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Radicalism and Popular Protest in Georgian Britain, c. 1714–1832

The National Archives (UK)

Collection: Radicalism and Popular Protest in Georgian Britain, c. 1714–1832 Volumes The National Archives (UK)

An illustration showing four men stood around a partially broken pole with a crown on the top. Their expressions are sad. A group of small, childlike figures approach them from the right of the image, holding pikes with flags that read Examiner, Times, Traveller, and News.

This volume contains a curated selection of sources from The National Archives (UK) that illuminate the development of radical political thought and popular protest in Britain during the Georgian period. The volume contains 60,246 images, divided into over 1,600 documents. These sources illuminate the diverse individuals and movements that challenged political authority and demanded constitutional and electoral reform.
The volume includes legal records from the King’s Bench (KB) concerned with state trials, libel suits, and criminal actions brought by the government against printers, writers, and others accused of high treason. Papers of the Treasury Solicitor (TS) related to sedition cases include radical periodicals and papers of various societies that were concerned with parliamentary reform. This volume also includes government correspondence and secret service reports from the Home Office (HO) and domestic State Papers (SP) relating to popular protests, rioting, and disorder. These cover agricultural distress resulting from the introduction of power looms and other industrial machinery. Some papers are grouped according to subjects, such as Luddism (HO 44), the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820 (HO 44), and the disturbances associated with Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales, in 1820–1821 (TS 11).
Together, these sources offer valuable insight into the organisation of popular political activity and the contested nature of power in Georgian Britain.

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