Higgins, Christopher Vernon (2024) 'Wide wandring weemen' : the nature and variety of travel by English women to continental Europe (1558-1630). PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
This thesis aims to challenge long-held preconceptions that female travel in the early modern era was limited in scope and variety. Central to this work is the formation of a new database of 2,075 female travellers to Europe during the later Tudor and early Stuart periods. Chapter 1 reviews the historiography of early modern female mobility, and aims to position this thesis within the current discourse. Chapter 2 and 3 explain how the database of female travellers was constructed and reaches some significant new prosopographical conclusions on the nature of travel as well as recurring motives for female mobility across the period. Chapter 4 explores contemporary responses to the notion of female overseas travel found in a variety of literary sources. It suggests attitudes change over the period as a consequence of the growing numbers of journeys being made by women. In addition, it examines female-authored accounts of travel to explore how women themselves responded to greater prospects for travelling. Chapter 5 provides a detailed case study of one of the most popular and best documented destinations for overseas travel by women, Spa. It explores both the inter-confessional nature of travellers to the town, and also the varying motives for travelling there. Finally, the role of the ambassadress is highlighted in Chapter 6, as an example of the way foreign travel afforded women new forms of agency. In summary, this thesis aims to demonstrate that continental travel by early modern women was not only more common but more complex in its character than previously imagined, affording them opportunities to fulfil a variety of new roles which have hitherto been overlooked or undervalued.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Jun 2024 14:01 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Jun 2024 12:40 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53745 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00053745 |
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