The history of the family has become an area of great interest, yet the property arrangements entered into upon marriage, a crucial aspect of the process of familial wealth transmission and distribution in the landed classes in early modern England, have never been systematically studied. In the light of evidence provided by hitherto unused family muniments, Dr Bonfield analyses the legal, social and economic aspects of these settlements, and discusses the development and impact of the strict settlement.

Fully revised and updated, this classic text provides the authoritative introduction to the history of the English common law. The book traces the development of the principal features of English legal institutions and doctrines from Anglo-Saxon times to the present and, combined with Baker and Milsom's Sources of Legal History, offers invaluable insights into the development of the common law of persons, obligations, and property. It is an essential reference point for all lawyers, historians and students seeking to understand the evolution of English law over a millennium. The book provides an introduction to the main characteristics, institutions, and doctrines of English law over the longer term - particularly the evolution of the common law before the extensive statutory changes and regulatory regimes of the last two centuries. It explores how legal change was brought about in the common law and how judges and lawyers managed to square evolution with respect for inherited wisdom.

Shakespeare's Domestic Economies explores representations of female subjectivity in Shakespearean drama from a refreshingly new perspective, situating The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, and Measure for Measure in relation to early modern England's nascent consumer culture and competing conceptions of property. Drawing evidence from legal documents, economic treatises, domestic manuals, marriage sermons, household inventories, and wills to explore the realities and dramatic representations of women's domestic roles, Natasha Korda departs from traditional accounts of the commodification of women, which maintain that throughout history women have been "trafficked" as passive objects of exchange between men. In the early modern period, Korda demonstrates, as newly available market goods began to infiltrate households at every level of society, women emerged as never before as the "keepers" of household properties. With the rise of consumer culture, she contends, the housewife's managerial function assumed a new form, becoming increasingly centered around caring for the objects of everyday life—objects she was charged with keeping as if they were her own, in spite of the legal strictures governing women's property rights. Korda deftly shows how their positions in a complex and changing social formation allowed women to exert considerable control within the household domain, and in some areas to thwart the rule of fathers and husbands.

The abolition of the Scottish and Irish Parliaments in 1707 and 1800 created a United Kingdom centred upon the Westminster legislature. This text discusses what this meant for the four nations involved, and how conceptions of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh identities were affected.

The Routledge History of Emotions in Europe: 1100–1700 presents the state of the field of pre-modern emotions during this period, placing particular emphasis on theoretical and methodological aspects of current research. This book serves as a reference to existing research practices in emotions history and advances studies in the field across a range of scholarly approaches. It brings together the work of recognized experts and new voices, and represents a wide range of international and interdisciplinary perspectives from different schools of research practice, including art history, literature and culture, philosophy, linguistics, archaeology and music. Throughout the book, central and recurrent themes in emotional culture within medieval and early modern Europe are highlighted from different angles, and each chapter pays specialist attention to illustrative examples showing theory and method in application. Exploring topics such as love, war, sex and sexuality, death, time, the body and the family in the context of emotional culture, The Routledge History of Emotions in Europe: 1100–1700 reflects the sharp rise in scholarship relating to the history of emotions in recent years and is an essential resource for students and researchers of the history of pre-modern emotions.

The texts reproduced in facsimile in the three volumes of 'Legal Treatises' reconstruct the legal status of the early modern Englishwoman. To facilitate a reading of the treatises by broadly defining many of the laws discussed in great detail in the treatises, a general introduction to the laws of the period provides concise overviews of the structure of the English legal system; the legal education of practitioners of the law; the kinds of legal literature produced in the period; and the legal position of early modern Englishwomen. A bibliography of important secondary scholarship devoted to the early modern Englishwoman's legal position assists the reader in obtaining more specialized knowledge. In addition to the general introduction, a separate introduction to each of the reproduced works is provided, including information about each work's publication and authorship, intended audience, content and reception. In order to provide this framework for the years 1600-1750, this first volume of 'Legal Treatises' reproduces The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights (1632), the first known treatise devoted to the legal rights of women. 'The Womans Lawyer,' as the treatise's running headline and spine title read, was published anonymously in 1632; the title page fails to identify the original author of the work, and its authorship remains in question today. At over 400 pages, the text represents a massive effort of consolidation, organizing the disparate and hitherto uncompiled aspects of the common law applicable to women into a logical framework. It is unusual among early modern legal treatises in its stated goal of providing a 'popular kind of instruction' to its readers.