Medieval

Beyond penetration: rethinking the murder of Edward II

By Kit Heyam March 24, 2015 LGBTQ, Medieval 8 comments

Kit Heyam On 23 September 1327, the young king Edward III received word that his father had died. The former Edward II, who had been coerced into abdication in January of that year, had been imprisoned in Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, at the time of his death. While official reports stated […]

Sex and the Single Man in Late Medieval England

By Rachel Moss February 3, 2015 Medieval Comments are Disabled

Rachel Moss In May 1482, a harried Richard Cely wrote from London to his younger brother George, who was working in Calais. Three months earlier, in the midst of Shrovetide celebrations (a time of raucous good cheer before the privations of Lent), he had had a sexual encounter with their […]

The King’s Favourite: Sex, Money and Power in Medieval England

By Katherine Harvey January 15, 2015 LGBTQ, Medieval 0 comments

Katherine Harvey In November 1326, Hugh Despenser was condemned to death for treason. Drawn to the gallows on a hurdle, he was hanged from a height of 50 feet; then, before he was completely dead, he was cut down from the gallows, eviscerated, and beheaded. His head was displayed on […]

Carnivalesque #107

By Katherine Harvey December 6, 2014 Early Modern, Medieval 0 comments

Katherine Harvey Welcome to Carnivalesque #107! Carnivalesque is an interdisciplinary blog carnival dedicated to pre-modern history (to c. 1800 C.E.), and NOTCHES is delighted to be hosting the final edition of 2014. If you are already a NOTCHES reader, then fear not, there is plenty of material on the history […]

Death by Celibacy: Sex, Semen and Male Health in the Middle Ages

By Katherine Harvey October 21, 2014 Medieval 5 comments

Katherine Harvey In the late twelfth century Gerald of Wales, archdeacon of Brecon and a prolific author, wrote a tract on the proper conduct of the clergy. Gerald was writing only a few decades after the First Lateran Council (1123) had introduced compulsory celibacy for all priests, at a time […]

The Bishop’s New Stockings, or The Dangers of Love Magic

By Katherine Harvey August 12, 2014 Medieval 0 comments

Katherine Harvey At some point in the first half of the eleventh century, Archbishop Poppo of Trier (1016-1047) decided to commission a new pair of pontifical stockings. He sent some material to a young canoness who belonged to a nearby religious house; shortly afterwards, he received his new footwear, and decided to try […]

Cunnilingus in the Middle Ages and the Problem of Understanding Past Sex Lives

By Tom O'Donnell July 29, 2014 Medieval 9 comments

Tom O’Donnell In order to conjure up the sexual practices of our forebears we have to bridge gaps. Gaps in language, time and ways of thinking. In order to write a history of medieval sexuality we need to know what that sexuality consisted of. It is hard enough to mentally […]