The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England (106 page)

Execution of witches, 1655. A: hangman. B: bellman. C: two sergeants. D: witchfinder, taking his money.

Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland (Edmund Waller’s ‘Sacharissa’), painted by Van Dyck.

One of the remarkable series of paintings made to illustrate the career of the Catholic nun and reformer Mary Ward. A legend in German accompanying the picture reads: ‘When Mary was recovering from a very dangerous illness, that she had at St Omer, she was lying one day in bed enjoying unusual rest and quiet, when she became aware of a voice within her, revealing to her most plainly in what way she was to organize her Institute.’

Brilliana Lady Harley, said to have exhibited ‘a Masculine Bravery’ during the siege of Brampton Bryan.

Brompton Bryan Castle, in north-west Herefordshire. From an early eighteenth-century engraving.

An illustration to the ballad ‘The Female Warrior’, ‘Relating how a Woman in Mans attire, got an Ensigns place: and so continued till the necessity of making use of a Midwife discover’d her’.

A ‘She-Souldier’ from the ballad of ‘The Valiant Virgin’.

Corfe Castle, near Wareham in Dorset, in 1643.

Mary Lady Bankes.

The monument to Lady Bankes in St Martin’s Church, Ruislip, calling attention to the ‘constancy and Courage above her sex’ which she displayed when defending Corfe Castle.

Lucy Hutchinson, wife of Colonel John Hutchinson, with her son, painted by Robert Walker.

Charlotte Countess of Derby, who manifested ‘more than Feminine Magnanimity’ when she conducted the defence of Lathom House in Lancashire.

Eleanor Countess of Sussex in mourning, a frequent condition since she was widowed three times. She became in turn Countess of Manchester and Countess of Warwick, and was nicknamed ‘Old Men’s Wife’ by the Verneys in their private correspondence.