EMH EarlyModernHistory

I had intended to comment on John Rees's encomium on the biography of Christopher Hill to be found on the Verso company's website but this would probably just repeat views I have already expressed elsewhere. What I did find interesting yesterday was an M.A. thesis by Patricia Honora Connor (Loyola University, Chicago)  on King Charles I's relations with his Parliaments of 1625, 1626 and 1628-1629. Given the date of its composition in 1942 and the printed sources and secondary works available to her, it was a sound and interesting piece of work. When I prepared a list of theses on early modern English Parliaments several years ago, I regrettably missed it. It only goes to show that there is more of significance in terms of scholarly work than one is aware of.

  Thursday, 6th March, 2025 I followed up my enquiries via the CORE database on the early colonial histories of Bermuda and Virginia to find some further academic sources. A number turned up including one on the trade to and from Virginia between 1606 and 1660. Admittedly, it was from several decades ago but I was intrigued to see that it had nothing on the claims made by Sir Edwin Sandys and his supporters in 1618 that there had been a sharp diminution in the number of commodities returned from Virginia while Samuel Argall was the acting governor there and Sir Thomas Smith was Treasurer of the Virginia Company in London. This has long been a suspect claim in my view. I was even more interested to find two or three pieces previously unknown to me about the apparent interest of Thomas Hobbes in the colonization of Virginia in the 1628-1631 period. These arguments will require me to assess their validity with some care in the near future. The only response I had to yesterday’s e-mail...

 The World Turned Upside Down website has an interesting conversation between Mike Gibbs and Imogen Peck (University of Birmingham) on how these conflicts were recalled in England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It can be heard and read here .

  Wednesday, 5th March, 2025 I had not posted on my blog for a couple of days, so my first task this morning was to find some material for that site. I found references on ‘X’ to a discussion on The World Turned Upside Down website by Andrew Hopper of Oxford University on the relationship between Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, who were, in succession, the commanding officers of the New Model Army, so that went up. And I then added a note that Waseem Ahmed would be speaking at Westminster University on the Levellers in a few weeks time. Waseem Ahmed is a postgraduate at University College, London working on the politics of the 1650s and contributing to a conference commemorating the late Anthony Wedgwood Benn, the Labour politician, at that time.   When I checked my incoming e-mail I found a request to connect with Lauren Working of the University of York on LinkedIn. I duly accepted and sent her some notes of mine on the early history of the English colony of Virgini...

 Waseem Ahmed, currently a postgraduate at University College, London, will be giving a talk on this subject on 12th April at Westminster University.

 The World Turned Upside Down website has an interesting interview between Mike Gibbs and Andrew Hopper (University of Oxford) on the relationship between the successive commanders of the New Model Army. It can be heard there and read here .

 

The 28th February edition of The New Statesman carries a review by Richard Evans of Michael Braddick's recently published study of Christopher Hill's life and career. It is interesting and can be read here .