In today's Claire chats I discuss the various views and theories on sex, sexuality, the anatomy of the female reproductive system, sex and health, and premarital sex and adultery which were prevalent in the Medieval and Tudor period.
Sources and Further Reading
- Crawford, Patricia (2004) Blood, Bodies and Families in Early Modern England, Pearson Education Ltd.
- Helen Castor's Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death - see http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/helen-castors-medieval-lives-birth-marriage-death-episode-1-good-birth/, http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/helen-castors-medieval-lives-birth-marriage-death-episode-2-good-marriage/ and http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/helen-castors-medieval-lives-birth-marriage-death-episode-3-good-death/
- The Wellcome Manuscript - go to http://wellcomeimages.org/ and type "apocalypse" into the search box to browse images from the manuscript.
- May 1650: An Act for suppressing the detestable sins of Incest, Adultery and Fornication - http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/pp387-389
- A History of the Male and Female Genitalia - https://web.stanford.edu/class/history13/earlysciencelab/body/femalebodypages/genitalia.html
Very interesting chat, Claire! And a big applause for keeping a straight face (well, almost) when Tim was making faces behind the camera. I know I would double over with laughing because I can imagine how my husband would look when I was making remarks about physical damage when having too little or too much sex (getting bad eyesight, wasn’t it? Haha)
Thanks, Audrey, Tim was sat right behind the camera nodding, shaking his head and pulling faces so I was trying to ignore him!
Dear Claire, just ‘slap'[not too hard] Tim and tell him to ‘behave.’ A very interesting and informative chat. It focused my mind on the importance of women who were not only treated as inferior to men but yet were expected to conceive in the case of Queens especially and to produce healthy male heirs for dynastic purposes. I read a few weeks ago but cannot put my hand on the text that Anne Boleyn may have had a condition that would have prevented her ever giving birth to a living male child. If I find the text, I will post it here. Thank you Claire.
Ha! Thanks, Sean, I will bear that in mind for future videos!