Five more House of Lords journals 22 Apr 2010, 7:00 pm

Five more volumes of the Journal of the House of Lords have been added to British History Online. These cover the years 1776 to 1793, and thus a time of revolutions in France and North America. Several volumes also detail the protracted trial in the Lords of Warren Hastings, former governor-general of Bengal. Edmund Burke was one of the prosecutors and described Hastings as "the captain-general of iniquity"; neverthleless Hastings was eventually acquitted. In volume 38 there is some interesting detail of the state of George III's health: for example on 4 December 1788 the house heard a report of the Privy Council's examination of the king's doctors.

Thoroton's history of Nottinghamshire now complete 13 Apr 2010, 7:00 pm

Thoroton's history, as amplified by Throsby, is now live. First appearing in 1677, and re-published by Throsby in three volumes a century later, it has been described as the first and greatest county history of Nottinghamshire.

New Ordnance Survey Map Function 2 Feb 2010, 7:00 am

A new feature has recently been added to the historical maps on British History Online. This allows users to compare the historic map with a modern Ordnance Survey map on the same screen. This function is available for both the 1:10560 and the 1:1,250 maps. Simply click on the "Show modern OS" button to see the modern map, and the same button will hide it again. The modern map can be dragged with the mouse to scroll. It is already possible to view the historical map as a modern satellite image in a separate window.

Blomefield's History of Norfolk 15 Jan 2010, 7:00 am

With the launch of volume 11, Blomefield's history is now complete.

Rymer's Foedera With Syllabus 3 Jan 2010, 7:00 pm

Volumes eight and nine of Rymer's Foedera have now been published. This printed collection of treaties was published in the early eighteenth century; in the nineteenth century the Record Office produced a syllabus, or English summary, of its contents. To make the Foedera more useful and searchable we have combined the two texts in a tabular format, with the Syllabus entry on the left and the full text of the Foedera on the right. There are 18 more volumes of the Foedera, which will be published in the coming year.

Calendar of Papal Registers Now Complete 21 Dec 2009, 7:00 pm

The Calendar of Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland is now complete. These 14 volumes cover the period 1198 to 1492, and thus the papacy of Innocent III through to that of Innocent VIII. These volumes provide a detailed insight into the relations of the papacy with Great Britain and Ireland in the medieval period.

Easier Annotation 10 Dec 2009, 7:00 pm

We have now made our annotation tool easier to use. If a text is available for annotation you can still follow the old procedure, and click on "Comment on this article" at the top of the page. However it is now also possible to double click the text you wish to annotate with the left mouse button. Using this function inserts a hyperlink at the relevant point in the text, so that your annnotation will be more easily spotted by others. We therefore hope this change will improve the experience for readers, who will be alerted to the presence of an annotation for the piece of text they are reading. Note that once you have added an annotation you can view it and all of your other annotations in My account > View your annotations.

Calendar of Treasury Books now complete 10 Nov 2009, 7:00 pm

The Calendar of Treasury Books is now complete. These calendars detail state income and expenditure from the Restoration up to 1718, in 32 volumes. This series complements two others on BHO: the Calendar of Treasury Papers and the Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers.

Parliament Rolls of Medieval England now online 13 Oct 2009, 7:00 pm

The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England are now available on British History Online, as part of the premium content section of the site. In this publication historians describe every parliament held between 1275 and 1504, that is those for the reigns of monarchs from Edward I to Henry VII. Where the rolls for the parliament survive, as happens for nearly all of the later parliaments, these are transcribed in full. Alongside this is presented a modern English translation of the original Latin, Anglo-Norman, or Middle English. A tabular format makes for easy comparison between the parallel texts. An appendix for each parliament details what is otherwise known of the business conducted there. Subscribers should be assured that this important enhancement to our premium content is added at no extra cost.

10 volumes of the Journal of the House of Lords 28 Aug 2009, 7:00 pm

10 more volumes of the Journal of the House of Lords are now live. These new volumes cover the period 1718 to 1764, and thus the end of the reign of George I, the whole of that of George II, and the very beginning of the reign of George III. Four more volumes will be added to the site in the coming months.

New volumes for VCH Wiltshire 5 Aug 2009, 7:00 pm

Six new volumes for Wiltshire are now live. The addition of volumes 5, 7, 11 and 13-15 completes the published coverage of the parishes of the county.

Lincolnshire wills 14 Jul 2009, 7:00 pm

Transcribed wills for the historic county are now live. These three volumes, covering the period from 1271 to 1532, were originally published by the Lincoln Record Society between 1914 and 1930.

Suckling's History and Antiquities of Suffolk 6 Jul 2009, 7:00 pm

Volume 1 of Suckling's 'History and Antiquities' is now live. This is the first of the two volumes of the Reverend Suckling's projected History of the county that were completed in the 1840s. They describe three and a half hundreds in the north-east of the county. Volume 2 will be added in the next few weeks.

Calendar of State Papers, Colonial now complete 3 Jul 2009, 7:00 pm

We have now added the final volume of the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial. This volume, number 45 in the series, deals with the year 1739.

New Timeline Function on BHO 29 Jun 2009, 7:00 pm

We are pleased to announce a new monarchs timeline function for British History Online. This is a compact way of displaying all relevant series for a particular monarch; it will enable our users to see at a glance the periods covered by the given volumes in a series and, additionally, to drag the timeline forward and backwards in time. At the lowest level is a compressed timeline, divided into decades, with a representation of the density of coverage on BHO. In the main body of the timeline the reign is indicated by a red line, while the BHO volumes are shown as green lines. Click on any green line to get a summary of that volume's contents and a link directly to the volume. At the top some of the key events of the reign are shown as green boxes. Click on any box for more information about the event in question. To scroll simply drag the timeline. For example, to move forwards in time click on the timeline and drag to the left. Or use your mouse's scroll wheel to move back and forth. We plan to add more timelines in the future, but to see all of our current timelines go to our Periods page and choose a monarch.

Cecil Papers 9 Jun 2009, 7:00 pm

The Calendar of the Cecil Papers Preserved in Hatfield House is now live. These 24 volumes cover the papers of the leading political family of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. William Cecil, Lord Burghley, was chief advisor to Elizabeth I, and his son Robert was Secretary of State to both Elizabeth and James I. Unusually, these state papers have remained in the family archives at Hatfield House. Among other highlights, this calendar covers the Casket Letters attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots and material relating to the Gunpowder Plot.

Six Volumes of Papal Documents 24 Apr 2009, 7:00 pm

Six volumes of Papal documents are now live. These consist of Petitions to the Pope, the Calendar of Vatican Papers for the first part of the reign of Elizabeth I, and three volumes of the Papal Registers. The Registers are entries in the Vatican archives which relate to Great Britain and Ireland; more volumes in this series will be published online in the coming months.

New sources for the history of Norwich 24 Mar 2009, 8:00 pm

Volumes 3 and 4 of Blomefield's 'History of Norfolk' are now live. These two volumes give chronological and thematic accounts of the local history of the city.

Calendar of Papers Preserved in France 17 Mar 2009, 8:00 pm

The Calendar of Documents Preserved in France is now live. This volume consists of Record Commission transcripts of documents found mostly in Normandy, and dated up to 1206 (the end of English control of the region).

Calendar of State Papers, Spain 6 Mar 2009, 7:00 pm

The complete series of the Calendar of State Papers, Spain, is now live. These 19 volumes cover Spanish papers concerning relations with England for all the Tudor monarchs up to Elizabeth. The Elizabethan papers can be found in the complementary Simancas series which is already live on the site.