- 216 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Edward II is one of the most unsuccessful and unconventional kings in English history, and is well-known for having passionate and probably intimate relationships with men. In modern times, he has often been considered an LGBT+ icon of sorts. Edward II: His Sexuality and Relationships looks at the men in the king's life and examines the relations he had with them in the context of medieval notions of sexuality and the famous, albeit almost certainly mythical, idea that he was murdered with a red-hot poker as punishment for having sex with men. It also investigates Edward's associations with women. Though often thought of as a gay man, it is more likely that Edward was bisexual: he fathered an illegitimate son in his early twenties, at the age of forty had an intimate encounter with a woman in London which is recorded in his household account, and might even have had an incestuous relationship with his own niece. Edward's marriage to the king of France's daughter Isabella, arranged when they were children, has often been depicted as a tragic disaster from start to finish. Edward II: His Sexuality and Relationships takes a detailed look at the royal marriage and at all the evidence that it was in fact a happy and mutually supportive partnership for many years, and at Isabella's important though over-romanticized association with the baron Roger Mortimer. Because Edward is often assumed to have been solely attracted to men, numerous modern authors have depicted him as a grotesque caricature of a camp, weak, foppish gay man. Edward II: His Sexuality and Relationships reveals him as he truly was: as a chronicler puts it, 'one of the strongest men in his realm.'
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1. Underplaying Edward’s Relationships (1)
- 2. Underplaying Edward’s Relationships (2)
- 3. One of the Strongest Men in His Realm
- 4. Acts of Intercession
- 5. Love Made Him Do It
- 6. Itineraries and Royal Children
- 7. In All the Sweetness of True Love
- 8. Flaunting an Affair? Isabella and Mortimer
- 9. Our Very Dear and Very Sweet Lord and Friend
- 10. Flawed by Her Infatuation
- 11. Profound Revulsion and Excessive Familiarity
- 12. Narratives and Conspiracies
- 13. An Illegitimate Son
- 14. Secretly Taking His Pleasure
- 15. Treated as His Queen
- 16. A Heterosexual Courtly Lover
- 17. A Sodomitical Vice
- 18. A Burning Spit
- 19. Elevated from Almost Nothing
- 20. Adored with a Singular Familiarity
- 21. Men Who Stir Up Discord
- 22. Through Him Everything Was Done
- 23. The King and His Husband
- 24. Trivial Occupations
- 25. Bought by the King Himself
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Further Reading
- Bibliography
- Plates