Tag: 16th century
‘Dangerous’ didn’t always mean what it does today… Isabel Davis reveals what it meant to be a ‘dangerous woman’ in the Middle Ages. You’ll be surprised!
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Sara Sheridan interrogates the taboo of female toplessness, tracing changing attitudes throughout the centuries & locating the body as a site for protest.
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The case of Anne Askew
In the first weeks of the Dangerous Women Project we featured poetry inspired by Anne Askew. Today, Debapriya Basu delves deeper into Anne’s story.
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Rebellion or Conformity?
Rachel Walker revisits the history of Anne Boleyn–the undeniably controversial wife of Henry VIII who commands enduring fascination among scholars and the public.
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The Women of the Pendle Witch Trials
Writer Sarah King looks at the relationship between sexuality and witchcraft in the infamous 17th century trials of the ‘Pendle witches’.
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Lauded poet Rachel McCrum shares a powerful poem in response to incidences of mass sexual violence against women reported from different parts of the world in recent years.
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Femme fatale, martyr, or tragic romantic heroine?
In this fourth Spy Week post, Lucy R. Hinnie explores the threat–political and gendered–embodied by Mary I of Scotland, and the 16th century espionage that led to her ultimate downfall.
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Poet Claire Askew has composed three powerful new works to her probable 16th century ancestor.
A scholar and a poet too, Anne was the first English woman to demand a divorce, and the only woman on record to be tortured in the Tower of London. Could the men of the rack force Anne to give up her dangerous secrets?
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