Tag: Simonds D’Ewes

17th Century history, Early modern history, Health and Medicine, James I to Restoration, Social history

‘Going into the country’: leave, holidays and political intrigue in the 1640s

As the easing of lockdown encourages many of us to seize opportunities to go on holiday, and especially take ‘staycations’, Dr Vivienne Larminie, assistant editor of the Commons 1640-1660 section, looks at the positive and (arguably) negative uses to which civil war MPs put their leave… The widespread perception that the Parliaments of the mid-seventeenth century cut down on holidays is not inaccurate. As has … Continue reading ‘Going into the country’: leave, holidays and political intrigue in the 1640s

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17th Century history, Early modern history, Health and Medicine, James I to Restoration

Isolation, Containment and Financial Assistance: Parliament’s response to epidemics in the 1640s

In today’s blog Dr Vivienne Larminie, Assistant Editor of our Commons 1640-1660 project, considers self-isolation, social distancing and containing disease in 1640s London. Some of the below may sound quite familiar… As revealed in our recent blog, when MP and diarist Sir Simonds D’Ewes was faced with the plague in mid-1640s London, he and his wife agreed that she would retreat to the safer countryside … Continue reading Isolation, Containment and Financial Assistance: Parliament’s response to epidemics in the 1640s

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17th Century history, Early modern history, James I to Restoration, Speakers of the House

Taking control: Speaker William Lenthall, precedent and the Long Parliament

In the midst of extraordinary times at Westminster, Dr Vivienne Larminie of the House of Commons 1640-1660 section looks at the response of a pioneering Speaker to the unprecedented challenges of the mid-seventeenth century… On 4 January 1642, in one of the most dramatic and iconic moments in the history of Parliament, Charles I arrived at Westminster with an armed guard.  Having entered the Commons … Continue reading Taking control: Speaker William Lenthall, precedent and the Long Parliament

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Early modern history, Military history, Religious history

Writing Parliamentary Biography. The Commons 1640-1660. Part 2: Sir Simonds D’Ewes (1602-50), the self-fashioning MP

In the second of a four-part series, Dr Stephen Roberts, editor of the Commons 1640-60 section, discusses the problems associated with judging the life of a prolific diarist… Simonds D’Ewes was born into a family recently settled in Suffolk but with roots in the Netherlands. He was the son and grandson of lawyers, and was himself put to the law at a very young age. … Continue reading Writing Parliamentary Biography. The Commons 1640-1660. Part 2: Sir Simonds D’Ewes (1602-50), the self-fashioning MP

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