Nurturing Happiness: Affective Health and Wellbeing in the North West of England, c. 1550-1700

Abstract

This thesis contributes to current debates in the history of emotions and joins a growing number of scholars who seek to write a more optimistic history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by thoroughly historicising the concept of happiness in the early modern household. It focuses on the everyday lives and emotional experiences of seven gentry families of differing social, economic, and confessional backgrounds from across the North West of England. This intimate scale of analysis permits a diverse range of source materials and historical methodologies to be juxtaposed. A detailed examination of the families' personal testimonies is combined with an analysis of their homes as well as the objects, furnishings, and decorative art that remain in situ. These sources provide valuable evidence of the relationship between humans, domestic space, and the material world and allow for the reconstruction of thoughts, practices, and feelings. The thesis begins by teasing out the ways that individuals engaged with and adapted contemporary medical, religious, political, and philosophical debates on the subject of happiness that were contained in printed works published between 1550 and 1700. Chapter 1 establishes that multiple forms of earthly happiness were available to the families under examination. It presents happiness as a dynamic and complex spectra of emotional ideals that involved a diverse range of ideas, feelings, and practices. The remaining chapters investigate the ways that people actively pursued and aligned themselves to different ideals on this spectra of happiness. Chapter 2 recovers the affective nature of temporal practices. It shows how families made time for happiness in the home, and examines the ways that they constructed and curated narratives of time to encourage and memorialise specific forms of happiness. Chapter 3 explores the intimate connection between physical health and emotional wellbeing by examining manuscript and printed regimens. It underscores the important role that household medicine, exercise, and recreation played in helping people understand, nurture, and maintain happiness. Chapter 4 explores the vibrant material environments of the seven households under examination. It looks at a wide range of everyday things that had the capacity to impact people's feelings, and whose material qualities, aesthetic, meaning, creation, and use speak to different aspects of the spectra of happiness. Each chapter pays attention to historical developments in its respective topic. Together they are sensitive to the experiences of people of different gender, age, and background, but ultimately sketch key trends and similarities between this group of gentry families in ways that can enrich our knowledge of the early modern period as a whole.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Stefan Hanß (Supervisor) & Sasha Handley (Supervisor)