Male Prostitution in Britain during the 5th-6th Centuries

[heeroluva]

Setting:
Somewhere around the 5th-6th centuries, Britain where a pagan belief system is still in place (think the time of King Arthur, minus the Christian influence)

Senario:
A boy (mid-teens) raised as a serf farmer is forced from his village and must find work elsewhere

Comments

[charlycrash]

Calling 4-500 AD "Mediaeval" seems a bit of a stretch: at that point, British culture was still a hybrid of Roman and Celtic culture.

That aside: fairly little is known about the culture of the early post-Roman era. I'm tempted to say that you should base things on what seems plausible within a provincial version of Roman culture, as even after the Roman withdrawal many Britons appear to have still been behaving in a fairly Roman way.

[heeroluva]

It's early in that period.

Yeah. I know. I was hoping that there was something out there though and that I just haven't been hitting the right combination of words. If need be I'll wing it, but I just wanted to ask first.

[jayb111]

Is your character British or English - given that you've used both in your search terms? There was definitely a degree of organised Christianity among the British at this date, not among the English, who by this time were settling in the south-east.

And I agree that this is too early to be talking about the Middle Ages. Romano-British or Anglo-Saxon, depending on which culture you're looking at, would be better search terms.

If you want him to be a prostitute, are there enough potential customers wherever he is? At that period he's probably not going to find large centres of population or legionary bases.

[charlycrash]

I'd say that "English" would have been a meaningless term in 500AD and would be for centuries to come - even in 800 AD Britain was divided into something like 15 different kingdoms (not all of which were even Anglo-Saxon e.g. the Jutish Kent).

[heeroluva]

You beat me to it.

[jayb111]

Yes, indeed. I was picking up on the OP's use of 'England' and 'Britain' as search terms, to flag up that these were two different peoples and cultures. (I think Offa of Mercia was the first to call himself King of the English, in the 8th century, wasn't he?)

And I just came back to add, to the OP, that the far north of Britain - present day Scotland - had never been influenced by the Romans and I believe was still pagan at this time (long time since I've looked at that period of Scottish history.) But if that's where you're thinking of setting your story, 'England' should most definitely not be one of your search terms.

[randomstasis]

If he's a serf, he's unfree, and AFAIK, can't leave unless he's a runaway, in which case he'll be an outlaw. I don't think the British had the serf system, however- that would be coming from the Germanic settlers, the Angles/English among them. The Celts had more of a clan/tribe system, with outright slaves occasiionally, usually POWs. Either way, he'll be running into trouble- why would a boy be so far from his clan, what if he runs into clan enemies, etc.

He is too old to become an apprentice, but he must have some skills; farming, with animals, driving, hunting, forestcraft, cheesemaking, even whittling. When and where does this take place? Depending on the time of year, he could find some work on farms, or as a stableboy, maybe. Outside a great city, he's not likely to find work as a full-time prostitute, but could hook up for food or presents occasionally. Not much cash in this economy, though.

[heeroluva]

Ah, that's bad terminology on my part then. I'm apparently generalizing my European history too much. More research needed.

Even still this is going to be a fantasy, so some rules can be broken. I'm not going for 100% historical accuracy, just general sense.

That is true. I was thinking late fall, so after the farming season. If he did make his way to a bigger city for the winter, would there have been anything else he could have really done?

[randomstasis]

"I was thinking late fall"
I was afraid of that. Winter is a very bad time. He won't be able to live off the land, travel will be almost impossible. IIRC, guestright has a time limit.
Very little travel, very little work to be done, very limited food reserves, no reason for anybody to take on an extra mouth to feed. Your boy is going to freeze or starve;)

[heeroluva]

Very sad. Guess I'll be going a lot less historically accurate than I wanted.

[sollersuk]

You might want to search on Dark Ages or Late Antiquity (the preferred term nowadays

[heeroluva]

Hmm, okay. That is rather disappointing. Thanks for the info.

[sollersuk]

Quick apology - should have been "plague in the middle of the 6th century".

Yes, sorry about that; you could get away with it in Gaul (brothels in the towns were still taking in abandoned children to bring up for prostitution)and money was still not only being used but also being minted, though the brothel owners would probably not be keen on freelancers, but not in Britain where the whole urban set-up had broken down, starting in the 4th century.

[the_physicist]

that's an awkward time period to choose! i'm not sure there would be big enough population centers left for this to work. London was virtually abandoned after the decline of the roman empire... the same happened to most other towns across Britain too. all the residents had fled by the 5th century really.

the best bet might be in an inn on a busy route that might have had travellers on it even during that dark time, like the great north road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_road_(Great_Britain)) -- but that's just an idea and i don't know how active it was post roman, pre anglo saxon. but maybe you can google something better than wikipedia.

[sollersuk]

None of the roads had many travellers; trade had broken down and instead of, for example, buying pots from potteries people either made their own crude stuff or did without. There was a bit of sea trade - the Eastern Empire was still trading with Cornwall for tin, but that was about it, and even there you don't find proper towns.

[the_physicist]

Ah right! I thought maybe if there had been some, it would have been on that road. Guess it really was the dark ages. :-/

Yeah, i can imagine Cornwall was still fine, but yeah, considering what Cornwall is like now, I can definitely see them not having towns back then XD.

[sollersuk]

Never had any towns in the Roman period! I think it was all dealt with by the King of Dumnonia, with ships just landing on the beach, the way they were still doing in the 19th century.