To be or Not to be ; was Re: Greatest English Monarch

Dear James,

You touch on difficult subjects----do you have to commit sodomy before you can be regarded a homosexual? Can a person be homosexual even without ever having sex? Can a person be heterosexual without ever having sex?

I have just finished reading a book by Lucy Moore, "Amphibious Thing, the Life of Lord Hervey". This book tells how he fell in love with and then married his wife. After that he met Stephen Fox (later 1st Earl of Ilchester) and had a relationship with him. In the end the English (to quote the book) resented him, not for having sex with another man but because of him having fallen in love with him. To make the story messier Stephen Fox after several years married himself (ending his relationshop with Lord Hervey) and being very happy with his wife and fathering at least seven children. How would you classify these two? It is not known whether they committed sodomy.

I once asked someone "what makes a homosexual?" The answer was, not having sex with another man, but falling in love with another man makes someone homosexual. In which case James VI-I should be regarded a homosexual, I really think that sodomy does not come in to it.
With best wishes
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia



----- Original Message ----- From: <Jwc1870@xxxxxxx>
To: <GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: Greatest English Monarch


Dear Fellow Listers,
I just thought of two more of England`s
greatest Kings not yet mentioned by anyone James VI and I should be among them
because though not especially prepossessing or popular He was the first to rule
over the entire British Isles in recorded history. something which He did for 22
years. It is doubtful that He was an active homosexual as that would have
been sodomy, something highly offensive to God. In the Bibical translations from
Latin and Greek into English which He himself oversaw, there was no loophole
making sodomy acceptable behavior just as it was slanted to support his
dissertation on the divine right of the King to rule over his subjects and for sinful
and ungodly Kings to be dispossessed. He also came up with some interesting
ideas to raise money, including that nonpeerage title of Baronet. James I liked
the Anglican church better that the Presbyterianism of Scotland which He grew
up under. The second King is James I`s grandson Charles II who was perhaps
one of the most subtle politicians of his day. Forgiving and even even rewarding
the enemies of his father and at least in public adhering to Anglicanism. He
was handsome for a Stuart, athletic and charming. In private He attended
Catholic rites.
Sincerely,
James W Cummings
Dixmont, Maine USA



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