↑ Cantor, Norman F. The Civilization of the Middle Ages pp 280–84.
↑ H. Montgomery Hyde, in The Love That Dared not Speak its Name, pp.33-35, quotes contemporary sources Ordericus Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, and Serlo, Bishop of Bayeux and Abbot of Gloucester, as well as Edward Freeman, professor of History at Oxford towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign. William of Malmesbury decries William Rufus' court, which he describes as being filled by "effeminate" young men in extravagant clothes mincing about in "shoes with curved points". Orderic Vitalis makes mention of the "fornicators and sodomites" who held favour during William Rufus' reign, and remarks approvingly that when Henry I of England became king, one of his first acts was to have his courtiers shorn of their long hair.
↑ William of Malmesbury, in e.g. A History of the Norman Kings (1066 - 1125) , Llanerch, 1989, pp. 43, 46.
↑ Chibnall, M. (ed. & tr.), The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, Oxford Medieval Texts, 1968-1980, ii, pp. 356 ff. See also Barlow, F., William Rufus, Univ. of California Press, 1983, pp. 33-4. Barlow suggests that William and Henry probably urinated over Robert. In the context of the 11th century Norman court, it is tempting merely to observe that 'boys will be boys.'
