Table Of ContentThe Sexual Constitution of
Political Authority: The ‘Trials’
of Same-Sex Desire
While there is no shortage of studies addressing the state’s regulation of the
sexual, research into the ways in which the sexual governs the state and its attrib-
utes is still in its infancy. The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority argues
that there are good reasons to suppose that our understandings of state power
quiver with erotic undercurrents. The book maintains, more specifically, that
the relationship between ideas of political authority and male same-sex desire is
especially fraught. Through a series of case studies where a statesman’s same-sex
desire was put on trial (either literally or metaphorically) as a problem for the
good exercise of public powers, the book shows the resilience and adaptability
of cultural beliefs in the incompatibility between public office and male same-sex
desire. Some of the case studies analysed are familiar ground for both political/
constitutional history and the history of sexuality. The Sexual Constitution of
Political Authority argues, however, that only by systematically reading questions
of institutional politics and questions of sexuality through each other will we have
access to the most interesting insights that a study of these trials can generate.
Whether they involve obscure public officials or iconic rulers such as Hadrian and
James I, these compelling fragments of queer history reveal that the disavowal of
male same-sex desire has been, and partly remains, central to mainstream under-
standings of political authority.
Aleardo Zanghellini is Professor of Law and Social Theory at the University
of Reading.
Social Justice
Series editors: Sarah Keenan, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK,
Davina Cooper, University of Kent, UK, and Sarah Lamble, Birkbeck College,
University of London, UK
Social Justice is a new, theoretically engaged, interdisciplinary series exploring the
changing values, politics and institutional forms through which claims for equal-
ity, democracy and liberation are expressed, manifested and fought over in the
contemporary world. The series addresses a range of contexts from transnational
political fora, to nation-state and regional controversies, to small-scale social
experiments. At its heart is a concern, and interdisciplinary engagement, with the
present and future politics of power, as constituted through territory, gender,
sexuality, ethnicity, economics, ecology and culture.
Foregrounding struggle, imagined alternatives and the embedding of new
norms, Social Justice critically explores how change is wrought through law
and governance, everyday social and bodily practices, dissident knowledges, and
movements for citizenship, belonging and reinvented community.
Titles in this series:
Intersectionality and Beyond: Law, Power Law, Environmental Illness and Medical
and the Politics of Location Uncertainty
Emily Grabham, Davina Cooper, Jane Krishnadas and Tarryn Phillips, 2015
Didi Herman (eds), 2009
Global Justice and Desire: Queering
Regulating Sexuality: Legal Consciousness in Economy
Lesbian and Gay Lives Nikita Dhawan, Antke Engel, Christoph H. E. Holzhey
Rosie Harding, 2010 and Volker Woltersdorff (eds), 2015
Rights of Passage: Sidewalks and the The Sexual Constitution of Political
Regulation of Public Flow Authority
Nicholas Blomley, 2010 Aleardo Zanghellini, 2015
Anarchism and Sexuality Power, Politics and the Emotions:
Jamie Heckert and Richard Cleminson (eds), 2011 Impossible Governance?
Shona Hunter, 2015
Queer Necropolitics
Jin Haritaworn, Adi Kuntsman, Silvia Posocco (eds),
Forthcoming:
2014
After Legal Equality Protest, Property and the Commons
Robert Leckey (ed.), 2014 Lucy Finchett-Maddock
Subversive Property: Law and the Regulating Sex After Aids: Queer Risks and
Production of Spaces of Belonging Contagion Politics
Sarah Keenan, 2015 Neil Cobb
Chronotopes of Law: Jurisdiction, Scale and Law Unlimited
Governance Margaret Davies
Mariana Valverde, 2015
The Sexual Constitution of
Political Authority
The ‘Trials’ of Same-Sex Desire
Aleardo Zanghellini
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
a GlassHouse Book
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Aleardo Zanghellini
The right of Aleardo Zanghellini to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-415-82740-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-52287-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
For Giovanni Zanghellini, Adriana Mongioví and
Annamaria Zanghellini,
Who taught me to love books;
And for Hideki Kojima, who reminds me that life can live up
to them.
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Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
1 Antiquity: Eros, lust and self-possessed government 25
2 The Middle Ages: Edward II’s favourites – One throne, two kings 64
3 The Early Modern Age: King James, effeminacy and spineless policy 93
4 The Victorian Age: The rhetorical conflation of homosexuality and
poor government in the Cleveland Street and Dublin Castle scandals 127
5 Late Modernity: Homosexuality, disloyalty and falling below the
standards of public life 162
Conclusions 194
Index 202
Acknowledgments
To say that I enjoyed every single minute of writing this book would be exag-
gerating, but only just. I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who con-
tributed the time, encouragement, professional skills, intellectual stimulation
and opportunities that have made this possible. Publishing the book as part of
Routledge’s Social Justice series, I had the luxury of having the series editors read
and comment upon the whole book in draft form. Many thanks, therefore, to
Davina Cooper and Sarah Keenan. Having looked up to Davina Cooper’s work
since my early days as a postgraduate student fifteen years ago, the benefit of her
comments felt like a particular privilege.
I am also indebted to Chris Hilson and Grace James for reading papers extracted
from or based upon the book. Many other people have become acquainted with
the project or some of its aspects, in one way or another, responding construc-
tively, suggesting lines of enquiry, providing practical advice or simply listening
benevolently. Some exchanges stand out in my memory as particularly meaning-
ful. These include those with Carl Stychin and Nicola Barker, who were the first
to know about the book’s concept. Carl Stychin has been a source of encour-
agement throughout, quite apart from his generous mentorship in all things
academic. The same can be said of the brilliant Denise Meyerson, even if her
acquaintance with this particular project has been solely by e-mail. Martha-Marie
Kleinhans – apart from the influence of her scholarship on the project’s design –
was good enough to regularly solicit and enthusiastically receive detailed reports
on the book’s progress (with Ioannis Kokkoris, looking sharp in a suit, as a
welcome witness to our exchanges). Kate Gleeson, Vijaia Nagarajan, Alpana Roy
and Tawhida Ahmed have questioned me in depth about the project – whether
in Bloomsbury, Izmir or Varenna. Their interest and support undoubtedly stems
from their friendship; but it comes with the bonus of sharp insight. Dimitrios
Kyritsis and Stephen Samuel have taken a genuine interest in some of the book’s
main ideas: they too have my gratitude. In telephone conversations about the
book, some of the people closest to me have proved excellent listeners and
rewarded me with intelligent questions: thank you to Davide Massaro, Valerio
Zanghellini and Gloria Bona Nyariay. I recall with special pleasure a conversation
about the book – then still in its early stages – with Mauro Miranda, Isabella
Acknowledgments ix
Perego and Jelena Milovanovic on a car drive ‘down to’ Marlow. Finally, compar-
ing notes with Stephanie Polsky on book writing and the publication process was
both fun and fruitful.
Prisca Giordani deserves my gratitude for briefing me on archival research.
Ross Connell, the law librarian at the University of Reading, provided assistance
in locating sources at different stages of the project. I am also grateful to other
members of staff at the University of Reading library, who handled my copious
requests for inter-library loans and out-of-bounds items. My gratitude also goes
to staff that assisted me at the Kew National Archives, the Royal Mail Archive and
the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive. The University of Reading Law School
granted me a term of research leave to work on this project. This is gratefully
acknowledged; so too are the University of Reading travel grants that enabled
me to present aspects of the project at international conferences. I also want to
thank the audiences who constructively engaged with the book’s ideas at these
conferences, particularly Robert Leckey and Chase Dymock. I am indebted to
everyone at Routledge who helped see this project to completion, particularly
Colin Perrin, Rebekah Jenkins, Richard Leatherdale, Laura Muir, Alexia Sutton
and Paula Devine.
Throughout the period in which this project monopolised my thoughts, Hideki
Kojima has incurred the common fate of those who have academic research-
ers as their life partners. He had to put up with comparative neglect, absent-
mindedness and distracted or delayed responses. For his patience and generosity
with this – and much else – I am forever grateful. Finally, our miniature pinscher
Momotaro has been the inadvertent instrument of this book’s timely completion.
On several occasions, our daily walks in the Berkshire countryside helped me
clarify my thoughts or come up with the right turn of phrase. He may require no
thanks for this (non-human animals are morally superior to most humans in that
respect), but I owe it to him at least to record the fact of his disinterested service.
Professor Aleardo Zanghellini
December 2014
