Speakers and the Speakership

Paul Seaward has held the position of Director of the History of Parliament Trust since 2001. Previously, he was a Clerk in the House of Commons. He has written on politics, history and political thought in the late seventeenth century and on Parliament in the twentieth century. His publications include The Cavalier Parliament and the Reconstruction of the Old Regime, 1661-1667 (1989); The Restoration, 1660-1688 (1991); The Politics of Religion in Restoration England (1990: edited with Mark Goldie and Tim Harris); and editions of Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion (2009) and Hobbes’s History of the English Civil War, Behemoth (2009).

• List of Contributors. Introduction (Paul Seaward, History of Parliament).1. Speakers at War in the Late 14th and 15th Centuries (Anne Curry, University of Southampton).2. The Tudor Speakers 1485–1601: Choosing, Status, Work (Alasdair Hawkyard, Royal Historical Society).3. Chancellors, Presidents and Speakers: Presiding Officers in the Scottish Parliament before the Restoration (Alan R. MacDonald,University of Dundee).4. Speakers in the 17th-Century Irish Parliament (Coleman A. Dennehy, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth).5. The Reputation and Authority of the Speaker and the Speakership of the House of Commons, 1640–60 (Stephen K. Roberts,History of Parliament).6. The Speaker in the Age of Party, 1672–1715 (Paul Seaward,History of Parliament).7. The Speakership of the House of Lords, 1660–1832 (Ruth Paley, History of Parliament).8. Thurlow, Eldon and Lyndhurst and the Management of the House of Lords (Richard W. Davis, Washington University).9.  ‘Nothing Could Exceed the Badness of His Character Even in This Bad Age’ (Sir William McKay,Council of the Law Society of Scotland).10. The Role of the Speaker in the 20th Century (The Rt Hon. Baroness Boothroyd, MP).Index.

“Both of these books contribute much to our under-standing of the history and current practice of the Speakership, and to the way in which well-documented parliamentary questions in the UK as well as across Europe can provide a ready source of scholarly investigation..”  (Political Studies Review, 7 August 2013)