Thanks for sharing. I donât think there was any doubt of your âconclusionâ and trust it is not a big deal for anyone. Havenât seen anyone raise an eyebrow either in the forums I frequent.
it doesnât seem so no! I havenât seen it talked about much besides the article angry that istvan was a villan.
5:13
In medieval Bohemia you wouldnât want to say youâre gay because then youâll die.
No, this is incorrect. Medieval Bohemia was very tolerant towards gays. An âactiveâ gay was considered okay, a âpassiveâ gay was not encouraged, but being one would definitely not lead to any consequences beyond some teasing maybe. Besides, how would you like to know that real Sir Radzig was a passive homosexual? He is recorded in the so-called âPrague book of namesâ as a lover of the king Wenceslaus, not just a favourite, but a lover, literally. Also, the correspondence between them confirms that. So it was not extraordinary to be a gay in medieval Bohemia, nor it was dangerous. Of course, you wouldnât shout about that at every corner, but what sane person would do it in any epoch? What happens in oneâs bed is their own business.
Thank yo for that info! I was going by general rules; i.e sodomy being punishable by death in various regions in medieval times. This is really intersting and Iâll have to look into it!
Do you have any sources on medieval Bohemia being more tolerant? Not doubting you, just want to look it up myself!
Sorry for the delay.
Itâs not to say that I read this exact phrase somewhere. It is more like a conclusion based on information from many sources and conversations with knowledgable people.
Here is an article about Wenceslaus and his sexual preferences. It contains links to sources, but itâs in Czech.
http://historicky.blog.cz/0901/vaclav-iv-vladl-cecham-gay
There is also VĂĄclav HĂĄjek z LiboÄan: Kronyka ÄeskĂĄ. It is written in Latin and there are possibly translations to Czech, but Iâm not sure about English. He wrote about Wenceslaus and his general complaint is not that Wenceslaus had gay lovers, but that those lovers were of vile birth.
Besides, there are court and inquisition protocols and there are no cases on gays unlike in England, for example.
For a general perspective on the question, if you are interested, I can recommend a book by Ruth Mazo Karras âSexuality in Medieval Europe. Doing Unto Othersâ. But this book is a general view. Please, keep in mind that the Middle Ages is a very long period and Europe is a very big place, so you should never assume things were uniform throughout it.
Cool thanks so much! I can use translator to get a rough idea of what the articles are saying. Much appreciated.
Do you have sources for it? I would really want see that correspondence you mentioned and Radzig listed literally as lover.
That article is pure speculation, based on nothing.
He doesnât have any children, because he was gay? Really? Having a heir was very important for medieval monarchs, so if you were able to have one, you would, it doesnât matter if you were gay or not.
VĂĄclav HĂĄjek z LiboÄan is very unreliable source. And sources listed in that article are just some magazines.
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