Corruption and Scandal in the Early Modern World, 1500-1800 (5-6 June 2025)

*IN-PERSON REGISTRATION HAS REACHED FULL CAPACITY. ONLINE TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE*

A two-day, hybrid conference funded by the Institute of Historical Research's 'British History in the Seventeenth Century Seminar', the Elizabeth and Conrad Russell Fund, the Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South East England (CHASE), the University of York, and the Society for Court Studies.

Scandals and instances of corruption shock and delight, and are recurring themes in political and institutional spheres. Reactions to these events shape politics and provide key insights into the socio-religious and political culture of the societies in which they take place. In the early modern period, the meanings of scandal and corruption extended beyond our modern understanding of these terms. Concentrating on 1500-1800 - a time of religious, political, and social development and upheaval - this conference will explore various instances, responses to, and perceptions of scandal and corruption across Europe and the wider world. Organised into panels on topics including financial corruption, public versus private, espionage, libel and prosecution, and corruption and scandal in colonial contexts, the papers will showcase cutting-edge work by researchers ranging from postgraduate students to established scholars. The conference will conclude with a roundtable during which a select group of scholars will discuss key themes.

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Info: Andrea McKenzie (Victoria): ‘A Scandal upon Record’: Expanding the Circle of Outrage during the Popish Plot, c. 1678-81;

James Hobbs (York): Bit Players in Conspiracy: Narratives of Thomas Overbury’s Other Murderers

Peter Wells (UEA), Naval Hero or ‘Contumacious Scoundrel’?: Captain Thomas Hewetson and the Scandal that Wiped Him Off the Map

Anthony Stonestreet (Cambridge): The vice of Henry III of Valois in early modern tragedy

Info: BLOOMSBURY ROOM, G35 Camille Rocher (Bordeaux-Montaigne): From Secret Alliances to Public Scandals: Espionage and Jacobite Diplomacy in 18th- Century Europe;

Riccardo Neri (Oxford): The “dingy nature” of Stosch. Espionage, sociability and scandal in 18th-century Florence by the case of the British spy Philipp von Stosch;

Dorota Gregorowicz (Katowice): Suspicious Nobility. Accusations of Corruption and Political Bias Against Papal Diplomats Involved in the Sixteenth-Century Elections of Polish-Lithuanian Monarchs;

Ariel Giuliano (SNS Pisa): ‘Bribing a King': the case of Antoine de Bourbon-Vendôme and the Spanish diplomacy in the mid 16th century

Info: WOLFSON NB01

Marcin Śrama (Poznan): Warsaw – ‘the modern Sodom’? Corruption and scandals during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764-1795) as a subject of political satire

Cora Wilson (Oxford): Elizabeth Bourne’s ‘Secret Sorrows’: Making Marital Abuse Public in 16th Century England

Fiona McCall (Portsmouth): Clerical Sexual Scandal as a Polemical Weapon during the English Civil Wars and interregnum

Robert Daniel (Oxford): The Prospero Farinacci Scandal in Early Modern Rom

Info: Peter Lake (Vanderbilt): Public Men, Private Spirits, and the Corruption of the Commonwealth, 1590-1640;

Samantha E. Rogers (Vanderbilt): From St. Thomas of Canterbury to Thomas Becket the Traitor: The International Scandal Accompanying the End of an English Cult;

Wouter Kreuze (Limerick): Reputation and Scandal in the Early Modern University: Delinquent Professors at the University of Rostock in the Sixteenth Century;

Sam Dominy (York): The Scandal of The Second Argument and the Corruption of John Child’s Soul (1682)

Info: Ellen Paterson (Oxford): Battling economic corruption: monopolies, commissioners, and depositions in the House of Lords (1621);

Andrés Borrás Benavente (Valencia): Urban supply and corruption in a mediterranean city: the case of 18th century Valencia;

Kathryn Marshalek (Vanderbilt): Fraus legis; fraus contra legem: curbing (royal) abuse of anti-Catholic penal statutes in the Parliament of 1625

Info: Elizabeth S. Cohen (York, Toronto): Managing Scandals in the Rambunctious Streets of Early Modern Rome

Info: Elizabeth Hines (Johns Hopkins SAIS): Customs Farming Corruption and the Crown Jewels;

Ahmet Demir (Central European University): Legal or Corrupt: Cash Waqfs Debate among the 15th and 16th Century Ottoman Scholars;

Andrew Wareham (Roehampton): Corrupt or over-zealous agents? The collection of the Restoration Hearth Tax in England c. 1685-1689

Info: Alexandra Gajda (Oxford): The scandalous history of parliament: Arthur Hall of Grantham and the ancient constitution;

Lotte Fikkers (Leiden): ‘Only Informacions of Councell’: scandal in Star Chamber

Cameron Whiteside (Sheffield): The Commission on Fees and Monarchical; Paternalism: Challenging Early Modern Public Corruption;

David Chan Smith (Wilfrid Laurier University): A New Politics? Discovering Parliamentary Corruption in Early Stuart England

Info: Mark Knights (Warwick): 'The Nature and Lifecycle of Corruption Scandals' (Senate House, IHR, Wolfson NB01)

Info: WOLFSON NB01 - Rupali Mishra (Auburn): The Language of Corruption and Private Trade in the Early East India Company;

Daniel O’Driscoll (Oxford): Corruption and Crime in the Conquest of New Mexico;

Casey Schmitt (Cornell): Smuggling and Violence at Mona Island, ca. 1560-1600

Info: Chair - Alastair Bellany; Participants - Ian Archer, Alexandra Gajda, Mark Knights, Peter Lake, and Ellen Paterson

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