Queering the Past: Sex and Love in Stuart England

Saturday 7 November 1pm – 4.30pm

Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke was a famous courtier and poet and owner of Warwick Castle. He is remembered also as a friend of Sir Philip Sydney and his biographer. Greville’s deep affection for Sydney is clear both in his writing and his actions. At one stage a shared tomb is proposed by Greville.

But what conclusions can be drawn about their relationship from the perspective of the 21st century? More widely what evidence exists for same sex relationships in the 17th century.

Our speakers will be exploring this topic through personal and legal records mainly focussing on male relationships.

This will be followed by a discussion where there will be an opportunity to submit questions.

13:00 - 13:15
Introduction
Rob Eyre
Senior Archivist at Warwickshire County Record Office. Overview of the event and the Warwick Castle Archive

13:15 - 13:30
Compare: Matthew Storey

13:30 - 14:00
Memorials to same-sex love? Fulke Greville and 1st Lord Brooke
Dr Paul Hunneyball
On Fulke Greville’s tomb at St Mary’s church, Warwick, his friendship with Sir Philip Sidney is famously described as the greatest achievement of his life. Many different interpretations have been placed on this claim, but in recent years there has been a greater interest in Greville’s sexuality and how that may have coloured his relationship with Sidney. This paper will explore that debate, while also considering Greville’s original intention to erect a joint tomb in St Paul’s cathedral to both him and Sidney, and how such a monument might have been interpreted by a seventeenth-century audience. In certain contexts, open expression of same-sex love may have been more permissible than is generally assumed.

14:00 - 14:30
‘Strange pleasures’ ‘not to be named amongst Christians’: the prosecution of
Dr Fiona McCall
Earlier concepts of sexuality were different from today. The language of sexuality was different, the word ‘homosexual’ unknown. Rather than being used to construct individual identities, sexuality was seen as a fluid concept, subject to the flow of bodily humours. But sodomy, as a sexual act between males, was proscribed by the Church, citing passages from the Bible and, before 1533, subject to punishment by the church courts. Under Henry VIII sodomy become a secular crime subject to the death penalty. Yet surviving early evidence for the prosecution of sexual acts between men is sparse. This talk discusses what is known about patterns of prosecution from surviving records of the church and secular courts, and what we can conclude from them about contemporary attitudes to same-sex relationships.

14:30 - 15:00
Break

15:00 - 15:30
Life and legacy of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
Jon Sleigh

15:30 - 16:00
Forbidden Love Letters between an Earl and his Beau
Dr Rictor Norton
Rictor Norton unravels the mystery of Love-Letters Between a Certain Late Nobleman and the Famous Beau Wilson, published in 1723 but possibly containing genuine homosexual love-letters written in 1693-94. He reviews the authorship of the pamphlet, and the context of its publication, arguing that the correspondents were Captain Edward Wilson, who died in 1694, and Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, who died in 1722. The gap between these two dates marks the gap between two characteristic models for men who love men: the 17th-century Restoration sodomitical rake, and the 18th-century effeminate molly. This threshold between two centuries arguably witnessed the birth of the homosexual subculture in England. Whether fictional satire or scandalous fact, the letters present a new way of expressing the sexuality of homosexual men. They are more realistic, hence more modern, in their presentation of the greediness of love, sexual foreplay and masturbation, endeavours to avoid revealing

16:00 - 16:30
Q&A
Matthew Storey
A chance to ask questions to the speakers

Tickets £10 + booking fee. Book at warwickshire.gov.uk/heritageboxoffice.

You will receive a link in the confirmation email to register for the event.