|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Charles Stewart Parnell
|
|
(1846–91) Irish politician who came from a Protestant landed background but passionately espoused the cause of Irish nationalism; it was he who put *Home Rule firmly on the political agenda. He entered parliament in 1875 as the member for Meath and by 1880 was the leader of the Home Rule party in the House of Commons. His alliance with *Gladstone brought the first Home Rule bill before parliament in 1886, but Parnell's career was shattered after he was cited as co-respondent in a divorce case brought in December 1889 by a fellow MP, Captain William O'Shea, against his wife Kitty (Parnell and Kitty had been lovers for ten years). Gladstone refused to continue the alliance with Parnell as leader, and the majority of the Home Rule party abandoned him.
|
|
|
|