The tragic but te story of England's gay kg - Means Happy

Contents:

• ‘THE KG AND HIS HBAND’: THE GAY HISTORY OF BRISH ROYALS
• THE TRAGIC BUT TE STORY OF ENGLAND’S GAY KG
• REVIEW/FILM; HISTORIL EDWARD II AND GAY ISSU TODAY
• EDWARD GAY
• THEATER; EARLY BRECHT, WH A GAY THEME AND VARIATNS

‘THE KG AND HIS HBAND’: THE GAY HISTORY OF BRISH ROYALS

Summary Let me be clear om the outset: this study do not set out to st Edward II as a medieval reprentative of any one morn tegory of sexual orientatn, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, whatever. This article therefore attempts to move beyond the somewhat naïve and sterile posivist bate that aims to claim Edward eher as gay or as straight, and stead to exame the reasons why some people the fourteenth century found appropriate and necsary to clu issu about sexualy their nstctn of this kg's character and reign.

THE TRAGIC BUT TE STORY OF ENGLAND’S GAY KG

”The speculatn that Edward II’s relatnships wh the men went beyond iendship was fueled by Christopher Marlowe’s 16th-century play “Edward II”, which is often noted for s homoerotic portrayal of Edward II and VI and I, who reigned over Stland and later England and Ireland until his ath 1625, attracted siar scty for his male favor, a term ed for panns and advisers who had special preference wh monarchs. Bergeron theoriz his book “Kg Jam and Letters of Homoerotic Dire”: “The scriptn that mov across the letters spell sire. In his play Edward II Christopher Marlowe appears to enurage the dience to terpret the relatnship as a homosexual one.

Lord Bechamp, Walmer Castle and Homosexualy. William Lygon, Lord Bechamp, was a known homosexual the 1920s and 1930s, leadg to a dramatic fall om grace.

:) I've often seen Edward scribed as 'England's only openly gay kg' or somethg siar, and seems to be taken as historil fact that he was homosexual. This is based at least part on the prevly-mentned Hollywood film Braveheart, where Edward appears screamgly mp and rrpondgly petent, a manner I for one fd disturbgly homophobic and unpleasant. However, this also over-simplifi the suatn, and Edward and his lovers Gavton and Spencer are shown simply as the victims of homophobia, wh the English nobl simply unable to pe wh the kg's different liftyle.

REVIEW/FILM; HISTORIL EDWARD II AND GAY ISSU TODAY

An important thg to remember is that 's only been fairly recently history that people have fed themselv as homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. Whoever Edward slept wh, he uldn't have thought of himself as gay: so is really possible to argue today that he was, when his society had no ncept of this?

But while the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalize gay marriage, has paved the wave for a queer royal to officially wear the crown, LGBTQ people have long been dog so unofficially. (The term “cut sleeve” remaed a Che phemism for male homosexualy for centuri.

The liph’s sexualy has been the source of some bate: Acrdg to the French medievalist Évariste Lévi-Provençal, the phrase “hubb al-walad, ” found 16th-century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari’s pendium "Nafh at-Tib" reference to Al-Hakam II, translat as a “preference for boys, ” though other scholars mata refers to paternal Medieval Europe scholar Francis Prado-Vilar wrote that knowledge of Al-Hakam’s homosexualy the urt of Córdoba “enuraged the ambns of the factns gathered around his much younger brother, Prce al-Mughira. ”“In his youth his lov seem to have been entirely homosexual, ” queer studi scholar Louis Crompton wrote “Male Love and Islamic Law Arab Spa. Young as “​​the most proment homosexual figure the early morn perd.

EDWARD GAY

)“To the shock of many urtiers, the pair were monstratively affectnate to each other public, spe Jam’ var proclamatns agast homosexualy, ” Daniel Smh wrote “Love Letters of Kgs and Queens.

Frerick the Great of Pssia (1712 - 1786)Even his lifetime, this Pssian royal was wily mored to be a homosexual, though that term wouldn’t be ed till nearly 90 years after his years after the kg’s ath, his physician Johann Ge Rter von Zimmermann published a book which he sperately tried to dispel gossip Frerick had a “Grecian taste love.

THEATER; EARLY BRECHT, WH A GAY THEME AND VARIATNS

And rather than let that secret out, Frerick pretend to be gay, “so that he would ntue to appear virile and pable of sexual terurse, albe wh men. But he did ltle to obscure his sexualy: Sanssouci, his palace Potsdam, was filled wh homoerotic art and, across Europe, “l Potsdamists” beme slang for kg allegedly pursued the Veian philosopher Franc Algarotti and even famed French philosopher Voltaire, who lived wh him at Sanssouci, though ’s not certa if eher relatnship was Voltaire’s ath 1778, a mancript of his memoir tailg Frerick’s homosexual tennci tail was stolen and published the Netherlands. ”The archde spent the rt of his life secln at Klsheim Palace near Salzburg, where he died at the age of 76 1919, three years after his brother’s ath and one year after the Atro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved after the end of World War II of Buganda (1868 - 1903)Discsn of Uganda’s treatment of homosexualy ually settl on Print Yoweri Meveni’s “Kill the Gays” bill, but this 19th century kabaka, or kg, of Buganda allegedly had sexual relatnships wh men along wh his 16 1886, Mwanga II orred the btal torture and aths of dozens of urtiers and pag, wh many burned alive.

“I hear there was homosexualy Mwanga’s palace, ” Meveni told a crowd of thoands on Martyr Day 2010, the Atlantic reported. In our md, Edward II is always the gay kg, so we feel some sort of affectn for him jt on that basis.

Was Edward II gay?