The Weaker Vessel

by Antonia Fraser

Just how weak were the women of the Civil War era? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Did anyone marry for love? Could a woman divorce? What rights had the unmarried? What expectations the widows?



An expert on the period, Antonia Fraser brings to life the many and various women she has encountered in her considerable research: governesses, milkmaids, fishwives, nuns, defenders of castles, courtesans, countesses, witches and widows.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Womens, 17th Century, Historical, British Literature

881 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works, including the biographies Mary, Queen of Scots (a 40th anniversary edition was published in May 2009), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, King Charles II and The Gunpowder Plot (CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger; St Louis Literary Award). She has written five highly praised books which focus on women in history, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century Britain (Wolfson Award for History, 1984), The Warrior Queens: Boadecia's Chariot, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Franco-British Literary Prize 2001), which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola in 2006 and most recently Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. She was awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. Antonia Fraser was made DBE in 2011 for her services to literature. Her most recent book is Must You Go?, celebrating her life with Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve 2008. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fabulous, fabulous book. I'd quote it at you extensively, but I finished it on holiday last week and immediately palmed it off on a friend.

Last summer, I saw Lady Antonia Fraser in conversation with Kate Mosse at the Edinburgh Book Festival. I went by myself, and I'm pretty sure I single-handedly lowered the average age of the audience by a few years, but I'm so glad I went. The audience questions were interesting and considered, the discussion was great fun... and when I grow up, I want to be Antonia Fraser. She's an unstoppable force, who wrote her first book on Mary Queen of Scots while also looking after a toddler. She's the ultimate tangent-follower, who seems to have written thousand-page tomes on British history pretty much as the whim takes her, tracing along the things she finds most interesting and finding out everything there is to know about them. So when I discovered she'd written about women in the seventeenth century - that's what this one is about - I made a noise a bit like "HNNGH" only more high-pitched, and immediately got my hands on a copy.

In this book, Antonia Fraser writes about everything there is to write about seventeenth-century English women. She starts with marriage and being widowed and having babies, she talks about women joining the army and getting accused of witchcraft and commanding besieged castles, of women painting and writing stories and acting, of women being politically active and running businesses and campaigning for the rights to read and write, and studying science and philosophy. There's a whole chapter on Quaker women preaching and campaigning for equality and for better conditions in prisons. There's a chapter on midwives and women in medicine, handing down knowledge from one to another because they weren't allowed to study as doctors. There's everything.

And the thing is that Fraser is clearly having such a good time - she tells a good story, but her commentary is so affectionate. I'd love to read this in combination with A Room of One's Own, and to know what Woolf might have thought of this book, lamenting as she did the lack of women's history and voices and traditions. I suspect they might have got on extremely well. I'm also reminded of Kameron Hurley's fantastic essay We Have Always Fought: history has never gone on without women. It's not just that they've sewed its clothes and washed up after it, or that they've pleaded for it when it got itself in trouble, although women did all of those things. But I tell you that reading this women-led history of one of my favourite parts of English history was like looking at a lake that I've seen out of the window for all my life, and realising that it's miles deeper than I realised. Not just because thousands and thousands of people like me did interesting and difficult and important things after all, but because in 1984 Antonia Fraser was as interested in them as I am, and had as much affection and respect and, yes, pride, for them as I do.

At any rate it seemed so important to me personally, that I took my time over it and just marinated in the stories of the women who made it possible for me to be the person I am today. All I can say is that Alexander Pope would have hated me with a fiery obsession, and that quite frankly he wouldn't have been wrong to.

God, she's wonderful. Next, I'm going to read the Cromwell biography, and I'm really looking forward to it.

[Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that made me fall in love with Antonia Fraser's writing. She's an amazing historian. This book is filled with fascinating stories, tidbits and facts about women's lives in the 17th century. I still use this book as a reference, and when I do, I usually find myself reading the book all over again. I highly recommend this to anybody who is interested in women’s history.

One thing that Fraser does and does very well, is that she brings together a great deal of researched material, and puts it in an orderly fashion, supporting her ideas and thoughts. I never think her books are boring. She’s very passionate about what she writes, yet she’s never preachy and condemning in her writing either, which is refreshing in a women’s history book. So many women studies and history books are written like an exposé, condemning men and how women were treated. I felt like Fraser wrote more out of fascination, simply stating the facts, and relating to many historical women’s challenges. Great book!

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

An informative historical work about the lives of women in England in the 17th century. Fraser, a renowned historian, has clearly read a ton of primary sources, and discusses a wide variety of topics: marriage and changes of opinion about how much consent was required from the partners; the social roles of wives and widows (wives had no rights but widows controlled their property and were under no one’s control themselves); childbirth (which became more dangerous over the course of the century, with more invasive internal examinations coupled with a lack of understanding of means of infection); the roles of women in England’s Civil War (from exciting stuff like commanding sieges or disguising themselves as men to fight, to more prosaic things like representing their families in court when assets were seized for being on the wrong side); witchcraft accusations; women’s education; the very limited possibilities for divorce but broader possibilities for separation; the careers of businesswomen, authors, midwives, actresses, and prostitutes; the roles of women in the burgeoning Quaker movement (both as supporting figures and adventurous evangelists). Fraser discusses each topic generally, but spends the bulk of her words on relevant individual mini-biographies and historical anecdotes, ranging in length from about a paragraph to a few pages.

So, definitely interesting stuff, Fraser quotes women’s writing where available, and makes clear that the lack of legal rights didn’t stop people from doing all kinds of things—though women would often apologize profusely if stepping outside their traditional sphere (for instance, by writing). There are some great stories of adventurous ladies—Quaker women becoming prisoners of conscience (17th century authorities really hated the Quakers), manor ladies rising to the occasion during the war, canny widows chasing off opportunistic suitors. Other spirited women pursued education and even took risks (including jail) to bring it to others. Meanwhile there are some unfortunate stories, such as the very young (sometimes preteen) orphaned heiresses used as pawns in other people’s financial schemes, or even outright kidnapped by men hoping to access their fortunes (though usually rescued shortly and the “marriages” annulled). It being the 17th century, there was also a lot of premature death all around, as well as terrible suffering from chronic illnesses for which the medicine of the time was ineffective.

Interestingly, while women were judged hard for writing, painting even at a semi-professional level was fine, and some women wound up holding membership in guilds or signing business contracts in their own right. And contrary to popular stereotypes, midwives don’t seem to have been a target of witchcraft accusations (generally directed at those who were indigent, elderly, and possibly mentally ill), but instead were involved in the investigations through searching for “witch’s marks.” And I’ve now learned where the stereotype of actress as prostitute came from: when women were allowed to take to the stage during the Restoration, aristocratic men were so hot for them that a career or at least a stint as an actress became a great avenue to a life as a wealthy man’s mistress for those who might otherwise have been destitute. Playwrights even wrote in roles that showed off the actresses’ bodies to help this along.

For some reason my favorite of the bunch is the kooky fortune-teller, Lady Eleanor Davies, who appears several times and whose distress at the “dead bodies” of her burned books is palpable even today! But, lots of great stories in here, including some very impressive women.

Unsurprisingly, though somewhat contrary to its marketing, the book is heavily tilted toward the aristocracy; I think Fraser tries her best to be inclusive but struggles with the available sources. She also assumes a pretty solid understanding of the outlines of 17th century English history. She does reach beyond the obvious stories, mentioning royals, famous mistresses, Aphra Behn, etc., only in passing, while focusing on the stories of people who—although generally privileged—even those relatively familiar with the period are unlikely to know.

Despite all the praise, for some reason I didn’t actually enjoy reading this book very much. Perhaps it’s that the mini-biography format, with the book consisting mostly of relatively short individual accounts, doesn’t work very well for me. Maybe it was a little dry. Or maybe it was a case of reading a book at the wrong time, or the fact that I was reading an old edition with a dust-gathering cover and deckle-edged pages. However, as a well-researched, well-written and enlightening account, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in this slice of history.

[Kat B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Antonia Fraser and her writing on History. She is a great, thorough Historian and her books always cover a myriad of details that I love to read about.
This book in particular covers the time period between the death of Elizabeth I and the start of the reign of Queen Anne.
It discusses in detail (which can be a bit slow going at times and I imagine will take some a while to read all the way through as it can be somewhat dense in places) about the lives of women of that 100 year period, how they were raised to leave their Father then married off to a husband, sometimes at the age of 12 or 14, placed into Arranged marriages, their Property and Dowries being snatched up, used and/or withheld from them their whole lives in some cases.
The book follows mostly Heiresses, Noble women and Courtiers but it encompasses most aspects of a Woman's Life in this period. How they were seen and treated by their families, husbands, lovers, children, etc. and how in rare instances found some measure of independence and wealth to be enjoyed for themselves amid the thinking of the time that women were "the weaker vessel"
This book points out and in my opinion proves that Women, even in the most trying and horrific circumstances are hardly Weak, then or in any period in History.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have on a few occasions given less than a five-star rating to Wolfson Prize Winner but Antonia Fraser's "Weaker Vessel" clearly rates the top rating. What surprised me most was to see that one of the best writers of political history of the second half of the 20th century was able to achieve the same level of excellence in the field of social history.

Published at a time when the "annales" school was its ascendancy, "The Weaker Vessel" was decidedly old fashioned at the time it was written. Fraser does not use quantitative techniques and does not follow any methodology from the social sciences. She writes as an acknowledged expert with the de facto ability to determine what is anecdotal and what constitutes a trend.

This much said Antonia Fraser does a magnificence job of presenting the status of women as a whole in 17th Century when literacy was restricted to the economically privileged and no statistical data was gathered on the general public. Fraser inevitably spends a great deal of time on the aristocracy and the theatre community which produced documents for her to work with. She also draws extensively from court records where lower class women (most notably suspected witches) did appear.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was at first a little leary about reading this book. "Women" books I always approach with caution as I have been burned by to many "men-are-the-great-oppressors-of-women-and-the-cause-of-all-their-problems" books.

This book was not like that. It was, in my opinion, very equal and for once factual without an agenda. It showed fathers, brothers and husbands who supported and loved the women in their lives and those that did not. It showed how some religions were both a stepping stone (Catholicism and Quackers) to education. It showed the great and terrible marriages.

However I would have enjoyed the book more with a working knowledge of the English Civil War. Those parts of the book were very confusing to me.

[Freya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tada! After a foolishly long time and a couple of breaks I have finished this book. It didn't take me forever to read because it was boring (it was pretty interesting), it was just a little like wading through treacle though.

It was an interesting period, covering before, during and after Cromwell's Civil War and how these events affected women and their lives and roles. It covered religions and professions and how much freedom (or not) it gave to women as well as the double standards that men judged women on (and that some women also judged each other on!).

Amusingly (?), it was nothing new. In times of trouble and lack of men, women rose up and asserted themselves and in some (though not all) cases, were very successful and broke away from the stereotypes and expectations of the time without being mocked, called witch or harlot, or being told that classical learning was no place for a woman. Then when peace returned they went back to their kitchens and child-bearing. This is a pattern probably repeated again and again in history, the Second World War and the subsequent 1950's era comes to mind readily enough.

Without bra-burning and ranting, this was an interesting read, and one can't help but get somewhat angry at the conclusions of the period in the epilogue, how despite some women fighting against the ways things were and perhaps being imprisoned etc. by the end of the period they went back to being the equivalent of property and perhaps even weaker than they started out at the beginning of the century.

[Judith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many excellent descriptions and reviews of this book by other Goodreaders, so I won’t need to duplicate them here, but I found it a comprehensive, informative read which nicely filled the gaps in Samuel Pepys’ diary (which I have read in its unedited entirety!), so concerned as it is with predominantly masculine pursuits, and which refers mostly to ladies Pepys fancies or has enjoyed!

Among the many things I read with interest was the section dealing with abduction of heiresses as a means of increasing one’s wealth. This was obviously still going on some two centuries later, as was the case with my great great great uncle Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

Antonia Fraser’s Epilogue includes the following, which is chillingly resonant, to me anyway, in the current times:

“ ... the graph of female progress, far from ascending in a straight line from the death of Queen Elizabeth to the accession of Queen Anne, rose during the middle decades to dip again with the restoration of the old order in 1660. (This cyclical pattern, whatever the special factors which brought it about in the seventeenth century, is perhaps worth bearing in mind; as with all forms of liberation, of which the liberation of women is only one example, it is easy to suppose in a time of freedom that the darker days of repression can never come again.)”

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating history of the lives of 17th century women. More than anything, it made me glad to be alive now, when I'm able to hold property, make my own decisions (including whom to marry,)and go to university; not to mention avoid dying in childbirth or bearing 14 children (not uncommon at the time). I wouldn't say this book is light reading, but is very readable, since the author focuses on the stories of particular women, and very interesting they are, too.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite books. Weaker vessel my _____!

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember in an interview with Fraser - I think - she said that this was the book of which she was most proud, and I see why: it's a massive undertaking, even if the limitations of history help circumscribe the project, it is still massive. Basically, it's a survey of women in England in the 17th century (my favorite century? maaaybe), organized into chapters dedicated to the roles they played - naturally, some women pop up in multiple chapters - and conveyed through mini-biographies.

If you're looking for Greatest Hits of English Women in the 17th Century . . . this is not the place. Fraser (wisely?) skips the most obvious choices, so Nell Gwynn and Aphra Behn show up but only glancingly. Fraser has a deft hand for conveying personalities in not-very-much space, and juggles the stories of women who were exceptional and women who were totally in line with the mores of the time. It's sort of like Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, except thicker and maybe more for 18-20 year olds than 16 year olds.

My only qualm is that Fraser takes her sources at their word, which I guess is the only thing she could do if she weren't writing a full biography. Biographers have the luxury (or even the responsibility) of questioning their sources' good faith, but I don't know that Fraser does in this instance. Also, sometimes her generalizations about life in the 17th century seemed unsupported. But MOSTLY, it is a really engaging and meticulous look at the period and the lives of women - how their lives changed, how their lives stayed the same.

[Carol Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must for any author of historical romance -- the best research guide ever written about women in the 17th/18th centuries!

[Florence Ridley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much that I went out and bought three more of Fraser's books. Her writing is both scholarly and dryly funny, and the thoroughness with which she reconstructs the lives of people who were marginalised and forgotten even while they were alive is incredible. This is a profoundly important piece of scholarship but it is also a work of great tenderness, setting out to rediscover the stories of the most historically silent demographic in early modern England not merely despite the difficulty of the task but because of it. Despite the scarcity of written records, early modern women did not pass through their lives quiet and unobserved; they were active participants in their communities and in broader political, religious and cultural developments throughout this period, their autonomy suppressed and criticised and thus all the more important to scholarship. A full view of any aspect of this period is simply not possible as long as the presence of women is overlooked, or limited to their influence on the more important men in their lives. In dedicating herself to rescuing early modern women from that enforced silence caused by the universal focus upon the textual remnants by and pertaining to men, Fraser claims that the lives of women were fundamentally important - not only when they were exceptional, or relevant to the men around them, but just as they were. It is a claim which much modern scholarship, even forty years later, would do well to consider.

[Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antonia is a wonderful writer...I enjoy all her books.I especially enjoyed this one...it opened my eyes to how very strong we women really have been through out history and still are today! It was so interesting to go down in history to read about these amazing ladies and there struggles...thank you for adding all the photos as you always do Antonia.

[Bhan13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

[for 'The Weaker Vessel, part 2'] Such a great (further) exploration of women's lives in the 16th century which includes a novel argument against war - midwives protesting that it ruins their business :)

[Sam Aird · Rating 3 out of 5]

An oddly structured book that gives fragmented biographies of multiple Dorothys, Elizabeths and Annes who are very easy to confuse. That said, it is still a fascinating read, the chapter on childbirth in the 17th century being particularly shocking.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fraser gives a very detailed portrait of women during the English Civil War and early restoration periods. She focuses not on how women acted in society but also within the family structure. It isn't a fast read, but it is very in depth.

[Katherine Wyvern · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Fraser's biographies, but this book is just an unreadable mess.
An avalanche of names and relations (stuff like "the third wife of the cousin of the mother of the aunt of Duke this and that" constitutes half the content of the each page, and, dude, I can't even bear that in my own family ) wich obscures the actual content of each chapter.
Tremendously well researched, but each life story is totally fragmented over several chapters, while the topic of each chapter (inheritance, weddings, marriage, childbirth etc etc) is drowned in crows of odds and ends and scattered bits of biographical telling. It's impossible to keep track of who's who from one page to the next, unless you are obsessed with British nobility and their lineages.
Gave up after 5 chapters, regretfully, because the topic is intriguing the the research staggering.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long and heavy read, but plenty of interesting snippets of life from the time to keep you engaged.
As modern women we have a duty to go back and learn about times past and how things were so very different then. And yet in some ways - still the same.
“Are you a maid a widow or a wife” to me is the same as every time I fill out a form or give my details - “is it miss mrs or ms” are you someone’s daughter someone’s wife or someone’s ex.

[Janina]

DNF.

A friend told me her favorite Marie Antoinette biography is the one by Antonia Fraser, so maybe I should have started with that. But this was available for £1 at a used bookstore in Charring Cross, so...

Anyway. I tried.

[Adrian Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of great stories!

[Mikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bible dubs women as "the weaker vessel," in comparison to men, implying that, compared to men, women are physically and spiritually less robust. Antonia Fraser begs to differ. To lend proof to her objection, she examines life in 17th century England during the Civil War, a period in which women had no shortage of dangerous ways to die to choose from--constant childbirth, the ravages of illness, war and political strife, domestic abuse, and even popular opinion, to name a few.

Fraser fills the book with fascinating stories of women from all walks of life: from the glittering ornaments of the court to the miserable old crones on the road, every single tale bears witness to the triumphs and tribulations of women. There are stories of women who defended their castles against relentless sieges, of the rise and fall of famous mistresses of the theater, of heiresses who, in spite of many kidnappings and familial conflicts, end up finding true love. The weaker vessel, they may be called but life as a woman--especially one in the 17th century--is no joke.

[Jane Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow...definitely not a "quick" read! This is a non-fiction book that I suspect is used in Women's History classes. Very interesting book that covers the lives of women in the 17th century about subjects ranging from education to childbirth to women in business, etc. Sure makes me glad I was born in today's world. The author derives her information from diaries, manuscripts, etc from the era. She includes photographs of portraits which helps bring the reader to a more personal place with these interesting women. The book is nicely laced with footnotes and references (I personally find them distracting) to authenticate information and further educate the reader.

[Lynne-marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faser is as wonderful as usual, I just couldn't dig up the enthusiasm for this examination of women & their role in 17th century England. Obviously it sounded like a good idea, or I wouldn't have chosen the book, but it was extremely minute in its examinations and divided into numerous parts and the author & I began to part company in our mutual joy over her findings about a third of the way in. I forced my way to three-quarters of the way and then gave up, something I seldom do. I suspect this was quite literally a book of dedicated scholarship that the publisher wondered would float in wider publication. I wonder if it did?

[Sep · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an anecdotal history of women between 1600 and 1700. Daughters were married off despite and often in the teeth of their own inclinations. Orphaned heiresses were cash cows enriching both their in-laws and their guardians as all the marriage business (and it was a business) was settled. The research and analysis of same was phenomenal. Despite all of this the book is an easy read. Each chapter is divided into categories. I would recommend this book to any history buff and also as a must for any school library. Any middle school or high school student doing a research on this time period would find this book easy and interesting to use.

[Amadee Tous · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antonia Fraser is simply an exceptional historian. Her books are so thoroughly researched and she doesn't skimp here either. She delves into the lives of the women of England in the 17th century, their marriages, divorces, childbirth, maternal and infant mortality, their role in society, court life, marriage prospects. From the simple servant farmhands to the infamous royal courtesans, she brings them to life.
Really girls, in comparison to their lives, we have it good!

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the title put you off. This is one of the best history books I've ever read (I know that sounds like damning with faint praise, but I have read a lot of history books.) Fraser sticks with one topic and just rolls with it. Yes, we know about how the royals and upper crust in Europe lived, but what about the average wench? The whores? The mothers? Here are women you can relate to in times that aren't too much like our own.

[Bruna Martini · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my opinion, the weakest of Fraser’s books. It sets out to answer many questions and is refreshingly focused on women in history: their rights, their roles, their contributions, which are often overlooked. But unlike her other books, which gain strength from focusing deeply on a single person and digging the hell of details out of it, this one feels scattered. It’s disconnected, touch-and-go, and reads more like a work in progress than a coherent, conclusive narrative.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a concise breakdown of the lives of women in 17th century England. Fraser's style is scholarly and readable, and although she doesn't spend much time with the ordinary citizen, she gives a clear and surprising picture of what it was like to be a woman then.

[Stevie Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good solid wedge of a book, even in paperback, but this still only skimmed the surface of a topic that needs a lot more investigation. Now I want to track down full biographies of a lot of the women covered briefly in here.