The English Woman in History

Doris Stenton, Doris Mary Stenton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781032226576
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000562385
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

First published in 1957, The English Woman in History displays the place women have held and the influence they have exerted within the changing pattern of English society. Ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth I the position of women in English society has been a matter of general debate. In the seventeenth century many men produced books in praise of women, following the example of Thomas Heywood. Most of these books were devoted to the praises of individual women, but their authors generally produced arguments against subjection of all women to the unthinking dominance of men. While married women were still legally subject to their husbands and no women were allowed to take part in public affairs it was impossible to write objectively about women's place in the world. The women who at the end of the seventeenth century began to write were generally fired by a sense of injustice, and men tended to write condescendingly of charm and beauty, which interested them more than intelligence and wit. Now that women are bearing public responsibilities with success it is possible for historians to look back dispassionately over the centuries and trace the stages by which this position has been won. It is a survey of this nature which Lady Stenton has attempted in this book. This is a must read for students and scholars of women's history, gender studies and women's movement.

Index

1. ACTRESSES: the first 202
2. Adderbury, Oxon 25
3. adultery 83
4. Æthelbert, King of Kent, his laws 6–9
5. Æthelburg wife of King Ine 2
6. Æthelflaed daughter of King Alfred and Lady of the Mercians 4, 147, 199
7. Æthelred, ruler of the Mercians 4
8. Æthelred II, King of Wessex 22;
9. his laws 20, 21
10. Æthelthryth wife of Ecgfrith King of Northumbria 10
11. age of women 40
12. Agrippa, Henry Cornelius 127, 191, 292
13. aid for marriage of eldest daughter 39
14. Aikin, John, head of academy at Kibworth 299;
15. his wife, Jane, formerly Jennings 299; their daughter: see Barbauld, Mrs
16. Alexander III, Pope 46
17. Alfred, King of Wessex 3, 4;
18. his laws 19, 20
19. Alleine, Joseph 195, 196;
20. his wife, Theodosia daughter of Richard Alleine, quoted 195–6
21. Allen, David, rector of Ludborough, Lincs 137
22. Allestree, Richard 185, 186
23. Althorpe, Northants 139
24. Amalric son of Ralf, his will 48
25. Amelia, Princess 267
26. anabaptist doctrine 165
27. anchoresses 52, 53, 121
28. Anesty case 46 n.
29. Ankerwyke, Bucks, nunnery 43
30. Anne, Princess 197, 215, 224, 230, 232;
31. Queen 206, 232, 246, 252
32. Annesley, Samuel 216
33. appeal, wife’s right to 66
34. Appleby, Westm 69, 71–3
35. Apsley, Sir Allen and Lady 164
36. Arbuthnot, Dr 248
37. Argyll, John, Duke of 252, 264 n.;
38. his wife, formerly Jane Warburton 252; their daughters 265–6; see also Coke, Lady Mary
39. Arundel, Isabella, Countess of 54, 55
40. Arundel, Earl of: his daughters: Jane wife of Lord Lumley, and Mary, Duchess of Norfolk 131
41. Asa 27
42. Ascham, Roger, The S...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• I The Anglo-Saxon Woman
• II Feudal Law and the Feudal Lady, 1066–1660
• III The Country-woman, 1066–1600
• IV The Country-woman after 1600
• V The Renaissance and Reformation and their Consequences, 1400–1642
• VI Women in the English Revolution
• VII The Beginnings of English Feminism
• VIII Women and the New Scholarship
• IX The Eighteenth Century—Court and Society
• X The Eighteenth Century—The New Middle Class
• XI Reaction and the Rise of Modern Feminism
• Epilogue
• Index