The History of Women’s Boxing

In A Lady’s Revenge, an aristocratic daughter learns to box in secret. Is this historically accurate?

That would be a hard MAYBE.

Collet, John; The Female Bruisers; Museum of London; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-female-bruisers-50752

Boxing was THE sport of the Regency. Even Americans and our football (or the South with college football) cannot come close to the craze people had for boxing—also called The Sweet Science. Boxing matches were illegal in London, so it all had to be done underground, but it was a wink-wink, nudge-nudge sort of thing. People (both men and women) of all walks of life attended matches, trained, and gambled on these bouts. Is it impossible for a young lady of means to learn the Sweet Science? No. Especially if she had a young man in her family that was equally interested in boxing, and had connections—which my Lady Lydia does. Her cousin, Lord Andrepont, is an accomplished boxer, and achieves the connections that Lady Lydia needs for a private tutor—also a woman.

In my books, Bess Abbott is a female prize-fighter. This is absolutely, 100% accurate.

I based the character of Bess Abbott, the hero of The Boxer and the Blacksmith, on a real-life woman, Elizabeth Wilkinson Stokes. I made up the details (because we don’t know any of hers), changed some of what little we know of her, and moved her forward in time. The real woman’s name is likely a stage name, taken for a murderer who hanged just days prior to her first recorded fight, and Stokes was the last name of her promoter who she may or may not have later married. So I’m just going to call this woman Elizabeth. For 150 years, she was considered the greatest boxer of the 18th century, her career lasting from 1722-1728. She fought with her fists, of course, but also daggers, cudgels, swords, quarterstaffs, and would today be described as a mixed-martial artist.

She fought men with weapons, but would only ever fight other women with her bare fists.

Prizefighters were self-employed, then, just like now, and so she talked a good game. She called herself the “Invincible City Championess.” And likewise, did a fair amount of trash-talking in the press. Some historians have wondered if she may have invented the pre-fight trash talk. It’s very possible. She was the biggest name of her time.

While history records that many women boxed “in a state of undress”—some interpret this as topless, others interpret as in only a chemise (full-length linen slip)—Elizabeth fought fully clothed, a signal that she was a serious athlete.

In my book, Bess uses bands about her chest (like a sports bra), which also helps cover her up when she pulls the top of her dress down. Bess teaches Lady Lydia to do the same.

Why did I have them undress at all in my book?

Well, as a nod to this detail, but also because in men’s boxing at the time, the Peel was an important part of the pre-fight ritual. Men would take the stage, or the ring, or wherever they were, and some experienced fighters would take the opportunity to flex and intimidate as they peeled off their clothing. Remember that even an average man wore way more clothing than we do now. Long shirt tucked into breeches, some kind of cravat (neckcloth), a waistcoat (vest), and a coat. The fighter can become a favorite of the crowd, earning more money if more people bet on him, so a good peel could win fans.

And also, in The Boxer and the Blacksmith, I wanted to show how Bess Abbott had zero time for preening.

In reality, women were still fighting at this time period, but apparently not as frequently. A man named Pierce Egan detailed (and I mean detailed) every fight he witnessed and wrote about it in a weekly paper called Boxiana. He talked about the famous fighters, and did his best to show how very English the sport was: because it was noble and manly. A female fighter would undermine his efforts to make boxing respectable. I suspect—greatly suspect—though I cannot prove—that Mr. Egan chose not to write about the female fights because he didn’t respect them.

So in The Boxer and the Blacksmith, I cast Pierce Egan as the villain who erases women from the record, which is not entirely true. Egan does acknowledge Elizabeth’s contributions to the sport in his work Boxiana. (She disappeared in 1728, Pierce Egan was born fifty years later in 1772.)

But then King George dies, and his son, the Prince Regent takes over, and then he dies without a legitimate heir, and we get Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria is a young woman, and completely over her uncles’ gambling, womanizing, indulgent lifestyles. The Regency wanes into the Victorian era.

The Victorian era is long because Queen Victoria’s reign is long.

The changing economic pressures of England and its former colonies cause gender norms to shift.

Partly because of the suffrage movement (the right to vote for women, but also for men who do not own property) gaining steam in the late 1800s, Queen Victoria herself issues statements against women gaining the right to vote. The female monarch, who also respects other female leaders, claims that women who want to vote “‘unsex’ themselves by claiming equality with men they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection.”

James Figg

And so, by 1870, when Queen Victoria says that, Elizabeth’s accomplishments have been replaced in history by a male contemporary of hers who shared much of her background, James Figg. James Figg becomes the forefather of modern boxing. James Figg becomes a champion, even though no one—NO ONE—during his lifetime ever described him as such.

The first rules in pugilism were the Broughton rules in 1743—no eye-gouging or attacking an opponent when they’re down—which is likely why Egan calls Broughton the father of pugilism. Hair-pulling—which occurs in my books—is completely legal. Broughton was a student of Figg’s, and while Figg believed that pugilism needed rules, he never insisted on them when he fought. Though Elizabeth did. Elizabeth was insistent on rules whenever she fought.

Once Elizabeth’s career ended, in 1728, she disappears. There is no recorded reason as to why she stopped fighting, and we don’t know when she died or how. She was recognized as the best boxer in London, organizing how the sport was engaged, starting a school, and creating the staple of sports trash-talk that we still enjoy today.

What Queen Elizabeth said in 1870 about women needing male protection? Well, a mere ten years later, the British government outlawed women’s boxing in 1880.

Why would you need to outlaw it if women wouldn’t do it anyway? If it was against our natures? If we needed male protection? They could have done nothing. But they didn’t. Which means someone, somewhere, was seeing women engage in The Sweet Science. Like we always have.

A Lady’s Revenge

The Boxer and the Blacksmith

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