The Gentleman's Mistress : Illegitimate Relationships and Children, 1450-1640

Thornton, Tim/ Carlton, Katharine

Manchester University Press（2025/01発売）

Manchester University Press（2025/01発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 184 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781526114075
• DDC分類 306.736

Full Description

This study explores pre- and extra-marital relationships among the gentry and nobility of the north of England from 1450 to 1640: the keeping of mistresses, the taking of lovers, the birth of illegitimate children and the fate of those children. It challenges assumptions about the extent to which such activities declined in the period, and hence about the impact of Protestantism and other changes to the culture of the elite. A major contribution to the literature on marriage and sexual relationships, family, kinship and gender, it is aimed at an academic readership in the fields of social and political history.

Contents

Introduction
1 Background and legal framework
2 The extent of bastardy among the elite
3 The role and status of the mistress
4 Gentlewomen and their lovers
5 The 'wronged' partner
6 The bastard children
Conclusion
Index