Winterson sets the historical portion of her novel during a tumultuous era in English history. The events of the novel run from approximately 1630 to 1666, and reference key historical events such as the English Civil War, the Interregnum Period, the bubonic plague outbreak of 1665, and the Great Fire of London in 1666.
In 1630, when Dog Woman finds Jordan, London was a bustling and thriving city. King Charles I was on the throne and was married to Queen Henrietta Maria. The Queen was a French princess before her marriage, and became an important patron of art and architecture in England. Wimbledon Manor was granted to her by the king in 1639, and she hired French gardeners to create beautiful gardens there. However, the reigns of these monarchs quickly became marked by political instability.
Up until this point, the English Parliament (comprised of the House of Commons and the House of Lords) was summoned whenever the monarch wanted, and dissolved whenever he wanted. Kings typically summoned Parliament when they needed an influx of money (often to finance military campaigns), as Parliament could allow significant income to be generated via tax revenues. King Charles I increasingly began to run into conflicts with Parliament being unwilling to take the necessary steps to grant him the revenue he wanted. Between 1629 and 1640, King Charles I refused to summon Parliament, which created dissatisfaction among many nobles; tensions were also heightened by religious differences, and fears that King Charles might return England to Catholicism.
By 1640, King Charles desperately needed money to support military efforts in Scotland, and reluctantly summoned Parliament ("the Long Parliament"); Parliament took the opportunity to demand changes that would significantly shift the power balance between Parliament and the monarchy. Tension and disagreement eventually led to the outbreak of open warfare in 1642. After a lengthy period of conflict, King Charles I was tried for treason, and executed on January 30, 1649. While Royalist supporters considered his eldest son (who would eventually be crowned King Charles II) to be the rightful king, between 1649 and 1660, England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland existed as a Commonwealth. Beginning in 1653, Oliver Cromwell (an important leader of Parliamentary forces) held significant power as the Lord Protector.
Because Cromwell and other important leaders in the Parliamentary forces were allied with a stricter and more austere form of Protestant religious faith, the period between 1649 and 1660 (sometimes known as the Interregnum Period) witnessed social and religious reforms that impacted the daily lives of ordinary people. For example, beginning as early as 1642, the Puritans banned the performing of plays and shut down theatres (including The Globe Theatre, associated with William Shakespeare), and they also forbade the celebration of Christmas festivities.
The Commonwealth and Protectorate were unstable, and this instability was heightened by the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658. Royalist forces were eventually able to defeat Parliamentary forces, and in 1660 King Charles II returned to England and was crowned king. However, the restoration of the monarchy marked a significant shift towards Parliament having greater power, and the reigning monarch being less a figure of absolute power. By 1688, after further political crises, the United Kingdom was primarily functioning as a parliamentary or constitutional monarchy (in which a ruling monarch can only exercise their authority within specific perimeters determined by established legal frameworks).
