Learning outcomes
This course has been designed to enable you to:
- Show knowledge of the major personalities, events and themes from the period and an appreciation of their lasting significance.
- Analyse documentary material from the period in its historical context.
- Demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the impact of developments in Victorian politics to the shaping of modern British society.
Course sessions:
1. The British Senate
This session will look at the way Parliament developed from its medieval origins into a vital core of a constitutional monarchy by the 18th century. However, thanks to the model of influence pioneered by Walpole, the 18th-century Parliament was also notorious for venality and corruption, and the 19th century opened with a major move to bring in reforms, culminating in the great constitutional battle to pass what became known as the Great Reform Act.
2. The People and the Charter
The greatest omission of the Great Reform Act was any provision for the working classes, who had campaigned vociferously for reform but appeared to have gained nothing from it. The People’s Charter was a proposal for a comprehensive review of the whole Parliamentary system, to turn it into something much closer to democratic system of representation. This was radical stuff in the 1840s and the Chartists encountered serious and active opposition.
3. Party and Politicians
Sir Robert Peel changed the face of British politics and laid the foundation for the modern party-political system. After he was brought down by the 1846 controversy over the repeal of the Corn Laws, his legacy was taken up by his loyal supporter, William Ewart Gladstone, whose ideas, however, gradually became more radical than Peel’s: Gladstone was an early convert to the idea of further parliamentary reform. Peel’s nemesis, Disraeli, also switched to support for Reform, but he had other ideas too for how to attract the support of the working classes.
4. The People, the Palace and the Peers
The construction of a new palace to house Parliament in the middle years of the century put the purpose and nature of Parliament into focus: what sort of building should best suit the governing body of a modern, global empire? However, by the end of the century the hold on power of one of the Houses of Parliament – the Lords – was already beginning to be questioned, and when the Lords decided to attack the Liberal government’s 1909 budget, quickly dubbed the ‘People’s Budget’, the stage was set for an epoch-defining constitutional battle – the Peers versus the People.
5. Suffrage and Suffering
By the turn of the century, the question of whether or not women should have the vote had come to dominate constitutional argument. It had been raised back in the 1860s and there was a determined campaign for women’s suffrage by the Suffragists, led by Millicent Fawcett; however, their campaign was soon eclipsed in public consciousness by Emmeline Pankhurst’s more militant Suffragette movement. In the end, the question was brought to a head by the Great War, which also raised the question of just how democratic – for men as well as women – modern Britain ought to be.
Certificate of Participation
At the end of your Winter Festival course(s) a Certificate of Participation will be sent to you electronically.
Non-credit bearing
Courses on our Virtual Winter Festival of Learning are non-credit bearing.
