The History of Parliament facts for kids

These books are part of the History of Parliament project.

Learning about Parliament's history at a university event.

The History of Parliament is a huge project that aims to write a complete story of the United Kingdom Parliament. This includes its earlier forms, like the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The project mainly tells this history by writing about the lives of the people who were members of Parliament. This way of telling history through individual biographies is called a prosopography.

This big project officially started in 1940. Since 1951, the UK government's Treasury has provided money for it. By 2019, many parts of the history were finished and published. For example, the history of the House of Commons from 1386 to 1421, 1509 to 1629, and 1660 to 1832 has been completed. This includes 41 separate books with over 20 million words! Also, the first five books about the House of Lords from 1660 to 1715 are out. More work on both the Commons and the Lords is still happening. In 2011, all the finished parts were put online for everyone to see.

How the Project Started

In 1878–79, a list of Members of Parliament (MPs) was published. It was called the Official Return of Members of Parliament. This list was not perfect, but it helped historians in the Victorian era. Many people started writing about MPs from different areas. One of these writers was Josiah Wedgwood, who was also an MP himself. He published a history of Parliament for his local area in 1918–1922.

How MPs Pushed for the Project

In 1928, Wedgwood wanted to do more. He and other interested MPs wrote to the Prime Minister. They asked him to create a committee to record every person who had been in Parliament since 1264. They pointed out that the existing list was incomplete and only had names. They also said that many people would help for free to save money. More than 200 MPs quickly signed their request. By July, 414 MPs and some members of the House of Lords had signed.

They met with Prime Minister Baldwin, who was worried about the cost. But the group insisted that they only needed to check what information was available first. Baldwin agreed to think about it. By December, 512 MPs supported the idea. So, the government agreed to set up a special committee to find out what materials were available for such a history.

Challenges and Early Publications

The committee started in March 1929. It included both academics and politicians. However, they had big disagreements about how the project should work. Wedgwood's ideas were seen as too romantic by most historians. The committee's first report came out in September 1932. It covered the years 1264 to 1832 and showed what information was available.

But then, the project faced money problems because of the tough economic times in the 1930s. No more reports came from the committee. Wedgwood then worked hard to raise money and had a small team of helpers. In 1936 and 1938, he finished two books called The History of Parliament 1439–1509. These books were published by the government's His Majesty's Stationery Office.

The History of Parliament Trust is Born

In 1940, the History of Parliament Trust was created. Its job was to help create and publish future books. But the Second World War started, and Wedgwood died in 1943. This meant the project stopped for a while.

After the war, a historian named L. B. Namier worked hard to get the project going again. He had been on the committee in the 1930s. He convinced the Treasury to give money to the History of Parliament Trust. Namier was a history professor at the University of Manchester. They got a grant of up to £17,000 a year for 20 years. They hoped to finish the whole history during that time. Sir Frank Stenton became the first head of the team that decided what to publish.

How the Project Works

The historian David Cannadine explained in 2006 that Wedgwood and Namier were very different people. Wedgwood was a friendly, cheerful English aristocrat with modern ideas. Namier was a serious Polish Jew and a strong supporter of the Tory party. Even though they worked together, they had different reasons for studying Parliament's history.

Wedgwood saw Parliament's history as a romantic story of how freedom grew for everyone. Namier thought such views were silly. He was very interested in the personalities of the MPs. He wanted to know why they decided to join Parliament in the first place.

Organizing a Huge Task

When the History of Parliament Trust started, they quickly realized how massive the job was. Namier felt that Wedgwood's earlier work (1439–1509) needed to be rewritten. So, that period was included again from the beginning.

The history was first divided into 15 parts. But by 1956, they realized this was too much and reduced it to six parts. For ten years, Namier himself worked nine hours a day. He wrote biographies of 18th-century MPs at the Institute of Historical Research. He had three paid helpers and other volunteers. Namier died in 1960, but the first books published in April 1964 had his name on them, along with his colleague John Brooke. These books covered the years 1754–1790.

What the Books Look Like

The first set of three books created a standard for all the others.

• It started with an introduction that explained the time period. It also gave some facts and figures about the MPs as a whole.
• Then, there were articles about each voting area (constituency). These articles showed election results and explained what influenced them.
• The second and third books had biographies of all 1,964 men who were MPs during that time. These biographies focused only on their work in Parliament. They only briefly mentioned other parts of the MPs' lives.

Published Volumes

After the 1754–1790 volumes, the next set covered the earlier period, 1715–1754. These two books came out in 1970. Even though the 20-year funding agreement with the Treasury ended in 1971, the money continued. Work went on throughout the 1970s.

In the early 1980s, three more sections were finished:

• The 1558–1603 section was published in 1981.
• The 1509–1558 section came out in 1982.
• The 1660–1690 section was published in 1983.

The next section to appear was for 1790–1820, published in 1986. Six years later, the first books covering Parliament in the Middle Ages were released. These covered 1386–1421.

By the mid-1990s, many libraries found it hard to manage the 23 large books. Also, new historical discoveries meant some biographies needed updates. So, in 1998, the History of Parliament put all the previous sections on a single CD-ROM. This version included corrections, updates, and some new pictures.

In the 21st century, three more sections were published:

• 1690–1715 in 2002.
• 1820–1832 in December 2009 (seven books).
• 1422–1461 in 2020 (seven books).

Future Volumes

The History of Parliament Trust is still working on more books.

• The 1640–1660 edition is expected to be published in 2020.
• The period 1422–1504 will be published in two parts. The first part came out in 2020.
• Work on the period after 1832 only started in 2009.

History of the House of Lords

The project originally focused only on the House of Commons. But in April 1999, a new part of the project started to create a full history of the House of Lords. The first five books for this section, covering 1660–1832, were published in 2016.

History of Parliament Online

The History of Parliament Online website is a project by the Institute of Historical Research at the School of Advanced Study, which is part of the University of London. This website makes the completed history available to everyone online.

Other Related Work

To write the history, the project needed many original documents about Parliament's activities. In the 21st century, the History of Parliament has been working to turn these documents into digital files. This helps both their own research and makes the documents available to others.

The History of Parliament has a joint project with the Institute of Historical Research (IHR). They are digitizing early records, like the Journals of the House of Commons and House of Lords. They are also digitizing other materials related to British history. An "electronic history of the House of Lords" is a key part of their research into its past.

The History of Parliament also holds a yearly talk. A historian gives a lecture on a topic related to the project's work.

History of the Irish Parliament

In 1934, Irish historians planned a history of the Parliament of Ireland (before 1801). This was meant to go along with the British project. But it stopped in 1936 because of a lack of money. Some work was done later. In 2002, The History of the Irish Parliament 1692–1800 was published in six books. This happened after many years of on-and-off work. It focused more on the Irish House of Commons than the Irish House of Lords. This history was also put online in 2006.

List of Publications

Short Histories of Parliament

• 1265–2015 edited by Paul Seaward, The Story of Parliament: Celebrating 750 Years of Parliament in Britain (History of Parliament Trust, London, 2015).

House of Commons Volumes

• 1386–1421 edited by J.S. Roskell, Linda Clark, Carole Rawcliffe, The House of Commons, 1386–1421, 4 volumes (Alan Sutton, Stroud, 1992)
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information, voting areas
  • Volume 2: Members A–D
  • Volume 3: Members E–O
  • Volume 4: Members P–Z
• 1422–1461 edited by Dr Linda Clark The House of Commons, 1422–1461, 7 volumes (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information
  • Volume 2: Voting areas
  • Volume 3: Members A–C
  • Volume 4: Members D–H
  • Volume 5: Members I–O
  • Volume 6: Members P–S
  • Volume 7: Members T–Z
• 1461–1504 In preparation, led by Dr Hannes Kleineke
• 1509–1558 edited by S. T. Bindoff, The House of Commons, 1509–1558, 3 volumes (Secker & Warburg, London, 1982)
  • Volume 1: Voting areas, members A–C
  • Volume 2: Members D–M
  • Volume 3: Members N–Z
• 1558–1603 edited by P. W. Hasler, The House of Commons, 1558–1603, 3 volumes (Secker & Warburg, London, 1981)
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information, voting areas, Members A–C
  • Volume 2: Members D–L
  • Volume 3: Members L–Z
• 1604–1629 edited by Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, The House of Commons, 1604–1629, 6 volumes (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010)
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information
  • Volume 2: Voting areas
  • Volume 3: Members A–C
  • Volume 4: Members D–J
  • Volume 5: Members K–Q
  • Volume 6: Members R–Y, appendix
• 1640–1660 In preparation, led by Dr Stephen Roberts, expected in 2020
• 1660–1690 edited by B. D. Henning, The House of Commons, 1660–1690, 3 volumes (Secker and Warburg, London, 1983)
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information, voting areas, members A–B
  • Volume 2: Members C–L
  • Volume 3: Members M–Y
• 1690–1715 edited by Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley and David Hayton, The House of Commons, 1690–1715, 5 volumes (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002).
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information
  • Volume 2: Voting areas
  • Volume 3: Members A–F
  • Volume 4: Members G–N
  • Volume 5: Members O–Y
• 1715–1754 edited by Romney Sedgwick, The House of Commons, 1715–1754, 2 volumes (His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1970)
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information, voting areas, members A–D
  • Volume 2: Members E–Y
• 1754–1790 edited by Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The House of Commons, 1754–1790, 3 volumes (Secker & Warburg, London, 1964).
  • Volume 1: Introduction, voting areas, extra information
  • Volume 2: Members A–J
  • Volume 3: Members K–Y
• 1790–1820 edited by R. G. Thorne, The House of Commons, 1790–1820, 5 volumes (Secker & Warburg, London, 1986)
  • Volume 1: Introduction
  • Volume 2: Voting areas
  • Volume 3: Members A–F
  • Volume 4: Members G–P
  • Volume 5: Members Q–Y
• 1820–1832 edited by D. R. Fisher, The House of Commons, 1820–1832, 7 volumes (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009)
  • Volume 1: Introduction, extra information
  • Volume 2: Voting areas, part I: England, Bedfordshire–Somerset
  • Volume 3: Voting areas, part II: England, Staffordshire–Yorkshire and Cinque Ports, Wales, Scotland, Ireland
  • Volume 4: Members A–D
  • Volume 5: Members E–K
  • Volume 6: Members L–R
  • Volume 7: Members S–Y
• 1832–1868 In preparation, led by Dr Philip Salmon, expected in 2022.

House of Lords Volumes

• 1558–1603 In preparation, an editor will be chosen, expected in 2025.
• 1660–1715 edited by Ruth Paley, The House of Lords, 1660–1715, 5 volumes (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016)
  • Volume 1: Introduction
  • Volume 2: Peers A-F
  • Volume 3: Peers G-N
  • Volume 4: Peers O-Y
  • Volume 5: Bishops and Scottish Representative Peers
• 1715–1832 In preparation, led by Dr Robin Eagles, will be published in two parts.

Additionally, the Trust has produced this book, which is different from the volumes above:

• Ruth Paley and Paul Seaward, editors, Honour, Interest & Power: An Illustrated History of the House of Lords, 1660–1715 (Boydell & Brewer, London, 2010)

Earlier Versions of the History of Parliament

• 1439–1509 edited by Josiah Wedgwood, The History of Parliament, 1439–1509, 2 volumes (His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1936-8)
  • Volume 1: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House
  • Volume 2: Register of the Ministers and of the Members of both Houses.

See also

• Parliament in the Making