Yesterday's early modern history

What did I do yesterday on the subject that has preoccupied me for so many years? The most enjoyable thing was pursuing the letters of Agnes Trollope (better known as Hugh Trevor-Roper) following her/his satrical enquiry to The New York Review of Books in 1996. It was prompted by Lawrence Stone's improbable comments on the sexual proclivities of English landowners. Stone's reply was less amusing. But I then tried recalling what else was known about this exchange. I did remember that I had made enquiries on the H-Albion site and got what appeared to be a pseudonymous reply. After searching my memory, I came up with the faint recollection that Alan Macfarlane had included something on this topic in his coverage of his time as an Oxford D.Phil. postgraduate. After some searching on Google, I found the relevant document and more letters about 'Agnes Trollope'. Apart from this, I put up a comment on the Rich family's profits from the tobacco trade in the early-1620s on the VA-Hist discussion site in the hope of eliciting a response from the American specialists in this subject and noted Kirsty O'Rourke's piece on turncoats in the English Civil War, e.g. William Constantine and Sir Gerald Napper (or Nappier), for the History of Parliament. The conference on colonial Parliaments between 1500 and 1700 also came to my attention and is noted in the previous blog entry below. A good, interesting day. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finding out about what is going on in early modern history beyond this country

One of the puzzles I face most days concerns what is going on in early modern history in English-speaking countries beyond these shores. I have a reasonable understanding of the seminar papers being offered here and of the conferences being or about to be held. Most of the websites of relevance are known to me and I am, broadly speaking, aware of the names of historians working in the areas I am interested in. Google alerts and social media help to fill in the gaps. Where I am much less well informed arises from the activities of early modern historians in north America, in Australia and New Zealand. Despite having some regular contacts on the other side of the Atlantic, I have to work hard to search the myriad history departments and learned societies of the U.S.A. and Canada. Oddly enough, this does not appear to be so large an issue with countries in Europe where I conduct regular searches for publications and theses, conferences and seminars of potential interest. It would be good ...
Read more

Simon Healy has died

Image
  I am extremely sorry to report that Simon Healy, who worked for the History of Parliament Trust's 1604-1629 section for many years,  has died. I remember him as a very cheerful and engaging conversationalist. My condolences go to his widow and their two children.
Read more

Centre and Locality: review reflections

  Quite by chance, I was browsing on Twitter last Friday (9 th April) when I spotted on Edward Vallance’s site a reference to a video conference organised by William Clayton of the University of East Anglia at the end of last month. Further searches led me to William Clayton’s review of the book edited by Chris Kyle and Jason Peacey, Connecting Centre and Locality: Communication in early modern England, which appeared under the auspices of the Manchester University Press in 2020 and which Clayton had reviewed for The Seventeenth Century in its most recent issue. [1] This is a subject which interests me and I did give some thought to responding to William Clayton’s largely laudatory comments. However, I was also conscious that I had not read this collection of essays and was thus less well equipped than I should be for assessing either the book or William Clayton’s review. There was, however, one historiographical issue upon which I did feel qualified to comment. Right at the st...
Read more