Abstract In the period 1650–1715, a growing consensus emerged that educational culture in England did not meet the needs of the population, and that change was required—change in what was taught, how, and to whom. This article argues for a conception of an English ‘educational economy’ in which fragmenting institutions and a patchy licensing regime made space for substantial private educational provision. This educational economy gave rise to debates about the appropriate education for learners of different backgrounds and social status, and prompted teachers to new defences of their own value, authority and competence. It was shaped in public, making education the business not only of schoolrooms or private homes, but also of coffeehouses, taverns and the press. This article argues that printed advertisements are the best archive for this educational economy, providing crucial information about its shape—from the subjects on offer to the students it served. Advertisements help to illuminate the venues of early modern education, and show how educational activity was woven through the public and semi-public spaces of the period’s cities and towns. They offer new ways of thinking about educational labour: who was doing it, what it consisted of, how it fitted into the urban knowledge economy, and how authority and prestige were debated and discussed in this transformative phase in England’s educational history.

Abstract This article explores the way Irish nationalists in the 1830s and 1840s understood and condemned British imperial policy in times of trouble, which led to increasing tensions within Irish nationalism itself. It does so in two ways. First, it explores how Daniel O’Connell’s Irishness shaped his vision of the British Empire, its role in the world, and the contours of reform. This O’Connellite understanding of empire is critical because O’Connell was central not only to the radical politics of the 1830s and 1840s, but also to global humanitarian efforts on the one hand, and to the Whig governance of the 1830s on the other. O’Connell’s unique position was reinforced by Ireland’s incongruent place within the political union. Secondly, the article traces how British imperial entanglements in Canada, Afghanistan and China put O’Connell in perilous political waters that exacerbated relationships with English radicals, while also undermining his place within Irish nationalism. As O’Connell’s vision of the British Empire became clearer, it was increasingly challenged by a group of younger Irish nationalists (so-called ‘Young Ireland’) who articulated a strident anti-imperialism and drew inspiration from anti-colonial struggles as they mused on what shape the Irish struggle for justice should take. These ideological differences about British imperialism prefaced wider disagreements within Irish nationalism that would come to light during the Irish Famine and continue in the nineteenth century.

Abstract This article proposes that gifts of everyday foodstuffs were a crucial way in which labouring communities attempted to provide care, and express and manage emotions, in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. It suggests that such food-giving was most often facilitated by geographical distance, especially the proximity and interpersonal knowledge enabled by living within the same building or adjacent houses. In doing so, it highlights the importance of sharing and generosity among nearby friends, neighbours and co-lodgers (rather than blood relations) and the continued role of local networks of obligation and responsibility during this period, even in the face of urban, industrial and administrative change. Drawing upon 1,787 coroners’ inquests from the borough of Westminster, this study also emphasises the value of these records in writing social histories of food. Overall, it situates food-giving as a central part of emotional life during this period, and stresses that, especially for those with limited access to other resources, everyday foodstuffs were central to care.

Abstract This article examines diplomatic sociability at the court of Louis XIII. Through an analysis of the tools, settings and shapes of ambassadorial sociability, this article reveals the energy which ambassadors, envoys and their retinues poured into developing and nurturing relationships with the French nobility, with other ambassadors, and with the wider French public. At the same time, it brings to light the ways in which this sociability was complicated by gender norms and the delineation of gendered spaces at court. Indeed, sociability between ambassadors and powerful female courtiers—though necessary in a court where noblewomen retained significant influence and power—was frequently sexualised and delegitimised. In this context, ambassadors’ wives were better able to navigate the female spaces of the court and became an important asset for building relationships with the French female nobility. This function allowed these wives to carve out a significant role for themselves in the diplomatic process. This sociability was regarded with increasing suspicion by the French crown, leading to intermittent attempts to ban sociability between ambassadors and French subjects. The crown also sought to increase its control over the lodgings of ambassadors and to institutionalise ambassadorial sociability in order better to manage it. In bringing together ambassadorial sociability, gender, and the state’s attempts to control sociability, this article not only demonstrates how central sociability was to the functioning of early modern diplomacy and politics but also provides new perspectives on the nature of political relationships and friendships in the early modern period.