'The Weaker Vessel?' Women of the Civil Wars

02-12-23 - 07-04-24,
11:00 AM - 3:30 PM

Admission: £FREE

Location: The Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon

Seventeenth century England was a deeply religious and male dominated society. Many would have agreed with the biblical phrase ‘the weaker vessel’, defining women as being inferior to men.

In the popular imagination the role of women during the Civil Wars has been limited to that of aristocratic ladies defending their husbands’ estates, or women camp-followers with armies.

Whilst it is true that these roles did exist, and that women lacked the rights and equality that we aspire to today, they played a key part in the events of the 1640s.

The upheavals of Civil War, Revolution and a Republic provided opportunities for women to act as spies, pamphleteers, preachers and even soldiers.

This new exhibit looks at the experience of women through this period when the ‘world was turned upside down’, including members of the Cromwell family.

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