Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. These two houses make up the Parliament of England. It has become commonly referred to as the Houses of Parliament.  The Palace of Westminster was established after the fire of 1834. The current palace's architecture incorporates elements from the old palace that suffered the fire in 1834. The palace is located on the north bank of the River Thames in Westminster. 

Parent Map

Map to Accompany Road to Women's Suffrage Timeline

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.497494800000
Longitude: -0.135658300000

Timeline of Events Associated with Palace of Westminster

Date Event Manage
5 Apr 1908 to 5 Dec 1916

H.H. Asquith as Prime Minister

H.H. Asquith was the Prime Minister of England from 1908 to 1916. Asquith was 1st earl of Oxford and Asquith. He was a member of the Liberal party and ran for Prime Minister under this party.  While Asquith was Prime Minister, he faced many controversies. The Conciliation bill to give women the right to vote were brought up during his time as Prime Minister and while promising that there would be facilities for a bill such as this in Parliament, he instead favored a bill for universal manhood suffrage. These facilities that H.H. Asquith promised for a conciliation bill for women to gain the right to vote was mainly referring his support and a place politically in Parliament that would allow such a bill to be passed. There were many more controversies during Asquith’s political career such as his interactions with political extremists as well as anarchists. It is because of these many opponents of his time as Prime Minister that his political career is looked upon in a negative light. Such opponents included the suffragettes who placed a great amount of blame on Asquith for the Conciliation bills not being passed. The suffragettes had every right to place this blame on Asquith since he led them to believe that he would welcome such a bill and instead favor suffrage for all men.  Asquith was also the acting Prime Minister for the beginning of World War I as well as passing the Parliament Act of 1911 which dealt with the House of Lords.  

The accompanying articles show H.H. Asquith’s political stance as Prime Minister as well as a look into his time as Prime Minister. The Britannica article on Asquith offers a more general view of Asquith’s life and the dates which he served as Prime Minister as well as other events in his life.  The article “The Women’s Suffrage Movement in England” shows on pages 604-605 how Asquith claimed he welcomed a women’s suffrage bill but did not favor it when it was brought up. The article entitled “H. H. Asquith and Britain's Manpower Problem, 1914–1915” by John Gordon Little shows Asquith’s time as Prime Minister and particularly how he handled his involvement in World War I.  Little’s article brings up a key point about Asquith’s political career which is how over time his actions have been portrayed in a negative light. The article shows a deeper view of Asquith’s liberal views and his stance on issues such as compulsory military service. The newspaper article entitled “Mr. Asquith and the Anarchists” shows the political unrest during his time as Prime Minister. This article shows how Asquith dealt with Anarchists at this time and how Anarchists were defined at this time. The article shows that other political unrest at this time apart from the suffragette movement. However, this article is about H.H. Asquith before he was Prime Minister when he was Home Secretary. The article allows a view of another controversial event that Asquith handled during his political career.  

H.H. Asquith

https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-H-Asquith-1st-earl-of-Oxford-and-Asquith

Robert Norman William Blake, Baron Blake. “H.H. Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 8 Sept. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/H-H-Asquith-1st-earl-of-Oxford-and-Asquith.

Women's Suffrage Movement in England

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1944309.pdf

Turner, Edward Raymond. “The Women's Suffrage Movement in England.” The American Political Science Review, vol. 7, no. 4, 1913, pp. 588–609. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1944309.

H. H. Asquith and Britain's Manpower Problem, 1914–1915

https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/pdf/24423466.pdf?refreqid=search%3A5a1e56697f28d224d69bb6ec9a3fb054

LITTLE, JOHN GORDON. “H. H. Asquith and Britain's Manpower Problem, 1914–1915.” History, vol. 82, no. 267, 1997, pp. 397–409. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24423466.

Mr. Asquith and the Anarchists

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924057525291?urlappend=%3Bseq=730

“Mr. Asquith and the Anarchists .” The Spectator , 18 Nov. 1893.
1910 to 1913

Emmeline Pankhurst and suffragette involvement in the Conciliation Bills

Emmeline Pankhurst was the owner of a women’s shop called Emerson’s. Emmeline Goulden married Dr. R. M. Pankhurst who was also an advocate for the rights of women which furthered her interest in women’s rights. Emmeline Pankhurst established The Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903. The Women’s Social and Political Union was a militant organization in the years before World War I with women smashing store windows, going to parliament meetings to shout, “Votes for women” and other political protests. This is interesting in relation to Pankhurst because she advocated the smashing of store windows while she was a shop owner. Pankhurst owning a shop also put her in a more progressive position than many women at this time because she owned her own business. In 1910 The Women’s Social and Political Union started protesting the rejection of the conciliation bill and H.H. Asquith’s promise that a bill for women’s right to vote being facilitated. The protests included many tactics such as using acid to burn suffragette slogans into the golf courses that member of the Liberal party, which H.H. Asquith belonged to, played on.  They also cut telephone and telegraph wires, set fire to letters in public postboxes and on one occasion set off a bomb in Llyod George’s partly built house. Lloyd Geroge was in opposition to the Liberal Party and was considered radicial in his opposition to the Liberal Party. One of their protests in of 1910 became known as “Black Friday” when 300 women tried to enter Parliament to stand up for their rights and a riot followed.  Winston Churchill was the home secretary at this time and showed the government’s wrath with the extreme police brutality on “Black Friday.” 

The book review entitled “A Conservative Revolutionary: Emmeline Pankhurst (1857-1928)” gives a detailed account of how Emmeline Pankhurst was described in June Purvis’s biography of her. Purvis describes Pankhurst in very masculine terms such as “A Reel of Steel” while other articles describe her as the exact ideal of beauty in England in Pankhurst’s time.  This article is important because it gives background on Emmeline Pankhurst and discusses the images other articles made of Emmeline Pankhurst. This article discusses her life and what she was really like behind all the media images created about her. The article “The Most Prominent Suffragette” gives a look at the biography written by Purvis and talks about Pankhurst’s life in addition to the obstacles she faced in fighting for women’s rights. In this article, she points out some important flaws in the biography of Pankhurst such as a lack of information on her views of race. The article “Model Citizens and Millenarian Subjects: Vorticism, Suffrage, and London's Great Unrest” is about representation of suffragettes but shows a more In-depth view of the protests that Emmeline Pankhurst’s organization The Women’s Social and Political Union carried out in 1910. The article on page five goes into detail about the types of protests that the suffragettes used to gain attention for their cause. The article “The 1910s: ‘We have sanitised our history of suffragettes’” is also about the representation of suffragettes but gives a look into the suffragette protest that became known as “Black Friday” which was in the attempt to get the Conciliation bill passed. 

A Conservative Revolutionary: Emmeline Pankhurst (1857-1928)

https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/pdf/26440996.pdf?refreqid=search%3A61b787e51620c769540075413699c65e

ROLLYSON, CARL. “A CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTIONARY: EMMELINE PANKHURST (1857-1928).” The Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 79, no. 2, 2003, pp. 325–334. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26440996.

The Most Prominent Suffragette

https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/pdf/4024138.pdf?refreqid=search%3A61b787e51620c769540075413699c65e

Winslow, Barbara. “The Most Prominent Suffragette.” The Women's Review of Books, vol. 20, no. 8, 2003, pp. 13–14. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4024138.

Model Citizens and Millenarian Subjects: Vorticism, Suffrage, and London's Great Unrest

https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/pdf/10.2979/jmodelite.37.3.1.pdf?refreqid=search%3A7e8779ca6f73961def1fd75e68faa29f

Richards, Jill. “Model Citizens and Millenarian Subjects: Vorticism, Suffrage, and London's Great Unrest.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 37, no. 3, 2014, pp. 1–17. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmodelite.37.3.1.

The 1910s: ‘We have sanitised our history of suffragettes

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/06/1910s-suffragettes-suffragists-fern-riddell

Riddell, Fern. “The 1910s: 'We Have Sanitised Our History of the Suffragettes'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/06/1910s-suffragettes-suffragi....

Lloyd George

https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Lloyd-George

Robert Norman William Blake, Baron Blake. “David Lloyd George.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/David-Lloyd-George.
1911

Universal Manhood Suffrage Bill

Universal manhood suffrage was introduced in Parliament instead of the Conciliation bill giving women the right to vote in 1911. This bill would allow all men to vote to remove the prior restrictions such as being required to be a landowner. Parliament and the Prime Minister at this time H.H. Asquith’s decision to favor this bill and not the conciliation bill made many people angry. Suffragettes were the most outspoken in opposition to this bill as they were working to get women who owned property the right to vote and were rejected in favor of manhood suffrage.  This was viewed as a betrayal to the suffragettes because H.H. Asquith said while running for re-election as Prime Minister that he would facilitate a Conciliation bill that gives women the right to vote in Parliament. H.H. Asquith after announcing the universal manhood suffrage bill said he still would facilitate a conciliation bill, but it did not pacify the suffragettes.  

The article “The Englishwoman: Militancy and the Reform Bill” talks about the universal manhood suffrage bill on page 242 and describes the bill and the trouble associated with the bill. The suffragettes saw as well as many other people that with this bill being passed it was unlikely that a Conciliation bill would be passed.  The newspaper article “Great Britain. At this crucial period in the fight for Woman's Suffrage” shows the early stages in getting the universal manhood suffrage bill passed. This article shows that the Labor party was not in favor of the universal manhood suffrage bill and talks about the Women’s Social and Political Union’s involvement. The article “The Women’s Suffrage Movement in England” on page 606 gives a more detailed look at when the bill was introduced and the reaction from suffragettes to the bill as well as the attitude about H.H. Asquith after the introduction of the bill. 

Great Britain. At this crucial period in the fight for Woman's Suffrage

http://gerritsen.chadwyck.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/fulltext/fulltext.do?area=documents&id=Gerritsen-GP103_Volume_6_Issue_6-19&pagenum=1&resultNum=35&entries=154&source=config.cfg&queryId=../session/1541417064_13996&backto=RESULTS&fromPage=searchResults

The Secretary of the W S P U : Great Britain. At this crucial period in the fight for Woman's Suffrage...; International women's news. Vol. 6, Iss. 6 (1912) pg. 52-53

The Englishwoman: Militancy and the Reform Bill

http://gerritsen.chadwyck.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/fulltext/fulltext.do?area=documents&id=Gerritsen-GP58_Volume_15_Issue_45-20&pagenum=2&queryId=..%2Fsession%2F1541417064_13996&resultNum=3&entries=154&source=config.cfg&fromPage=fullRec&browseType=&expandtolevel=&expandId=&zoom=100

P Whitwell Wilson : Militancy and the Reform Bill; The Englishwoman. Vol. 15, Iss. 45 (1912) pg. 242

The Women's Suffrage Movement in England

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1944309.pdf

Dilke, Emilia F. S. “Woman Suffrage in England.” The North American Review, vol. 164, no. 483, 1897, pp. 151–159. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25150939.