Just how weak were the women of the Civil War era? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Did anyone marry for love? Could a woman divorce? What rights had the unmarried? What expectations the widowed? An expert on the period, Antonia Fraser aims to bring to life the many and various women she has encountered in her considerable research, such as governesses, milkmaids, fishwives, nuns, defenders of castles and equally courageous courtesans, countesses, witches and widows. Antonia Fraser is the author of three historical biographies: Mary Queen of Scots, Cromwell: Our Chief of Men and King Charles II. She also wrote The Six Wives of Henry VIII and The Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot.