British Politics in the Age of Holmes: Geoffrey Holmess "British Politics in the Age of Anne" 40 Years On

When Geoffrey Holmes published ‘British Politics in the Age of Anne’ in 1967 it was seen as a masterpiece of historical research and writing and quickly became the accepted interpretation of the politics of the early eighteenth century, displacing the previous one based on the methodology pioneered by Sir Lewis Namier. In 1987 a revised edition was published, and 20 years on from that a distinguished group of historian have come together to produced the articles in this volume looking at the various aspects of the book and assessing how Holmes’s work has been taken up and developed in the various fields covered by him in ‘British Politics’ and in some of his later writings. The present volume also takes some topics which Holmes’s only touched upon, such as gender, jacobite and urban history, to see how his influence has been felt in these fields.

1. Foreword: Alan Marshall (University of Bath Spa) 2. Acknowledgments 3. Notes on Contributors 4. In No One’s Shadow: British Politics in the Age of Anne and the Writings of the History of the House of Commons: D.W.Hayton (Queen’s University, Belfast) 5. Geoffrey Holmes and the House of Lords Reconsidered: Robin Eagles (History of Parliament) 6. The Growth of Stability in the Age of Holmes: Richard Connors (University of Ottawa) 7. Jacobite Politics in the Age of Anne: Daniel Szechi (University of Manchester) 8. Uncovering a Jacobite Whig? The Commonwealth Principles of Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington: Mark Knights (University of Warwick) 9. Rendering the Union More Complete: The Squadrone Volante and the Abolition of the Scottish Privy Council: Graham Townend (Formally University of Edinburgh) 10. Tom Wharton and the Whig Junto: Party Leadership in Late Stuart England: Geoffrey Holmes (Late of University of Lancaster) 11. The Clash of Interests: Commerce and Politics in the Age of Anne: Perry Gauci (University of Oxford) 12. Geoffrey Holmes and the Urban World of Augustan England: Peter Borsey (University of Aberystwyth) 13. ‘Last of All the Heavenly Birth’: Queen Anne and Sacral Queenship: Hannah Smith (University of Oxford) 14. ‘Ladies Are Often Very Good Scaffolding’: Women and Politics in the Age of Anne: Elaine Chalus (University of Bath Spa) 15. Geoffrey Holmes and the Public Sphere: Augustan Historiography from Post–Namierite to the Post–Habermasian: Brian Cowan (McGill University, Montreal) 16. Party Affiliation in the House of Lords in 1710: A Contemporary Assessment: Clyve Jones (University of London) 17. The Debate in the House of Lords on ‘No Peace Without Spain’, 7 December 1711: A New Source: Clyve Jones (University of London) Notes

Clyve Jones is an honorary fellow of the Institute of Historical Research and has been the editor of the journal Parliamentary History since 1986. Previously he was reader in modern history in the University of London and collection development librarian in the Institute of Historical Research. He has published extensively on the history of the house of lords and of the peerage in the early eighteenth century. His main publications are editions of The London Diaries of William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, 1702–1718, with Geoffrey Holmes (1985), and Tory and Whig: The Parliamentary Papers of Edward Harley, Third Earl of Oxford, and William Hay, M.P. for Seaford, 1715–1754, with Stephen Taylor (1998). He has also edited a festschrift for his mentor Geoffrey Holmes (1987), and essays in memory of his friends Philip Lawson (1998), John A. Phillips (2005) and, again, Geoffrey Holmes (2009).

"In addition to Holmes′s gripping and beautifully crafted pen–portrait of Wharton, each of the eleven new essays that form the bulk of this present volume take his study of British Politics as both their inspiration and point of departure." ( The Journal of the Historical Society , 2010)