A Prince Losing His Virginity? Or How I'll Make a Man Out of You

Aside from the concept that one always learns best from someone with experience (that's why the apprentice system), this sort of thing allows for more control by the parents/system. A prince/high noble once they reach puberty is going to have their urges surging. By providing an "outlet" where the woman knows her role, is going to do her best to avoid pregnancy, and has no romantic illusions a lot of problems can be avoided. You prevent the proliferation of bastards which can cause all sorts of problems. If the young man gets significantly involved with some random woman, this can cause issues as well. To the extent the young man somewhat widely sowing royal oats could be scandalous, this system keeps it "in house".

Not saying that this is a good thing in many ways, just that there were all sorts of perfectly logical reasons to do this at the time.
 
Yup I make gay pornos. What can say it ain't much but it's honest work....

Lol.

How could they believe, that 30 years is the end of childbearing age, when they had proof all around that it is not true? I think it was rather the fact, that these older ladies were experienced, thus they knew perfectly how to avoid unwanted pregnancy, they were doing it for years.

Well, both Mrs Wyndham and Caton Bellier would've been around 40 at the time of their "dehymenating" of the prince in question. So, 30 might not be end of childbearing age, but by 40 it was starting to make it look very likely that those wild oats sown would see crops fail that season. Sure, Anne of Austria was 40yo when she had Monsieur, and her sister-in-law, Élisabeth de France was likewise over 40 when she had her last kid (a miscarried daughter in 1644, when Élisabeth would've been 41yo), but those were presumably outliers.

The other reason why said lady would've been chosen was so that if there was the unfortunate consequence (such as a pregnancy), chances were said lady's husband was no longer cohabiting (havnig moved on to a newer model, most like) or deceased. So there would be no awkward persons to challenge that the baby was sired by the royal boy (à la the Marquis de Montespan/Robert Palmer later in Louis XIV/Charles II's lives.)
 
A prince/high noble once they reach puberty is going to have their urges surging. By providing an "outlet" where the woman knows her role, is going to do her best to avoid pregnancy, and has no romantic illusions a lot of problems can be avoided. You prevent the proliferation of bastards which can cause all sorts of problems. If the young man gets significantly involved with some random woman, this can cause issues as well. To the extent the young man somewhat widely sowing royal oats could be scandalous, this system keeps it "in house".

IIRC this was one of the reasons they wanted Louis XV to marry as quickly as possible - out of fear that he would either get an older mistress who would dominate him or that he would turn to satisfy his urges elsewhere (in the Italian manner - as the French court used to say).
 
Seems, that it was common practice. Sigismund Augustus lost virginity at age 15 with Diana di Cordona, lady-in-waiting on his mother's court, who was over 20 years older than him.
She also went missing later in life...i guess someone in high power silenced her?
 
Oh I get there are lay people working in the Vatican, but outside of the Swiss Guards who live in the Vatican how many of those lay people live in the Vatican City and are also citizens of the Vatican City-State - as opposed to citizens of some other place and/or Vatican citizens living somewhere outside the city.
 
I believe it is a holdover from the age of consent in Italy was at the time the Vatican became independent. The Vatican never bothered to change it.

Half-right. The Vatican age of consent was 12 from 1929-2013, in line with 1929 Italy's, then Pope Francis increased it to 18 in 2013 (no prizes for guessing why...):

From Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe#Vatican_City

Law No. VIII of 11 July 2013, entitled "Supplementary Laws on Criminal Law Matters" establishes the present law for the State of Vatican City regarding criminal penalties for sexual acts with minors. Article 4 of Law No. VIII defines "minor" for the purposes of that law to mean "every human being below the age of eighteen years." Article 8, paragraphs 1 through 4, establish criminal penalties for anyone who engages in sexual acts with a person below the age of 18. Paragraph 5 of Article 8 provides an exception to this by stating that "the offence does not exist if the sexual acts take place within a marriage."[161] Canon 1083 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that "A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age and a woman before she has completed her fourteenth year of age cannot enter into a valid marriage."[162] Thus, in the context of this article, the age of consent in Vatican City may be considered 14 for married females who are having sexual relations with their husbands only, 16 for married males having relations with their wives only, but 18 for everyone else, whether married or not.

It should also be noted that the "Law of the Source of Law" of the Vatican State requires that any local laws must first defer to divine law, to Papal decrees, and to canon law. As the Vatican understands divine law, even if not sanctioned with criminal penalties by the state, all sex outside of marriage is illicit regardless of the age or willingness of those who engage in it.

When the Vatican City was first formed, it adopted the then-Italian age of consent of 12 as per the Lateran Treaty of 1929. Until July 2013 it had the lowest age of consent in Europe, but after that month, when the Pope made his decree, it became the highest
 
I think Brandon Sanderson stole this idea for then nobility in his Mistborn novels (was it Mistborn or another series? Maybe another author altogether? It’s too late at night for this.)
 
I think Brandon Sanderson stole this idea for then nobility in his Mistborn novels (was it Mistborn or another series? Maybe another author altogether? It’s too late at night for this.)

It would be another author - Sanderson doesn't write sex, let alone pre-marital affairs between young noblemen and older women.
 
I think Brandon Sanderson stole this idea for then nobility in his Mistborn novels (was it Mistborn or another series? Maybe another author altogether? It’s too late at night for this.)

It would be another author - Sanderson doesn't write sex, let alone pre-marital affairs between young noblemen and older women.


Its the first Mostborn book, Elend Venture. Its a small part of the background of his character, the young nobleman’s abusive father had set him up with a prostitute when he was an adolescent
 
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