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Brothels and Prostitutes
By Madeline | February 21, 2008
As pious as the church ruled medieval times were, brothels were still in operation. In fact, they were in operation under consent of the church as they considered it a necessary evil to help fight the sins of rape and sodomy. Prostitutes were so welcomed in fact that they even were able to be absolved of their sins for their societal contribution. Of course, there were strict rules in place that dictated that married men were not welcome as well as a few others that made biblical sense.
When the Renaissance rolled around and Henry VIII came into power, he sought out the closure of brothels. Once during 1535 during which his “Christian” conscience dictated his actions by making him reform the church and divorce his legal wife to marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn. However, the 1535 removal of prostitutes lasted only one season. As was so often the case with this fickle king, Henry lost interest and made no protests when they opened back up again. However, in 1546, he went on a anti-brothel tirade again, this time forcing the closure of many more brothels. This was brought on by a serious outbreak of syphilis and targeted on of Henry’s biggest fears - illness. Around this time, brothels that were initially whitewashed to indicate their nature were transformed into high walled fortresses as a means of keeping attackers out; attackers of course being the crown in this instance. His work did little to prevent the spread of syphilis though as many of the prostitutes who were drawn from their brothels immediately picked right back up where they left off on the streets of England. Eventually Henry got sidetracked again and once again brothels opened their doors and welcomed the ugly and horny back in. I find Henry’s fight against sin hypocritical for obvious reasons and his fight against prostitution as a fear against syphilis as interesting considering the heavy rumors that his inability to conceive more heirs (despite his considerable line up of wives) that he, in fact, had syphilis himself. Perhaps this is where his hatred of prostitution lay?
During the Elizabethan times, brothels owners became more discreet and housed their prostitutes in taverns under the auspices of being beer wenches and in theaters as actresses. These women were easily able to ply their trade publicly and without legal retribution. Around this period, prostitutes that were a little more intelligent were able to coax men out of their fortunes and convince them to put them up in lavishly furnished apartments and be supplied an allowance.
Not all brothels were created equal as I’m sure this would seem obvious. Many brothels were for the poor, however there were a select few that did offer ‘upscale’ whores to men who were willing to part with a little more money for some quality fun. Unfortunately, these hapless men had as much chance of getting syphilis from a ten ducat girl as they did from a ten shilling girl. Once more regulations were put into place and physical check ups were required as a means of stifling the spread of syphilis, the women who were removed from the brothels due to the disease continued their work on the streets. So despite their best efforts, syphilis still continued to spread.
Over the years brothels took on many names. Initially they were referred to as stews after the bath houses that they originated in. They were referred to as stews because of the baths and hot vapors that bath houses were known for. Presently, areas with brothels are known as the red light district. One article I read indicated that the name may have stemmed from rail road workers leaving their red lanterns on the porches of loose women that they paid a visit to, but I didn’t see anything else that suggested that theory.
As with many other times in history, women and children were often times the victims of greedy men. It was not uncommon to hear of men selling out his wife’s and children’s favors for a few pence. A few of these men were noted in historical documents as being publicly punished for this, which leads me to assume it was more common than just those few occurrences.
Finally, the last bit of interesting information I discovered was that some brothels were run with male prostitutes. The article stated that there was not hard evidence to support this, however, it seems to make sense. Whether it catered to men or women was not stated, but I would imagine they supplied men who did either or.
Topics: Medieval Era, Tudor Era |
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