6th July is the 820th anniversary of the accession of King Richard the Lionheart. A lot of misconceptions have filled his life with a lot of contradictions. The Victorians idolised him and invented a lot of the symbolism associated with him (St. George's cross and the 3 lions). It's common knowledge that he hardly spent any time in England. He owned more of France than the French king, so why spend it in a country he is known to have hated?
A famous story of one trip to England is immortalised in the Robin Hood legend when he came to Sherwood Forest. There's some factual basis because Prince John used Nottingham Castle as a power base while Richard was imprisoned in Austria. As soon as Richard escaped he heard about John's misappropriation of the ransom money and headed straight for Nottingham for a show down. John, being a wimp, ran away leaving the castle to defend itself against what they were told was a foreign army. They soon realised the truth and surrendered. Richard then went around pardoning outlaws.
Richard is often included in lists of gay kings. It'll take too long to discuss the concept of homosexuality and the medieval ideas of same-sexual activity. It must be said that Richard's sexuality will confuse people for years, and I know 'm going against other peoples' opinions when I say that, to my mind, Richard the Lionheart was NOT gay or bisexual. Even gay professional historians can't agree.
It really started in 1948 when writer John Hervey claimed to have uncovered a "conspiracy of silence" about Richard "sleeping" with King Philippe of France. It was such a big conspiracy that, like others "conspiracies" in recent years, it was well known to historians and readers of school history books for centuries! Stories about Richard being gay originate long after his death, and none of them centred around Hervey's evidence.
Hervey claims Richard was gay because he was married but had no children (like Edward VIII, so was he gay too?), and that he spent the night (and more) with King Philippe. Hervey failed to investigate the political conventions of the time. Two political allies always had their beds on offer to each other. Practical reasons prevented most from taking up the offer, but Richard took up Philippe's offer.
King Henry II was losing control of his kingdom and his family. He offended both his son Richard and King Philippe by marrying Richard's fiance (the French king's sister) to younger son John - after fathering a son by her himself! Richard went to France to show publicly whose side he was on, and it wasn't his father's. Richard and Philippe showed great "love" for each other. Wouldn't anyone in this situation - give support to an ally? It did the trick - King Henry felt dejected by his favourite son's betrayal and died a year later.That's how much things have changed. Today politics isn't about displays of emotion but words, words and words. Politicians are seen shaking hands, but if the Victorians hadn't demonised the sharing of beds we may have seen sights like Gordon Brown and Barack Obama sitting up in bed together giving a press conference (I hope for everyone's sake that Gordon Brown wears pyjamas!).
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
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