Traditional studies into aristocratic women like Rowena E. Archer’s ‘Rich Old Ladies’ have typically adjudged them to be limitations to the power of their male relatives and a source of great frustration for families. Newer studies, thankfully, have challenged this, highlighting the key role women played in administration and politics and highlighting that such women were often blessings to their families and male relatives, rather than a curse. This study utilises a mix of wills, administrative records, government rolls and Parliamentary proceedings to re-assess this duality that exists between the two interpretations of aristocratic women. In doing so, this study ultimately hopes to add important ideas to the existing understanding of women for further exploration – showing that aristocratic women, often widows and dowagers, could effectively act as both a help and a hindrance to their relatives through processes such as emulation, and that through such processes, aristocratic may have had a larger impact than perhaps previously appreciated.
PLEASE NOTE: You must be a member of the University of Lincoln to be able to view this dissertation. Please log in here.