In 1589, Anne Dowriche, the wife of a Puritan minister from Devon, wrote a long and gory poem about the bloody, ongoing conflict between Catholics and Huguenots in France. Dowriche's The French Historie was one of the few sixteenth century books written entirely by a woman. She was also almost alone as a woman in publicly commenting on contemporary political events and speaking up against tyranny.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Suzannah Lipscomb talks to historian Dr. Joanne Paul about Dowriche, who was also one of the first English writers to draw on Machiavelli, and whose works possibly inspired both Marlowe and Shakespeare.  

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