Women in Early Britain, 1450-1640

The history of women in Wales and Scotland is in its infancy compared to England. This book draws on both historiographical traditions to examine the significance of contrasting social, economic and religious conditions in shaping the lives of women in different parts of Britain.Although gender assumptions were broadly similar around Britain, female experience varied.Christine Peters explores changes in clanship and inheritance, the employment of single women, the punishment of pregnant brides and scolds, the introduction of protestantism, and the fusion of fairy beliefs with ideas of demonological witchcraft, all of which contributed to the diversity of women's lives in Britain during the early modern period.

Christine Peters is Lecturer in History, The Queen's College, Oxford.