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The Prophetess and the Patriarch: The Visions of an Anti-Regicide in Seventeenth-Century England (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series #96)

The Prophetess and the Patriarch: The Visions of an Anti-Regicide in Seventeenth-Century England (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series #96)

Elizabeth Poole, Katharine Gillespie (Editor)
$65.94
Publication Date: July 20th, 2024
Publisher:
Iter Press
ISBN:
9781649590725
Pages:
262
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Description

Published for the first time in full, a common woman’s writings reveal the startling role she played in England’s revolt against the monarchy.
 
In 1649, a seamstress named Elizabeth Poole appeared at the Whitehall debates in London to prophesy in front of Parliament’s army shortly after it had defeated the crown in the English civil wars. Invited to help deliberate the fate of Charles I, Poole advised the army to spare the king’s life but to put him on trial for tyranny and to enter into a new compact with the people. After her visions proved controversial, she was defamed as a prostitute and a witch. She retaliated by printing her prophecies, along with two new defenses of her original revelations. This collection publishes Poole’s pamphlets in full for the first time.
 

About the Author

Elizabeth Poole (1588–1654) was a seamstress, prophetess, and writer. 

Katharine Gillespie is a professor of literature and the humanities at Chapman University. She is the author of multiple books, including Women Writing the English Republic, 1625-1681.

Praise for The Prophetess and the Patriarch: The Visions of an Anti-Regicide in Seventeenth-Century England (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series #96)

“The publication of Gillespie’s excellent edition of Elizabeth Poole’s writings is a crucial intervention in early modern English women’s studies. Poole’s pamphlets and prophecies, collected here for the first time, were transgressive attempts to influence the revolutionary politics of mid-seventeenth-century England. Gillespie’s edition does meticulous, expert work in situating the texts in their contemporary politico-religious contexts. It is vital reading for anyone interested in the history of English women’s writing and seventeenth-century culture, history, and politics.”
— Marcus Nevitt, University of Sheffield

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