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English Conservative politicians of the early twentieth century sought a way of articulating the present as a stage between past and future that needed to be cared for; but which was nonetheless an inherently transient phase of existence, contrasting with the eternal. After the Russian Revolution, not only was the time of human existence to be conserved; it was a time in which the ideas that underpinned Conservatism urgently needed proselytization. Conservatism had to provide a contribution to social arguments within the present, to counter social upheaval. It provided empirical, scientific detail, drawn from present observation, to counter abstract theory. This development of the arguments against the French Revolution advanced by Edmund Burke took on a new scientific flavour in the work of a writer like Walter Elliot. In the rhetoric of Stanley Baldwin, a hymn-like eulogy of the constant English ‘present’ could reach up into the evocation of an eternal mission comparable with that of ancient Rome. Concluding with a fresh reading of the Conservative author Pierse Loftus, this chapter argues that Conservatives drew on the experience of the present to locate the grandeur of their national or imperial project within a human frame. Unlike present-minded socialists, Conservatives were less concerned with an emerging complex picture of everyday life, and more with an idea of everyday life that they could essentialise.

This concluding essay examines the nature and significance of the Jamaica controversy in the wider sweep of modern English political and legal history. That the Jamaica affair became so thoroughly infused with legal ideas and procedures is a trademark of English political culture. With the advent of the Jamaica affair, leading Englishmen like John Stuart Mill attempted to use the courts to resolve (what is identified as) a defining contradiction of mid-Victorian English politics: the simultaneous commitment to law and empire. For a host of reasons their initiative failed. While the Jamaica litigation generated a number of important judicial pronouncements on the English jurisprudence of political and military power, the courts could not, perhaps cannot, provide a definitive resolution to what, after all, are timeless and intractable issues at the core of political liberalism.

As certain political issues were amplified by the Bohemian crisis, English politics shifted their attention to coming up with measures that would put an end to the crisis and other various conflicts. While the Spanish occupation of the Palatinate brought about various anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish movements, the court had to be exposed to a range of criticisms. It was believed that James's effort at trying to set up Charles's marriage with a Spanish infant could have been influenced by the court which was somehow in favor of Spain. Because politics in this period is said to be polarized, this period also experienced a ‘revolution in the dissemination of news’ through the corantos or the first newspapers published in that era. The public sphere's extension was brought about by certain restrictions on political debates of the public.

This chapter addresses the issue of the classic in the case of Christopher Marlowe's translation of the first book of Lucan's Bellum Civile. The chapter first explores preliminary issues concerning the nature of the classic in its reception through history. It then proceeds to discuss several of the ways in which Lucan's BC was a pertinent, politically ‘loaded’ text for Marlowe's early Elizabethan England. Finally, returning to issues attending the original's classic status outlined earlier, it addresses, by way of contrast with the last point, the ways in which it, as ‘translated classic’, cannot come wholly across — so that rather than simply renewing a traditional classic, translation in this case becomes an ambiguously prophetic dialogue with the dead.

Sir Ralph Pipard had a relatively well-to-do family as they had been tenants of the honour of Wallingford, owned estates in Southern England, and had significant positions as stewards and sheriffs. Although Pipard seemed like an English county knight incarnate, his ancestors in the twelfth century experienced the English conquest of Ireland. Three or four Pipard brothers went to Ireland in 1185 where they were able to grab opportunities and secure lands in Ardee because that area had a castle, manors, a well-established settler community, and other features that they were already familiar with. Pipard soon learned about war and how bridging the gap between Ireland and England was impossible at that time. This chapter relates the Pipards’ story with political cultures in the British Isles in that period, and also focuses on how there is no common measure of idioms and practices in English politics.

This book is about the centrality of law in the world-view of the English political class of the 1860s. Its more specific subject-matter is the prolonged conflict that arose in England over the suppression of the Morant Bay uprising in Jamaica. The ensuing study consists respectively of seven analytical narrative chapters, an epilogue, a final thematic essay, and an historiographical appendix. The seven empirical chapters trace the historical development of the Jamaica affair in rough chronological order.

This chapter considers the powers, responsibilities and activities of English mayors against the expectation. It also addresses the development of the office of elected mayor in England and some options for how that development might occur. The directly elected mayors have expressed their frustrations with the configuration of political power within their councils. It is noted that holding local executive political office is not the sole property of the political party. Mayoral power and responsibility rest currently on the type of council the mayor inhabits: district, county, unitary or London borough. As usual in English politics, greater power has to be earned, not granted as a right, and elected mayors must prove a case for more power, for both their office and their council. The English mayor requires a different legislative framework, a different political and institutional set of arrangements, and considerably more political and governing power.

This chapter discusses the following: the new king and the Anglo-Irish magnates; revolt of Hugh de Lacy; Cathal Crobderg and royal authority; de Burgh ambitions; the confiscation of Connacht; English politics and Irish power; the conquest of Connacht: subinfeudation and prosperity; development of Leinster; extinction of the Marshal family; expansion in the south west; administrative problems; relations with the king; and demands on Ireland.

Bannockburn did not end the war between Robert Bruce and Edward of England. It ended the manning of Scottish castles against Bruce, and open opposition to his royal rights and title within Scotland. Defeat had cost Edward much of his remaining authority. There was a connection between the battle and the shape of English politics. Bannockburn had presented the Bruces with the opportunity to extend the war beyond Scotland into King Edward's dominions. The Bruces had an attraction as the opponents of the Plantagenet administration. The capture of Berwick was a victory almost as great as that of Bannockburn. The king's victory over his enemies demonstrated the residual strength of the English crown. Though the years of warfare between Robert Bruce and Edward II would be ended by the truce, conflict over Scottish crown and realm would last far longer.

This chapter considers the future of Anglo-Scottish Union. It is noted that any serious Tory revival could carry the party to an almost impregnable domination of English politics — as long as those Scottish MPs aren't there to spoil it. Scotophobia in England is largely a media invention and has not been very efficient in its own terms. Politicians and journalists with an agenda have agitated a general Scotophobia. There is now discontent with the 1997 devolution settlement on both sides of the Border. The notion of ‘Britain’ is weakening as identity politics — already embedded in Scotland and Wales — take root in England. From this moment, the real strain will begin to bear down on the devolution settlement after its first easy decade.

This chapter discusses the period from Henry III's birth to the end of the minority. Henry was born on October 1, 1207, in the royal castle of Winchester. Henry's birth strengthened King John's immediate political position and secured the future of his dynasty, what he later called ‘our perpetual hereditary succession’. Around 1211 or 1212, John made a major decision about Henry's future by entrusting him to the guardianship of Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester. Bishop Peter was still impacting on Henry's life and envenoming English politics more than twenty years later. The chapter then details Henry's accession to the throne, after which his governors issued a new version of Magna Carta.