of the early modern period.

The most obscure part of Cromwell's personal and public life lies in the period up to 1630. When he wrote his essay on The Making of Oliver Cromwell, in the late-1980s, John Morrill concluded that "We know next to nothing about Oliver's role in the government of Huntingdon in the 1620s because so few borough records survive. ... He may or may not have been one of the twenty-four burgesses elected by all freemen annually to form the common council; he may even have served as one of the two bailiffs. As one of the leading subsidy-men it is to be expected that this was so; and if Hinchingbrook influence could secure his return as MP in 1628, it could surely have secured his election as a councillor." (John Morrill, ed., Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution. Longman. London. 1990. Page 25)

Fortunately, some evidence has come to light to confirm John Morrill's conjecture that Oliver Cromwell was one of the Bailliffs of Huntingdon in the 1620s. It is contained in a letter dated 21 November, 1626 from John Ferrar to his brother, Nicholas, who was in London. It describes how "Richard was at Huntington But Mr Cromwell they said was at London and this day or to Morrow they looked for him home. he acquanted Mr Cromwells sisters with the buissines but they would not receive this Labell but rayled exceedingly at him but he tould them what the buissiness was and in there sight pinned the Labell one the Dore and then went and tould Mr Cromwels under Baly of the buissiness and he said he would take order that his M[aste]r Cromwell should haue notise of it: so I pray god send a good end to it; ...." (Ferrar Papers, Magdalene College, Cambridge. reproduced without superscript letters)

This can only be a reference to Oliver Cromwell and to legal proceedings in which he was involved. The apparent presence of his sisters in his household is also worth noting. When Blair Worden's study of Cromwell is published, this episode will almost certainly be better illuminated.

King James and his Parliaments

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:55:51 GMT

I have been rather interested to see from King James's November, 1608 communication with his English Judges the degree of his exasperation with England's Parliament. So different was it from the Scottish model, which had fewer than one hundred members and its agenda under Crown control, that he told them he believed that the English one should return to its original one chamber form and that he himself would sit in this reformed assembly to ensure that his royal dignity was more clearly honoured. After 1610, his reluctance to call Parliaments was obvious. Despite the late Conrad Russell's claims, the future of the institution was under threat.

Teaching Fellowship in Early Modern History

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:28:34 GMT

Birmingham University is currently advertising such a post. The deadline for applications is 12th September. The job appears, prima facie, to be for one term only, i.e. until December, 2008, but this will need to be checked. Full details can be obtained from Birmingham University's own website.

Lyndal Roper

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:02:28 GMT

Lawrence Stone's fallacious manorial counts

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:01:43 GMT

I have just posted my refutation (c.1990) of Lawrence Stone's February, 1972 Economic History Review article and my essay on his Manorial Samples and their Implications for the Landed Income of the Peerage between 1534 and 1641 (c.2005) to the Internet Archive site where they may both be viewed.

North American Conference on British Studies 3-5 October

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:06:44 GMT

The programme for this year's NACBS Conference (to be held in conjunction with the Mid-West Conference on British Studies) in Cincinnati between 3rd and 5th October includes:

3rd October

Roundtable discussion on Karen Kupperman's 'The Jamestown Project'. Chairman: Susan Amussen (University of California at Merced). Thomas Cogswell (University of California at Riverside). Paul Hammer (University of Colorado at Boulder). Carla Gardina Pestana (Miami University). Karen Kupperman will respond.

Roundtable discussion on Reinterpreting Andrew Marvell. Chairman: Richard Strier (University of Chicago). Steven Zwicker (Washington University in St Louis). Annabel Patterson (Yale University). Nigel Smith (Princeton University). Derek Hirst (Washington University in St Louis).

Miltary Propaganda or Military News? Looking for the Public Spheres during the Civil Wars.

Chairman: Jonathan Scott (University of Pittsburgh).

David Randall (Rutgers University), Reporting Marston Moor: Extensive Credibility and the Public Sphere.

Amos Tubb (Centre College), A Transformative Moment: The role of the siege of Colchester in the Second Civil War.

Nicole Greenspan (Hampden-Sydney College), "Come to Jamaica": Propaganda and Imperial Policy under the English Republic.

Religious Offence: representations and Responses, c.1660-1730

Chairman: Roger D.Lund (Le Moyne College)

David Manning (University of Cambridge), Representations of the Ridicule of Superiority in Theological Polemic, c.1660-1730.

Alex Barber (Royal Holloway College, University of London), Canons of Religious Offence: The Representation of Censorship after the lapse of Licensing (1695)

Sarah Ellenzweig (Rice University), Swift's Pious Frauds.

The Status and wealth of Households and Neighbourhoods in Later Stuart London

Chairman: Matthew Davies (IHR, London)

Philip Baker (IHR), City and Suburb: Household Status and Structure in late Seventeenth-century London.

Simon Dixon (Queen Mary College, London), Occupation, Wealth and Belief: Choice of Residence in later Seventeenth-Century London.

Sara Pennell (Roehampton University), Home is where the Hearth is? Exploring the uses and meanings of Hearth in Restoration London with the London Hearth Tax project.

Jacobethan England and International Religio-Politics: Three Cases for a Shallow Channel

Chairman: J.Sears McGee (University of California at Santa Barbara)

David Gehring (University of Wisconsin at Madison), Anglo-Lutheran Relations and the Protestant Cause: the impact of the Formula of Concord, c.1577-81.

Eric Platt (University of Wisconsin at Madison), The Struggle to secure English Support during the Dutch religious and political disputes of the 1610s.

Astrid Stilma (Canterbury Christ Church University), Reading the King: Protestant responses to the writings of King James VI and I.

Respondent: David Trim (Newbold College).

Roundtable on Paul Griffiths, "Lost Londons: Crime, Control, and Change in the Capital City, 1545-1660".

Chairman: Lynn Botelho (Indiana University of Pennsylvania). Ian Archer (Keble College, University of Oxford). Patricia Fumerton (University of California at Santa Barbara). Timothy Hitchcock (University of Hertfordshire). Respondent: Paul Griffiths (Iowa State University).

Re-evaluating Infanticide across the ages and across the British Isles

Chairman: Randy Roth (Ohio State University)

Sarah Shippy (Ohio State University), English Culture and Infanticide: Constructions of New-born Child Murder, 1558-1700.

Sexuality and Sovereignty in Early Modern england

Chairman: Malcolm Smuts (University of Massachusetts at Boston)

Catherine L.Howey (Eastern Kentucky University), Busy Bodies: Women, Sexuality and Queenship at the Elizabethan Court 1558-1603.

Melissa Sanchez (Eastern Kentucky University), "My Self/Before Me": The gender of republicanism in Paradise Lost.

Amy Tims (Rutgers University), "So ample and so masculine a subject": Oliver Cromwell's masculine legitimacy.

4th October

Plenary address

Chairman: Paul Seaver (Stanford University)

Peter Lake (Princeton University), Living in the mental world of Robert Parsons: the "Conference about the Next Succession" and late Elizabethan Politics.

The Experience of Defeat

Chairman: W.Roger Louis (University of Texas at Austin)

Peter Linebaugh (University of Toledo). Stefanie Markovits (Yale University). Martin Wiener (Rice University). Jay Winter (Yale University). Andy Wood (UEA).

5th October

Tudor Imperialism: mentalities and instruments

Chairman: Dane Kennedy (George Washington University)

Jessica Simmon (Georgetown University), Henry VIII, Tournai, and the British Empire.

John Cramsie (Union College), John Leland's "Imperial Gaze" in England and Wales 1535-1546.

Stephen Alford (University of Cambridge), John Dee and the Politics of Elizabethan Security.

Microcosm and Macrocosm: contextualising the particular in Early Modern Britain

Chairman: David Postles (University of Leicester)

Jennifer McNabb, Imperfect Unions: meanings of marriage in Northwest England, 1560-1640.

Margo Todd (University of Pennsylvania), Scottish Urban History on a larger stage.

Robert Tittler (Concordia University), The Local and the National in Post-Reformation England: re-considering English portraiture.

Commentator: Marjorie McIntosh (University of Colorado at Boulder).

Recent Work on the 1640s: a roundtable discussion

Chairman: Paul Seaver (Stanford University)

David Cressy (Ohio State University). Barbara Donagan (The Huntington Library). Ian Gentles (York University). Clive Holmes (Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford). Allan Macinnes (University of Strathclyde). David Scott (History of Parliament).

Prophecy, Piety and Prejudice in Later Seventeenth-century and Early Eighteenth-Century England

Chairman: Gary de Krey (St Olaf College)

Warren Johnston (Algoma University College), Prophecy, Plots, and Exclusion: the Apoclypse and the politics of Crisis in later Seventeenth Century England.

Melinda Zook (Purdue University), Mary II and the Church of England.

Timothy Harris (Brown University), Towards a cultural history of prejudice in Early Modern England: the Enlightenment context.

Teaching Associate at Lancaster University

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:53:35 GMT

Lancaster University's Department of History is seeking to appoint a part-time teaching associate in Early Modern History for the next academic year, i.e. up to 30th June, 2009. The duties include teaching a first year course on the British Reformation between 1520 and 1553; taking an undergraduate seminar on Early Modern Britain; and supervising undergraduate dissertations. Appliactions have to be submitted by 5th September, 2008. The successful person may look forward to being paid at half the rate of a full-time employee (who would be paid between £23,000 and £27,000 p.a.) but only over nine or ten months.

A Call for Papers: 'Reading Revelation'

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:58:04 GMT

Two Trinity College, Dublin figures - Mark Sweetnam and Crawford Gribben - have asked for proposals for papers on the subject of 'Reading Revelation: Protestants and the Apocalypse, 1550-1700'. Such proposals should be between 500 and 800 words long and be submitted to Mark Sweetnam by 1st November, 2008. Completed essays of between 8,000 and 10,000 words will then be sought by 1st August, 2009.

Networked Digital Library 2

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:43:59 GMT

In total, I have managed to download over fifty theses on early modern history in the last three days. They are mainly on the history of the component parts of the British Isles, on European colonisation and on the 16th and 17th-century history of France.