The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name…
In the last of her ‘Sex at Court’ posts, Laura examines attitudes to homosexuality at the medieval court – was Edward II really ‘England’s first gay king’? In the end, all that really mattered was power…
Sex at Court
Mistresses and Bastards at Court
In part three of ‘Sex at Court’, Laura considers the status of mistresses and bastards. Throughout the medieval period, there was little stigma attached to being the close kin of a powerful man, whatever side of the blanket you might have been born on, and many mistresses were tolerated by royal wives…
Whores at Court
In the second part of her ‘Sex at Court’ series, Laura Slater looks at the phenomenon of prostitutes at court, and the various measures – including licensing, imprisonment and taxes – that were taken in order to try and regulate them.
Sex at Court – Adultery
As we saw in the ‘Marriage at Court’ posts, matters of romance were not always plain sailing… In the first of a series of posts on ‘Sex at Court’, Laura Slater looks at some notable examples of marital breakdown and adultery in medieval England.