Talk:Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
	This article is supported by WikiProject Peerage.

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information and associated task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- B-Class-1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points have appropriate inline citations. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- B-Class-2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- B-Class-3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- B-Class-4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- B-Class-5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no Associated task forces (nations and regions): British military history task force Associated task forces (periods and conflicts): Early Modern warfare task force (c. 1500–c. 1792)

I just added some information about Essex I had, but the original article said he "died without an heir" while my infomation said that his second marriage produced a child. I assume the child was female, or perhaps died young, but this inconsistency is bothering me. Curtangel 03:03, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

It seems to me that attributing the Earl's behavior to "male hormone deficiency" is an exotic diagnosis. Let us consider that the Earl was 10 years old when his Father was executed publicly for treason, and only 3 years later he had his failed marriage, which seems to have ended just because he couldn't consummate the marriage -- afterwards which he was subjected to public derision for the divorce. Even if his impotency wasn't the acute cause of the divorce, it may have seemed that way to the Earl all the same, considering that they were divorced immediately after his attempt, "separated to prevent them from consummating their union." To add insult to injury, his wife "reviled him, and miscalled him, terming him a cow and coward, and beast."

Both of these are rather traumatic events that may have made the Earl feel as though he had no control over events in his life -- he was powerless to stop his Father's execution, and he was publicly humiliated for his failed marriage. It only stands to reason that his "edginess, anger, irritability and aggression ... leading to quarrels and threats of duels" could been because the Earl felt as though his personal relationships were out of his control, which then caused him distress because of his childhood experiences with the feeling.

I feel like this hypothetical diagnosis is as robust as "male hormone deficiency," though I do kind of object to the entire idea of speculating about diagnosis in the first place -- in reality, we'll never know what was Earl's major malfunction was. If I find some good sources to support this idea later, I'll make an edit. Justinlee37 20:27, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hypergonadism?

While a diagnosis made several hundred years after someone's death may not be worth much, it has been suggested that Essex had male hormone deficiency. Hypergonadal men have been known to have feelings of edginess, anger, irritability and aggression — all behavior traits Essex is known to have shown during his lifetime (leading to quarrels and threats of duels).ref- Haynes, Alan: Sex in Elizabethan England, page 131. Wrens Park Publishing, 1997 ref

This is nonsense. Male hormone deficiency doesn't cause hyper anything. The writer means hypo-gonadism. The man's portrait statue indicates that he had a prolific growth of facial hair. This does not suggest Hypogonadism. Male agro is not symptomatic of hypogonadism.

The fact that his wife referred to him as a "cow, a coward and a beast" indicates that something about him was repugnant to her. The poor man was probably homosexual, but he was honour-bound to marry and attemppt to produce an heir.

Amandajm (talk) 04:10, 11 January 2008 (UTC)