Anglo-Irish Politics, 1680-1728

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The Brodricks, who originated in Surrey and established themselves in Ireland, in County Cork, in the mid 17th century, were among the most important Anglo-Irish political families in the reigns of the later Stuarts and early Hanoverians. During the 1690s Alan Brodrick (1656-1728) and his brother Thomas (1654-1730) emerged as leading figures in the Irish parliament, at the forefront of a political interest which associated itself with the whig party in England. During Queen Anne's reign Alan led these Irish whigs in opposition to successive tory administrations, punctuated by a short period in government in 1708-10 under the junto whig Lord Wharton. With the triumph of the whigs in Britain in 1714 Alan was restored to high office, as lord chancellor of Ireland, but soon found himself engaged in a prolonged struggle for power and influence with his great political rival William Conolly, the newly elected Speaker of the Irish house of commons. Alan's brother Thomas, meanwhile, had settled permanently in England and become a vociferous and influential MP at Westminster, as a self-styled 'independent whig'. The correspondence between the two brothers, and with other members of their immediate family, provides a wealth of detailed commentary on political events in Ireland and England, both national and local. The collection was largely untouched by historians until deposited with the Surrey Record Office (now the Surrey History Centre) in the 1970s, when its enormous value came to be appreciated by researchers seeking to understand Irish political history in the decades following the Glorious Revolution. However, it remains relatively unknown to students of English politics in the same period. This is the second part of a three-volume edition that will present a fully annotated edition of the letters, running from 1680-1728. The current volume covers the immediate aftermath of the Hanoverian succession, with the establishment of a 'whig ascendancy' in Ireland and the growing divisions between whig factions in both Ireland and England, culminating in the so-called 'whig schism' at Westminster, and open conflict between the Brodricks and William Conolly's party in the Dublin parliament. The crisis over the South Sea Bubble also forms a major theme, with Thomas Brodrick achieving national prominence in Britain as the chairman of the parliamentary committee of inquiry into alleged ministerial corruption.