AbstractsWomens Studies

Women in England during the early modern period had relatively little autonomy in pursuing their own goals and in defining their own identity. This was particularly true of married women, who laboured under the restrictions placed upon them by the laws of coverture, which removed many of their legal rights. Upon widowhood, however, a new opportunity for self-expression was immediately presented in the form of the socially-accepted tradition of commissioning a monument commemorating their husband. In this thesis I will examine the process by which these commissions took place and comment upon the difficulties and expectations, as well as the opportunities and motives, faced by widows engaging in this relatively unique form of artistic patronage.