‘She Must Have Cherries’: Food, Reproduction and Political Cultivation in Early Modern England

Abstract

In early modern England, reproductive care and the management of pregnancy formed a shared culture of practical knowledge in which everyday foods served simultaneous medicinal, nutritional and social functions. Within this framework, specific provisions, most notably cherries and sweet preserves, carried culturally legible therapeutic associations regarding the physical formation of the child and the health of the pregnant or postpartum body. While scholars have established that the circulation of food and medical knowledge built trust within economies of obligation, the distinct political weight of reproductive treatments in this wider gift economy has received less attention. This article argues that the provisioning of food to pregnant, labouring and postpartum bodies served as a recognized vehicle for political cultivation within early modern elite households. Drawing on family correspondence, printed medical texts and recipe collections, alongside drama, satire and visual culture, this article demonstrates how the therapeutic appropriateness of these gifts allowed dietary attention to function as political credit in networks tied to patronage and succession. By examining gifts given in response to a specific bodily condition, this article reveals how the unique stakes and public legibility of the pregnant body transformed intimate care into an intelligible measure of political competence.