1000 - 1099

  Anselm of Canterbury

1000​    Ælfric contrasts the Sodom story with the narrative of Noah’s flood.

1016​    Edmund Ironside & Cnut go through the ritual brotherhood ceremony in which they

                    “exchanged the kiss of peace.”                     

1021​    Before this date the Japanese Tales of Genji are written.  In one tale the hero cannot 

              make love to the woman he desires, so he makes love to her brother instead.  

1025​    Death of Burchard, Bishop of Worms, who classified same-sex acts as a variety of 

               fornication.

1048-51   St Peter Damian wrote The Book of Gomorrah, which accused priests of having 

            carnal relations with their spiritual advisers.  He suggested that many clerics

            avoided doing penance for same-sex acts by confessing to other clergy involved 

            in same-sex acts.

1070​     Anselm persuades Gundulf to accompany him to Canterbury.  

1071​     Anselm writes to Gundulf what can be interpreted as a love letter.  

1073​     Pope Gregory VII orders the burning of all of Sappho’s poetry.

1074-5      Anselm writes to brother William, what could be interpreted as a love letter.  

                William was a monk at La Chaise-Dieu, nr St. Etienne.

1077      ​Gundulf becomes Bishop of Rochester, to whom Anselm is still writing what could 

​            be interpreted as love letters.    

1082​       Mirror for Princes by Kai Ka’us ibnn Iskander was written as a guide for his son.  

             Advice included: “do not confine your inclinations to either sex…find enjoyment 

             from both kinds.” “Incline towards youth [in the summer] and during the winter 

             towards women.”  

1087​      William II [Rufus] becomes King of England.  He never married or had children, 

                        so some have suggested he may have preferred same-sex unions. 

A Victorian representation of William II (Rufus)

1090       ​Oldest Latin version of Amys and Amylion by Radulphus Tortarius. A story of a

                       sworn brotherhood, which comes under threat.

1093        St Anselm becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.  A celibate who wrote yearning

                  love poetry to former companions in the Benedictine monastery of Bec, Normandy.

1096        Marbod becomes Bishop of Rennes.  He was the author of an ode to a young boy.

                    He wrote poems about the beauty of youths, but also wrote against physical

                        same-sex relationships.                                 

1097​      John ‘Flora’, alleged lover of the archbishop of Tours, becomes Bishop of Orleans.   

Bibliography

Bray, Alan, The Friend, University of Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Griffin, Gabriele, (ed.), Who’s Who in Lesbian & Gay Writing, Routledge: London, 2002. 

Norton, Rictor, My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries, San Francisco: Leyland Publications: 1998.

Woods, Gregory, Homosexuality in Literature, London: Yale University Press, 1998.

Aldrich, Robert & Garry Wotherspoon (eds.), Who’s Who in Gay & Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II: London, Routledge, 2001.

Aldrich, Robert, Gay Life Stories, London: Thames & Hudson, 2023.

Rowse, A.L., Homosexuals in History, London: Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 1977.

Spencer, Colin, Homosexuality, a History, London: Fourth Estate, 1995.