ABSTRACT
In discussing women and the civil war, or conflicts over manhood, we have demonstrated at many points the ways in which representations of manliness and womanhood, positive or hostile, had political force alongside actual initiatives or experiences. Influential women from Henrietta Maria to Anna Trapnel were praised or condemned through the use of female stereotypes of loyal wife or conniving shrew, inspired daughter of God or scold and witch; powerful men were undermined through accusations of cuckoldry or effeminacy.1 One’s own cause was supported by brave, rational men, and loyal, chaste women; the enemy’s men were inadequate, and their women were unruly whores. As the royalist poet Abraham Cowley wrote:
For to outdo the story of Pope Joan Your women preach too, and are like to be The Whores of Babylon, as much as she.2
