The Victorian Aristocrat Who Was Exiled For His Sexuality | Historic Britain | Absolute History

An imposing country house with a vast estate, Kingston Lacy in Dorset was beloved of William Bankes, even after he was cruelly sentenced to death and forced to flee the country.
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[@1aikane]

This video and the headline of the video don't match. The emphasis is on the property (which is grand), but not the man's exile for his sexuality

[@lisapop5219]

I wish I could see the painting after cleaning. I got intrigued when she cleaned the spot and it was blue under it

[@veramae4098]

You might enjoy "Baumgartner Restoration" a 2nd generation art restorer in Chicago. Retired librarian

[@stregalilith]

Yes, and the lover appeared!

[@aplaceinthestars3207]

As interesting as the family is with their quirky excess, the nameless gardeners have me awed. Even with modern climate control (and Google and blogs for help and advice), the attendance and care required to grow non-native, far-off climate foods is some serious skills. I'd love to piddle around a hothouse like that, trying to grow pineapples!

[@veiledrecalcitrance4314]

Jesus, forget the small Egyptian artifacts in the house, the guy pilfered a whole obelisk. I’m a big fan of Victorian Britain, but man does that kind of sum up that era “yup, we’re British and we do and take anything we want”. The crazy thing is even though the pillaging of Egypts artifacts is common knowledge pretty much world wide, a whole obelisk is sitting in some British guys front lawn and they talk about it like it he had every right to just take it “oh it was on its side, with a sign on it that said “free” next to an old dresser and love seat”……well, you know what I mean hahaha.

[@stregalilith]

Agree. And if they want to make amends as they say they do they can start by returning the Star of India, the Star of Africa and the many priceless Egyptian artifacts in the Victoria and Albert Museum. At least they can make an effort.

[@AlexS-oj8qf]

Nah they bought it they can keep it.

[@Satu-zs7gm]

yall didn't complain about Hagia Sophia lol a stolen church with the original jesus painting covered up so the muslim can proudly prayed in them lol

[@katharper655]

It is heartbreaking to see all the Egyptian artifacts in this one British home. I realize that was the rather entitled attitude of the Day: "I bought Egyptian History. I OWN it. It is MINE. AND BUGGER THE LOSS TO THE EGYPTIAN NATION!" That was the mindset in the 18th Century. I get it. But it has been proven by letters home from British visitors to Egypt...letters notifying Estate managers that SHIP LOADS OF MUMMIES were being shipped to Britain to be ground up and used as FERTILIZER. One is horrified to imagine the absolute HOWLS OF HORROR if the corpses of British aristocrats were sent sent to Egypt to fertilize the fields THERE. Perhaps I've been a trifle harsh. But as a supporter of Dr. Zahi Hawass's programme to urge CIVILIZED COUNTRIES to voluntarily return Historical Egyptian artifacts to what is, After all, their Homeland. .

[@AlexS-oj8qf]

Modern Egyptians have no right either they're Arab Occupiers they have nothing in common with Ancient Egyptian.

[@ronaldmartin2304]

This story would make a great movie.

[@KevinSigman]

Or a series: "The Banks of Kingston Lacey". You could start with the fall of Corfe Castle and just go through the family history.

[@jamessmith7691]

Wonderful video. My question could this be where the term turn coat have been originated ? This home is beautiful to the maximum.

[@josephatthecoop]

You’re on the right track! The word seems to originate with exactly this sort of thing - literally turning one’s coat to hide one’s true allegiance. However, the word originated well before the siege of Corfe Castle. According to Etymology Online, the earliest known use of the word is in the 1550’s, while Corfe fell in 1645.

[@anitafriesen5016]

The great houses had land that needed to be managed. I'm not surprised that the families were educated in agricultural sciences, botany etc.

[@harridan.]

only if it interested them...many were mismanaged to death

[@wilhelminamarquart240]

He seems so delightful and I feel we would have been fast friends, he is so amazing smart artistic. I feel so heartfelt sorry he had to run and hide 😢

[@paulbastier3773]

Oscar Wilde had a pretty bad time in jail for his same sex relationship with a member of the aristocracy.

[@wilhelminamarquart240]

@@paulbastier3773 yes sadly he did which is tragic, that is why he wrote the poem "The Ballad of Reading Goal"and when you read that poem it effects you, first time I read it I was 14 and cried like a baby, you could so feel the pain coming from each haunting word.

[@user-ke8st8jc1v]

You two would have been fast friends ??? Hahahahahah,Hahahahahah…

[@wilhelminamarquart240]

@@user-ke8st8jc1v yes you twat munch troll go toll someone else Mit anderen Worten, hol dir einen Lebenstroll......oh wait you probably only speak English.

[@Zknwlf]

You've got they 'woke eye' crammed so far up there you can watch your food digest.

[@Luboman411]

At 28:08. I had to hit freeze here. Wow. This guy stole a bunch of good stuff from Spain--I can immediately spot two famous paintings by Francisco de Zurbaran. I had long thought these two particular paintings were in El Prado or some other Madrid museum, since they're part of a whole integrated painting collection depicting about 30 female saints in gorgeous 17th century Spanish clothing. The other paintings may be from lesser Spanish painters of the 1500s and 1600s. I really can't tell. But those two Zurbarans--this looter had good taste with what he was robbing while he was with the Duke of Wellington's army in 1813 and 1814. Good for him! And good for the fact that Spain has never asked for this stuff back...

[@stregalilith]

You're amazing! Perhaps you can track down the Sea of Gallalee or some of the other paintings stolen from the isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Nobody else ever has although there are some clues...a great and tragic mystery

[@kennethobrien6537]

The empire stealing priceless parts of culture and refusing to see the wrong? Never!

[@harridan.]

the artifacts need to go home

[@azabujuban-hito8085]

So woke🤣

[@veramae4098]

@@azabujuban-hito8085 I'd rather be "woke" then sleeping. [disgust] Still, harridan is wrong. By the 1800s there finally were laws in place and the British Museum had a collector who positively delighted in breaking them. I forget his name, and did a quick search but couldn't find him. He wrote about nearly all eras of ancient history everywhere and made many mistakes. Unfortunately, because of the prestige of the British Museum for a long time these were accepted as facts. That's only begun to change in the last century and a half. (Oh, just remembered his name and googled: Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge.) Oh, and @don, Egypt has requested some things be returned -- the first Rosetta stone among them. Yes, the first, originally discovered and held by the French, then turned over to Britain after the French surrendered Egypt. Many other copies have since been found -- it was a government document after all. The French were the first to really begin to organize, document, and pass laws about antiquities. French Egyptologists are still prominent. This whole business of "stolen" artefacts really bothers me. Most were acquired because the original culture didn't care. Other times, other values. Looting was a recognized right of the victor. Other cultures had conquered them earlier and held them as "rightful" loot. People act as if the Brits were the first to take stuff after a region was conquered, and seem to think local cultures treasured them above all else. Well, if an old stone statue I found and no one else wants could be sold for enough to feed my family for a year, when we're starving, that seems like a good deal. If the Elgin marbles, for example, had been left on the Parthenon in Greece they would have been destroyed when a Greek freedom fighter / fighting the Turks, blew up the Parthenon. That's right. The Turks figured the Greeks would never harm the temple so they used it as an ammo dump. Well, they were wrong. Greeks blew up the Parthenon. Retired librarian, MI / US

[@charcat1571]

@@veramae4098 How colonizer of you.

[@phaedrapage4217]

@@veramae4098 Dear Retired Librarian, I believe you meant "than" not "then" If you're going to play know-it-all, proofread before you post.

[@azabujuban-hito8085]

I want to know more about William Banks, but this vid keep yakking on and on about restoring painting, hierogliph etc.

[@chachi_unbothered]

Yep. That's right.

[@islandgal500]

I marvel at the defenses that castles used to keep the occupants secure and relatively safe. I have said a few times on channels showing how easy it is to break down some doors to homes and mentioned that homes need to take hints from those days to figure out how to better secure our homes against invasions from scum. People often arm themselves with guns instead of just using tactics to better secure their homes.

[@leeaal7306]

I think this is mostly due to the fact that people's perspective on safety and security has been distorted, they think that police and cameras would protect them from burglars, which means that they can have beautiful, less secure houses. Some people jeopardize or sacrifice their safety for the sake of aesthetics.

[@veramae4098]

Every time I see a castle, I think of how frightened people must have been to go to that very extreme labor, taking years.

[@jamesrobiscoe1174]

@@veramae4098 It's important to remember that during hostile invasions, castles provided fortified safety for the villeins, that is, the country folk.

[@chucku.farley3927]

guns, guns, guns, love guns. they work better than locks.

[@NorwayT]

Did Agatha Christie draw inspiration from KINGston LACY for Poirot's 'The Theft of the ROYAL Ruby'? The LACEYs had an Egyptian obelisk in their garden, the name is the same with a tiny variation. KING and ROYAL. Just a thought.

[@lianefehrle9921]

What an amazing man!!!

[@Luboman411]

At 14:42. Oh, yes, all the British blokes cultivated a "love" of Spanish art if they were with the Duke of Wellington's camp, liberating Spain from Napoleon's troops in 1813, 1814 and 1815. Usually the Brits looted in a sneaky way--they'd defeat French troops at some battle or other. It was the French who had robbed Spanish churches, country homes and palaces during their long occupation. The Brits would then discover this loot piled up somewhere and then magically most of it would disappear. It was never returned to its rightful Spanish owners. That included countless priceless paintings. I bet William Bankes joined this orgy of shameless pilfering and took back home choice Spanish treasures with him--like paintings by Velazquez and Titian (Spain was thick with Titians before the French invasion in 1808). The British authorities back home turned a blind eye to all of this, taking stories of "buying Spanish paintings" in the middle of a destructive war at face value, demanding no proof or documentation of purchase. I'm dismayed that these documentarians and historians glossed over this fact so quickly...

[@sunwoosjawline613]

I think there may even be a Zurbarán hanging on the wall

[@stregalilith]

Thank you for bringing it up. We need to be mindful of things like this and if people pride themselves on being history buffs, they should know ALL the history and grow a conscience!

[@Pisti846]

So sorry the family lost their house.

[@mich_elle_x]

It is horrible how bigoted Britain was toward the queer people even compared to many countries of Continental Europe of that time, to which the French Revolution brought the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

[@RoseSharon7777]

😂😂😂 Just another Freemason.

[@paulheydarian1281]

Yes, but at least he wasn't de-buggered.☻😆🤣

[@fabledfantasty7343]

Was? They aren't much better in this day & age.

[@judieelliott4]

Qq+a A

[@SilenTHerO78614]

Nah its well deserved

[@TheLisclark]

Anyone else see a Daisy May Cooper resemblance in the portrait of Dame/Lady Mary?

[@lmzaadi]

I love red doors! ♥️

[@Justintime619]

Boooo what did the painting look like restored and was it by the painter?

[@tompabompa]

But I wonder what happened to the “soldier “?

[@eartheclipse8]

It's awful that he was almost killed for being gay... however, I can't feel too much pity because that's a lot of artifacts that he STOLE from their original countries...

[@kotobookie]

@don considering englands history of colonialism that went well into the victorian period and beyond you can see the the concern people have. It wasn't really his to take. That being said, his Spanish and Italian art collection along with his passion is something to admire

[@veramae4098]

He bought them. Or found them abandoned and unwanted. Keep that in mind. Whether sellers owned them "legitimately" or not is another problem. When you buy something at Walmart do you inquire into it's legal background? Or when you buy something from a street vendor? Or pick up something found in a park? Just recently an Israeli bank acquired a "Banksy" original painted on a wall in Palestine. The bank bought it from a Palestinian. There's a lot of anger directed towards the bank, but they are taking care of it and have it on public display. I haven't heard any criticism of the Palestinian.

[@gaspikefan]

It is difficult for any of us now to presume a circumstance for acquisition then, or of the ownership and associated worth of any item to the owner at the time. It could have been similar to buying a rare masterpiece sold for a dollar at a flea market, or the owner saying "Yes, please! Take that useless thing off of my hands!", or a nice gift. We cannot know and cannot assume the worst case scenario for every thing he acquired.

[@kotobookie]

@@veramae4098 ur giving me hobby lobby illegally selling artifacts from Iraq vibes lady

[@ElizabethDMadison]

He seems like a narcissist.

[@paulheydarian1281]

Seems like? 🤔😅🤣

[@jamesmiller4184]

@don Jealousy, envy, bigotry, stubbornness, stiffneckedness all manner of such that is irrational, is the life-blood of the uneducated / unenlightened. They love it, because involving no complexities with which to have to contend. They are the Wicked Arts of both the Left and the Right; eschewed generally by considering Centrists.

[@flowerpower3618]

Aren’t they all?

[@danone2414]

Not William Bankes being goals

[@NickVenture1]

In those days when travelling was still taking quite a time such properties were modified to showcase foreign culture. Ourdays mostly you'll just fly real quick to the desired environment and spare the effort to create a duplicate elsewhere.

[@januarysson5633]

So do we know what happened to the soldier he was caught with?

[@HypatiaMuse]

People in my country want to turn the clock back, sadly.

[@lisapop5219]

What country?

[@ianbeddowes5362]

Where did the family get their money from, especially to pay for William's extravagant artistic tastes.

[@Luboman411]

First, the guy stole most of his marvelous art collection. He didn't buy it. Second, the refurbishing of the house was paid for by the rents this aristocratic looter was charging his peasant tenants. Which is the way the landed aristocracy has been paying for their palaces in England and throughout Europe for a good 2,000 years or so.

[@stregalilith]

@@Luboman411 And then they started complaining about taxes when England had to pay for WWII. The aristocrats and the nobility are revolting--in every sense of the word. Although they've eased up on their blood sports, they should start returning the priceless cultural artifacts they looted and pillaged from--everywhere!

[@bpier]

The obelisk should clearly be returned.

[@michelleduplooymalherbe2837]

What an interesting, fascinating man, I would have LOVED to know him, imagine spending time with him - must have been such fun even just to see those straight laced Victorians shocked into another oh so proper level ...........ha ha

[@michelleduplooymalherbe2837]

@manueldumont3709 he, he, I was actually thinking of them Manuel, surprised to see you here

[@michelleduplooymalherbe2837]

@manueldumont3709 you can not go wrong - it is a fascinating subject and what you are doing is commendable

[@chucku.farley3927]

so whatever we write our name on, we get credit for in the future? awesome.

[@honeylacecookie]

How did the name of Kingston Lacy come to be?

[@marikelley5459]

no mention of giving the stolen obelisk back to egypt..

[@veramae4098]

[sigh] He found it, laying on the ground, abandoned, unwanted. People keep forgetting that. He paid people to move it.

[@jamesmiller4184]

Back in them-thar-days 'twas 'finders keepers, Mari. Would you also desire in your dream state that the Rosetta Stone be removed from the UK and sent back to Egypt, on account of Egyptian demand? It was a 'spoil of war' as taken from the French who'd found it, their scholars realizing it's import- ance during that time of still-earlier than Lacy's. Also, we've the little matter of the legitimacy of any ex-post-facto type law that might be pass- ed, it so as to cause to become what was earlier not a crime or illegal, as-so presently for prosec- uting retroactively. Can you realize the injustice inherent in such a thing?

[@Amburito1]

He was my ancestor 😢 my grandma is hazel bankes

[@johnnyboyvan]

Return the theft of the ancient world's wonders. Ah sexy soldiers.

[@AlyxGlide]

"Adventures"

[@missmaggie2620]

Oh, My Goodness is correct.

[@aleksandarstavric2226]

The guy was exiled to ... Vatican 😇. Perfect place for him

[@Luboman411]

Actually, if you were a homosexual Englishman, going to Italy or France was the way to go. Mostly because homosexual relations were not illegal in France and Italy. And also because the Italians, especially in places like Sicily and Naples (far from Rome) had a nudge-nudge, wink-wink tolerance for gay relations since at least the 1300s and 1400s. By the 1800s, they were full-on gay down in southern Italy. And English exiles (along with Scandinavian and German exiles) LOVED that about living in Italy. Hence, why this English aristocratic looter ended up in Italy. :D

[@tinklvsme]

There was a story line on that British dhow about a gay man.

[@Luboman411]

At 25:49. Caught "in flagrante"? Ummm...what? In modern terms that means "full-on sex." What does it mean in Victorian terms? I can't imagine this aristocratic looter was having...ummm...that...in public at a place like Green Park, which is literally north of Buckingham Palace. Some clarification should be in order. Was he just, like, kissing the soldier?

[@gaspikefan]

It means general sexual misconduct, but not any specific act. Who knows what he was specifically doing with the soldier. As far as laws at the time were concerned, I would imagine that it was some form of partially-clothed pleasure giving or receiving.

[@glenncordova4027]

You want photographic evidence?

[@starveartist]

So many LGBT+ people contributed so much throughout history, but only very few are acknowledged or known to be LGBT+ like Banks, Turing, Wilde, etc.

[@pdruiz2005]

As a gay man I don’t want this particular gay person in the pantheon of gay heroes. He was a ravenous looter of Spanish, Greek and Egyptian art and patrimony. Nope. We don’t want him or laud him.

[@marilynpomponio8335]

Interesting. Our modern society does not always understand the the society of early times.

[@tomlxyz]

What does that mean

[@margaretlovelock7031]

They were bigots as far as I’m concerned

[@loring4015]

A Diamond in a Pig's Ear Doesn't a Prince Make

[@Zknwlf]

Amen!

[@EddieGarton]

The makers of this video didn't mention the word gay one time. Eccentric was used instead. That's what is shameful, not the act he was exiled for.

[@josephsf2452]

I thought this video was going to be about William Banks, not all that other crap. This would make a great screenplay for a movie...a gay Aristocrat

[@Richie8a8y]

I find the script for this so tiresome. trite.

[@justinshades6652]

Interesting, leather 🤔

[@Luboman411]

It probably makes upkeep of those walls a nightmare. Leather is a very finicky material to use for wallpaper.

[@justinshades6652]

@Luboman411 I was thinking it would look wrinkled with moisture

[@Luboman411]

@@justinshades6652 Leather also tends to crack and flake off really easily if it goes from a moist environment to a dry one, which happens with winters. This is the reason you almost never hear of walls being covered in this material.

[@justinshades6652]

@@Luboman411 yuck. I can't imagine

[@mikemyers8064]

Say that when you die and stand in front of God. Read the Holy Bible , the letters of st Paul to the Romans so you can understand your mistake.🇬🇧👍🏻

[@paulbastier3773]

There is no doubt that both in the Old and New Testament sex between two people of the same sex is forbidden. It was punished with death in the Old Testament and for many centuries AD by the Catholic Church and other churches. That text in the Old Testament RSV2 Samuel 1:26. "I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." was always to us by our school and priest that is was a love of friendship and soul mates and never sexual in nature, for which there was a death penalty. My church teaches that homosexuality is a disorder of the human nature, and while they sympathize with those afflicted with it, they say that celibacy is the only answer and you are called to a life of chastity. They say the much the same about severely disabled people who are not able to consummate a marriage. No sex for them of any kind and called to observe a life of chastity. It is a hard saying and a hard doctrine and many have not observed it, including some of the highest clergy in the church. But that does not make it right for us to do it because they do. The choice is that you accept that the Bible and Christian morality for centuries have forbidden it, or you don't and go your own way and live by your own moral code or join an "inclusive Church" that leaves matters of sexuality to your own conscience and asks you no questions about yours.

[@michaelmcgee8543]

mmmm,

[@joelmckinney16]

How many hundreds of peasants lived in poverty to pay for all this? Bravo, but Geez!

[@johnscanlan9335]

Yes that's the current interpretation but you must understand people of earlier centuries thought of society very differently than we do.

[@chucku.farley3927]

@@johnscanlan9335 yeah rich people looked even further down their noes at the less fortunate

[@d.l.l.6578]

Leviticus 18:22 “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. 23 “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. 24 “‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. 29 “‘Everyone who does any of these detestable things-such persons must be cut off from their people. 30 Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.’” Leviticus 20:13 “‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." Deuteronomy 22:5 "A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this." Romans 1:21 "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." 1 Corinthians 6:9 "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Timothy 1:9 "We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers-and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me." Jude 1:7 "In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire." Revelation 21:8 "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

[@Akarisugiyama2010]

You know that was written by men right, than translated. Sweetie do you believe in a sky wizard?

[@paulheydarian1281]

Interesting that they chose a bipedal cow to chat about the livestock.😉🤭

[@timmiller1954]

Cows are quadrupeds.

[@Luboman411]

@@timmiller1954 He was mocking the rotund host who was talking about the cows...