Margaret Cavendish, Wife

Abstract

Throughout her work, Margaret Cavendish made much of her status as a wife, particularly as the wife of a peer. Rather than seeing this assertion as one of gendered dependence on her husband, or as vainglory, this chapter argues that Cavendish understood her status as a form of political office holding, both literally, as a rights-holding political subject, and by analogy, as the consilium to the state’s imperium.