The Culture of Fasting in Early Stuart Parliaments*

The fasts, proposed and observed by parliament in the first half of the 17th century, have always been defined as opportunities for propaganda. This article focuses, instead, on their cultural and religious meanings: why MPs believed that the act of fasting itself was important and what they hoped it would achieve. It argues that fasts were proposed for two reasons: to forge unity between parliament and the king at a time of growing division, with the aim of making parliamentary sessions more productive and successful, and to provide more direct resolution to the nation's problems by invoking divine intervention. Fast motions commanded widespread support across parliament because they were rooted in the dominant theory of causation – divine providence – and reflected the gradual conventionalisation of fasting in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. However, this consensus seemed to wane in the early 1640s as divisions between Charles I and some of his most vocal MPs widened, while the fast day observed on 17 November 1640 was used by some MPs to express their opposition to Charles's religious policy, especially regarding the siting of the communion table/altar and the position from where the service was to be read. The article concludes by reflecting on how a study of parliamentary fasting can contribute to wider debates on commensality and abstinence.     

The Gender Dynamics of Dress Gifts from Elizabethan Men at the Court of Elizabeth I

This article explores the gender dynamics of giving dress gifts at the Elizabethan court (1558–1603). Current scholarship considers the role of elite women and the ‘favourite’ in giving dress gifts. In contrast, this article seeks to understand the significant but largely overlooked role of merchant and courtier men as both givers of dress to Elizabeth I and holders of vital information that others relied upon in giving dress gifts to her. Drawing on New Year's gift lists, correspondence and records of progresses this article shows how an approach informed by material culture and situated in a gendered framework actually complicates our understanding of the Elizabethan court's culture of dress gifts. A gendered analysis highlights that merchant and courtier male subjects, sometimes in tandem with their wives, played a vital role in shaping the fashion and economy of early modern England by providing innovative and tasteful offerings to their queen. Dress gifts from male subjects strongly influenced Elizabeth's image of magnificence and made the English court one of the most fashionable in Europe.     

The Parliaments of Cambridge

Re-examination of St-Brieuc and Wilburton metalworking shows they cannot align, and this requires a general reordering of the Atlantic Late Bronze Age sequence. They have many differences, principally sword types. St-Brieuc always has U-butt Kerguérou (Limehouse in Britain) swords, whereas Wilburton always has Wilburton swords. Wilburton must follow St-Brieuc, so a new Limehouse stage is inserted between Penard and Wilburton, to align with St-Brieuc. The combination of U-butt sword and straight-mouthed chape of St-Brieuc and Limehouse is consistent throughout Atlantic Europe. So too are the characteristics of Wilburton metalworking which followed, and its Brécy equivalent in France. In Britain the contemporaneity of Wallington and Wilburton is reaffirmed. Both played a part in the emergence of Ewart Park 1 metal-working, with South Yorkshire/Lincolnshire a vital contact zone. The Atlantic Late Bronze Age unravelled after Wilburton. Iberia effectively dropped out after Huelva, diverted by Phoenician influences. Links between Britain and Atlantic France declined, and their sword and axe preferences diverged. The various weapon complexes of Ewart Park 1 in Britain have no equivalents in France. Ordering and sub-dividing this final phase of the LBA has always been imponderable but has been helped by the identification of St-Philbert (Huelva) swords, which show what are Ewart Park 1 hoards in Britain and contemporary Longueville hoards in France. They also make clear that the Carp's tongue complex must be relegated to the last part of the Late Bronze Age.     

Size and Executive-Legislative Relations in Australian Parliaments

In parliamentary systems of government, size of parliament (in absolute terms and, especially, relative to the parliamentary executive) is an important, but often underemphasised, aspect of constitutional design. An analysis is provided of change in the size of national and sub-national parliaments and ministries in one parliamentary democracy, Australia, during the twentieth century. The ratio of executive to non-executive members of parliament has grown dramatically in all Australian parliaments, due to differences in incentives to increase the sizes of parliament and the executive. It is argued that this process has contributed to the weakening of parliaments and limited the potential for parliamentary reform. A proposal for institutional redesign is brieflly discussed.     

Elizabethan birth control and Puritan attitudes

During the Elizabethan era there was a considerable body of knowledge concerning birth control techniques including coitus interruptus, penis ointments, pessaries, purgatives, genital baths and bloodletting. Works were available describing the symptons and causes of abortion and reporting some abortifacients. The Puritans were aware of birth control techniques, but were opposed to them for several reasons: 1) it would go against the biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply; 2) birth control frustrated the creation of what was in the image of God; 3) fecundity was a blessing and should not be thwarted; 4) the society of the elect should be increased; and 5) through childbirth a woman could atone for Eve's original sin. Although some Puritans recognized that marriage was for comfort and solace as well as for the bearing of progeny, birth control was frowned upon, the the Puritan clergy practiced what it preached. In a random sample of Puritan clergy there was an average of 6.8 children born per family, which was higher than the average to be found among English nobility of the same period.     

Persian Ambassadors,their Circassians,and the Politics of Elizabethan and Regency England

The coincidence of the appearance of two Circassian women as wives of ambassadors on the Anglo-Persian diplomatic and political stage has generated more than passing interest in academic and lay literature. Though the story of Sir Robert Sherley and Lady Teresia Sherley is better known in British circles, and has even generated renewed interest with two simultaneous exhibitions in 2009 in London, the story of Fath Ali Shah's Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Abol Hassan Khan, has not received sufficient attention, and has certainly not been fully explored in the context of the politics of Regency England. The present article revisits key moments of the life of the Sherleys and of Abol Hassan Khan and Delaram, his Circassian wife, but goes beyond the retelling of their journeys to focus on how the latter two's visit to England generated bawdy depictions in the popular press and became the vehicle for political satire quite unconnected to their persons.