This document was brought to light by David Lorenzo Boyd and Ruth Mazo Karras in
1995 . It is apparently the only legal process document from late medieval England
on same-sex intercourse. This is also an interesting
opportunity to show how historians acquire documents: here are presented: first, a
translation; second, a transcription of the document; third a facsimile of the document
itself.
Karras and Boyd recount how this text escaped notice. A. H. Thomas, Calendar
of Select Please and Memoranda of the City of London A.D. 1381-1412. 3 Vols.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924-32) is the standard reference work on these
particular records. It is a detailed calendar with a massive amount detail about each
case. In Vol 3. Thomas began recording only "select pleas and memoranda",
but no longer records, for example, small debt actions. For the Rykener case Thomas
recorded only "Examination of two men charged with immorality, one of which
implicated several persons, male and female, in religiou orders" (p. 228). This is
the only case in which anything but a will or formulaic document is summarized so briefly.
And, of course, Thomas succeeds in hiding the homosexual subject matter of the case. Thus
this case stands not only as a rare source for the history of tranvestite/crossdressing (or transgender) and homosexually
active people in late Medieval England, but as evdience of the suppression of that
history by scholarly historians in the 19th and 20th centuries.
As to the outcome of this case, it is not known. Nor is it know if the case was
also prosecuted as sodomy in Church courts (since no records survive from the period). It
is not even clear that a formal charge was made. For a discussion of the context, see the
longer article by Karras and Boyd in Premodern Sexualities.
[Introduction edited to bring terminology up to date as of 2023]
Bibliography/References
Thanks to those who helped in the acquistion of this material (RMK)..
David Lorenzo Boyd and Ruth Mazo Karras, "The Interrogation of of a Male
Transvestite Prostitute in Fourteenth Century London". GLQ 1 (1995), 459-465
David Lorenzo Boyd and Ruth Mazo Karras, "`Ut cum muliere": A Male
Transvestite Prostitute in Fourteenth Century London". In Premodern Sexualities.
Edited by Louise Fradenburg and Carl Freccero. (London: Routledge, 1996), 99-116
Wikipedia: John/Eleanor Rykener
Since 1995 this text has attracted much scholarly interest. The Wikipedia article is well-written and contains references to the continuing scholarship.
I: The Questioning of John Rykener 1395: Translation
On 11 December, 18 Richard 11. were brought in the presence of John Fressh, Mayor. and
the Aldermen ofthe City of London John Britby of the county of York and John Rykener.,
calling [himself] Eleanor, having been detected in women's clothing, who were found last
Sunday night between the hours of 8 and 9 by certain officials of the, city lying by a
certain stall in Soper's Lane" committing that detestable unmentionable and
ignominious vice. In a separate examination held before the Mayor and Aldermen about the
occurrence, John Britby confessed that he was passing through the high road of Cheap on
Sunday between the abovementioned hours and accosted John Rykener, dressed up as a woman,
thinking he was a woman, asking him as he would a woman if he could commit a libidinous
act with her. Requesting money for [his] labor, Rykener consented, and they went together
to the aforesaid stall to complete the act, and were captured there during these
detestable wrongdoings by the officials and taken to prison. And John Rykener, brought
here in woman's clothing and questioned about this matter, acknowledged [himself] to have
done everything just as John Britby had confessed. Rykener was also asked who had taught
him to exercise this vice, and for how long and in what places and with what persons,
masculine or feminine, [he] had committed that libidinous and unspeakable act. [He] swore
willingly on [his] soul that a certain Anna, the whore of a former servant of Sir Thomas
Blount, first taught him to practice this detestable vice in the manner of a woman. [He]
further said that a certain Elizabeth Bronderer first dressed him in women's clothing; she
also brought her daughter Alice to diverse men for the sake of lust, placing her with
those men in their beds at night without light, making her leave early in the morning and
showing them the said John Rykener dressed up in women's clothing, calling him Eleanor and
saying that they had misbehaved with her. [He] further said that certain Phillip, rector
of Theydon Garnon, had sex with him as with a woman in Elizabeth Bronderer's honse outside
Bishopsgate, at which time Rykener took away two gowns of Phillip', and when Phillip
requested them from Rykener he said that [he] was the wife ofa certain man and that if
Phillip wished to ask for them back [he] would make [his] husband bring suit against him.
Rykener further confessed that for five weeks before the feast of St. Michael's last [he]
was staying at Oxford, and there, in women's clothing and calling himself Eleanor, worked
as an embroideress; and there in the marsh three unsuspecting scholars - of whom one was
named Sir William Foxlee, another Sir John, and the third Sir Walter - practiced the
abominable vice with him often. John Rykener further confessed that on Friday before the
feast of St. Michael [he] came to Burford in Oxfordshire and there dwelt with a certain
John Clerk at the Swan in the capacity of tapster for the next six weeks, during which
time two Franciscans, one named Brother Michael and the other Brother John, who gave [him]
a gold ring, and one Carmelite friar and six foreign men committed the above-said vice
with him, of whom one gave Rykener twelve pence, one twenty pence, and one two shillings.
Rykener further confessed that [he] went to Beaconsfield and there, as a man, had sex with
a certain Joan, daughter of John Matthew, and also there two foreign Franciscans hall sex
with him as a woman. John Rykener also confessed that after [his] last return to London a
certain Sir John, once chaplain at the Church of St. Margaret Pattens, and two other
chaplains committed with him the aforementioned vice in the lanes behind St. Katherine's
Church by the Tower of London. Rykener further said that he often had sex as a man with
many nuns and also had sex as a iman with many women both married and otherwise, how many
[he] did not know. Rykener further confessed that many priests had committed that vice
with him as with a woman, how many [he] did not know, and said that [he] accommodated
priests more readily than other people because they wished to give [him] more than others.
II: The Questioning of John Rykener 1395: Transcription
Corporation of London Records Office, Plea and Memoranda Roll A34, m.2 (1395)
Undecimo die Decembris anno regni regis Ricardi secundi decimo octavo, ducti fuerunt
hic coram Johanne Fressh maiore et aldermannis civitatis Londoniensis Johannes Britby de
comitate Eboracum et Johannes Rykener, se Elianoram nominans veste muliebri detectus. Qui
die dominica ultimo preterita per quosdam dicte civitatis ministros noctanter inter horas
octavam et nonam super quoddam stallum in venella vocata Sopereslane inventi fuerunt
iacentes, illud vitium detestabile, nephandum, et ignominiosum committentes, pro seperali
examinatione coram dictis maiore et aldermannis super premissa fienda et audienda
etcetera. Qui quidem Johannes Britby inde allocutus fatebatur quod ipse per vicum regium
de Chepe die dominica inter horas supradictas transiens, dictum Johannem Rykener vestitu
muliebri ornatum, ipsumque mulierem fore suspicantem fuerat assecutus, petens ab eo,
tanquam a muliere, si cum ea libidinose agere possit. Qui ab eo argentum pro labore suo
petens sibi consentiebat, invicem transeuntes ad illud complendum usque stallum predictum.
Ipsi tamen tunc ibidem per ministros predictos in eorum maleficiis detestabilibus capti
fuerunt, carcere vero mancipati hucusque, etcetera. Et predictus Johannes Rykener in veste
muliebri hic adductus de materia predicta allocutus cognovit se fecisse in omnibus prout
idem Johannes Britby superius fatebatur etcetera. Quesitum fuit ulterius a prefato Johanne
Rykener quis ei docuit dictum vitium exercere et quanto tempore, in quibus locis, et cum
quibus personis masculis sive feminis illud actum libidinosum et nephandum commisit. Qui
in animam suam sponte iuravit et cognovit quod quaedam Anna, meretrix quondam cuiusdam
famuli domini Thome Blount, primo docuit ipsum vitium detestabile modo muliebri exercere.
Item dixit quod quaedam Elizabeth Brouderer prius vestivit ipsum veste muliebri; quae
etiam conduxit quandam Aliciam filiam suam diversis hominibus luxuriae causa, ipsam cum
eisdem hominibus in lectis eorum noctanter absque lumine reponens et eandem summo mane ab
eisdem recedere fecit, monstrando eis dictum Johannem Rykener veste muliebri ornatum ipsum
Alianoram nominantem, asserens ipsos cum ipsa sinistre egisse. Item dixit quod quidam
Philippus, Rector de Theydon Gernon, concubuit cum eodem Johanne Rykener ut cum muliere in
domo cuiusdam Elizabeth Brouderer extra Bisshoppesgate, quo tempore dictus Johannes
Rykener asportavit duas togas ipsius Philippi. Et quando idem Philippus illas petiit a
prefato Johanne Rykener, ipse dixit quod fuit uxor cuiusdam hominis, et si ipse illas
repetere vellet faceret maritum suum versus ipsum prosequi. Item dictus Johannes Rykener
fatebatur quod per quinque septimanas ante festum santi Michaelis ultimo elapsum morabatur
apud Oxonium et operatus est ibidem in veste muliebri in arte de brouderer nominans ipsum
Alianoram. Et ibidem in marisco tres scolares ignotos, quorum unus nominatur dominus
Willielmus Foxlee, alius dominus Johannes, et tertius dominus Walterus, usi fuerunt sepius
cum ipso abominabile vitium supradictum. Item fatebatur prefatus Johannes Rykener quod
ipse die veneris proximo ante festum sancti Michaelis supradictum venit apud Burford in
comitate Oxonium. Et ibidem fuit commorans cum quodam Johanne clerc atte Swan in officio
de tapster per sex septimanas proximas sequentes, infra quod tempus duo fratres minores,
quorum unus nominatur frater Michael et alius frater Johannes Barry, qui sibi dedit unum
anulum aureum, et unus frater carmelitus et sex diversi homines extranei commiserunt cum
illo vitium antedictum. Quorum quidem fratrum et hominum supradictorum quidam dabat dicto
Johanni Rykener .xii. d, quidam .xx. d, quidam .ii. s. Item fatebatur idem Johannes
Rykener quod fuit apud Bekenesfeld et ibidem idem ut vir concubuit cum quadam Johanna
filia Johannis Mathew, et etiam ibidem cum ipso concubuerunt ut cum femina duo fratres
minores alienigenae. Item fatebatur dictus Johannes Rykener quod post eius ultimum
adventum Londoniae quidam dominus Johannes quondam capellanus ecclesiae sanctae Margaretae
Patyns et alii duo capellani in venellis retro ecclesiam sanctae Katerinae iuxta turrim
Londoniensem commiserunt cum illo illud vitium antedictum. Item dixit dictus Johannes
Rykener quod ipse sepius concubuit cum quampluribus monialibus ut vir, et etiam concubuit
modo virili cum quampluribus mulieribus, tam maritatis quam aliis, quarum numerum ignorat.
Item fatebatur dictus Johannes Rykener quod quamplures presbiteri fecerunt illud vitium
cum illo ut cum muliere, quorum numerum ignorat, et dixit quod citius cepit presbiteros
quam alios quia plus vellent sibi dare quam alii.
III: The Questioning of John Rykener 1395: Original Document
Corporation of London Records Office, Plea and Memoranda Roll A34, m.2 (1395). This
case is at the top of the roll membane. Other cases which follow are unrelated. [The image
is slightly squeezed to fit on to one screen: in Netscape you can see it full
size by using 'the View Image function. In Internet Explorer or Netscape clicking here will load the full sized image.]
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