118497: History of Parliament: British political, social and local history

The History of Parliament is a research project creating a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the thirteenth century. 

The project consists of detailed studies of elections and electoral politics in each constituency, and of closely researched accounts of the lives of everyone who was elected to Parliament in the period, together with surveys drawing out the themes and discoveries of the research and adding information on the operation of Parliament as an institution.

Forty-one volumes covering ten periods have already been published. They deal with 1386-1421, 1509-1558, 1558-1603, 1604-1629, 1660-1690, 1690-1715, 1715-1754, 1754-1790, 1790-1820 and 1820-1832: in all about 25.5 million words, 20,000 pages, 21,000 biographies and 2800 constituency articles, covering 326 years of parliamentary history.

When complete, the History will provide a continuous and authoritative account of the House of Commons and electoral politics over four hundred and eighty years, from 1386 to the Second Reform Act of 1867. Since 1998, the History has also been researching the House of Lords.

Since 1995, the History has been funded principally by the two Houses of Parliament. The project is governed by its Trustees, who are mainly Members and Officers of both Houses of Parliament. The quality of the project’s research and writing is monitored by an Editorial Board of historians.