“So great,” wrote one visitor, “is the respect which the English entertain for their women, that in their houses the latter govern everything despotically, making themselves feared by the men, courageous as they are on other occasions.” In the opinion of a contemporary English writer,[46] husbands were by no means free agents-- “There is also the want of halfe a man’s liberty in marriage; for he is not absolutely himselfe, though many believe when they are going to Church upon their wedding day they are going into the land of liberty.... For my part I am not married; if I were I should finde my wings clipt and the collar too streight for my neck.” CHAPTER VI. PETITIONERS TO PARLIAMENT. The city dames during the Civil War--They petition Parliament for peace--Reception of the petition--The military called out--Petition from tradesmen’s wives for redress of grievances--Pym’s reply--Women’s memorial to Cromwell against imprisonment for debt--Sufferers during the Monmouth Rebellion--Petition against Judge Jeffreys--Hannah Hewling petitions the king. While the war was proceeding between Charles I. and the Parliament, there was a good deal of agitation among the City dames, who, though not obliged to stand siege and battery, were deeply interested in the issues of the struggle. As members of the commercial classes, the disastrous effects of a civil war appealed to them with peculiar force. They lamented the destruction of property as well as the loss of life, the stoppage of trade, and the general dislocation of society. And as women of great earnestness in religion, they conceived a horror of this slaughter among men of the same nation--indeed, of the same kindred. At length they could bear it no longer. They resolved to put forth some protest. In the year 1643 came their opportunity.