HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-03-06T15:31:03.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: "It wasn't very open about its queer connections": the hidden history of the National Trust
items: Aids: the epidemic that changed Britain
items: Sexuality on trial in colonial America
items: How Georgian and Victorian same-sex couples co-opted marital traditions and made them their own
items: The boy that emperor Nero made his ‘wife’: what the tragedy of the castrated Sporus tells us about homosexuality in ancient Rome
items: Challenging gender in the Victorian Age: the 'masculine' New Woman and 'effeminate' New Man
items: Jason Okundaye on the Black gay community and its tensions: “The movement has always been a broad church”
items: A surprising history of sex between men
items: Being Black and gay in postwar Britain
items: James VI and I and his favourites: what were their relationships like?

"It wasn't very open about its queer connections": the hidden history of the National Trust
type: item
date: 2026-03-06T15:30:11.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
description: Michael Hall speaks to Charlotte Vosper about the long-hidden stories of LGBTQ people whose lives were connected to the properties owned by the National Trust
encoded: Charlotte Vosper: In A Queer Inheritance, you explore histories of sexual difference connected to the National Trust. What drew you to those historical figures and their stories? Michael Hall: That goes back a long way. For quite a few years I worked for Country Life magazine, and in that role I wrote articles about country houses. I actually began with one of those I mention in my book: Packwood House in Warwickshire. It was acquired in 1904 by an industrialist for his son, Graham Baron Ash, who spent years renovating and transforming the property. It struck me that he never got married – and the idea that a bachelor might do up a house and then give it to the National Trust to look after seemed quite intriguing. I didn’t really spot that it was part of a pattern until I wrote a similar article on Anglesey Abbey. That’s when I realised that there was a story about the National Trust that hadn’t really been told before. It’s important to mention that I’ve never worked for the Trust, and A Queer Inheritance isn’t an official National Trust book in any way. I don’t speak on the Trust’s behalf – and indeed they may very well disagree with a lot of what I say. The National Trust was founded in 1895, when homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ were still illegal in Britain – yet in your book you suggest that the Trust had queer connections from its very beginnings. Can you expand on this? That’s actually quite a complicated question. The origins of the National Trust were rooted in an anxiety about London’s urban poor and how they could be morally improved. Its founders thought that if the urban poor could be given access to architectural and natural beauty, this would do away with what they saw as their worrying vices – of which homosexuality was a rather prominent example. Yet several people on the Trust’s original council and executive committee were in fact queer. They included the 5th Earl of Rosebery, who was worried that he might be named in the Oscar Wilde trials o…

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Aids: the epidemic that changed Britain
type: item
date: 2025-12-05T13:47:11.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Forty years ago, the UK found itself in the grip of a virus that killed thousands of people and sparked fear, confusion and prejudice – HIV. Janet Weston explores the Aids crisis as it unfolded throughout the 1980s, and how it transformed attitudes about everything from sexuality to healthcare
encoded: In the early 1980s, reports of a strange new disease began emerging from the United States. It was picked up in the British gay press – Gay News ran a story in November 1981 under the headline “Gay cancer or mass media scare?” – but relatively few people noticed. Even among those who did, confusion and doubt reigned: weren’t these tales of a “gay cancer” just fear-mongering, a backlash against the gains of the fight for gay liberation in the 1970s? How could a disease target gay men, anyway? Such suspicions were not without good reason. The medical profession had a difficult history with people who didn’t conform to heterosexual norms: less than 10 years earlier, homosexuality had still been categorised by the internationally influential American Psychiatric Association as a mental disorder. And when it came to Aids, the lack of knowledge about its cause or mode of transmission led to wild speculation. One theory linked Aids to the use of “poppers”, a recreational drug popular on the gay scene; another proposed that Aids was the end point of too many sexually transmitted infections. The picture grew still more complex as the symptoms associated with this new illness were also identified both among injecting drug users and people with the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia, including women and children. By July 1983, there had been 14 reported cases of Aids in Britain, all among men. Most were gay, including one man who also injected drugs, but the group included another who had been receiving treatment for haemophilia in the form of blood products. Just two months later, the number had risen to 24, and included a woman and a second man with haemophilia. As numbers of diagnoses in the United Kingdom started to rise sharply, the deaths began. Many people died very soon after diagnosis, as an array of opportunistic infections took advantage of their weakened immune systems. Terrence Higgins died in July 1982, one of the first deaths in the UK attributed to Aids. His p…

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Sexuality on trial in colonial America
type: item
date: 2025-02-25T17:04:51.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: John Gilbert McCurdy explores attitudes to sexuality and liberty on the eve of revolutionary war, by examining the trials of Robert Newburgh
encoded: In 1774, as Britain’s colonies in America teetered on the brink of revolution, one regiment was torn apart by the trials of a British army chaplain – Robert Newburgh – who was accused of having sex with another man. In this episode, John Gilbert McCurdy examines evolving attitudes to sexuality and liberty in the colonies on the eve of revolutionary war, and explores how Newburgh's trials became a flashpoint for wider fears of moral and political disorder. (Ad) John Gilbert McCurdy is the author of Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trials of Robert Newburgh (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon

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How Georgian and Victorian same-sex couples co-opted marital traditions and made them their own
type: item
date: 2024-12-11T09:00:12.000Z
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
description: Dr Anthony Delaney looks back to same-sex couples who lived and loved in previous centuries, and how marriage traditions of the era were used to signal their intimacy and union at a time when such relationships were illegal
encoded: When Gabriel Lawrence, a milkman, was apprehended at the notorious Margaret Clap’s molly house in 1725, he was subsequently tried at the Old Bailey for “the heinous and detestable Sin of Sodomy”. A ‘molly’ – a mostly derogatory term used mainly across the 18th and 19th centuries to describe men who had sex with other men – could be found at various molly houses. These were something akin to 18th-century gay bars, with the provision of lodging rooms. There, men might meet similar men for drinks, conversation, and, according to one witness, “marriages”. Samuel Stevens, a witness for the prosecution against Lawrence, was called to give evidence and in his damning account he shocked those assembled with what he recalled of his visit to the molly house. Stevens stated that the mollies spent time “together kissing and hugging and making love (as they called it) in a very indecent manner… they used to go out by couples into another room, and when they came back[,] they would tell what they had been doing, which in their dialect they called marrying.” Despite numerous appeals from friends and family on Lawrence’s behalf, Stevens’ account of the ‘marriage-making’ at the molly house proved ruinous. In April 1726, the jury found him guilty of sodomy and on 9 May 1726 Gabriel Lawrence was hanged at Tyburn. Read more | What are the challenges of telling LGBTQ history? Soon, we will mark 10 years since the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill was introduced to parliament in England and Wales, in January 2013. This went on to provide the legal framework through which same-sex couples could access the benefits, comforts, and marital status already available to others within legally recognised marriages. But before this legal framework was extended to include them, people who we might now recognise as gay, lesbian, or bisexual had long been co-opting and adapting the traditions and language of marriage for their own relationships. As shown in the recorded testimony against Lawrence, and…

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The boy that emperor Nero made his ‘wife’: what the tragedy of the castrated Sporus tells us about homosexuality in ancient Rome
type: item
date: 2024-10-08T11:56:05.000Z
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Evergreen
subject: Historical people
description: Eunuch, ‘empress’ and ultimately victim of abuse: Sporus is a lesser-known character in the story of the brutal Roman emperor Nero. But his life, and the messages it reveals, are the things of outlandish drama, as evidenced by his memorable reference in the hit series, Succession. Hilary Mitchell takes up Sporus’s story
encoded: To think about gender and sexuality in ancient Rome, there are several things that may spring to mind first. Would it be the oiled-up, Bacchanalian orgies so often depicted in movies? The heinous treatment that was so commonplace towards women? Or could it be the abuses endured by Roman slaves? If the latter, the name Sporus may already be familiar. Sporus was a boy who caught the attentions of Nero. The notorious emperor had him forcibly castrated and then married him to be his empress, perhaps to replace his former wife. Sporus isn’t someone we can ever hear from directly. We only know about Sporus through the writings of Roman historians, who had reason to depict Nero in as negative and debauched a light as possible. Sporus’s own voice has been completely lost; there is no knowing how he felt about what happened to him or if he considered himself homosexual in any modern sense of the word. His life was short and tragic, and only recorded by posterity in relation to a more powerful man. Yet it can help to reveal the complex attitudes toward sexuality, gender and power in ancient Rome, especially the acceptance and perception of homosexuality. Who was Sporus? Sporus was a young boy of extraordinary beauty, though it is important to note that the young boy’s name may not have been Sporus at all. The Greek word σπόρος (sporos) means ‘seed’ or ‘semen’, so was likely a belittling epithet that seems to have been given to the boy after his abuse began. It was said that Sporus bore a striking resemblance to Nero’s second wife, Poppaea Sabrina, who had died in AD 65. Suetonius has it that she had complained to her husband about how much time he spent at the races and, in a fit of rage, Nero kicked her to death, losing both his wife and his unborn child. Another possibility is that Poppaea died in childbirth. Either way, Nero is said to have become deeply infatuated with Sporus upon seeing him. In AD 67, the emperor ordered the boy be castrated, turning him into a eunuch. T…

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Challenging gender in the Victorian Age: the 'masculine' New Woman and 'effeminate' New Man
type: item
date: 2024-06-10T14:22:14.000Z
creator: Jad Adams
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
description: As the Victorian age neared its end, a vibrant cultural movement emerged that flipped conventional notions of femininity and masculinity on their head. Jad Adams reveals how a new generation challenged stereotypical gender identities
encoded: In the 1890s, two new social identities emerged that represented the first widespread challenge to gender stereotypes in Britain. This was the time of the ‘New Woman’, who possessed levels of daring regarded as masculine, and of the effeminate ‘New Man,’ who loved ‘art for art’s sake’. Her determined persistence to go her own way, and his foppish indifference to soldiering and other established notions of ‘manliness’, were both deemed equally appalling to Victorian elders. Indeed, to some commentators, it seemed as if men and women were losing their distinct characteristics. As a Punch magazine writer noted in a verse titled ‘Sexomania’: When Adam delved and Eve span, No one need ask which was the man. Bicycling, footballing, scarce human, All wonder now “Which is the woman?” But a new fear my bosom vexes; To-morrow there may be no sexes! Unless, as end to all the pother, Each one in fact becomes the other. This was a seismic shift, and one partly driven by changes in the UK population. By the 1890s, women outnumbered men by around a million, and by the 1901 census, the gap had grown to 1.25 million. There were not enough husbands to go around due to the higher death rate of men from their more dangerous jobs, their tendency to violence, and because of the number of men who had headed abroad with the armed forces or imperial administration. In many middle-class families, the lack of men became a significant issue, because daughters were traditionally provided for by their fathers until their husbands ‘took over’. If they did not end up marrying and their parents died, they then became the responsibility of their elder brothers – leading in some cases to family tensions. Yet this demographic shift also coincided with a high point in the social movement of women’s education and independence, which had been under way since the mid-19th century. For the first time, large numbers of women who had received a good or moderate education became more determined to live away f…

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Jason Okundaye on the Black gay community and its tensions: “The movement has always been a broad church”
type: item
date: 2024-06-07T08:31:23.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Jason Okundaye talks to Matt Elton about his new book charting the political, social and sexual lives of Black gay men who lived in London in the second half of the 20th century
encoded: Matt Elton: Your book is based on interviews with a group of men from the London district of Brixton. Who did you speak to, and how did you meet? Jason Okundaye: I was researching rates of HIV among Black gay men in Britain, and part of that involved exploring archive material about Black men who have sex with men. There didn’t turn out to be much of that material, but one name – Marc Thompson – kept coming up, so I knew I had to get in touch with him. We met, and talked about his life in Brixton and the area’s history. And through Marc I met more and more people, until eventually I had a big cast of characters: a group of Black gay men aged between 50 and 70 based in and around Brixton who had been incredible activists, artists, poets and DJs. Between them they had created a thriving subculture, so I wanted to bring their voices together and paint, from a minority experience, a broader, beautiful picture. On the podcast | Jason Okundaye on the social, sexual and political history of London’s community of Black gay men in the late 20th century You get a real sense of the men’s characters. Was that important? I’ve sometimes felt that Black British history has lacked texture and character: the details that reveal someone’s individuality and personality. We might focus on what a person achieved in the context of getting the law changed, for example, but miss a sense of who they actually were. This book is as much about the individuals as it is about the big events and changes in which they played a part. I particularly wanted to communicate that the period between the 1970s and 1990s was a historical moment at which things were tense. People were facing racism, homophobia and the Aids crisis, and there was a nascent, growing gay activist and cultural movement. They may have been united on the fronts of race or sexuality, but that didn’t necessarily mean everything was harmonious – and, anyway, that’s not the way I think we should look at queer history or Black history.…

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A surprising history of sex between men
type: item
date: 2024-05-15T06:00:32.000Z
subject: General Early Modern
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Sir Noel Malcolm explores the history of sexual relationships between men in early modern Europe and the Ottoman world
encoded: Until recently, the history of sex between men was a taboo topic. But by delving into the historical archive, historian Sir Noel Malcolm has uncovered a more complex story of same-sex relationships and encounters in early modern Europe and the Ottoman world. He speaks to Rebecca Franks about his findings. Noel Malcolm is the author of Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750 (Oxford University Press, 2024). Buy now on Amazon Buy now on Bookshop.org Buy now on Waterstones

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Being Black and gay in postwar Britain
type: item
date: 2024-04-18T14:59:35.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Jason Okundaye explores the social, sexual and political history of London’s community of Black gay men in the late 20th century
encoded: Author and journalist Jason Okundaye's new book features interviews with a community of Black gay men who lived in the London district of Brixton across the later decades of the 20th century. From disagreements about politics and the best way to fight discrimination, to intimate details of sexual relationships, house parties and nightlife, their stories offer revealing insights into the experiences of being Black and gay in postwar Britain. Matt Elton caught up with Jason to find out more. Jason Okundaye is the author of Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain (Faber & Faber, 2024) <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolutionary-Acts-Brotherhood-Black-Britain/dp/057137221X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=24VKJSAHEF0XF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Iy6qgOtwfZ68gKTAySTvug.8CdWt_jZXL6Qpq9hxw94S7OREhcTdEPv5o3flmtNLV0&dib_tag=se&keywords=Revolutionary+Acts%3A+Love+%26+Brotherhood+in+Black+Gay+Britain&qid=1713430364&sprefix=revolutionary+acts+love+%26+brotherhood+in+black+gay+britain%2Caps%2C50&sr=8-1&tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-265595" rel="sponsored" target="_blank">Buy now on Amazon Buy now on Bookshop.org Buy now on Waterstones

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James VI and I and his favourites: what were their relationships like?
type: item
date: 2024-03-05T12:03:26.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: Period
subject: Stuart
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: As Mary and George chooses to dramatise a sexual relationship between King James VI and I, and his favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham – how much is really known about the king’s relationships with his favoured male courtiers?
encoded: Who were James VI and I’s favourites? King James VI and I was renowned for his enjoyment of the company of handsome young male courtiers. His relationships were no secret at court, and he was very open about the men whom he favoured. In 1603, when James VI succeeded Elizabeth I to become James I of England, his court was packed with Scottish courtiers, and “this was particularly noticeable in the bedchamber”, explains Joe Ellis of the University of York on an upcoming episode of the HistoryExtra podcast. This was “the real inner sanctum of royal life, where only very few courtiers were allowed to be,” says Ellis. “The bedchamber was somewhere where everybody wanted to be if they wanted to get ahead.” While the king married Anne of Denmark in 1589, and fathered as many as seven children, there was a culture within his court of elevating the status of young, attractive men. They shared his bedchamber with him – a convention of the time (more below). This trait of raising up the status of his male favourites dates back to when the young king was a teen, explains Ellis. Read more | The honeymoon of James VI and Anna of Denmark “When he was only 13 years old, the absence of his own family, I think, led James to call Esmé Stewart, his cousin, back to Scotland from France.” At 37 years old, Stewart was much older than James, and Ellis explains that he was something of an exotic presence at court who fascinated the young king. “Stewart was showered with rewards. He was made the only duke in Scotland at the time. But he was deeply unpopular at court, because he was French, and also Catholic,” says Ellis. “I think what we see here is the beginning of a pattern emerging, where James was facilitating the rise of a favourite.” Soon after James’s accession to the English throne, Scottish noble Robert Carr became a prominent favourite, gaining status as a groom of the bedchamber around 1604. Having been knighted by the king, Carr soon became influential in royal policy and was giv…

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