Description

Book Synopsis
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.

Table of 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

The Gentleman's Mistress: Illegitimate

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    A Hardback by Tim Thornton, Katharine Carlton

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      View other formats and editions of The Gentleman's Mistress: Illegitimate by Tim Thornton

      Publisher: Manchester University Press
      Publication Date: 04/04/2019
      ISBN13: 9781526114068, 978-1526114068
      ISBN10: 1526114062
      Also in:
      History European history Social classes Sociology: family, kinship and relationships

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      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.

      Table of 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

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