CONTENTS

CHAP.   PAGE
  Preface vii
I. Ancient History And British Women 1
 
II. The Modern Bases of Privilege 15
 
III. Royal Women 27
  Queens Consort 27
  Queens Regnant 28
  Queens Regent 33
 
IV. Noblewomen 35
  They paid Homage 36
  They received Homage 37
  They held Courts Baron 37
  They held by Military Service 40
  They could be Knights 42
  They could inherit Public Offices 42
  They could be High Sheriff 43
  They could be Earl Marshal 45
  They could be High Constable, High Steward, High Chamberlain 47
  They could be Champion, Governor of Royal Castles 48
  They could be appointed to various offices 51
  They could act as Femes Soles when married 51
  They had the Cure of Churches 53
  As Peeresses summoned to Parliament in person or in proxy 53
 
V. County Women 60
  Could be Freeholders 61
  Could act as Femes Soles when married 61
  Could hold by Military Tenure 62
  Paid and received Homage 63
  Could present to Churches 63
  Could hold Motes and attend Motes 64
  Could be Suitors at County Courts, Pares, Judges or Jury 64
  Could elect Knights of the Shire 67
  Could elect Members of Private Boroughs 69
 
VI. Freewomen 77
  Could be Members of Guilds 79
  Could have Guilds of their own 83
  Were free of the City of London 84
  Were free in other Boroughs 86
  Could be Members of Corporation 90
  Could vote for Members of Parliament 94
 
VII. The Long Ebb 99
  The Errors of Sir Edward Coke 99
  A Believer in Coke’s Views 107
  Protesting Women 112
  Anne Clifford 112
  Mary Astell’s Protest 124
  Mary Wolstonecroft Godwin 127
  Legal Cases decided in their favour 128
  The Reform Bill of 1832 136
  The Reform Bill of 1867 139
  Chorlton v. Lings 140
 
VIII. The Turn of the Tide 146
  Something has been done 147
  Municipal Franchise—School Boards 148
  Married Women’s Property Acts 149
  Lady Sandhurst’s Case 150
  What a Woman can do 152
  Women and the Universities 155
 
IX. Other Women 159
  The Test of Civilisation 162
  Labour the basis of Property 165
  The Unrecorded Increment of Women’s Labour 166
  The Duality of Humanity 176
  The Woman God’s Fellow-worker 178
 
  Appendix  
  Eldest Daughters 180
  The Countess Lucy 180
  Women’s Service 180
  Women’s Guilds 181
  Free Kent 181
  The Learned Selden 181
  Sir Edward Coke 181
  Judge or Jury 182
  Physical Force Argument 182
  Women and the Universities 182