‘The kg and his hband’: The gay history of Brish royals - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• 5 GAY BRISH KGS AND QUEENS OM HISTORY
• THE TRAGIC BUT TE STORY OF ENGLAND’S GAY KG
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE GAY KGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND
• ‘THE KG AND HIS HBAND’: THE GAY HISTORY OF BRISH ROYALS
• QUEER KGS & QUEENS: WAS JAM I & VI GAY?

5 GAY BRISH KGS AND QUEENS OM HISTORY

Centuri before homosexualy was ma legal between nsentg adults 1967, the ‘love that dare not speak s name’ was viewed as a s England, particularly by the church, and technilly punishable by ath.

It is not surprisg that many gay and bisexual monarchs kept their love liv wh members of the same sex a closely guard secret. Known as ‘Ruf’ due to his ddy plexn and red hair, the third son of William the Conqueror beme Kg of England 1087 and is assumed to have been gay or bisexual. The fourth son of Henry II, he is also believed to have been homosexual spe marryg Berengaria of Navarre.

An art historian disvered a 400-year-old portra of Gee Villiers, the former De of Buckgham who is thought to have been the gay lover of Kg Jam VI and I, the Brish ler om 1567 to 1625 who missned a btsellg book known as The Kg Jam Bible. Hovn’s bed ment may be more of a polil metaphor than a leral one — polics do make strange bedfellows, after all — but even still, Richard I has long been lnized as a gay in.

THE TRAGIC BUT TE STORY OF ENGLAND’S GAY KG

The plays of both possibly-gay English playwright Christopher Marlowe and totally-gay English playwright Derek Jarman both picted Edward II as gay. Totally gay. 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.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE GAY KGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND

)“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. 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?

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

Marlowe is wily accepted to have been gay. This wasn’t the first time that he’d addrsed gay relatnships his work, but Edward II was the most explicly and sympathetilly gay character that Marlowe had tackled.

QUEER KGS & QUEENS: WAS JAM I & VI GAY?

One of the protagonists, Henry Fox-Mounchristen-Wdsor (played by Crella’s Nicholas Galze), is gay. William II, lled "Ruf" for his reddish plexn, never married or fathered children, leadg to speculatn that he was gay.

There is signifint evince that he was gay, although historians differ on this pot. Richard has been portrayed equently on stage and film; The Ln Wter (1968), which he was played by Anthony Hopks, strongly suggted he was gay, while Sean Connery offered a thoroughly heterosexual pictn Rob Hood: Prce of Thiev (1991) urty Natnal Portra Gallery of London.