Rossetti context

• Begins attending Christ Church, Albany Road (high Anglican Church linked to the Tractarian movement)


  1843
• Decline of Father's health (blindness) and financial crisis. Sister Maria has to leave the family home to work as a governess

  1843
• Religious Mania/Nervous Breakdown


  1845
• Marsh: '"I seized upon a pair of scissors, and ripped up my arm to vent my wrath."'
• Breaks off relationship with James Collinson- he had returned to his Roman Catholic faith

  1850
• Death of Rossetti's Father

  1854
• Crimean War- Rossetti applies to become a nurse under the instruction of Florence Nightingale. Rejected due to youth and inexperience


  1853-56
• Rejection of John Brett

  1857
• Establishment of the Society for the Employment of Women. Supported by Rossetti


  1859
• Begins volunteering at the Highgate Penitentiary for Fallen Women


  1859
• Charles Cayley - relationship broken off due to his agnosticism


  1866
• Married Women's Property Act

  1870
• Sister Maria joins an Anglican convent. - 'Christina regarded Maria as a spiritual guide' (Marsh - 1994)


  1873
• Death of Maria Rossetti

  1876
• Age of consent rose from 13 to 16. Rossetti had campaigned to protect children from prostitution

  1885
• Signs Women's Anti-Suffrage Petition

  1889
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  Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)