Historic Characters Having Sex: a writer's dilemma

[hrj]

So as I've mentioned previously, I'm working on this lesbian historic romance short story about Duchess Margaret of Parma and the poet Laudomia Forteguerri. This isn't erotica, but I do postulate a sexual relationship between them that will be made unambiguous in the story, although not described in explicit language.

Margaret of Parma was fourteen years old when she married Alessandro de' Medici. The marriage contract included an agreement that he wouldn't try to consummate the marriage for the first six months. It is unclear whether he ever did as the six months were up just around the time he was assassinated. He may well have, though in my story, he never quite got around to it.

Margaret was married again at age sixteen to Ottavio Farnese who was a year younger than her. Based on various correspondence and the date of her first (and only) pregnancy, it appears this marriage was not consummated for 5-6 years (i.e., when Margaret was perhaps 21 and Ottavio 20).

But here's the dilemma. The obvious, rational, and reasonable date on which my characters Margaret and Laudomia begin their sexual relationship falls between those two marriages, when Margaret is 16 and Laudomia is 23. From a modern standpoint, this counts as an adult having sex with a minor. From a historic standpoint, Margaret was counted as being quite solidly of an age suitable for marriage and sex. If I were writing a historic biography and recorded that the 26-year-old Alessandro de' Medici had sex with his 15-year-old bride, that would be a statement of probable historic fact. If I write a fictitious scene in which a 16-year-old Margaret has sex with a woman of 23….

I can dodge the question somewhat by simply avoiding any specific mention of her age at the time, though it's hard to avoid having enough context that readers could calculate it if they cared to. And, as I said above, we're not talking about descriptions that go beyond kissing and cuddling (though with the implication of more). What do people think about fiction in historic settings where the acceptable age of sexual maturity was lower than modern laws allow for?

Comments

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sixteen is the age of consent here too, as far as I recall. And 23 is only seven years older - seven years isn't all that much of a gap, even at the age of sixteen.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, especially when you've already been married and widowed! I'm probably being over-cautious just because there's "deviant sexuality" involved. You know, the whole "recruiting the children" panic thing.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Any sixteen year old will tell you that sixteen isn't a child. :p

But sympathies on the caution.