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Rape in Early Modern England

Law, History and Criticism

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Helen Barker

    1. London, UK

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  • Provides a legal and historical context from which to approach the subject of rape in early modern England

  • Argues that The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights cannot be regarded as a reliable legal source

  • Also addresses confusion over the status of a range of other early printed legal handbooks

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Critical Context and History

    • Helen Barker
    Pages 1-33

  3. The Legal Framework

    • Helen Barker
    Pages 35-58

  4. Statute Law

    • Helen Barker
    Pages 59-88

  5. The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights

    • Helen Barker
    Pages 89-119

  6. Conclusion

    • Helen Barker
    Pages 121-124

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 125-128
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Keywords

About this book

This book is intended for those in the humanities seeking a legal context for writing about rape in early modern England. It takes the premise that over the past four decades misunderstandings about rape law, and misreadings of rape statutes from medieval to Elizabethan times, have become widely cited in criticism. Helen Barker identifies how this has arisen, and discusses the main sources of confusion – including indissoluble issues around the word ‘ravishment’. Rape law historically encompassed elopement and abduction; this book offers a succinct overview of the law, and draws attention to the wider social context other than gender opposition in which it is often presented. In addition, critics have been tempted to rely on the ostensibly authoritative seventeenth-century treatise, The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights, as a legal source. By examining the context of its publication, this book suggests that the treatise is unreliable and can mislead the unwary.

Authors and Affiliations

  • London, UK

    Helen Barker

About the author

Helen Barker gained her PhD having studied at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Rape in Early Modern England

  • Book Subtitle: Law, History and Criticism

  • Authors: Helen Barker

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82609-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-82608-6Published: 03 November 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-82609-3Published: 02 November 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 128

  • Topics: History, general, History of Early Modern Europe, Legal History

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