| The British Civil Wars were not just physical battles but ideological battles as well. Legitimate authority was hotly contested and each faction vied for public support by invoking a mandate meaningful to a heterogeneous audience: the safeguarding of the family and the patriarchal order. In early modern England and Scotland, the family was understood as emblematic of the social and political order; thus, the protection of the family---both private and political---was presented as the surest way of assuaging God's wrath and re-establishing order in the three kingdoms. This thesis demonstrates the ubiquity of the language of patriarchy in the Civil Wars and the extent to which political and ideological debates centred on questions of legitimate patriarchal authority. |
