1300 - 1399 (14th-Century)
Romanticised later portrait of Edward II
1300 Around this time Prince Edward meets Gaveston, and falls in love with him. A
chronicler said: “when the king’s son saw him, he fell so much in love that he
entered upon an enduring compact with him.” Another said: “I do not remember to
have heard that one man so loved another.”
c.1300 For Pietro d’Abano the “wicked act of sodomy” included masturbation, intercrural
sex, making friction round the anus, and by placing it in an anus.
c1300 Riccoldo da Monte Crocce alleges that the Koran permits Muslims to sodomise
men & women. This lie becomes a widely accepted viewpoint in Western
Europe.
1301 Philip IV of France accuses Pope Boniface VIII of sodomy. This became a favourite
tactic of Philip IV.
1306 Andronicus II of Byzantium decreed that same-sex unions should no longer be
recognised.
1307 13 October. King Philip IV [the Fair] of France uses the pretext of accusations of
sodomy to supress the Knights Templar to steal their wealth.
Edward II & his sworn brother Gaveston were said to make their oaths together
“upon God’s body” & upon other relics.
Templars accused of sodomy and heresy are burned alive under the eye of French King Philip IV, in an illumination from the 15th-century Grandes Chroniques de France. (Newscom/British Library/akg-images)
1308 Piers Gaveston returns from France and is greeted by Edward II “with a singular
familiarity…giving him kisses and repeated embraces.” There were no
contemporary accusations that they had a sexual relationship.
In Orvieto convicted sodomites now had to pay a large fine, those who failed to pay
were paraded through the streets with a cord attached to their genitals. They were
also barred from all public office.
In Lucca convicted sodomites paid a hefty fine & perpetual banishment.
1309 In Perugia convicted sodomites were burnt.
1310 Posthumous accusations of sodomy were made against Pope Boniface VIII. [No
proof]
1311-2 During the trial of Ponç Hug, Count of Empúries, it was revealed he took the active
and passive roles with his servants and page-boys.
1312 Pope Clement V formally dissolves the order of the Knights Templar.
1314 Death of Piers Gaveston.
Jacques de Molnay, alleged sodomite, with other leaders of the Templars is burnt at
the stake. [He was probably innocent].
c1314 Guillaume Adam, Dominican Friar, claimed that all sexual acts are permitted in the
Muslim world & that there were many effeminate men. He complained that
Christian boys were sold into slavery in Egypt.
1315-8 Edward II seems to have been infatuated with Sir Roger Damory, Sir Hugh Audley
& possibly Sir William Montachute.
1318-9 Edward II begins a relationship with Hugh Despenser the Younger.
1320 In Avignon a cook working for the Marshal of the Pope was convicted of raping a
servant (15).
c.1320 Dante writes about the punishment of sodomites in Purgatorio. It is seen as a sin of
excess, not as being unnatural.
1321-2 Sir Robert Holland switched sides during the baronial rebellion. Thomas, Earl of
Lancaster opined: “How could he find it in his heart to betray me, when I have
loved him so much.”
1322 Florentine statutes forbade innkeepers to provide special delicacies that would
stimulate unnatural lust between men & boys.
1323-4 In Toulouse Arnaud de Verniolles, a subdeacon (32), is put on trial for posing as a
priest. He was accused of multiple cases of performing interfemoral sex on
numerous boys & youths.
1325 In Florence convicted sodomites of boys were now castrated. Houses were sodomy
was proved to have taken place were burned down. Consenting youths (14-18)
should be fined 100 lire. Boys younger than 14 were to be fined 50 lire or stripped
naked and flogged through the streets.
1326 24 November. Hugh Despenser is executed. His penis and testicles were removed
“because he was alleged to have been a pervert and a sodomite – above all with
the king himself, which was why the king, at his urging, had driven the queen
away.”
An Abbey in its annals referred to “the king and his husband,” but this has been
said to have been an ironical statement.
1327 Edward II murdered. The legend of the insertion of a red-hot poker in his anus,
dates from 30 years after his death.
Elaborate Tomb of Edward II
c.1330 Pierre de La Palude explained at length why the church could not marry same-sex
couples.
1330-2 Essays in Idleness by Kenkō, a Japanese monk, are written. Some speak of the
beauty of young men and of their companionships with scholars & priests.
1331 In Lucca convicted sodomites 18+ were now put to death.
1333 The river Arno bursts its banks, which is seen as an act of God. Anti-sodomy laws
are toughened in Florence.
c1338 Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco The Effects of Bad Government is painted in Siena. It
probably depicts a sodomitical assignation.
1339 Gilbert le Strengmaker of Fleet Street was accused of harbouring “men of ill repute.”
1340 Roger of Chester [Ranulf Higden] reported that 8 Abbots, with a great crew of
inferior priests and priests were found guilty of sodomy.
Pierre Bersaire translates Ovidius Moralizatus & compares Ganymede to St John.
1347-8 In Rochester not a single sexual case in the records is for sodomy.
1350 In the aftermath of the Black Death, sodomy was seen as a grave threat to the
repopulation of society.
1350?Chaucer writes The Knight’s Tale.
1350s Boccaccio writes the Decameron, which contains several negative depictions of
sodomy.
1354 Rolandino Ronchaia seems to have been born an hermaphrodite. He had a penis,
but he had enlarged breasts and a feminine face. After his wife died he dressed
as a female and worked on the Rialto as a female prostitute. He hid his member
from clients and inserted theirs into his rear parts until they ejaculated. He was
burned.
Charles de La Cerda is stabbed to death by jealous courtiers of Jean II le Bon of
France. La Cerda was the love of the king’s life since childhood.
1356 Magnus Ericksson, King of both Sweden & Norway, was forced to banish the
handsome Bengt Algotsson to whom he had been attentive, after a revolt of nobles.
1357Nicoleta Marmagna, a Venetian boatman, and Giovanni Braganza, his younger
servant are arrested for having intercrural sex. They are both burned to death when
Giovanni admitted he had recently taken on a more active role.
1360 Bengt Algotsson, is murdered. He was the young favourite of Magnus Ericksson,
the King of Sweden.
1361 St Bridget in Rome writes a revelation stating that Magnus Ericksson has “the foulest
reputation that a Christian man can have, that you have had intercourse with men.”
1363-4 In Rochester not a single sexual case in the records is for sodomy.
1365 In Florence a new law decreed that convicted sodomites were to be burnt. However,
passive partners under 18, could remain unpunished.
Giovanni di Giovanni (15), a willing partner to being sodomized by many men was
led through the streets to the scaffold, where he was castrated, and then had a
red-hot iron shoved up his anus.
1370 William Langland in Piers Plowman says that after sex with women, “males drowen
hem to males.”
1373 January. William Neville & John Clanvowe became sworn brothers around this date.
1375 Genealogia Deorum lists same-sex pairs amongst the gods. eg. Jupiter & Ganymede,
Apollo & Hyacinthus, Silvanus & Cyparissus.
Benvenuto da Imola found the University of Bologna infested by sodomites whom he
publicly denounced, but they had already been warned by a friendly cleric.
1376 The Good Parliament requests that Edward III banish Jews, Saracens and spies and
that they had introduced to the kingdom “the too horrible vice that is not to be
named.” This could be a reference to usury, rather than sodomy.
1378 In Bavaria a man confessed to mutual masturbation with a student & 3-4 other men.
1380 Cleanness composed by the Gawain-poet. Passages are devoted to the acts
“contrived against nature” when “each male takes as his mate a man like himself.”
These sections are then followed by several crude lavatorial allusions.
c.1380 John Mirk’s Instructions to Parish Priests, advises priests never to mention sodomy
to congregations, for fear of corrupting the faithful.
1381 In Augsburg 5 men were on trial for committing sodomy with one another: 2 monks,
2 laymen & a peasant.
1385 In Tournai, France a rare sodomy case was prosecuted.
John Clanvowe & William Neville were given a commission to inspect castles, forts
& men in the Scottish marches. They would later be buried together.
Richard II gives Robert de Vere the unprecedented title of Marquis of Dublin.
1386 Robert de Vere made Duke of Ireland and afterwards accused of “obscene
intimacies” by Thomas Walsingham.
1387 Thomas Walsingham complains that some courtiers were “more powerful in the
bedchamber than on the field.”
Peter Pateshull preached against the Augustinians, which caused them to be
attacked by Lollards with the cries “Let us burn these sodomites!”
1387-1400 Geoffrey Chaucer composes The Canterbury Tales. The description of the
Pardoner appears to be that of an effeminate man. He has long blond hair, is
clean-shaven, and has a very high voice: “that I believe he was a gelding or
a mare.” There are also implications that the summoner had illicit intercourse
with a minor & he seems to have a “stif bourdon” in regard to the
Pardoner. The Host verbally assaults the Pardoner with crude lavatorial
allusions. There are sworn brotherhoods mentioned in The Knight’s Tale,
The Friar’s Tale & The Shipman’s Tale.
1388 Jean Gerson, French theologian fulminated against masturbation, believing it led to
sodomy. He wanted priests taking confession to proactively ask if the sinner
masturbated.
1389 The Persian poet Hafiz dies around this time. A great deal of his poetry was
addressed to youths.
Portrait of Hafiz/Hafez from the National Museum of Damascus, Syria
1391 17 October. Sir William Neville & Sir John Clanvowe die within days of each other
& are buried under the same gravestone in Istanbul. Neville is reputed to have
refused food after the death of Clanvowe (6 October), and died on 10 October.
1394 Early December. In London John Rykener was arrested in female dress. As
‘Eleanor’ he was blackmailing men who were duped into thinking that they had
sodomized him. In Oxford he had regularly been sodomized by 3 students.
He also admitted that when he had worked in an inn he had sex with 3 friars &
6 other men.
1395 Lollards nailed up 12 conclusions of the Lollards to Westminster Hall. One was “the
English people bewail the crime of Sodom.” The 11th was against the secret sins
of women who are the cause of bringing the most horrible sin possible to
mankind.”
1400 In Strasbourg 2 men were convicted of having repeated mutual masturbation. One
managed to flee, but the other was executed. They first met in a public lavatory.
c.1400 Ibn Khaldun, historian & sociologist, wrote homoerotic poetry, but thought those
who committed same-sex acts should be stoned.
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.
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Warner, Kathryn, Sex and Sexuality in Medieval England, Yorkshire: Pen & Sword History, 2022.
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