Throughout this month I’ve been sharing some case studies of local historical figures or groups who have possible LGBTQ+ backgrounds. When I first started my research into LGBTQ+ history, I was told there were no stories in Colchester. It’s just a small town and so, even if LGBTQ+ people had ever been here, they wouldn’t have been open or shared their stories. Although this may true to an extent, there are plenty of national figures that have connections to Colchester that we can use to share the long and rich history of LGBTQ+ people. This is a very brief account with only a few examples, but I’m sure I will share more in the future.
Cybele – an intersex god
Trigger Warning: castration and incest
Like many myths, the story of Cybele varied throughout its history. From its origins in Phrygian Turkey to its spread across the Roman Empire, there were some common themes. It was believed Cybele was born with both male and female genitalia, meaning they were what we would refer to nowadays as intersex. Some stories explain how Cybele was castrated, to make them the “mother goddess” they were often believed to be. From their discarded male genitalia grew an almond tree. A nearby spirit decided to eat one of the almonds from the tree and became pregnant, eventually giving birth to a child named Attis.
Attis became a handsome young man, in various stories either becoming a prince or a shepherd. One day Cybele spotted the boy and, not knowing who he was, fell deeply in love with him. Attis initially reciprocated that love, but soon realised he could not spend his life with a god when he himself wasn’t one. He chose to marry a local mortal princess, which understandably enraged Cybele. At their wedding, Cybele turned up unannounced and turned the entire crowd mad, forcing Attis to flee before castrating himself with a rock. Feeling immediate regret, Cybele turned Attis into a pine tree, or his blood turned into violet flowers, depending on which version you read.
In the Roman world, the worshipers of Cybele were known as Galli. These were people born male who chose to castrate themselves and live their lives as women. Due to their importance within Roman religion, they were able to present as female in both religious contexts and wider society. Noone would have looked twice as the Galli walked through towns across the Roman Empire. This was likely the case in Britain, including in Colchester which was once the Roman capital of the island.
Evidence of the worship of Cybele has been found in other parts of the country, including an individual buried in Catterick, Yorkshire. The skeleton appears biologically male but was buried alongside women’s jewellery. Although it is incredibly difficult to know a person’s sex or gender from archaeological remains, this case study is a good example of how we need to have an open mind when trying to understand who people were in the past.
William II – A court of queens
One of the most iconic buildings in Colchester is arguably Colchester Castle. Built after the Norman Conquest of 1066, it was created under the instruction of King William I. He ruled England for 21 years before his death, when the kingdom was passed on to his son, also called William. William I had, in his 20 year rule, built up a court of the most knowledgeable military and strategic people in the country, in order to guide the country into prosperity and protect them from the continued threat of invasion. When his son William II was crowned in 1087, that would all change.
Although William II would rule for nearly as long as his dad, he was not very well liked by the nobility in England. One of the first things William did when coming to power was remove many of the loyal advisors from the royal court and replace them with young, attractive and “effeminate” men. Now, some of these men may also have been very intelligent and could have been brilliant advisors. However, many of his opponents saw this as an indication of something else entirely.
Admittedly, most of the accusations come after William’s death, making it difficult to know any certainty around the claims. However, some of his contemporaries stated this William might have had romantic and sexual relationships with men. Equally, accounts at the time indicate he had an interest in women, though he never got married or had any children to prove it. That is why his brother, Henry, would become king after him. So could this be an indication that the king was in fact a closeted homosexual, or a promiscuous bisexual who chose never to settle down with one woman to produce an heir to the throne?
William Gilberd – asexuality as an alternative
A bit like with the previous example of William II, the notion that a person who never married or had children was clearly a closeted gay man has been persistent throughout the study of LGBTQ+ history. Although this comes from a positive place, trying to find stories that may once have been hidden, this however fails to consider some aspects of what is a very broad spectrum of sexuality.
William Gilberd, so notable a school in Colchester was named after him, held a lot of influence in the late 1500s and early 1600s. He was a scientist who not only was the first person to use the term electricus, which means “like amber”, to refer to the materials’ magnetic properties, but he was also a physician at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. He spent much of his life studying the world around him that, by the time he died at 63, he had no wife or children.
Thomas Fuller, an historian in the 1600s, described Gilberd saying he “never married, purposefully to be more beneficial to his brethren”. The idea that Gilberd saw his work and research as more important than love and romance could potentially tell us something more about William Gilberd, not that he was a closeted homosexual but that he was asexual.
Those who had no desire for sex are often overlooked in history, with those who chose not to have relationships with others being explained away as “shy” or secretly gay. Those both may have been the case for some individuals, but when we don’t know for certain it’s important to consider all perspectives equally.
Nina Layard – the archaeologist’s lover
Although male-male relationships have been heavily discouraged and even punished throughout history, the history of women who were attracted to women is a slightly more complex story. Although not openly encouraged, in the Victorian period there was no law against women who had sex with women, unlike for men who had sex with men. Contrary to some popular misconceptions, Queen Victoria herself had no say on the same sex laws during her reign. The reason why women weren’t included in these laws is unclear, but it means that many could get away with living (relatively) openly with one another.
One such person was Nina Layard. Born in 1853 in Stratford, part of Essex at the time, she was a notable archaeologist who excavated primarily around Ipswich. Throughout her life, she had an incredible series of accomplishments, from being one of the first women to join the Society of Antiquaries to becoming a fellow of the Linnean society in its second year allowing women. She even became the first female president of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia.
In 1895 she met a woman name Mary Frances Outram, who was also accomplished as an author and lecturer. The pair lived together for many years, at first in Ipswich and then in Kelvedon in Essex. Mary assisted Nina with some of her archaeological work, mainly producing illustrations for her, and the pair were never questioned for being inseparable. Much like many other historical accounts of same-sex partners, there is no explicit evidence that the two women were in a relationship. Although it wasn’t illegal, it was not encouraged to share your same sex desires at this time. However, much like with many cases of historical homosexuality, we can make some pretty fair assumptions based on their lives at the time.
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