Members of the Wicked cast and orchestra, this is your call to the stage.

Stand by, House Lights Down.

Welcome to this performance of Wicked.

Wicked, the unforgettable live experience at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre.

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Hello, and welcome to the Queens of England podcast.

Supplemental, Alice Perez, the Lady of the Sun.

Thank you. Women in the middle ages were men to only have sex with one man.

They were supposed to stay celibate until their wedding night, then exclusively sleep with him until one of them died.

If she survived him, then she could remarry and sleep with the new husband, of course, or if they obtained an annulment.

But you get the picture.

For women, the only acceptable form of sex, at least in the eyes of our main sources, who are almost exclusively celibate old men, was within marriage.

Now, of course, many women did not follow these rules at all, and they were usually branded as harlots and jezebels. Nobody ever looked favourably on a cheating woman.

Now, men, on the other hand, well, they were also supposed to follow the same rules, but of course

they didn't either. But the societal penalties for men sleeping around outside of marriage

were basically nil. You had to be a fairly flagrant philanderer for anyone to care much. And even

then you could probably still get away with it. The key, of course, was discretion, and to treat the woman that

you slept with and any children you might have, well. Nigh on every single king that we have

...