Talk:Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex

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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 behaviour 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 could not consummate the marriage -- afterwards which he was subjected to public derision for the divorce. Even if his impotency was not 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, a coward and a 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)

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 behaviour 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)

The facial hair on the portrait proves nothing. A portrait is a painting, not a photograph. How do we know that the artist did not merely insert the facial hair? As for his "tendency to aggression leading to quarrels and threats of duels," just because he could talk does not mean he could walk! John Paul Parks (talk) 05:44, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Military career 1620-1640

He is inaccurately stated to have commanded the failed 1625 expedition to Cadiz. In fact the overall commander was Sir Edward Cecil, later 1st Viscount Wimbledon (see article on the expedition), with Essex as a subordinate vice-admiral. I will rephrase the reference, information cited to Oxford DNB.Cloptonson (talk) 19:29, 15 December 2012 (UTC)