The woman found herself, according to the Latin phrase, 'in the hands of her husband', who was to 'cherish' her, but also 'keep her in fear'. Often, in the provinces, she addressed him in the third person, served him at the table at which she would not dare to sit. The husband had the same rights over her as he had over a daughter who was under age, among them the right to strike her, to silence her, and even to relegate her to the convent. And yet the Frenchwoman of the time was not a feeble creature. She appeared an Amazon to the eyes of Italian and Spanish women, who were prisoners of an inflexible jealousy. Many women hunted tirelessly, broke horses, handled the rapier, the boar-spear and the arquebus with skill.
Noble women
- Expected to keep skin soft and beautiful
- Expected to maintain her own toilette
- beauty was practically a commodity as noble marriages were arranged, and it was easier to arrange a marriage when the lady was beautiful
- Upheld their family’s honor, serving the family and nation by marrying well
- In addition, a woman’s honor was in “not getting herself talked about”
- Were expected to be pious and chaste until marriage
- Learned to read, write, embroider, and were expected to converse intelligently with whoever decided to speak to them
- Upper-class women often went to convent schools, where they learned moral conduct, music, and other arts
- Were taught to read and write but not to study literary works for fear of women becoming too intelligent
- Spelling had not been standardized so was usually awful, and handwriting was often atrocious
- Often kept the accounts of their houses once married
- Expected to maintain her own toilette
- Women who broke the mold
- Marie-Madeleine Mouron
- Was part of the French Army Mulan-style, but deserted
- When the court found out her sex and that she had been chaste, they spared her the death penalty
- Duchesse de Chevreuse
- Used her intelligence and influence with the Queen to carry out a (ultimately chaste) affair with the Duke of Buckingham
- Had lovers, even though she was married
- Marie-Madeleine Mouron
- Marriage was viewed as an extension of the state; a disordered household led to a disordered state
- Husband had power to rule over the household, including servants
- Wives held very little authority to minimize their threat to the patriarchy
- Desirable qualities in a lower-class (not nobly born) wife included:
- Able to brew beer and bake bread
- Able to organize a household
- Had some knowledge of illnesses
- Desirable qualities in an upper-class wife included:
- Chaste
- Beautiful
- Pious
- Charming
- Women in general were not supposed to be clever for fear they would outwit their husbands
- Matrimony was viewed as an instant dilution or cessation of love; it was represented as a joyless and loveless estate
- Marriage was viewed as a family concern, not something happening between two individuals; the bride in particular was urged not to entertain thoughts of love in case the person her parents chose disappointed her
- The most important concerns were social, economic and political when choosing a match
- Girls were married as early as 12; boys at 14
- Often, men were encouraged to have extramarital affairs, women had no such outlet