James, who is best known for commissioning the King James Bible, often gave titles to his lovers, including Robert Carr, who he made the Earl of Somerset. The king, who ruled from 1567 to 1625, is widely accepted to have had multiple same-sex partners over the course of his life. Nightingale, who never married, also enjoyed intimate relationships with her aunt Mai and cousin Hilary. The 19th century British icon was apparently so in love with Marianna that she pretended to be her brother Henry in order to avoid the judgment of others. Florence Nightingale had multiple intimate same-sex relationships. This reportedly included her cousin, Marianna Nicholson.
Florence NightingaleĪs well as being the founder of modern nursing, Nightingale also loved three women passionately, according to 1993 book Superstars: Twelve Lesbians Who Changed the World. The artist was twice publicly accused of having gay sex, his youthful male protege was removed because of the “wicked life he had led” with Leonardo, and his own writings repeatedly mused on his own attraction to men – and borderline revulsion to sex with women. He also repeatedly depicted male sexuality in his art and faced accusations of sodomy during his lifetime. Italian painter and sculptor Leonardo da Vinci was rumoured to have gay sex. The text, which was based on thousands of pages of the artist ‘s own notebooks, recounted how da Vinci had a string of younger male companions. A book by Walter Isaacson called Leonardo da Vinci: The Biography showed the extent to which da Vinci lived as an openly gay man in 15th century Florence.