Holland’s Leaguer
Holland's Leguer was the name of a Dutch English brothel in London between 1603 and January 1632. It has been referred to as the most famed brothel in 17th-century England. "Legeur" means military encampment.[1]
It was an expensive establishment with King James I of England and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, among its clients.Vorlage:Sfn The brothel was owned and managed by Elizabeth "Bess" Holland.Vorlage:Sfn Popular rumour linked the house specifically with Dutch prostitutes.Vorlage:Sfn The brothel modelled its-self on the Schoen Majken (The Lovely Little Maiden) in Brussels. It provided luxurious surroundings, good food, clean linen and 'Modern' plumbing.Vorlage:Sfn
Location
Holland's Leguer was located in a former manor house in Old Paris Garden, Southwark, by the Thames. Located in Bankside, part of the Liberty of the Clink it was beyond the control of the London civil authorities.Vorlage:Sfn The manor house was surrounded by a moat and had a drawbridge and portcullis.Vorlage:Sfn Although Henry VIII had suppressed the Bankside whorehouses in the 1540s, this was only a temporary measure.Vorlage:Sfn
Closure
In December 1631, Charles I of England gave order of its closure and sent soldiers there to perform the order. Bess Holland raised the bridge over the moat, causing the soldiers to fall in the water, after which the brothel workers emptied their pots over them.Vorlage:Sfn The brothel was besieged for a month until it was finally closed in January 1632.
In contemporary media
The siege of Holland's Leguer was portrayed in the pamphlet Holland's Leaguer by Nicholas Goodman, the play Holland's Leaguer by Shackerley Marmion, and the ballad "News from Holland's Leaguer" by Lawrence Price.
References
Bibliography
- Vorlage:Cite thesis
- Jean Elizabeth Howard: Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy, 1598-1642. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8122-3978-2 (englisch, google.co.uk).
- Anne K. Kaler: The Picara: From Hera to Fantasy Heroine. Popular Press, 1991, ISBN 978-0-87972-516-7 (englisch, google.co.uk).
- Victoria E Price: Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 978-0-313-32968-5, Holland's Leaguer (englisch, google.co.uk).
- Edward Walford: Old and New London: Volume 6. British History Online, London 1878, Southwark: Winchester House and Barclay's Brewery, S. 29–44 (british-history.ac.uk).
- ↑ Siobhán Higgins: Britain’s Bourse: cultural and literary exchanges between England and the Low Countries in the early modern era (c. 1580-1620). In: Cork Open research Archive. University College Cork, abgerufen am 29. April 2018.