Writing the history of Tudor women is a difficult task. "Women's lives from the 16th century can rarely be constructed except when these women have had influential connections with notable men.This is no less true for the court women of Tudor England than for other women of the time. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss some of the more memorable court women of Tudor England who served the queens of Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, 2 and to determine what impact, if any, they had on their contemporary times and to evaluate their roles in Tudor history.

The purpose of this project is to gain an understanding of the daily lives of nuns in an English nunnery by examining a particular prominent abbey. This study also attempts to update the history of the abbey by incorporating methods and theories used by recent historians of women's monasticism, as well as recent archaeological evidence found at the abbey site. By including specific examinations of Barking Abbey's last nuns, as well as the nuns' artistic and cultural pursuits, this thesis expands the scholarship of the abbey's history into areas previously unexplored. This thesis begins with a look at the nuns of Barking Abbey. the social status of their secular families, and how that status may have defined life in the abbey. It also looks at how Barking fit into the larger context of English women's monasticism based on the social provenance of its nuns. The analysis then turns to the nuns' daily temporal and spiritual responsibilities, focusing on the nuns' liturgical lives as well as the work required for the efficient maintenance of the house. Also covered is the relationship the abbey and its nuns had with their local lay community. This is followed by an examination of cultural activity at the abbey with discussion of books and manuscripts, music, singing, procession, and various other art forms. The final chapter examines the abbey's dissolution in 1539 under Henry VIII's religious reforms, including the dissolution's effect on some of the abbey's last nuns.

This thesis questions the prevailing historical models of the medieval family, using the Paston family as a test case. It reviews the theories of three prominent historians of the medieval family: Lawrence Stone, Ralph Houlbrooke and Joel Rosenthal. Whether the Paston family and particularly the women fit the models of families as defined by the above mentioned historians is the underlying question. If the Paston family does not fit these models, what does that tell us about the current assumptions made concerning the fifteen th century family? The thesis illustrates that the family models of Stone do not always apply to the Pastons. Houlbrooke's and Rosenthal's ideas on family are much more reflective of the lives actually led by the Pastons. Therefore, while we can not say that the Pastons were average, they were certainly not exceptional. The lives of the women did not fit the models as established by Stone. Their power came from the home itself, as they managed the estates, educated their children, protected their property and looked after the future financial interests of the family. Houlbrooke allows for this form of power in his studies on women. Rosenthal tends to skirt the issues of women focusing more on the power that they received as widows not as wives. If the theories of our three historians were correct or encompassing enough they would have enfolded the Paston family. Houlbrooke's theories did this. Rosenthal's arguments did not include all aspects of the family, particularly children and education. Stone's arguments, with few exceptions, did not fit the Pastons at all. If we allow for a diversity of family structures and a diversity of roles and relationships within that structure, then we will have a much more accurate picture of the fifteenth century family.

This dissertation examines ways in which women constructed and criticized matrimony both before and after their own marriages. Social historians have argued for the rise of companionacy in the eighteenth century without paying attention to women's accounts of the fears and uncertainties surrounding the prospect of marriage. I argue that having more latitude to choose a husband did not diminish the enormous impact that the choice would have on the rest of a woman's life; if anything, choice might increase that impact. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Hester Mulso Chapone, Mary Delany, and Eliza Haywood recorded their anxieties about and their criticisms of marriage in public and private writings from the early years of the century into the 1750s. They often elide their own complex backgrounds in favor of generalized policy statements on what constitutes a good marriage. These women promote an ideal of marriage based on respect and similarity of character, suggesting that friendship is more honest, and durable than romantic love. This definition of ideal marriage enables these women to argue for more egalitarian marital relationships without overtly calling for a change in the wife's traditional role. The advancement of this ideal of companionacy gave women a means of promoting gender equality in marriage at a time when they considered marriage risky but socially and economically necessary.