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Virgin Troops, Maiden Cities, Monstrous Men: Gender, Siege Conduct & Rhetoric During the English Civil Wars
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Virgin Troops, Maiden Cities, Monstrous Men: Gender, Siege Conduct & Rhetoric During the English Civil Wars

Justin Weber
University of Iowa
Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Iowa
Spring 2026
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Abstract

This thesis examines the perceptions of masculinity and femininity in seventeenth-century England and the influence of these perceptions on siege warfare during the civil wars between Crown and Parliament from 1642 to 1648. It contributes to scholarship on gender in seventeenth-century English society, where the connection between gender, the civil wars and military action has received more limited attention from historians than the impact of gender on peacetime relationships and individuals’ participation in domestic society and politics. This essay analyzes the impact of gender beliefs on siege; I argue that these beliefs were integral to siege involvement and that existing precedents of masculinity and femininity were manipulated by historical actors in relation to sieges to achieve objectives, be they as simple as the defense of one’s personal honor or as significant as determining the outcome of an entire engagement. Soldiers and civilians carried their understandings of gender into civil conflict, and this framework had a powerful influence on decision-making during sieges as well as the discourse that spawned from them. This thesis makes use of a variety of period newsbooks, broadsides and other pamphlets, as well as letters, articles of war, memoirs and sermons.
 England Humanities Gender history English Civil War Early modern history

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