In 1642, the political climate in England took a dramatic turn for the worse when repeated political stand-offs between king and parliament culminated in the first of the English civil wars. During the civil war era, ordinary people were compelled to take sides, and the standard subject matter of modern political philosophy – such as the limits of political authority, and the extent of the individual's obligation to obey the king – became popular topics of discussion. In the literature of the time, we find questions about what legitimates political authority, about the political obligations of subjects and sovereigns, the connection between church and state, the best way to uphold the liberty of subjects, and theories of civil disobedience and resistance to authority. In this chapter (and in subsequent chapters), we show that the writings of early modern women reflect the changing language and content of political thought of this period.

We have seen that in early modern Venice, the political rhetoric of liberty and slavery was applied to the situation of women within marriage. The Venetian women did not offer any detailed or concrete feminist proposals for reform. But they did criticise male usurpation of women's property, and they suggested that women retain their liberty, and avoid a life of slavery, by remaining unmarried. Prior to the civil war era, it is difficult to find the rhetoric of male tyranny and female slavery in English women's writings.