#charles somerset

[endlessly-cursed]

𝙈𝙚𝙜𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙩

"𝙄'𝙙 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙚𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙙."

BASICS

Name: Meghan Marie Somerset 

Birthday: 4th of July, 1958 

Zodiac sign: Cancer 

Weight: 58kg 

Height: 1.60m 

Religion: Anglican 

Eye colour: Blue 

Hair colour: Blonde 

Faceclaim: Emma Corrin 

FAMILY 

Mother: Millicent Daniela Abbott 

Meghan always admired her mother’s intelligence and beauty, making her her role model. She was an outstanding woman from a well-respected family, and the last viscountess to have said birth. She and Marie have a close relationship, and Millicent often muses of how innocent she can be and hopes that such innocence is not taken from her abruptly. 

Father: Lawrence Noah Somerset 

Meghan loves her father, though is a bit terrified of him: he is tall, imposing and impassive, but loves it when he looks down and smiles at him, calling her adoringly ‘Little Meg’. They’re not really close, but has him ideolized. 

Other relatives: Charles Vincent Somerset (older brother) 

Her older brother, Meg has a big respect for him and is a bit intimidated by him, really. They aren’t very close, but Charles is protective of her nevertheless. 

Tatiana Primrose Somerset (older sister) 

Tatiana and Meghan have a complex relationship. They clash and Tatiana is often brash and insensitive, telling her she’s allowing herself to ‘become one of those bloody little society tarts’, and calling out how clueless and sheltered she is from the world. She may or may have not been the reason why she was already engaged on her sixth year and married months after graduating. 

Friends: TBD 

Significant Other: Otto Valerius Ollivander 

Meghan met Otto at Hogwarts. He was handsome, reserved and mysterious, and a man of the Ollivander family. Wanting to be like her mother, she started pursuing him, and fell in love along the way. On her fourth year, they were already seeing one another frequently, though Otto made sure not to cross a line and enrage her father, the epitome of the Somerset male. 

By the beginning of their fifth year they were a thing, and by the end of their sixth year, he had bended the knee and proposed. He was interrogated by both Lawrence and Charles, and both agreed that he was good for Meg and made her happy. She was, after all, Winbourne’s hope after Taty’s forbidden romance. 

They married three months after their Hogwarts graduation and went on to have three wonderful daughters: Isobel, Grace and Eugenia Primrose. They were their pride and joy and Otto never once seemed displeased not to have a son: on the contrary, he was besotted with his daughters. 

PERSONALITY

Overall personality: Lively, kind and in love with life, Meghan is someone who enjoys living in the lap of luxury and isn’t quite aware of her surroundings, and it makes her often clash with her other siblings, but she means well and does her best to be a good person. She’s also someone who gets bored easily and craves to be loved and to have all the attention (ahem, youngest daughter syndrome) 

Positive traits: Lively, kind, and a dreamer 

Negative traits: Clueless, innocent, naive and isn’t aware of her surroundings 

Guilty pleasure: NA 

HOMETOWN

Winbourne Estate, Leeds, England, 1958-1976

BACKSTORY 

Meghan Marie Somerset was born on the 4th of July, 1958 by Millicent and Lawrence Somerset. She was their third and last child. She was the perfect daughter, striving to be like her predecessors (her mother, Gia II, Alexandra and Primrose herself) and wanting to live the lavish life, ableit to what was happening outside. 

She was thus sheltered, clueless, innocent and naive, always taken for a fool though she rarelt noticed, wanting to please everybody in the room, and this caused a clash between her sister and her older brother was far too busy being an heir to notice how lonely she was. 

She instead sought affection in Hogwarts, and found it in the handsome Otto Ollivander, brother of Garrick, famous wandmaker and the two fell in love and married too soon for their peers, having three daughters. 

MISC

She taught herself most of the languages and to play the harp 

She was sheltered from the intrigues of the family from a young age 

She didn’t know of her sister’s lesbianism well until her 30s 

She met Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana on her sister’s stead and they both liked her well enough. Princesses Anne and Margaret couldn’t say the same, and the Queen Mum liked her well enough. 

She was the last Somerset lady to be a debutante and was the favourite among court 

[richmond-rex]

I would like to know3rd Duke of Somerset

Love Story，

You've talked about him before with a lowly woman

Hi! We don't know much about Henry Beaufort's romance/love affair. We only know that his mistress was called Joan Hill and that their affair began sometime before he went into exile in 1461. He probably took her with him to the Continent because their son, Charles Somerset, grew up in Burgundy and was probably born there too, considering the name 'Charles' was unusual among the English nobility but would make perfect sense if Charles of Burgundy (then count of Charolais, the Burgundian heir) was his godfather. Charles of Burgundy and Henry Beaufort became friends in 1460 and it was only through Charolais' intervention that the Duke of Somerset was released from imprisonment in France at a time when Louis XI favoured the Yorkists.

We actually only know that the mother of his child was called Joan Hill because Henry VII granted her an annuity in 1493. As the son of the 3rd Duke of Somerset (albeit an illegitimate one), Charles Somerset was Henry VII's cousin and he joined the king in exile, fighting with him at the Battle of Bosworth. He served as Henry's captain of the King's Yeomen of the Guard, as his ambassador and later as his Lord Chamberlain, a position of ultimate trust, and was made Lord Herbert after his wedding with William Herbert and Mary Woodville's daughter, Elizabeth Herbert. Both Henry VII and Elizabeth of York personally attended their respective cousins' wedding. Somerset was later made a knight of the Garter and was eventually elevated to Earl of Worcester.

[backyardpetcemetary]

"Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them"

- W. Somerset Maugham

[msclaritea]

Man, I just love finding out how much the Europeans have lied about the presence of Black people in their history. Queen Elizabeth, Walsingham, Black German nobility, Black Scottish nobility, Black Jacovites. Outlander is a lie, and so much more. It's no wonder racists like #GregAbbott go after Black Hair. It reminds them of what they worshipped.

[movie-titlecards]

Secret Agent (1936)

My rating: 5/10

[ourbalancedlife]

[labuenosairesfrancaise]

Badminton House

Hi guys!!

I'm sharing another grand english state! 

House History:  The medieval House was owned by the Boteler family from whom, in 1612, Edward Somerset, fourth Earl of Worcester, purchased the manors of Great and Little Badminton. Some years later, he gave Badminton to one of his sons, Sir Thomas Somerset who was the first to make what would be many significant alterations to the original House.

The Somersets are descended from John of Gaunt, and the dukedom of Beaufort was created by Charles II in 1682, being granted to Sir Thomas’ great nephew, Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester in reward for his service to the Royalists in the Civil War. The first Duke and Duchess carried out extensive works on the House, Gardens and Grounds.

More history: https://www.badmintonestate.com/the-estate/history/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This house fits a 64x64 lot and features several impressive rooms, more than 29 bedrooms, a servants hall and several state rooms!

I only decored the main rooms, for you to have a glimpse of the distribution. The rest is up to you, as I have stated that I do not like interiors :P

We warned, I made modifications to the floorplan to fit the church, so that conection with the main house is quite weird.

You will need the usual CC I use: all of Felixandre, The Jim, SYB, Anachrosims, Regal Sims, TGS, The Golden Sanctuary, Dndr recolors, etc.

Please enjoy, comment if you like it and share pictures with me if you use my creations!

[cat-in-a-mech-suit]

Transmasculinity Throughout Time: Dr James Barry

Part 2! Here we go. James Barry was the first European doctor to successfully perform a C section where both the mother and child survived, which is cool to me because I was born via C section. He was born in 1789, but lied that he was younger on documents in order to pass - people described him as young looking and soft featured with a boyish voice, but never questioned in his gender. Despite adamantly stating he was a man for his whole adult life and only being revealed as transgender after death, he is still referred to as a “a woman ahead of her time” in the Guardian in 2016 and argued to have only presented as a man to enter the male-dominated medical field. In his wikipedia page, he is only referred to by his last name, not he/him pronouns. This is another example of the transmasculine erasure done by cis feminist historians that I mentioned in my last post in this series. Instead of doing this, cis feminists, here is what you can do: accept and include transmasculine experiences as a part of feminist narratives, not in contradiction to them, and if you can’t do that, at least actually do some research on the women who were practicing medicine at the time, and acknowledge their accomplishments instead of stealing and erasing transmasculine history! To all students of history, and especially anyone who cares about queer/trans history: stop erasing trans men (and all trans and nonbinary people) and explaining us away. Come face to face with our existence. Can you do that?

Alright.

Barry was a British imperial surgeon. When he was 19, he expressed longing to be a soldier, and he later joined the British army. Eeh, I know. His official title quickly ascended to Colonel Medical Inspector. If it wasn’t for his privilege, his gender transgression would likely have not been so easily forgiven and explained away through infantilization and feminist narratives during and after his life. However, he still faced great challenges.

In his profession, he was unlike others because he spent time around and advocated for the most marginalized in society - prisoners, mentally ill, lepers, poor people, and enslaved people. He did this even though it made him vulnerable and eccentric to those around him. His bluntness and need to make change made him extremely challenged and unpopular among his fellow officers, and he survived on his professionalism and bravado alone, enduring an accusation of “conduct unbecoming of the character of an Officer and a Gentleman” for a clash with another surgeon, of which he was acquitted thereafter. He also got into a pistol duel and won against Captain Josias Cloete of the 21st Light Dragoons. Generally, he was described as both rude and unafraid to speak his mind, as well as sometimes overly polite, with a good bedside manner. People were confused by him because he didn’t fit into society, and they constantly speculated on his life and tried to diminish him and the advocacy that he did.

He was first appointed to his position and was able to keep it despite challenges to his authority because of his “close friendship” with the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset (we all know what close friendship means when historians say it). In 1824, he was slandered, put on trial, and investigated when someone said that they “detected Lord Charles buggering Dr Barry.” James Barry is an important historical example of transhomophobia. Unlike what TEHMs and their ilk believe, queer trans men in fact have been experiencing homophobia all this time. James Barry experienced the same homophobia as a cis gay man would at the time, with the additional pressure of being a trans man who had to pass as a cis man to live as himself: transhomophobia. As a queer trans man, thinking about what he must have gone through makes my stomach hurt.

In 1857, he was appointed to be the Inspector of Hospitals in Canada, and he made significant improvements to sanitation and care for prisoners and lepers during his short time in that position. He was forcibly resigned against his will after only two years, because of his supposed poor health.

Before he died of dysentery in 1865, he asked for his person to not be examined at all. His wishes were disobeyed. He was outed as trans and subsequently, his life was either erased or stolen from him and written as that of a woman. To avoid a scandal, all army records of him were locked for 100 years, until in 1958, a biography of him was written by a cis woman historian, who wrote about him as a woman pretending to be a man and erased his transness. Barry’s own doctor said after his death that “it was none of my business whether Dr. Barry was a male or a female” and suggested that he might have been intersex.

Interestingly, he was also known for an incident in which he scolded Florence Nightingale for poor sanitary practices, which she complained about after he died, saying he was “the most hardened creature I had ever met.��

[usaac-official]

336th Fighter Squadron pilots photographed on their return from the Russian shuttle mission, 21 June - 5 July 1944. P-51 in background is unidentified but the name on the cowling is Millie M'Love. From L-R Capt. Neil van Wyk, Patterson, NJ; Lt. Harry E Dugan Jr., Denver, CO; Lt. Ferris S Harris, Houston, TX; Lt. Charles H. Shilke, Somerset, PA; Lt. Richard J Corbett, Madison, WI; Col. Benjamin S. Kelsey, Waterbury, CT. Sitting: Lt. Gilbert W Hunt, Hays, KS; Lt. Joseph A Patteeuw, Detroit, MI; Lt. George H. Logan Jr., Montclair, NJ; Lt. George C. Smith, Los Angeles, CA.

[dwarfanonymice]

My two cents that nobody will read.

I liked the series. It was entertaining and interesting. I know it is called Mary and George. Kudos to them to have the guts to show a queer relationship that shaped English history. But the historian student I once was will not rest.

Mary and George:

not historically accurate: Somerset was dismissed with a letter in 1615 after a quarrel and replaced with George immediately. The Overbury trial sealed his fate.

not expanding correctly on James and George's love: we have proof of that, even flamboyant proof.

Mary's role in his son's life wasn't that active: she had bigger fish to fry with the others and she wasn't a lesbian. We have proof. With all the real lesbians and gays and queers of the period, why do we still need to invent them?

The biggest Queen was the King. In Tony Curran's words. He had surely anxiety problems (with his life how could he not) and he suffered of mood swings.

George had three kids and James wasn't that jealous of his wife: she was regularly at court (I know that the night before the wedding James had a breakdown but they were steady with their affections and he got over it).

George and James were promiscuous but so in love with each other that nobody doubted, not even them. Proof in their letters till James' death and in the reports the Venetian ambassador wrote (you can count on Venice's gossip. It was accurate: the Republic's survival depended on it).

No love letters.

Not showing the secret passage.

Not showing that famous speech comparing them to Jesus and John.

No historically accurate petnames.

Buckingham was incompetent on important matters but not a himbo.

Buckingham didn't kill James: there's no proof about this dark legend. He offered him a cup with some medicine in it according to one report. The king suffered from malaria (or what his doctors thought it was malaria) and George didn't kill him in that way in front of a witness like that.

Not showing the part where he stayed on as Charles I's main advisor for some years before being killed: it almost appears he was killed after the coronation.

Not showing La Rochelle's debacle, his games at the French court with Anne of Austria (we have proof of that) and how unequipped he was against Richelieu.

The fashion wasn't that dark. The show is too dark and Nick would have looked attractive with those beards too. Also Somerset had a wrong beard and all (even the Spanish) didn't have those close cropped beards in that fashion. Were are the flamboyant moustaches?

Not showing Charles' wedding with Henriette Marie of France and the fact that George was probably in that marriage too. In what capacity they only know.

Wrong hair colour for Somerset and for Buckingham. One had red hair, the other auburn. Curly or wavy was the fashion.

Not showing that Buckingham was a good friend of Queen Anne. We have proof in affectionate letters in which she asked him to be "always true" to her husband. George was knighted in her bedchamber and she called him "her dog". She didn't care for Somerset. At all.

Sorry for all of this. I encourage you to watch it but after years I am still waiting for a series that will have the guts to show the historical facts for what they were. They were surely wilder than what we see.

[lilypoppy05]

Mary & George First Look Teaser-Trailer - Coming Soon.

Credit: Sky

CAST:

-Nicholas Galitzine as George Villiers

-Julianne Moore as Mary Villiers

-Tony Curran as King James I

-Niamh Algar as Sandie

-Nicola Walker as Lady Hatton

-Trine Dyrholm as Queen Anne

-Sean Gilder as Sir Thomas Compton

-Adrian Rawlins as Sir Edward Coke

-Mark O’Halloran as Sir Francis Bacon

-Laurie Davidson as Somerset

-Samuel Blenkin as Prince Charles

-Jacob McCarthy as Kit Villiers

-Tom Victor as John Villiers

-Alice Grant as Susan Villiers

-Amelia Gething as Frances Coke

-Mirren Mack as Katherine Manners

-Rina Mahoney as Laura Ashcattle

-Simon Russell Beale as Sir George Villiers

[endlessly-cursed]

𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝘼𝙗𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙩

"𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙚𝙩; 𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧, 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙."

BASICS

Name: Millicent Daniela Abbott 

Birthday: 23rd of August, 1932

Zodiac sign: Leo 

Weight: 58kg 

Height: 1.63m 

Religion: Agnostic 

Eye colour: Warm brown 

Hair colour: Blonde 

Faceclaim: Hannah Dodd 

FAMILY 

Mother: Daniela Erin Abbott, neé Malfoy 

From the prominent Malfoy family, she was as beautiful as she was cunning, always one step ahead and wanting something better for herself. She was set to marry her future husband, Edward ‘Neddy’ Abbott since teenhood and did so... on her own terms. They had three daughters: Griselda, Caroline and Millicent. 

Father: Edward ‘Neddy’ Leopold Abbott 

A third son from the Abbott family, he wasn’t the heir and thus wasn’t required to continue the line. He nevertheless scored the best match and lived a fairly happy life with his wife. They had three daughters together. 

Other relatives: Griselda Albertine Abbott (older sister) future Mrs. Dubois

Quick-witted, with a razor tongue and incredibly intelligent, she was the oldest of the sisters and the one who made the grandest of the matches, and the one to introduce Millie to Lord Somerset. They get along best 

Caroline Sophia Abbott, future Mrs. MacMillan 

Caroline was the most beautiful and smartest of all the sisters, though she wasn’t very subtle and many were weary of her using them for their money. She ended up marrying into the MacMillan family and seemed content with her life. Her greed, though, would get her in Azkaban during the first Wizarding War. 

Friends: The Somerset sisters 

The sisters, especially Gia, were pivotal in her match with their brother Lawrence. They all trained her and taught her the ways into Muggle high society and thanks to that, the match was possible 

Significant Other: Lawrence Noah Somerset 

The sole heir to Winbourne, he was clever, quick-witted, direct and a bit mysterious. Millicent always challenged him and Laurie liked being challenged. They fell in love after WW2 and soon began courting, growing close every day. They were soon betrothed and married. Since Primrose was still alive, Margaret held the title Lady of Winbourne, and thus, for ten years, Millie and Laurie were Mr. & Mrs. Somerset. Everything changed when Lawrence’s grandmother died and Margaret finally became Viscountess. Since they were old, it didn’t last much and Lawrence soon began acting like the viscount with Millie by her side. She was the most charismatic and charming Viscountess of Winbourne, as well as the most beautiful, and together they had three children: Charles, Tatiana Primrose and Meghan Marie. During that time, Millie and her mother-in-law Margaret got along greatly and she became like a daughter to her

In 1970, Charles brought home a woman who he claimed he loved. Millie was reluctant, and Laurie debated that it may be a young man’s infatuation, but Millie knew her son well. She pondered this and decided to interrogate the poor girl, to discover that she was just an innocent woman who had travelled from Turkey for a better life. She decided to give her a chance and soon she was blessed with an engagement and a wedding that was crowned with a granddaughter, Valentina, in 1973. She spoiled her rotten and was her little girl, and looked like her son. 

Laurie and Millie lived a happy life, retiring in 1986 and retiring to their house in Madeira. Sadly, Millie suffered a car accident in 1997, a year before her great-grandchildren could be born, leaving Winbourne devastated. The papers wrote ‘Winbourne’s fairest rose has passed.’ and many mourned her death. Lawrence returned to Madeira after the funerals and never got over Millie’s death. He died in 2010, and was buried beside his loving wife. 

PERSONALITY

Overall personality: Millie is cheerful, charismatic, fun-loving and has a gift for people, though has that superiority of the pureblooded, but rarely shows it. 

Positive traits: Cheerful, charismatic, loving, funny and loves being around people. 

Negative traits: Has the superiority complex from the pureblood ideology she grew up into 

Guilty pleasure: She smokes cigarettes when stressed 

HOMETOWN

Abbott Manor, Edinburgh, 1932-1953 

Millie grew up spoiled and in fewer luxury than her future husband, having nice but not fashionable enough clothes. Her family was considered lower class in within the purebloods, not wealthy enough for high-society events. They could attend some when they invited their mother, a woman who had been a Malfoy. It all changed when she was introduced to Lawrence Somerset 

Winbourne Estate, Leeds, 1954-1997 

After her wedding to Laurie, she moved instantly to his house with the rest of the family, though they had a fashionable flat at Mayfair for themselves. Lawrence was a bit low in the hierarchy, often overlooked, and thus spent most of their time in London and another houses. They fell in love with the Mediterranean set in Madeira and often vacationed there. 

During one of her drivings in which she was smoking, the smoke became too thick and didn’t realise she was driving into a drunken truck driver and they clashed. The driver survived, but Millie, being in her sixties, didn’t, and died of the shock and wounds she had. The man was sued and died of mysterious circumstances before he could be released. Many believe that Charles avenged his beloved mother by sending in men to kill him. He was there, watching from a high place as they moved his dead body for the family to bury him. This remains a mystery with a probable answer, for the driver didn’t seem to have many enemies of high caliber... save the vindictive Charles. 

BACKSTORY 

Millicent was born on the 23rd of August, 1932, into a small branch of the pureblooded Abbott family. She had two older sisters, Griselda and Caroline, and her mother was a glamurous member of the Malfoy family. She grew up in rich rags, until she met the future Viscount of Winbourne during the celebration that the second world war was over, and they hit it off. They courted for a while, until in 1952, a week after Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, Laurie proposed in a family gathering. She said yes, and in 1954, they got married into the Primrose Chapel, that had been used by Lawrence’s grandmother to marry people who society shunned from marrying one another. 

Soon, in 1955, Charles came into the world, and with him, two daughters, Tatiana Primrose and Meghan Marie, would follow. They lived a happy life, and in 1986, Vincent stepped down for his old age to retire and left his son the reins, knowing that he was capable of it. 

The rest, is history. 

MISC

She has a wonderful sense of fashion and was actually a fashion icon for her sisters-in-law and the younger generations 

She was considered the most beautiful of the viscountesses of the modern day, though she couldn’t outdo Henriette or Joanna Knollys’ beauties 

She loved gardening and reading mystery books 

She was the one to introduce the television and bought it with her own money 

She also finished up the process of modernisation in Winbourne 

[andiatas]

Royal Reads: Jan-Mar 2024

Note: Some of the following links are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission on every purchase. This does not affect the price you pay.

Kateryn Parr: Henry VIII's Sixth Queen by Laura Adkins (Mar. 15, 2024) // Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History by Tracy Borman (new paperback version published Mar. 7, 2024) // Messalina: The Life and Times of Rome’s Most Scandalous Empress by Honor Cargill-Martin (Mar. 14, 2024)

House of Lilies: The Dynasty that Made Medieval France by Justine Firnhaber-Baker (Mar. 28, 2024) // Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story. by Robert Hardman (Jan. 18, 2024) // Sisters of Richard III: The Plantagenet Daughters of York by Sarah J Hodder (Mar. 15, 2024)

Power and Glory: Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty by Alexander Larman (Mar. 28, 2024) // The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England by Joanne Paul (new paperback version published Jan. 9, 2024)

Young Queens: The Intertwined Lives of Catherine De' Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots by Leah Redmond Chang (new paperback version published Feb. 29, 2024) // Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor by Donald J. Robertson (Mar. 26, 2024) // My Mother and I by Ingrid Seward (Feb. 15, 2024)

Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers: A Personal History by Anne Somerset (Mar. 28, 2024) // Young Elizabeth: Princess. Prisoner. Queen. by Nicola Tallis (Feb. 29, 2024) // Edward II: His Sexuality and Relationships by Kathryn Warner (Mar. 15, 2024)

[olympic-paris]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

September 12

1704 – Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester (d.1776) was a British peer and Member of Parliament.

Ilchester was the son of Sir Stephen Fox and his second wife Christiana Hope. Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, was his younger brother and Charles James Fox his nephew. He was elected to the House of Commons for Shaftesbury in 1726, a seat he held until 1741. The latter year he was raised to the peerage as Lord Ilchester, of Ilchester in the County of Somerset, Baron of Woodford Strangways in the County of Dorset. Six years later he was created Lord Ilchester and Stavordale, Baron of Redlynch, in the County of Somerset, and in 1756 he was even further honoured when he was made Earl of Ilchester. The peerages were created, in default of male issue of his own, with remainder to his younger brother Henry. In 1763 he was admitted to the Privy Council.Stephen Fox was the lover of Lord Hervey for a period of ten years, from 1726 to 1736. There exist many passionate letters between the two. Hervey initially favoured Stephen's brother, Henry Fox, but when charmingly rebuffed paid infatuated court to Stephen. His relationship with Lord Hervey ended only when a marriage was arranged with thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Horner, daughter of Thomas Strangways Horner and Susanna Strangways, in 1735. In 1758, Lord Ilchester assumed the additional surname of Strangways. He died in September 1776, aged 72, and was succeeded by his son Henry Thomas Fox-Strangways.

1772 – The Marquis de Sade is sentenced to death in absentia for sodomizing a servant and is burned in effigy.

1857 – UK: The word gay, which appears in a pictured cartoon in Punch magazine, is used to refer to prostitution. It arrived in English during the 12th century from Old French gai, most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source.

It was apparently not until the 20th century that the word was used to mean specifically "homosexual," although it had earlier acquired sexual connotations. The word may have started to acquire associations of immorality as early as the 14th century, but had certainly acquired them by the 17th. By the late 17th century it had acquired the specific meaning of "addicted to pleasures and dissipations", an extension of its primary meaning of "carefree" implying "uninhibited by moral constraints". A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, and a gay house a brothel.

The use of gay to mean "homosexual" was often an extension of its application to prostitution: a gay boy was a young man or boy serving male clients. Similarly, a gay cat was a young male apprenticed to an older hobo, commonly exchanging sex and other services for protection and tutelage.

A passage from Gertrude Stein's Miss Furr & Miss Skeene (1922) is possibly the first traceable published use of the word to refer to a homosexual relationship. Bringing Up Baby (1938) was the first film to use the word gay in apparent reference to homosexuality. By the mid-20th century, gay was well established in reference to hedonistic and uninhibited lifestyles and its antonym straight, which had long had connotations of seriousness, respectability, and conventionality, had now acquired specific connotations of heterosexuality.

In the case of gay, other connotations of frivolousness and showiness in dress ("gay apparel") led to association with camp and effeminacy. This association no doubt helped the gradual narrowing in scope of the term towards its current dominant meaning, which was at first confined to subcultures. Gay was the preferred term since other terms, such as queer, were felt to be derogatory.

Homosexual is perceived as excessively clinical, since the sexual orientation now commonly referred to as "homosexuality" was at that time a mental illness diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The sixties marked the transition in the predominant meaning of the word gay from that of "carefree" to the current "homosexual".

1889 – Maurice Chevalier, born in Paris (d.1972), was a French actor, singer, and popular vaudeville entertainer. He is noted as a Sprechgesang (spoken-song) performer. Chevalier's signature songs included "Louise", "Mimi", "Valentine", and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls". His trademark was a boater hat, which he always wore on stage with a tuxedo.

Chevalier was born in Paris. He made his name as a star of musical comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age before working in four menial jobs as a teenager. In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France at the time, Fréhel. Although their relationship was brief, she secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic and a singer in l'Alcazar in Marseille, for which he received critical acclaim by French theatre critics. In 1917, he discovered jazz and ragtime and went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre.

After this, he toured the United States, where he met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and brought Dédé to Broadway in 1922. He also developed an interest in acting, and had success in the operetta Dédé. When talkies arrived, he went to Hollywood in 1928, where he played his first American role in Innocents of Paris. In 1930, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in The Love Parade (1929) and The Big Pond (1930), which secured his first big American hit, Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight.

In 1957, he appeared in Love in the Afternoon, which was his first Hollywood film in more than 20 years. In the early 1960s, he made eight films, including Can-Can in 1960 and Fanny the following year. In 1970 he made his final contribution to the film industry where he sang the title song of the Disney film The Aristocats. He died in Paris, on January 1, 1972, aged 83.

He may have Chevalier "thanked Heaven for little girls" and have had several public affairs with women, but it is believed he had a long-time relationship with his "valet" Felix Paquet, to whom he went home every night. He is also thought to have had a homosexual relationship with a soldier in WWI. There are also claims he had the hots for his fellow French actor, Charles Boyer.

Actress Kay Francis claimed that"Chevalier is lousy in bed, and always attacks homosexuals so as to throw suspicion from himself."

1944 – David Hurles, born in Cincinnati (d.2023), was a gay pornographer, whose one-man company, run from a private mailbox, was called Old Reliable Tape and Picture Company. His work, produced primarily in the 1970s and 1980s, falls into three categories: photographs, audio tapes, and videotapes. Hurles' models were typically ex-cons, hustlers, drifters, and lowlifes.

At age 20, inspired by John Rechy's just-published novel City of Night, David left Cincinnati, and moved to Berkeley.

In the 1960s, he appeared in movies and magazines, with Guild Press, Washington D.C., for whom he was also a photographer.

In 1975, already filming in Super-8 format used by his mentor and longtime friend Bob Mizer of Athletic Model Guild, he met and became a great friend of Jack Fritscher, editor of Drummer magazine, who described David as "my longtime pal and housemate". The character Solly Blue in Fritscher's novel Some Dance to Remember has much in common with Hurles.

Hurles has written of San Francisco at the time: "Perhaps you had to be there...the 70's, San Francisco, the blossoming and peak of the gay sexual culture. It was a rare time; everything, it seemed, was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that those of us there could not have possibly imagined it might ever be otherwise!" Jim Stewart describes his encounter with Hurles, and the neighborhood they both lived in, in the first chapter of his Folsom Street Blues.

His first published pictures appeared in Drummer; no other magazine would touch them. He also shot many covers and centerfolds for Fritscher's zine Man2Man Quarterly (1980-1982), whose mailing address was Hurles' San Francisco apartment. Subsequently Hurles' photos have appeared in dozens of gay magazines.

His models were recruited among ex-convicts and addicts. David liked psychos. Nude ones. Money-hungry drug addicts with big dicks. Rage-filled robbers without rubbers. And of course, convicts. Many of them were dangerous — he wanted them to be, that was a key part of their attractiveness for him — but part of David's skill, which no one since has duplicated, was being able to manage them so that they would perform as instructed and not attack him.

Hurles chose to downplay technical fireworks with his camera in order to focus on the emotional pyrotechnics of his models. His models, picked up on the street or sent to him by referral, would come to his apartment, get naked, and masturbate. They were distinguished by "attitude" - straight, in your face, angry, contemptuous of fags, dangerous, smoking cigars, giving the finger, flexing their biceps. "Rough trade is too tame a word", was the description of John Calendo. Getting robbed by his models, or having his equipment stolen, he viewed as part of the cost of doing business.

A wrestling accident in 1990 led to the gradual loss of eyesight in one eye, a disaster for a photographer. Shortly thereafter, the arrival of pornography on the Internet destroyed most of the market for Hurles' material, at the same time that AIDS (and drugs) killed many models and potential models. "I know where a great many of them [my models] are. Six feet under". His company folded, and he lived on welfare and food stamps. In 2008 he had a massive stroke, and until his death was "is the most popular resident of a state-funded nursing home in East Hollywood".

1954 – Sculptor Robert Gober is among only a few openly gay American artists to achieve an international reputation as one of the great artists of our time. Significantly, Gober's art proceeds from his sensibilities and experiences as a gay man. In 2001, Gober represented the United States at the 49th Venice Biennale, the key international exhibition of modern and contemporary art since the beginning of the twentieth century. His haunting art weaves together themes of childhood, sexuality, memory, loss, and spiritual redemption.

Gober was born on September 12, 1954 in Wallingford, Connecticut and raised in a devout Catholic family. His father, a skilled tradesman, taught him early how to make things with his hands. Gober knew he was gay when very young. Almost fifteen years old at the time of the Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969, he came of age when homosexual identity was becoming more open.

He took art classes in high school and went on in the early 1970s to study literature and fine art during his undergraduate years at Middlebury College in Vermont. He took his junior year abroad in Rome at the Tyler School of Art, a division of Temple University. Gober settled in New York City in 1976 to begin a career as a painter. He initially earned his living as a carpenter, renovating lofts and building stretchers for artists.

In 1984, Gober began to make handcrafted, everyday objects. Starting with a series of plumbing fixtures consisting of sinks, wash basins, and urinals (1984-86), which quickly established his reputation, he continued through the decade to produce, among other simulated objects, door sculptures, dog baskets, baby cribs, playpens, slip-covered armchairs, cast body fragments, and facsimile wallpapers, newspapers, and commercial box containers. Gober meticulously made these objects with great attention to detail. At first they seem to be the actual manufactured commodity; yet, they are always handmade and altered in form. Their meanings, too, go well beyond the mundane. Gober called one category of these objects his "psychological furniture." Gober made Subconscious Sink (1985) by coating plaster over wire lath and then covering it with semi-gloss white enamel paint to resemble porcelain. The odd form of the sink hints at the nightmarish and at domestic discord.

A good friend was dying of AIDS at the time Gober was fabricating Subconscious Sink at the very beginning of the epidemic. The sink suggests cleansing rituals, although with no running water there is no ability to wash clean or purify. In this regard, a font of Holy Water comes to mind, but one disabled with no blessed water to sanctify--not an implausible association given Gober's Catholic background and the emergence in the 1990s of overt religious imagery in his work.

The artist's Catholicism, although lapsed, is the basis for a genuine spiritual dimension of his art, most especially as set in uneasy alliance with Gober's homosexuality.

An intensely private man, Gober, who continues to reside in New York City, protects the details of his personal life. At the same time, however, he has from early in his career been open about his homosexuality and its deep relevance for his work. In February 2003, he appeared at Yale University in one of the first art "events" sponsored by the Larry Kramer Initiative for Gay and Lesbian Studies, "A Conversation with Robert Grober," thus explicitly acknowledging the connection between his sexuality and his art.

1956 – Leslie Cheung (d.2003) first gained legions of fans in Asia as a pop singer. He went on to a successful career as an actor, appearing in sixty films, including the award-winning Farewell My Concubine. Androgynously handsome, he sometimes played sexually ambiguous characters, as well as romantic leads in both gay- and heterosexually-themed films.

Leslie Cheung, born Cheung Kwok-wing on September 12, 1956, was the tenth and youngest child of a Hong Kong tailor whose clients included Alfred Hitchcock and William Holden. At the age of twelve Cheung was sent to boarding school in England. While there he adopted the English name Leslie, in part because he admired Leslie Howard and Gone with the Wind, but also because the name is "very unisex."

Cheung studied textiles at Leeds University, but when he returned to Hong Kong, he did not go into his father's profession. He entered a music talent contest on a Hong Kong television station and took second prize with his rendition of Don McLean's American Pie. His appearance in the contest led to acting roles in soap operas and drama series, and also launched his singing career. After issuing two poorly received albums, Day Dreamin' (1977) and Lover's Arrow (1979), Cheung hit it big with The Wind Blows On (1983), which was a bestseller in Asia and established him as a rising star in the "Cantopop" style. He would eventually make over twenty albums in Cantonese and Mandarin.

Quickly gaining an enthusiastic fan following, Cheung played concerts in packed theaters, auditoriums, and stadiums. Although never as well known in North America, Cheung drew full houses for his concerts at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 2000, the tickets for which cost as much as $238.

Cheung also embarked on a movie career. His first film was the soft-porn Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber (1978). In his next film, Patrick Tam's Nomad (1982), Cheung played a young man fixated on his mother. The initial version included a scene in which Cheung's character, clad only in underwear, fondled himself while talking on the telephone with his mother. Hong Kong censors objected, and the scene had to be reshot with Cheung in trousers.

Cheung had a featured role as a rookie policeman in John Woo's 1986 crime thriller A Better Tomorrow, one of the films that established the Hong Kong action genre. He also appeared in the movie's two sequels (1987 and 1989). Cheung was one of the stars of Stanley Kwan's Rouge (1989). In this stylish drama, he played a young man who falls in love with a courtesan who is dressed as a man when he first encounters her.

Cheung also starred in Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild (1990), this time as a callous, womanizing playboy, a role that earned him the Best Actor Prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Shortly after this success, Cheung announced his retirement from his singing career and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia for a short time.

Chen next went to China to make Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine (1993), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film but was banned in China because of its homosexual theme. In Farewell My Concubine Cheung played a young actor at the Peking Opera who specialized in women's roles.

Cheung played one of a pair of gay lovers in Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together (1997), an ironically titled piece because the couple, who make a trip to Argentina to rekindle their relationship, fail to find their longed-for happiness. Cheung's personal situation was more fortunate. After making Happy Together, he came out publicly and acknowledged his lover, Tong Hock Tak, a banker. Speculation about Cheung's sexual orientation had been rife for some years, but he had always dodged questions, fearing that revelation of his relationship might be deleterious to Tong's career. By this time, however, Cheung's fortune--skillfully managed by Tong--had grown to the point that Tong was able to retire from his job. Still, coming out was not without risk for Cheung since very few star Asian entertainers are openly gay. In this case, reported Ronald Bergan, "the move did nothing to diminish his following; it only increased it."

In the late 1990s Cheung resumed his singing career with great success, and several more bestsellers followed. He returned to the concert stage as well, and in 2000 played a year-long "Passion" tour, in which his onstage wardrobe featured eight outfits by Jean-Paul Gaultier, including a white tuxedo with angel wings, gold hot pants, and a "naughty skirt." In reviving his singing career, Cheung made music videos, one of which "featured a pas de deux (with a Japanese male ballet dancer) so sexy that it was banned by TVB, Hong Kong's top channel."

In his last film, Law Chi-Leung's Inner Senses (2002), Cheung played a psychiatrist tempted by evil spirits to kill himself. Thus, fans who heard of Cheung's suicide on April 1, 2003, hoped at first that the story might be a macabre April Fool's Day joke. But soon they learned that Cheung had indeed taken his own life by jumping from a twenty-fourth floor balcony at Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Cheung, who had long suffered from depression and had reportedly tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills the previous year, left a note in which he thanked Tong, his family, and his friends, but concluded poignantly, "I have not done one single bad thing in my life. Why is it like that?"

Disconsolate fans quickly created a shrine at the spot of Cheung's death. Their memorial offerings of flowers, notes, personal mementos, and photographs covered half a block. Admirers of all ages joined in paying tribute to the popular artist.

1992 – Connor Franta is an American YouTuber, entrepreneur, entertainer, and writer.

As of November 2015, his self-named main channel on YouTube has 5 million subscribers. Franta was formerly a member of YouTube group Our Second Life (stylized Our2ndLife and O2L) under the Fullscreen Network, but is now an independent member of the Big Frame network, managed by Andrew Graham.

Franta has recently become involved in various entrepreneurial enterprises, including a clothing line, music curation, as well as a coffee and lifestyle brand named Common Culture. His debut book, a memoir titled A Work in Progress, was released on April 21, 2015. In July 2015, details of Heard Well, a record label Franta co-founded, were announced.

On December 8, 2014, Franta came out as gay in a YouTube video, stating he has accepted who he is and is "happy with that person". He also spoke on the help he got from others on the Internet, and wanted to give people struggling with their sexuality similar advice. This six-minute long video, titled "Coming Out", has over 11 million views and over 949 thousand likes, being the second most viewed video on Franta's channel as of August 16th 2017.

[crossdreamers]

Dr James Barry, the Transgender Man who Became British Colonial Medical Inspector in 1822

The Vagina Museum tells the story of the transgender man who became a famous military surgeon in Britain in the 19th century.

Dr James Barry (circa 1789-1865) was a renowned military surgeon who is probably better known for the speculation about his gender than his illustrious career. So let's set the record straight about the work of this brilliant healer.

A famous surgeon outed after death

James Barry was assigned female at birth. This was only revealed after his death. The fact was made public as the woman who laid his body out after his death was disgruntled at not being paid for her work, so she ended up taking a story about his body to the press.

The story was somewhat newsworthy because in his lifetime, Barry was a famous surgeon, something of a rockstar in the military and surgical worlds.

It's hard to tease out details of Barry's early life due to posthumous speculation - once the news broke, several people claimed they'd known all along, or told stories about his supposed femininity, and the whole story was viewed through the lens of 19th century gender politics.

Even Barry's precise date of birth is not known - the likely date seems to be around 1789, but it may have been as late as 1799. Barry is known to have lied about his age, because his appearance was very youthful, and he sometimes passed himself off as younger than he was.

His life

Barry studied at the University of Edinburgh, and received his qualification as a doctor of medicine in 1812, when he would have been about 19 or 20 years old (or 10, according to his own account of his age!). After this, he studied in London and qualified as a surgeon in 1813.

He proceeded to join the British army, enlisting as a hospital assistant just four days after qualifying as a surgeon. During his 46 years of service, he gained huge renown as a surgeon and a doctor.

Surgeon in South Africa

In 1816, Barry went on his first overseas posting as an assistant surgeon. He was posted to Cape Town, and quickly became friends with the governor, Lord Charles Somerset. The friendship began because Barry treated Somerset's sick daughter spectacularly well.

Later in his life, in 1829, Barry went absent without leave from the army when Somerset himself became sick. He spent two years treating his friend until Somerset's death.

Colonial Medical Inspector

In 1822, Somerset promoted Barry to the role of Colonial Medical Inspector, which was an astronomical leap in Barry's career. Sometimes, though, the friendship raised eyebrows. In 1824, Somerset and Barry were accused of having sex with each other.

Barry's renown grew hugely during the ten years he spent in South Africa. He is sometimes credited as the first doctor to successfully perform a C-section in Africa where both survived, though that credit may better go to indigenous Africans

Throughout his long surgical career, Barry was posted all around the world, serving in the West Indies, Europe, America, and Africa. Following him was a reputation for excellence. Wherever he went, sanitation greatly improved, and soldiers and local people alike became healthier.

A bit of a jerk

Barry achieved all of this by being kind of a jerk. He was known to be quick-tempered, heavy-handed, argumentative and tactless. He rubbed his colleagues up the wrong way.

Barry's career wasn't a completely upward trajectory, because he sometimes got himself court-martialed or demoted due to his behaviour. He famously won a duel against a colleague, and shot the man's hat clean off his head.

Quarreling with Florence Nightingale

One of his most famous arguments was with Florence Nightingale herself during the Crimean War. When writing about it, years later, Nightingale doesn't specify the cause of the argument, but Barry lived rent-free in her head following it.

[Florence Nightingale  was an very famous English social reformer, a statistician and the founder of modern nursing.]

Loved by his patients

Barry's patients loved him, though. As well as being a talented physician and surgeon, he reputedly had a good bedside manner.

Barry's military career came to an end in 1859. He didn't leave, and he wasn't sacked for being a difficult person to work with. He was forcibly retired because he was old, and his health was failing. Six years later, he died in London, from dysentery.

In the century and a half since his death, discussion of James Barry has mostly focused on speculation about his gender. But that, perhaps, is one of the least interesting things about this remarkable doctor.

Top photo of Barry (centre), his dog and John, his servant, circa 1862, via Wellcome Images. Second photo: Portrait claimed to be of Barry, ca. 1820s

Thread from twitter (which we refuse to call X as long as Elon Musk is deadnaming his transgender daughter).

[marythequeen]

In September the previous year, before Somerset’s fall, she had sent the emperor a ring and a message that she wished to flee England and seek refuge with him. Charles had responded cautiously, declaring it a matter in which Mary “should not be encouraged” because of the difficulties of getting her out of the realm and the cost of supporting her at the imperial court. Now, faced with her continued persecution and her ever-shriller protests, Charles cautiously agreed to support her in her wish, “for we have the best of reasons and have done all we could do to protect our cousin’s person and conscience.” He had held back as long as possible from “this extreme measure” but agreed it had “now become imperative to resort to because of the attitude adopted in England.”

-Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen by Anna Whitelock