Current Research

History of Parliament Research

Originally the focus of my work was East Anglia, but later I moved westwards, working on Berkshire and Somerset. Major figures whose entries I have drafted include Robert Blake, Miles Corbett, John Hampden, Robert Hammond, Cornelius Holland, Henry Lawrence, Sir Henry Mildmay, Edward Montagu, John Thurloe, Edmund Waller and Sir William Waller.

Research and Publications

My research interests include the Stuart royal household, Oliver Cromwell’s East Anglian connections and the background to Charles II’s Restoration in 1660. I am one of the editors of the Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell to be published by Oxford University Press. I am also the Secretary of the Jacobite Studies Trust. My recent publications include:

- ‘Oliver Cromwell and the underground opposition to Bishop Wren of Ely’, Cromwelliana, series III, no. 1 (2012),

- Electing Cromwell: The Making of a Politician (Pickering & Chatto, 2011),

- ‘The inventories of the English royal collection, temp. James II’, Journal of the History of Collections, 22, no. 1 (2010),

- ‘Oliver Cromwell and the Cambridge elections of 1640’, Parliamentary History, 29, pt. 2 (2010),

- ‘George Monck’s role in the drafting of the Declaration of Breda’, Archives, 35, no. 123 (2010).