This book examines the lives of late seventeenth-century women who supported the Protestant cause against perceived threats from a revitalized Roman Catholic Church. Melinda Zook describes these women as “nursing mothers,” a phrase drawn from Isaiah 49:23 and often used by early modern Protestant writers. She does not deconstruct this rhetorical device because she is determined to take a different approach from prominent scholars like Rachel Weil, who “are far more concerned with political ideology, theory, and representation than the actual political activities of women” (4). She argues that religious devotion thrust women of the lower and middling sorts into political action, causing them to shelter Protestant dissenters and to aid rebels and outlaws. Piety also compelled Anglican women such as Queen Mary II to protect and defend international Protestantism. Her hope is that such stories will be drawn into the political narrative of late Stuart history, a field in which some historians proceed as if women “were merely retiring queen consorts and royal whores” (199).

Chapter 1 describes the social networks that linked Frances, Lady Vane, the widow of parliamentarian Sir Henry Vane, the younger, with members of Independent congregations, Fifth Monarchists, Covenanters, and Regicides. It introduces Bridget Bendish, the granddaughter of Oliver Cromwell, who circulated pro-Williamite propaganda during the Revolution of 1688 and received a pension from Queen Mary II. It ends with Elizabeth Gaunt, who aided one of Monmouth's rebels and was executed for treason. Chapter 2, meanwhile, focuses on Mary Speke, described by Bishop Burnet as “the most dangerous woman in the West” (58). Raised in a Puritan household, Speke went on to become an ardent supporter of Protestant dissenters and Whig politics and the mother of “a brood of seditious sons and daughters” (12). Although evidence is limited, she may have carried messages and money to conspirators at the time of the Rye House Plot and Monmouth's Rebellion.

Aphra Behn, meanwhile, used godly Protestant women for comedic effect. Having encountered many dissenters on her travels to Surinam and the Low Countries, she developed a distaste for what she considered to be hypocrisy and dissimulation. Zook identifies Behn's attitudes as “royalist,” perhaps even Catholic, and considers her to be a potentially dangerous critic of nonconformity. One could argue, however, that Behn was simply a spy-turned-playwright who knew how to give her audience a good laugh. Much of what she had to say about dissenters was not unique, as Zook admits, but drew from a tradition of anti-Puritan satire. Readers would have benefited from a more thorough discussion of the hostile political climate facing dissenting women, rather than a brief biography of Behn.

One of the most useful chapters in this book focuses on Queen Mary II and her religious patronage. Following the lead of historians Tony Claydon, Mark Goldie, and Craig Rose, the author argues that the queen played an important role in moving the Church of England in a latitudinarian direction. An intelligent and well-read woman, Mary, Princess of Orange, took advantage of the tolerant religious climate of the Netherlands to befriend many of the leading Protestant scholars, including Pierre Jurieu. She traveled to hear popular preachers and endeared herself to the Dutch people, who often tried to stop her coach “that they might kiss the wheels” (141). After 1688, she attempted to introduce piety and devotional practices among the English upper classes, only to be laughed at and ridiculed. She continued her campaign, regardless, using her influence to advance moral legislation and accommodate dissenters within the Church of England. According to Zook, she worked “to reform and reinforce the Church of England, accommodate Protestant nonconformity in the three kingdoms, and ensure the perpetuity of the reformed religion in the world beyond” (128). Unfortunately, William III burned all of his wife's letters and papers after her untimely death in 1692, so we may never know much more about her religious sensibilities than what contemporaries revealed in memoirs and funeral sermons.

The final chapter focuses on two “devoted daughters” of the Church of England: Elizabeth Burnet and Mary Astell. Burnet, deeply pious and committed to a moderate but orthodox Anglicanism, was active in Whig politics. Astell, a High Church Anglican, opposed moderation and championed a Tory vision of church and state. The author's conclusion: both women “found their religiosity a comfort as well as an impetus to action” (196).

Protestantism, Politics, and Women in Britain makes a good point about women, nonconformity, and political action. Unfortunately, the author has not done the kind of archival research necessary to illuminate the lives of truly ordinary women; her “nursing mothers” tend to be prominent enough to attract the attention of government spies. Furthermore, she has burdened her argument by adopting a biographical, rather than an analytical, approach to the subject. This seems like a very old-fashioned way of doing women's history and one not likely to get the attention of male historians. Nevertheless, the author is to be commended for offering a clearly written and engaging account of women, politics, and religion in the late Stuart era.