State Papers Online consists of four areas: 1) State Papers Online, 1509-1714, which covers the reign of Henry VIII to the end of the reign of Queen Anne; 2) State Papers Online, Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, which covers the reign of George I through the reign of George III; and 3) State Papers Online, the Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archive, which covers exiled members of the Stuart dynasty and the papers of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. For the specific modules that Rice University owns access to, please see More Info below
Rice University owns access to the following modules:
1) State Papers Online, 1509-1714:
● Part I: The Tudors, Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509-1603: State Papers Domestic contains "the official records of the secretaries of state serving the ruling monarch of the day. It encompasses every facet of early modern government, including social and economic affairs, law and order, religious policy, Crown possessions, and intelligence .
● Part II: The Tudors, Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign, Ireland, Scotland, Borders and Registers of the Privy Council contains documents that record the relationship between England and the rest of Europe as well as the relationships among the European states, both Catholic and Protestant.
● Part III: The Stuarts: James I to Anne, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic documents one of the most compelling and turbulent eras in Britain’s social, political, and religious history," by illustrating the Stuarts’ internal struggles through a wealth of primary source documents.
● Part IV: The Stuarts: James I to Anne, 1603-1714: State Papers Foreign, Ireland, and Registers of the Privy Council "includes correspondence written and received by the ruling monarchs; letters from the rulers of Europe, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire; letters and reports of ambassadors, envoys and agents, and members of trading companies; treaties, lists of ships and goods, and other documents of trade.
2) State Papers Online, Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782:
● Part I: State Papers Domestic, Military and Naval and the Registers of the Privy Council: uncover the details of British domestic politics and society in the Age of Enlightenment. Researchers will find a wealth of once classified detail about the reigns of the three Georges, including behind-the-scenes accounts of the turbulent events of George I’s reign (the Jacobite uprisings); the development of cabinet government; the ascension of George II and the consolidation of Whig supremacy; the riots surrounding libertarian politician John Wilkes; and the inept handling of the colonies that marred the early years of George III’s reign.
● Part II: State Papers Foreign: Low Countries and Germany: contains the papers written or received by the secretaries of state in the processes of British diplomacy in the Low Countries and Germany through the eighteenth century.
● Part III: State Papers Foreign: Western Europe: includes the State Papers series relating to France, Dunkirk, Portugal, Spain, Malta, the Italian States and Rome, Genoa, Tuscany, Venice, Savoy and Sardinia, Sicily and Naples, as well as supplementary records of the Levant Company in Aleppo and the Aleppo consulate. It also includes the Royal Letters and Treaties series.
● Part IV: State Papers Foreign: Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Turkey: presents, digitised for the first time, the letters, memorials and treaties pertaining to Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Saxony, Prussia, Russia, Turkey and the Barbary States. It also includes papers sent to the British Secretaries of State from foreign ministers in England, as well as ‘confidential’ and intercepted letters between key figures in international politics. Eighteenth century scholars will find new insights into international attitudes to Britain and the condition of Europe, as colonial ambitions, dynastic alliances and emerging trade networks were all widely discussed.
3) State Papers Online, the Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, 1579-1823:
● The Stuart Papers represent the correspondence and personal documents of the exiled members of the Stuart dynasty after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Available alongside the Cumberland Papers of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and second surviving son of George II, they provide a unique window into the world of the Stuarts and their Jacobite followers as well as to the incumbent Hanoverian monarchy during a time of continental wars, domestic conspiracies and rival claims to the throne.
This first collection (CO 1) represents thousands of papers that were presented to the Privy Council and the Board of Trade between 1574-1757, and that relate to the governance of, and activities in, the American, Canadian and West Indian colonies of England. [
The U.K. Parliamentary Papers consists of the following modules:
● House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 18th Century, 19th Century and 20th Century (1688-2004)
● House of Lords Parliamentary Papers (1800-1910)
● Hansard (1803-2005)
● Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers Collection, which is comprised of: 1) Harper Collection of Private Bills (1695-1814); 2) House of Commons Sessional Papers (1715-1800); 3) House of Lords Sessional Papers (1714-1805); 4) Journals of the House of Commons (1688-1834); 5) Journals of the House of Lords (1688-1834); 6) Local and Personal Acts (1797-1834); and 7) Parliamentary Register (1780-1796).
C19 Index includes bibliographic records for the entire collection of 19th century Parliamentary Papers (79,527 papers), based on Chadwyck-Healey's Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900 by Peter Cockton. Coverage of the 'long 19th century' is provided with an additional 19,423 bibliographic records for the period 1901-1919. (See also House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Fulltext) (1800-1899).
C19 Index is the bibliographic spine of 19th century research, providing integrated access to the most important finding aids for books, periodicals, official publications, newspapers and archives. Within Series I are the main multi-title, periodical indices, spanning nearly all Anglo-American periodicals of the late eighteenth through early twentieth century. PP reproduces the indexing from: Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1907), Index to Periodicals (1890-1902) (Ed. William T. Stead), Cumulative Index to a Selected List of Periodicals, Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-1899), ... and many more. Series V provides online access to the Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the U.S., 1774-1882, Compilation of the Message and Papers of the Presidents (1789-1897), Hansard's Index to Debates, House of Commons (1803-1830) and Hansard's Index to Debates, House of Lords (1803-1830).
Hansard (the Official Report) is the edited verbatim report of proceedings of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords beginning in 1800.
Daily Debates from Hansard are published on this website the next working day by 6am.