Letter B would be correct.
The author first talks about how people were promised in marriage around their early ages, 'still in their cradle', in the second half of the 15th century ('That was about 1470').
Then, 2 centuries later (17th Century), women of high and middle class in society were still promised to men, with few exceptions. And these men they were promised to were entitled as lords and masters
And he concludes stating that women from authentic literature of that time (Shakespeare's included) weren't represented as powerless as they were in real life.
