Marriage and the British Army in the Long Eighteenth Century

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-19-968100-6
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 258 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 434 g

The Girl I Left Behind Me addresses a neglected aspect of the history of the Hanoverian army. From 1685 to the beginning of the Victorian era, army administration attempted to discourage marriage among men in almost all ranks. It fostered a misogynist culture of the bachelor soldier who trifled with feminine hearts and avoided responsibility and commitment. The army's policy was unsuccessful in preventing military marriage. By concentrating on the many
soldiers' wives who were unable to win permission to live "on the strength" of the regiment (entitled to half-rations) and travel with their husbands, this title explores the phenomenon of soldiers who persisted in defying the army's anti-marriage initiatives.

Using evidence gathered from ballads, novels, court and parish records, letters, memoirs, and War Office papers, Jennine Hurl-Eamon shows that both soldiers and their wives exerted continual pressure on the state through evocative appeals to officers and civilians, fuelled by wives' pride in performing their own military "duty" at home. Respectable, companionate couples of all ranks reflect a subculture within the army that recognized the value in Enlightenment femininity. Looking at military
marriages within the telescoping contexts of the state, their regimental and civilian communities, and the couples themselves, The Girl I Left Behind Me reveals the range of masculinities beneath the uniform, the positive influence of wives and sweethearts on soldiers' performance of their duties, and
the surprising resilience of partnerships severed by war and army anti-marriage policies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hurl-Eamon, Jennine

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Locating Military Marriage in Eighteenth-Century London
1: They Also Served: State Policies Toward Wives & Wives' Duties to the State
2: Women in the Manning of the Army: Wives' and Sweethearts' Roles in Recruitment and Retention
3: Military Masculinities: Soldiers, Women, and Masculine Identity
4: The Feminine side of Esprit de Corps: Wives and Women's Place in Army Culture
5: The Home Front: Courtship, Love, Separation, and Loss
6: Making Marriage Work: Economic and Emotional Survival Strategies
Epilogue

Über Autor(innen)

Jennine Hurl-Eamon is associate professor of History at Trent University, Canada. She has published several articles and book chapters on aspects of plebeian marriage and the interactions between the poorer classes and the lower courts. She is the author of two books, Gender and Petty Violence in London, 1680-1720 (2005), and Women's Roles in Eighteenth-Century Europe (2010).