Marital Rape in Medieval Times

An element of medieval queens that struck me as intriguing was how the topic of sex was handled with Custance in “The Man of Law’s Tale.” The contemporary English lines read as follows, depicting Custance’s sexual relations with her husband, Alla:

                    708   They go to bed, as it was reasonable and right;

                    709   For though wives are full holy things,

                    710  They must take in patience at night

                    711  Such sorts of necessary acts as are pleasing

                    712  To folk that have wedded them with rings,

                    713  And (they must) lay their holiness aside a little while,

                    714  As for the time being -- it can be no better.

To me, these lines read as a polite attempt to explain why Custance—who is depicted throughout the story as being the image of unadulterated Christian holiness, humility, and virtue—needs to engage in the unholy act of sex. Lines 709 and 713 in particular seem to state that Custance had to engage in sex in order to satisfy her husband, and bear him an heir. The careful wording of the sexual relations between Custance and Alla makes me perceive that sex—even within the realms of marriage—was regarded for women as merely a necessary duty rather than a pleasurable, or even consensual, act. Line 710 was particularly unsettling, for it appears as though women were expected to essentially endure sex with their husbands in order to provide heirs. The Susan Schibanoff reading quotes Elaine Tuttle Hansen, stating how Custance is the "archetypally passive" woman who "put(s) the love of a man above all other responsibilities, even above life itself" (62-3).

This passage and quote reminded me of how marital sex between royal characters in Game of Thrones is portrayed, foremost the relationship between Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo. In the novel, Daenerys, a thirteen-year-old, is married off to Khal Drogo, a fierce and brutal warrior king, in order to aid in her brother’s quest for power. The initial sex scene between the characters is unsettling. Daenerys—made queen of Drogo’s people by marriage—was a scared child who was sold by her brother and forced to have sex with a savage grown man. Though terrified, she trains in the art of love making with her hand maidens in order to please her husband sexually. The relationship is then depicted as loving and consensual, and Daenerys eventually falls pregnant with an heir. It disturbs me that the rape of a young girl by a grown man was glossed over and spun into a love story. It is depicted as merely the duty of Daenerys and Custance to put aside their personal feelings in order to sexually please their husbands.

This also parallels the relations between Queen Cersai and King Robert. Robert was depicted as a drunk and negligent husband, and he never loved nor wanted to marry Cersai. Cersai—despite her later qualms with Robert—stated that she initially tried to please him as wife, but he was preoccupied with the death of his fiancé. Robert never took the time to appreciate Cersai, and the few times that they did engage in intercourse was when Robert was drunk and would come to the bedroom and force himself on Cersai when he wasn’t busy with one of his whores. Bearing children was viewed as Cersai’s queenly duty, and sex with Robert was written as an act of drunken aggression, not mutual adoration.

Additionally, the marriage of Sansa Stark into the royal family deserves examination. Sansa is a young teen who is terrified of losing her virginity to Tyrion Lannister, yet the entire castle expects her to have sex with him after they are forced to marry. Tyrion’s father orders him to impregnate her with an heir, and it is tradition for the members of the wedding party to undress the newlyweds and watch them consummate their marriage. However, Tyrion creates a deviation from this practice, for he refuses to bed Sansa before she consensually agrees to sleep with him.

Lastly, it is worth noting the sexual relationship between King Renly (who is a homosexual) and his wife Margaery Tyrell. In this relationship, traditional gender roles are switched, and Margaery is depicted as the sexually aggressive partner, as she persistently tries to initiate sex with Renly in order to impregnate herself with his child and secure her position as queen.

These examples align with Schibanoff’s quote from Genesis 1:28, which "defines the purpose of woman's creation as generative" (67). Overall, it seems that queens in medieval times were largely regarded as mere pawns for extending the royal family, and it was their job to endure unwanted sex in order to please their husbands and procure heirs.