Category: Political Science
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Absolutism
Absolutism of the Tudors, 1485-1603 Absolutism had reached its high-water mark in England long before the power and prestige of the French monarchy had culminated in the person of Louis XIV. In the sixteenth century—the very century in which the French sovereigns faced constant foreign […]
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Robert Lowe
Life and Work From the book Studies in Contemporary Biography, by James Bryce: Had Robert Lowe died in 1868, when he became a Cabinet Minister, his death would have been a political event of the first magnitude; but when he died in 1892 (in his eighty-second year) hardly anybody under […]
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Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield Life and Work From the book Studies in Contemporary Biography, by James Bryce: When Lord Beaconsfield died in 1881 we all wondered what people would think of him fifty years thereafter. Divided as our own judgments were, we asked whether he would […]
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William Cowper
William Cowper, 1st Earl (c. 1665-1723), lord chancellor of England, was the son of Sir William Cowper, Bart., of Ratling Court, Kent, a Whig member of parliament of some mark in the two last Stuart reigns. Educated at St Albans school, Cowper was called to the bar in 1688; having promptly […]
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Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert
Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th earl of Carnarvon (1831-1890), was born on the 24th of June 1831. He succeeded to the title in 1849, on the death of his father, Henry John George, the 3rd earl (1800-1849). Soon after taking his degree at Oxford he began to play a prominent part in the […]
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Henry VIII
Henry VIII (1491-1547), king of England and Ireland, the third child and second son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, was born on the 28th of June 1491 and, like all the Tudor sovereigns except Henry VII., at Greenwich. Legal Issues The secular importance of Henry’s activity has […]
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Gathorne Hardy
Gathorne Hardy Cranbook, 1st Earl of (1814-1906), British statesman, was born at Bradford on the 1st of October 1814, the son of John Hardy, and belonged to a Yorkshire family. Entering upon active political life in 1847, eleven years after his graduation at Oxford, and nine years after his […]
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Charles II
Charles II, 1660-1685, was a king of England. The experiment in Puritan republicanism had resulted only in convincing the majority of the people that the government is, and ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons. The people merely asked for some assurances against despotism,—and when a […]
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Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) is the most interesting figure in seventeenth-century England. Belonging by birth to the class of country gentlemen, his first appearance in public life was in the Parliament of 1628 as a pleader for the liberty of Puritan preaching. When the Long Parliament met in […]
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Edward Cardwell
Viscount Edward Cardwell (1813-1886), English statesman, was the son of a merchant of Liverpool, where he was born on the 24th of July 1813. After a brilliant career at Oxford, where he gained a double first-class, he entered parliament as member for Clitheroe in 1842, and in 1845 was made […]
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Change of Power
Change of Power in the English System History One of the most difficult problems of government is how to provide for the devolution of political power, and perhaps no other question is so generally and justly applied as the test of a working constitution. If the transmission works smoothly, […]
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John Elliot Cairnes
John Elliot Cairnes (1823-1875), British political economist, was born at Castle Bellingham, Ireland, in 1823. After leaving school he spent some years in the counting-house of his father, a brewer. His tastes, however, lay altogether in the direction of study, and he was permitted to enter […]
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William Cecil Burghley
The Baron William Cecil Burghley (1521-1508), was born, according to his own statement, on the 13th of September 1521 at the house of his mother’s father at Bourne, Lincolnshire. Pedigrees, elaborated by Cecil himself with the help of Camden, the antiquary, associated him with the Cecils or […]
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Queen
Definition of Queen'S Speech The queen reads the speech but it is written by the government. Queen Meaning in Politics Description of Queen published by Mona Chalabi: Currently Elizabeth II, who represents the crown. She doesn't get to vote, but she does get to play a big […]
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Speaker
Resources See Also Further Reading Speaker in the Encyclopedia of Britain Speaker in the Osborn's Concise Law Dictionary Speaker in the Halsbury's Laws of England Speaker in the Stroud's Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases Speaker in the Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law […]