Political

With his own elaborate imperial court, with his family ensconced on thrones across the continent, and with his overthrow of several historic republics, Napoleon brought Europe to a pinnacle of monarchism.

Robert Colls offers a personal reflection upon the religious roots of the Labour Party.

Robert Rhodes James profiles the man rivalled only by Gladstone as the most able politician and Parliamentarian of his time.

Robert Woodall describes the state of early parliamentary reporting, during a period when it was disapproved by Members .

A secret ballot at general elections had been a reformers’ demand since the seventeenth century. It was achieved two hundred years later, writes Robert Woodall, after much experience of bribery.

Eynon Smart describes how, during the second half of the nineteenth century, few politicians had a wider range of personal accomplishments than John Lubbock, the author of the Bank Holidays Bill.

Joanna Richardson describes how the diarists of the early nineteenth century wrote some highly distinctive memoirs of politics and Court life.

John Prest describes how the progressive Whig reformer of the 1830s became unpopular as Prime Minister after 1846.

The rise of UKIP has spread panic among Britain’s political establishment. But there is nothing new about populist movements, as David Nash reveals in this profile of the newspaper proprietor Horatio Bottomley. 

Though he exercised little political influence, Victor Hugo’s genius and his ardent championship of liberty had made him a legendary figure long before his death.