The early Stuart House of Lords has long been neglected in favour of its more eye-catching cousin, the House of Commons. Its contribution to parliamentary life and the role played by its members have all too often remained obscure. These volumes, based on detailed manuscript research in over 120 archives and including more than 280 biographies, represent the first scholarly attempt to remedy these deficiencies. Minor and middle-ranking peers emerge from the shadows for the first time, while figures of central political importance, such as Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, Prince Charles and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, are depicted in a new and fresh light. Accompanying the biographical volumes is a ground-breaking Introductory Survey which examines key themes, among them the changing functions and importance of the upper House. Taken together, these volumes will transform our understanding of early Stuart Parliaments.

King James VI and I and his English Parliaments is a posthumously published work by Conrad Russell, the foremost historian of his generation working on early Stuart parliaments, and is based on the Trevelyan lectures which he delivered at the University of Cambridge. It provides a chronological narrative of the early English Parliaments of James VI and I, covering in detail the four sessions of the 1604-1610 Parliament and the Addled Parliament of 1614, with a final chapter looking towards the parliaments of the 1620s. The narrative demonstrates that two problems in particular dominated these sessions: the financial problems of the Crown, and the pursuit of a formal Union between England and Scotland. These were a continuous source of division and disagreement, and neither was satisfactorily resolved. It also highlights important subsidiary issues, notably the clashes between James and his judges over the status of the Common Law and the relatively muted tensions over religion. Detailed consideration is given throughout to the character and style of James' kingship. This book can be read alongside the same author's Parliaments and English Politics, 1621-1629 (Oxford, 1979) and The Fall of the British Monarchies, 1637-1642 (Oxford, 1992) to provide the first continuous narrative of parliamentary proceedings from the accession of James to the outbreak of Civil War since the massive work of S. R Gardiner. Drawing on the much wider range of sources available to modern historians, in particular the full range of parliamentary diaries, it offers the most up-to-date analysis we have of conflict between Crown and Parliament during a turbulent phase of British History.

This study reassesses the policies of the founder of the Tudor dynasty and shows how Henry worked within existing traditions rather than breaking with the past. Every facet of the reign is considered including the nature of government - both at central and local level, financial policy, relations with the Church, foreign policy, economic affairs and concludes by assessing Henry as a 'new monarch'.

This study reassesses the policies of the founder of the Tudor dynasty and shows how Henry worked within existing traditions rather than breaking with the past. Every facet of the reign is considered including the nature of government - both at central and local level, financial policy, relations with the Church, foreign policy, economic affairs and concludes by assessing Henry as a 'new monarch'.

The comprehensive history of parliament, The House of Commons 1604-1629, was published in 2010. A monumental series, it provides biographical and constituency studies covering the period. This widely praised, groundbreaking introductory survey, previously only available as part of the six-volume work, is now published as a separate volume. The first ever account of the early seventeenth-century House of Commons as an institution, it shows how there was a crisis of legislation in the 1620s and how the committee of the whole House transformed the way the House operated. Covering a period of intense historiographical interest and debate, it draws on the most comprehensive treatment of politics, elections and parliament in the period ever assembled, the result of research in over 170 archives.