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.
