Each of the heroines in Regency Rescues was restricted by their lack of legal rights and by social conventions in the Regency era.
Clarissa Lanstone in ‘Gentleman to the Rescue’ is an unemployed poor relative, dependant on the aristocratic head of her family. She was subject, like all women, to the dictates of the head of the family, whether father or husband or brother or male cousin. She tried to resist her cousin’s wishes by several methods, including seeking employment as a governess, which was an acceptable role for genteel women, but one that would nevertheless have lowered her social status. Psychological pressure was placed on young women to marry as their family dictated and physical means of persuasion were not unheard of.
Upon marriage, a woman was formally and legally handed over from her father’s control to her husband’s. Through marriage she was no longer an individual in the eyes of the law. Unless there was a marriage settlement negotiated by her family and husband prior to the marriage, all her current and future property, possessions, earnings and inheritances passed to her husband for him to use as he wished.
Marianne Chaseley in ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ is a widow whose husband squandered the wealth of their marriage and left her largely dependent on her teenage son’s income as a junior officer in Wellington’s Peninsular Army. After about twenty years of being reliant upon a financially reckless husband, she is understandably keen to support herself and retain her independence after the tragic death of her son and only child.
Lady Emma in ‘A True Gentleman’ is caught in a situation many women would have faced—of being in a loveless and abusive marriage. She had no power to do anything about his violence, which was permitted legally and condoned socially. Her husband had the right to beat her, lock her up and take their child, Lucy, from her care. Should Lady Emma be tracked down by her husband in the United States, he could kidnap their child and return to Britain, where he would have been completely within the law that granted fathers all custody rights.
These women truly needed a real gentleman hero to help them overcome the inequalities that existed in the Regency era. I hope you felt their plight and rejoiced in their escapes with their rescuers.
Best wishes,
Isabella Hargreaves
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