A History of England

It was time for Melbourne. But not a long time, as the king decided to try the old royal trick of getting rid of a prime Minister, the last time a monarch attempted that. So, like Napoleon, Peel got a...

4 Syys 202214min

Another significant measure passed by the Grey government was a lot less creditable than the Great Reform Act or Abolition of Slavery. The 1834 Poor Law mandated the construction of workhouses and set...

28 Elo 202214min

Just how great was the Great Reform Act? It was passed in an atmosphere that came close to being revolutionary. That drove the passage of the Act. It didn’t, however, make it a revolutionary Act. On t...

21 Elo 202214min

The shift from Tories to Whigs in government in 1830 was dramatic enough, but nothing like as dramatic as the changes that had taken place in Britain as a nation. Both the impact of the Industrial Rev...

14 Elo 202214min

Just who were these Whigs? It turns out that, though theirs would be a government having to undertake reform, in its make-up it would be the most aristocratic of the century. Since the biggest obstacl...

7 Elo 202214min

It had been 46 years. In all that time, apart from the 14 months when they had led the Ministry of all the Talents in 1806-1807, the Whigs had been excluded from power. But in 1830, they at last came ...

31 Heinä 202214min

To greet our reaching 100 episodes, we’re going to pause and recap how far we’ve come. When we started, England, was just a small country on the edge of Europe, trying to punch above its weight, givin...

24 Heinä 202214min

The cops are what Robert Peel’s best remembered for. Thanks to him, the world’s first professional, civilian police force was launched. It hasn’t always lived up to initial expectations, with London’s...

17 Heinä 202214min