ABSTRACT
In general, early modern noblemen and noblewomen enjoyed legal privileges that protected them from punishment by the ecclesiastical and secular courts, which had jurisdiction over sexual offences. Furthermore, their social and political status appears to have accorded them a certain moral privilege as well, since at least courtiers were not exposed to the same moral admonitions about illicit sex in sermons that commoners were. The irritation at Elizabeth’s harsh punishments for noblemen who offended and the support of Robert Howard and Frances Villiers outlined in chapter five also indicate that the nobility thought the sovereign should allow them to deal with issues of illicit sex on their own and amongst themselves and that the monarch or judicial courts should not punish them. Indeed, during the period between 1560 and 1630, the noble privileges that ensured an effectual immunity from secular or ecclesiastical punishment for illicit sex remained in place, although they were increasingly challenged in the 1620s.
