"As a woman, you glimpsed the world where you had a
say"- Stevie Davies
Unbridled Spirits is a book that appeals to both the
curious beginner and the academically minded student. Davies's aim is "to
kindle the imagination of readers coming fresh to the 17th century but have a
dismaying sense that the period is inaccessibly difficult".
The book bears a striking similarity to Christopher
Hill's book The World Turned Upside Down. Davies examines the same groups of
radical sects that Hill did in his landmark book but from the standpoint of
women.
Davies acknowledges her debt to Hill and other
left-wing historians. Davies describes being "raised on Christopher
Hill." I am not sure of Davies political views, but her book is influenced
by Hill and other radical historians concept of the study of "history from
below." Davies is not entirely uncritical of Hill's work in that she
believes he tends to equate the people with men.
Despite writing in the tradition of history from
below, I do not believe the book or the writer espouses a sympathy for gender
studies that seem to dominate the study of women in history at the moment.
Gender historiography is a relatively new concept in which to explore women's
role in history. It is largely a by-product of the genre "History from
below" instigated by the Communist Party History Group. While producing
some precious research and publications, the replacing of gender over class in
the study of historical events was a move away from a classical Marxist
approach.
Gender studies became especially intense within the
History Workshop movement. The growth was facilitated by such books such as
E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class in the early 1960s it
provided a platform for gender studies to grow. It coincided with the rise of
independent women historians and writers who "insisted that women's
experience no longer is 'hidden from history.' Sally Alexander and Anna Davin,
'Feminist History,' History Workshop Journal, no 1 Spring 1976; Barbara Taylor,
Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the 19th Century, 1983.
In his review, John Carey describes Davies's book as
"vibrant and authoritative study of the women of the seventeenth century,
women whose voices have been lost until now. Stevie Davies resurrects forgotten
texts to bring to life prophetesses who predicted the fall of the king and the
rise and fall of Cromwell; Peace Women who marched against the war; Leveller
women who condemned oppressive legislators and abusive taxes; Fifth Monarchists
who attacked the government; separatist women who founded dissenting churches
and spoke for the liberty of conscience; and radical Quakers who stood for
gender and class equality".
Davies's well researched and well-written book gives
an in-depth insight into the radicalisation of women during the English
revolution. Looking at it from the standpoint of the 21st Century it is a
little difficult to imagine what life would have been like for women of all
classes during the revolution. Davies writes 'I have been painfully aware of
the silence of the majority of seventeenth-century women, which accompanies the
historian like a mute, spectral companion, of whom little can be recorded save
her existence.'
While it was dangerous for men to question the
existing political and economic setup, for women at the beginning of the 17th
Century, it was nearly impossible. But women of all classes managed to be
heard, and some cases very loudly. The explosion of printing presses enabled
women with little money to spread their ideas and propaganda to a wider
audience than ever before.
But this had a price. The ruling elite correctly saw
this radicalisation of women as a direct threat to their power and privileges.
The women that spoke up formed groups and joined the radical parties such as
the Levellers and Quakers were seen as a plague and in many cases labelled
witches. Again according to Carey "a woman could be publicly humiliated,
ducked or bridled merely for scolding her husband, neighbours – or
government."
The book is infused with the spirit and drama of the
revolution. It is an overused phrase but in this instance, a correct one that
the world was turned upside down. A striking aspect of the book is that it is
extremely well researched. It would appear that Davies must have slept
overnight in many of the libraries she studied in. Her use of primary sources
is excellent.
The broad range of eyewitness accounts and personal stories
tell of large scale suffering and persecution. Davies, while trying to be as
objective as she can have a partisan approach to the subject. "As a woman,
you glimpsed the world where you had a say," writes Stevie Davies
Some writers have put forward that the struggles of
these women of the 17th Century bear little resemblances to modern-day
struggles. I tend to disagree. While not on the same scale, many aspects are
the same. In many jobs, women are still treated as second class citizens and
paid accordingly, and the concept that women's role is best served by remaining
in the home is still alive and kicking. So Davies book does not just stand as a
history book but has a contemporary significance.
Davies began her early career as a literary critic and
renowned novelist. A good training ground for her later development into a
first-rate historian. Like Christopher Hill did with radical male figures
Davies manages to bring to wider audiences brave women such as Anna Trapnel,
Margaret Fell and Lucy Hutchinson. Many of these women, despite enormous
hardship, probably lived life more fully in those short years of the revolution
than many of us live in our lifetime.
While it is correct to say that the women were treated
with fear and persecution it should be noted after people got over the initial
shock of hearing these politicised women they began to get a hearing and find
an audience and not only amongst other women. In normal times these women would
be mostly seen but certainly not heard, but these were extraordinary times, and
conditions were being made for layers of the population to have a voice.
One of these incredible moments was when the Army
Council met in December 1648. Charles 1st had been roundly defeated by Cromwell
and the New Model Army. At a time when dual power presided between Parliament
and the army, a debate opened up as what to do with the king.
Sections of the military which were to the left of
Cromwell wanted The Man of Blood to be brought for trial. Cromwell himself was
undecided. Parliament was for a deal with the monarch.
Given women's lowly position in society, it seemed
inconceivable that a leading radical female would be invited to the highest
ruling body of the army while it debated the trial of Charles I, but this is
what happened. A young prophetess from Abingdon, Elizabeth Pool was invited to
impart her wisdom. She opposed the trial and killing of the king. This position
which was to the right of the army council, was rejected. In fact, on the
execution of the king, most of the radical sects were opposed to it.
The book does not develop a conventional narrative.
Although there is some interrelationship between the chapters and the events,
they depict most of them stand alone. Chapter nine is one example of this
approach. It discusses three Puritan marriages. In one form or another,
relationships were based on social equality.
Perhaps the most important and certainly my favourite is
Davies's work on the Quakers. The movement of Quaker party is seen through the
lives of Margaret Fell, her husband Thomas, and George Fox, who was Fell's
second husband. Fell seemed to embody all that was active, creative and brave
in the women of the time. According to Anthony Fletcher ", She was
formidable indeed, an aggressive controversialist into her eighties, whose
stamina did not fail. In a sense, Margaret Fell stands for the many unbridled
women that this book seeks to celebrate. It was she who delivered by hand to
Charles II in 1660 the Quaker manifesto which enshrined the basic claim:
"we are people that follow after those things that make for peace, love,
and unity."
The book has been met with favourable reviews. One harsh
voice, William Lamont made this criticism "the author brings her narrative
skills to bear in making the story come alive. She often writes in the present
tense, and she does not miss a chance to emphasise the humorous and ironic side
of the events she describes. Although she does not make any glaring factual
mistakes, this treatment tends to rob her subjects of their full dignity and to
suggest their motivation came more from the unconscious need to overcome their
social oppression, which was certainly necessary, than from a genuine movement
of the Holy Spirit. While her treatment of Quaker women is more respectful than
that of some of her other subjects, one might wish for a less arch tone.
Readers wanting a more in-depth treatment of the same period would do well to
go on to read Phyllis Mack's Visionary Women, or the anthology by Mary Garman,
Judith Applegate, Margaret Benefield, and Dortha Meredith, Hidden in Plain
Sight, for treatment with more depth". Lamont ends his review by wishing
"Stevie Davies has many readers".[1] That is the hope of this author.
