Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester.
This thesis investigates the experience of war widows in mid 17th-century England by examining the county pension and sequestration schemes during the Civil Wars. It focuses on how these processes affected the lives of women who lost their husbands in war, and how they negotiated their financial subsistence by presenting petitions. In order to demonstrate how the lives of ordinary women were changed by the wars, it presents a local history of these processes, with special reference to Kent and Sussex. Additionally, the thesis considers the contemporary representations of widows in Civil-War print material and examines how this shaped the ways in which they fashioned themselves.
The research for this thesis was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme and The National Archives.