ABSTRACT
This may seem a catch-all category, because all women were daughters and most women in sixteenthand seventeenth-century England were wives and mothers. It is, however, a category of particular significance; while other categories demonstrate the important public roles fulfilled by early modern women, women also exercised considerable private, social, and political influence within the domestic sphere – something traditional history has often dismissed. The women in this category demonstrate a wide range of experiences within the familial context: some daughters were estranged from parents, while others were devoted in their support. In the marriage arena, many of these women complied with arranged marriages while others eloped with a man of their choosing. Many arranged marriages, however, were successful, and wives became business and travel partners with their husbands. Other arranged marriages were unhappy and even abusive; some of these women resisted and were able to arrange a separation or escape, often by extreme means.
