Later Middle Ages

The later Middle Ages (c.1100–1500) was a period of growth and increased structure but also of war and disease. The church became more powerful and more interested in people’s private lives, which it could control through formalised parishes and newly founded abbeys and priories. The king and ruling elite also increased their control through the creation of counties (Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire) and the division of land between lords.

Queer Kings?

Long flowing hair, luxurious garments, shoes with curved and pointed tips became the fashion. Softness of body rivalling women, a mincing gait, loose gestures and wandering about half naked was the fashion of the younger men. Enervated, effeminate, they were reluctant to remain as Nature had intended … Troupes of effeminates and gangs of harlots followed the court. As a wise man said, with good reason: ‘The court of the king of England is not the abode of majesty but a brothel for perverts.’ — Chronicles of the Kings of England

Accounts like these provide tantalising evidence of possible queerness, but they were written by churchmen who despised William for his attitude towards the church and can’t be accepted unquestionably. However, the description makes clear the medieval connection between effeminacy and homosexual sex, both of which are seen as unnatural and, therefore, wrong.

Edward II was another probably queer king, who had a greater than usual impact on Cumbria. His relationship with his favourite Piers Gaveston has been seen by many as having a romantic or sexual element and was commented on at the time. The monks of Lanercost Priory said that Edward had “improper familiarity” with Piers, “preferred him in affection to all the other nobles of the country,” and was indifferent towards his wife because of him.¹ Their bond was strong enough that Edward was prepared to bring the country to the brink of civil war rather than exile Piers. He was eventually murdered by Edward’s barons in 1312, a decade before Edward himself was murdered.

Edward’s royal career began in Cumbria. His father, Edward I, died at Burgh-by-Sands on his way to campaign against Scotland on 11th July 1307 and the new king arrived there to view the embalmed body eight days later. Not long after arriving he received word that his beloved Gaveston had returned to England following exile by the dead king. Then on 20th July Edward II was proclaimed king at Carlisle Castle and received the fealty of the nobles of the land.

Edward’s poor leadership and lack of interest in the Scottish war started by his father meant the border counties suffered badly during his reign. Carlisle was besieged in 1315 and 1326 and there were destructive raids on Cumbria in 1316 and 1322 that had a lasting impact on the county’s population and economy.

The Church and Chastity

From the 12th century the church grew more powerful and could enforce its laws and moral codes more strictly, both on its clergy and on the general populace. The strengthening of the parish system meant that almost everyone came under the cure of a priest. Although some of Cumbria’s parishes were very large, chapels were established to provide for those who lived far from their mother church. By 1300, there were 17 religious houses around Cumbria’s lowlands, controlling large areas of land and providing spiritual care where the secular priests fell short. The reach of the church was greater than it had ever been.

How much the church’s opinion influenced people’s behaviour is impossible to say. By the church’s logic, adulterers and prostitutes were just as sinful as sodomites, although kings and bishops often had mistresses and concubines quite openly. Cumbria may even have evidence of medieval prostitution in the place name Portinscale, from the Old English portcwene ‘prostitute’ and Old Norse skáli ‘hut’, first recorded around 1160.

Marriage

For the majority of people in the Middle Ages and throughout most of recorded history, marriage was an obligation, a social expectation and an economic necessity, and sex within marriage was a duty. Many queer people must have bowed to pressure from their family, community or lords to marry and were lucky if they got to choose their partner. Yet there were always those who evaded these pressures to remain unmarried, either by choice or by circumstance. Figures for the Middle Ages don’t exist, but in the early Modern Period up to one sixth of adults might stay unmarried.

If a person could be financially independent — harder for women than men, though not impossible — or was willing to remain dependent on family, then they might avoid wedlock. This was easier in towns, where trade could provide an income, but entering service was an option in most areas, while men could go off to war. Social changes after the Black Death, which reached Cumbria in 1350, gave people more freedom to find work and allowed them to move away from their families and lords.

Changing Times

Gender roles were always distinct in medieval England, with social and legal expectations placed on both sexes, although women were generally more restricted than men of the same social status. Even agricultural work, which must have been the mainstay of most medieval Cumbrians, was seen as gendered, with women generally taking lighter and more repetitive jobs. But when times were tough or labour short (particularly after the Black Death), such distinctions must have been liable to break down. Compared with later centuries, though, medieval women had opportunities for freedom and independence.

The change came in the 15th century when economic troubles and changes in religious practice turned attitudes against women, reducing their roles and rights and sharpening differences between the sexes. Women became more restricted to the home and more dependent on husbands and fathers, increasing pressure on them to marry. Moral attitudes became stricter too. Women’s sexuality was seen as dangerous, linked with crime and witchcraft, and courts began to take on more morality cases like adultery, fornication and prostitution. Although women were the focus of this scapegoating, any marginalised group could be targeted.

In the 1530s, Henry VIII would use exactly this sort of moral condemnation to bring down the monasteries. He accused 10 Cumbrian religious houses of sexual misconduct, either ‘incontinence’, which mean straight sex, or ‘sodomy’, which included ‘voluntary pollution’ (masturbation) as well as same-sex sex:

Notes

1. Maxwell, H. (trans.) (1913). The Chronicle of Lanercost 1272-1346, Glasgow: Glasgow University, 184, 196. ↩︎