An Arrest Warrant which Listed No Crime

In eighteenth-century Britain, warrants of arrest typically outlined the crime by which a suspected individual was to lose their liberty. These legal proceedings usually required the signature(s) of a judge or collection of legal overseers. In Admiral John Byng’s arrest warrant, though three signatures directed a marshal to apprehend him, something vital was missing:

 

Fear of a ‘Catholick League’ May have Brought Woe to Admiral Byng

The Pope in the mid-eighteenth century had nothing on Empress Maria Theresa.[1] The outcome of the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) ensured that she would rule the Holy Roman Empire for the next three decades. Britain helped, but that alliance meant little to the queen when the next war came around. Catholicism began to drive the empress’ foreign policies forward. When tensions renewed between Great Britain and France, Empress Maria Theresa began to rework

 

“Wonders of Surry!” Exploring Broadsheet Ballads from the mid-Eighteenth Century

With over 260-million views on YouTube, Donald Glover’s (aka Childish Gambino) “This is America” actually repeats history. By that I mean to state that Glover is using song and wit to tell a story.[1]  As a cultural historian, I appreciated Glover’s approach to satirize deep-seeded problems in American society. But the expression of topics in musical form is nothing new.

 

Hooked on a trial: the court-martial of Admiral John Byng

Last week I found myself growing ever more addicted to the research on Admiral John Byng’s trial. I have notes on this trial dating back to 2009. I have not seen some of my own research regarding Byng’s court-martial since 2014, the year I turned in my dissertation. Back then, I turned in four chapters none of which approached

 

Did Nunes Byngify Mueller?

According to Politico Magazine, Devin Nunes, the California Republican who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, may have selectively edited data to target the FBI. Along partisan lines, the committee voted to send this redacted memo to President Trump which allegedly proves FBI bias against him as they conduct an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Politico stated that the Bureau then went on a media offensive, their effort to discredit the already infamous Nunes memo before its contents become

 

Food, Gangs, and War: Three Concurrent Eighteenth-Century Crises Locating the Voice of Britain’s Lower Ranks

Here is the presentation paper I gave at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bristol, ‘Rethinking History from Below: Origins, Trajectories, Prospects’, held on 16 June, 2017.

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I want you to imagine a riot. I want you to place yourself in the midst of that riot, dead center. What do you see? What’s going down?

Now let me show you one in which there was a sale. The year:1766. The town: Cirencester in Gloucestershire. A crowd numbering about a thousand descended upon the town. They came from

 

Eureka! “Restricted” Document Reveals Eighteenth-Century Backdoor Deals

A remarkable, and may I add “restricted,” document discovered deep within the archives of the British Library revealed much of the politics that surrounded Admiral John Byng’s court martial as well as the subsequent government inquiry into how the island of Minorca fell to the French in April of 1756. Those two went together. But prior to both, the Newcastle government collapsed: too many

 

London in the Cross-hairs: 4 questions on Admiral John Byng

I’ve just over a week until I leave California and return to the archives in London. The four chapters I wrote for my dissertation are simply not enough to produce a serious book: a few chapters too short! There remain four unanswered questions which are: 

 

Myth-Making Continues in the Case of Admiral John Byng

Admiral John Byng lives an immortal life. Executed by his government for the crime of “not doing one’s utmost”, time and history have worked to mythologize events.

The latest in memory-making belongs to The Telegraph of London. The newspaper printed one of those ‘On this day’ articles: in this case, a commemoration outlining Byng’s execution by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch (14 March 1757).

Yet The Telegraph’s brief article contained many egregious errors,

 

The Spectre of Pre-emptive War: History Beyond the Bush Doctrine

As I work through some key issues for my book on John Byng, it became difficult to avoid the fact that the admiral participated in Britain’s pre-emptive strike against France in 1755. Yes, the Seven Years’ War had many precursors prior to the official declaration of war (May 1756), the Channel Campaign among them. Pre-emptive war is familiar to us thanks to the United States invasion of