Early Modern Period
The Early Modern Period (c.1500–1700) brought a decline in the power of the church and increased state control. It was a time of religious and political upheaval in which attitudes to difference varied over time and place, but in which misogyny seems to have been consistent.
Criminalisation
In 1533 Henry VIII made the first secular law to forbid same-sex practices in England by passing the Buggery Act (below), which made it a felony to engage in any non-procreative or non-consensual sex “with mankind or beast”. This had the effect of transforming the sin of sodomy (in its broadest sense) into a crime and it carried a sentence of death, even for clergymen who would usually be exempt.
The introduction of the act was politically motivated, providing Henry with an opportunity to take away some of the Catholic church’s power and was changed and repealed by his children before being reinstated in its original form by Elizabeth I in 1563. It tells us less about attitudes to sexuality at the time than about the changing relationship between church and state. It was often wielded as a convenient way of getting rid of powerful royal enemies and convictions among the general populace appear to have been rare before the 18th century.1
Although draconian, the act was not a criminalisation of same-sex desire itself. It applied equally to straight or gay sex and left room for a variety of romantic or sexual encounters within the law, particularly between women, who were seen as the objects rather than agents of sex. It was later restricted to include only anal sex and bestiality, and it came to require such a high burden of proof that it was extremely difficult to prosecute. The lesser crime of attempted buggery was easier to prove and could result in imprisonment or time at the pillory.
James VI and I
The accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of England in 1603 (as James I) had a profound effect on Cumbria. Ever since the Scottish Wars begun by Edward I in the 1290s, northern Cumbria had been part of an unsettled border region, dominated by certain local families and subject to regular raids and counter-raids. By uniting the crowns, James reduced the significance of the border and he cracked down on lawlessness in the area.
James visited Cumbria on his return from Scotland to London in August 1617, staying first in Carlisle, where he held a feast, and then in Kendal, where he lodged on Stricklandgate on the site of the present library building.
Like some other monarchs who impacted Cumbria in significant ways, James is believed by historians to have had intimate and possibly sexual relationships with men, particularly his royal favourites Esmé Stewart, duke of Lennox, Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, and George Villiers, duke of Buckingham. James’s preference for handsome men was noted among his contemporaries and there were rumours of sex with his favourites.
In 1621 the satirical poet Richard Brathwaite, from Burneside Hall near Kendal, complained about effeminacy and sodomy among the noble classes:
I doe cashiere [dismiss] all private Parasites,
Ladye-fied Monkyes, lustful Catomytes,
Painting, and pursting, sleeking of the skin,
Poudring of hayre, to let temptation in
— Times Curtaine Drawne2
James brought another form of queerness to Cumbria: between 1619 and 1637 his own band of actors, The King’s Men, visited Carlisle and Kendal on a number of occasions, particularly in the 1620s.3 Since it was seen as indecent for women to appear on the public stage, female roles were played by young men and boys. The actors Richard Sharpe, John Thompson, John Rice and Robert Pallant were all hired to play female parts at the time of the Cumbrian visits. Theatres were unknown in Cumbria at this point and visits from travelling troupes must have been rare, so this would have been an unusual opportunity for ordinary people to experience cross-dressing. We can only assume from the repeated visits that the audiences here were accepting of the idea.
Moral Panics
The 17th century was rife with biblically-justified misogyny, where women could face legal punishment, even death, if they didn’t conform to perceived standards of femininity. These attitudes must have impacted the place of queer people in society.
Witch-hunts, instigated by James I, continued throughout the century, reaching their height under the puritanical Commonwealth government (1649–60), and were not unheard of in Cumbria. Restrictive and punitive laws passed during the Commonwealth impacted women particularly harshly. During the Civil Wars (1642–51), accusations of effeminacy were used in propaganda against the Cavaliers to undermine their authority. All suggesting an atmosphere of intolerance.
At a local level, evidence from court rolls around this time may suggest that concerns about appropriate gender roles were not at the forefront of peoples’ minds. Insults recorded in legal disputes generally focus on attacking the honour or wealth of men, and the chastity of women. Those founded on ideas of same-sex desire, effeminacy or masculinity were apparently rare. Although the term ‘bugger’ was recorded in a dispute in Millom, it was far less common than cases of ‘harlot’, ‘rogue’, ‘knave’ and ‘thief’.4
The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought about a more socially tolerant era following the Puritan rule, although it was largely restricted to the upper classes. Charles II’s court was filled with libertines who openly enjoyed frequent and varied sex. There must have been a wider taste more liberal sexual appetites as literature of the time openly refers to same-sex desire, albeit often comically, and pornography of all flavours became more popular. One book alone, translated into English in 1684, covered a variety of topics including “artificial stimulants, sodomy, irrumation, incest, frequency, sizes, defloration, postures, homosexuality and lesbianism”.5
The liberal attitudes of the Restoration would not last long. The Glorious Revolution of 1688, which replaced the Catholic James II with his daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband William of Orange, brought with it a rallying cry for piety and good morals as a means to unify the kingdom. As witches, Catholics and traitors became less of a concern, attentions turned to blasphemy and sexual vice.
Notes
- Johnson, P. (2019). ‘Buggery and Parliament, 1533-2017’ in Parliamentary History, Vol 38, Issue 3, 325-341. Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-0206.12463 ↩︎
- Full text available at University of Michigan Digital Libray ↩︎
- They visited Carlisle annually and Kendal three times 1619-23, both in 1625 and 1627, and Kendal twice in 1626 and again in 1637. ↩︎
- Dilley, R.S. (1997). ‘Rogues, Raskells and Turkie Faced Jades: Malediction in the Cumbrian Manorial Courts’ in CWAAS Transactions, NS 97, 143-191. ↩︎
- Thompson, R. (1979). Unfit for Modest Ears: a study of pornographic, obscene, and bawdy works written or published in England in the second half of the seventeenth century, Totowa, US, 32. ↩︎