Women in English Life from Mediæval to Modern Times, Vol. I

Transcriber’s note: Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
C. Cook, sculp.
ANN,
Lady Fanshawe .
London Richard Bentley & Son 1896
WOMEN IN ENGLISH LIFE
from Mediæval to Modern Times.
BY GEORGIANA HILL, AUTHOR OF “A HISTORY OF ENGLISH DRESS.”
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, New Burlington Street, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty. MDCCCXCVI.

The object aimed at in the following pages is to show the place that women have held in our national life, from the days when what we call the Saxon race was dominant in England, down to the present time. For this purpose those phases of our social history have been dwelt upon which display most clearly the changes that have taken place in the position of women, and the influence of great forces like the Church and Feudalism. Names have been used as illustrations, and not with any intention of adding to biographical literature. Instances that are the most striking individually do not always serve best as examples. For this reason many familiar historical scenes and figures have been omitted. The continuity of a general record would be broken by divergence into episodes interesting on account of their exceptional character. Prominence has been given to domestic life, as that concerns the larger number, and to those aspects of the case which have not been summed up in the numerous accounts of noteworthy women.