[Artemisia] Richard the Lionheart

[TClayton]

Also let me add, that in this period,  very deep (hetro) friendships between 
men are very often described with the word love, and are ascribed as lovers. 
It's in our homophobic era that we imply the "gay" aspect to it. It's 
possible that Hovedon is simply trying to portray them as very close, 
inseperable companions. Shakespeare is full of such comparisons ("The 
Merchant of Venice" has many references like these) that do not mean to 
imply homosexual acts. However, it is true that the stigma for homosexual 
practices in the middle ages, particularly among the noblility, was far less 
than it is today.
 Until the invention and introduction of courtly love, it was considered odd 
or weak to refer to a relationship between a  man and a woman with the word 
"love". That was certainly more sinful!
    A great book on this subject is "The Royal Bastards of Medieval England" 
by Chris Given -Wilson and Alice Curteis. It talks about these very issues 
on this list.
-----Ralph, Rex Artemisia
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephanae Baker" <stephanae at countryrhoades.net>
To: "Kingdom of Artemisia mailing list" <artemisia at lists.gallowglass.org>
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Artemisia] Richard the Lionheart


> Dear Conrad:
>
> You seem offended by the idea that Richard's sexuality could have 
> something to do with his place in history and certainly to think it  has 
> no place in our discussion, so I'd like to respectfully present  some 
> arguments to the contrary.
>
> Roger of Hoveden (who went on the 3rd crusade with Richard) wrote the 
> following (translated from Latin by Boswell):
>
>     "Richard, [then] duke of Aquitaine, the son of the king of  England, 
> remained with Philip, the King of France, who so honored him  for so long 
> that they ate every day at the same table and from the  same dish, and at 
> night their beds did not separate them. And the  king of France loved him 
> as his own soul; and they loved each other  so much that the king of 
> England was absolutely astonished at the  passionate love between them and 
> marveled at it."