Being a woman in the 17th century..

Cherry has made me think of the things I find most horrifying after reading about Charles Ist's Queen. The most horrifying was her first birth which was so bad it was a case of save her or the baby and the shock of the Doctor and courtiers that the King begged them to save her. That he expressed no desire to have a son first was pretty amazing too. But no member of Parliament was a woman so when they decided she should be deprived of the right to see The Prince of Wales men had decided that . When she was declared a traitor , men had decided that too. Her love of the King could not be understood by such people or her love of her children.She was not just a breeding machine. She seems lucky to have had a husband who allowed her to act because woman who did were labelled as whores. In fact when she needed help the Catholic Church dominated by men abandoned her , her sons don't seem the greatest help either.That is the life of the most " important"woman in England so we are now looking for a book about the life of the average woman...dying in childbirth seems quite a good option except for the child's sake.