About this Event
Richard Cobden, the prominent Manchester radical and leader of the Anti-Corn Law League, occupied one of the two parliamentary seats for the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1847 until 1857, nearly half of his parliamentary career. This lecture explores Cobden’s interactions with West Riding politics from the foundation of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1839 to his defeat at Huddersfield during the General Election of 1857. It focuses on his often fraught relationship with the local Liberals, and his doomed attempt to end the dominance of local aristocrats over the Riding’s politics.
Bio: Professor Simon Morgan is Head of History, English and Politics at Leeds Beckett University. As Principal Investigator for the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded 'Letters of Richard Cobden Online: An exploration in Active Citizenship' he was responsible for creating an open access database of around 5,500 of Cobden's letters (www.cobdenletters.org). With Professor Anthony Howe, he was co-editor of the four-volume selected edition of the Letters of Richard Cobden published by Oxford University Press in 2006-2015. His most recent monograph, Celebrities, Heroes and Champions: Popular Politicians in the Age of Reform, 1810-1867, was runner up for the Social History Society book prize in 2023 and is now available in paperback.
Event venue & nearby stays
Leeds City Library, Calverley Street, Leeds, United Kingdom
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