The chastity belt is a special device that, when worn by a woman, is designed to interfere with sexual intercourse. As legend has it, jealous husbands used it as a means of guaranteeing loyalty, going to the Crusades for a long time. It is believed that there were male chastity belts, which served as an obstacle to masturbation.
True or fiction?
According to a number of researchers, stories about knights who, going to Palestine to conquer the Holy Sepulcher from infidels, locked the charms of their faithful in a castle - this is a real fiction. To date, there is no reliable evidence that female chastity belts were used in the Middle Ages.
In addition, they could not be worn for longer than several days in a row. After all, the friction of the iron structure on the labia and skin, plus pollution in these places could well have caused genital injuries and blood poisoning. This can be judged by reading descriptions and looking at photos of chastity belts and their layouts.
Nevertheless, references to these objects and their illustrations are found in the literature. Based on this, we will consider chastity belts.
What is known from the literature?
For the first time, chastity and chastity belts are mentioned in poems and songs dating back to the 12th century. However, some scholars see them only as poetic metaphors. The first more specific mention is found at the beginning of the 15th century in the book of the German military engineer who participated in the campaigns, Konrad Kaiser. It is called Bellifortis, which translates as "Strong in the war."
There is an illustration in it, accompanied by a comment that the figure depicts an iron belt worn by women in the city of Florence. Kaiser also mentions Rome, Venice, Milan, Bergamo as places where chastity belts are made. No one knows what such information is - reliable facts or copyright fiction. There is an opinion that such belts could be used by Italian women who left their home unaccompanied as protection against rape.
In antiquity
There is also evidence that ingenious devices that protect the female sex from annoying attacks were used in ancient Greece and in ancient Rome. There, they were supposedly put on slaves to protect them from an unplanned pregnancy. After all, bearing a child by a slave could adversely affect labor productivity. According to the descriptions, the girls wore a belt made of leather and consisting of two stripes. The first of them covered the waist, and the second was threaded between the legs.
In the Middle Age
As for the products described in the Middle Ages, they were rather bulky designs that had many locks and covered the entire lower part of the female body. Only one very small opening was provided in this belt, which was intended to go to the toilet. Such a “device” was closed by the key attached to it and stored by a caring spouse.
Judging by the descriptions, they were no longer made of leather, as in ancient times, but of iron, silver and even gold. In some cases, such "specimens of medieval art" were decorated with inlay, scattering of precious stones, patterns. Naturally, such copies should have been very expensive, and only very wealthy sections of the population could afford them.
The coolest copies were made in Venice and Bergamo. Even such expressions have appeared for their designation as “the Venetian lattice” and “Bergamo castle”. Later, already in the Renaissance, there is an expression in literature that wives or lovers were "locked in the Bergamian fashion." Whether it was a purely poetic metaphor or reflected the harsh truth of life, today for sure no one can say.
Further information
The first examples of female chastity belts that have come down to us and brought to the attention of the general public date back to the 16th century. There is evidence that in one of the graves of this period they found a skeleton belonging to a young woman on whom there was such a device. Since that time, the belts allegedly began to be produced in droves. At the same time, scientists found that many of the mechanisms shown in museums turned out to be fakes made by craftsmen in the 19th century.
Also in the literature there are descriptions of the tradition of wearing chastity belts by young girls before the wedding. Their mothers announced this to the grooms with pride, reporting that the brides wear this "amulet" in the form of a "Venetian lattice" almost from an early age. And therefore, they need to be treated like a real treasure, since in those days a virgin who reached the age of 15 was a rarity. At the same time, the keys to wonderful devices were kept by watchful parents.
In accordance with the judgment
As mentioned above, according to legend, chastity belts were especially popular with husbands who went to the Crusades and did not trust their second half. And then unhappy women who did not deserve marital trust had to endure for years not only humiliation, but also immense torment.
In some cases, the health damage was so global that it posed a threat to a woman's life. And here we were talking about the immediate release from the "iron fetters of fidelity." There was a burning question: how to remove the chastity belt without the permission of her husband?
The way out of the situation was the adoption of an appropriate court decision. Moreover, it was to be consecrated by representatives of the church. After a special verdict was issued, the mechanism was hacked, and the sufferer was released.
After the husband returned from the campaign, he was officially notified of a fait accompli caused by urgent need - in order to prevent possible lynching for the impudent disobedience of the spouse.
Treasured key
And there is also a belief that many women, who did not wait for their faithful from distant wanderings, remained widows until the end of their lives and died with an iron belt, which was locked.
But there are also stories of exactly the opposite direction, according to which the solution to the issue of "early release" from the "trap" lay directly on the surface.
In this case, the interested party needed only to acquire a duplicate of the treasured master key. In this unfaithful wives contributed to the manufacturers of belts, benefiting from double benefits. They sold the “unit” and the key to it to jealous husbands, and to the windy ladies the second copy of the key, ripping a lot of money from both.
It is not surprising that the possibility of such an ambiguous tragicomic situation created a large number of jokes and jokes. So, in one of the museums in the French city of Grenoble there is an old tapestry depicting a knight in armor that leaves the castle gates. From the window of the tower a beautiful lady of the heart waved his handkerchief. A chain with a key gleams on the knight's neck. At the same time, not far in the bushes you can find a gentleman peering out from behind them in "civilian" clothes, but with exactly the same key on the chain.
Castle with a secret
The use of locks with a secret was the answer to the female treachery and insecurity of the castle mechanism of the chastity belt, unlocked with an ordinary key or hacking. Skilled craftsmen found the next way out.
If an attempt was made to “open” the lock with the help of a foreign master key in the form of a nail or the tip of a dagger, a spring clip was actuated . He pinched the rod inserted into it, and a piece of metal was bitten.
And then, if the windy lady tried to violate marital fidelity, her husband became aware of this after the fact. Moreover, he could count the number of daring attempts based on the number of pieces remaining in the mechanism.
For the stronger sex
But as for the chastity belt for men, they really existed. True, their purpose was different from that of women. The fact is that no more than in the late XIX - early XX centuries there was a strong idea that masturbation is very harmful for young men. It was believed that it can lead to the most terrible consequences, such as insanity, blindness, and even sudden death.
In this regard, grief doctors tried to prevent the appearance of nocturnal erection using a mechanism that was worn on the penis before bedtime and fixed on the pubic hair. As soon as the erection began, the tweezers pulled by the hair, the person woke up from severe pain, and the excitement subsided.
A little later, a device was invented for "treatment" in hospitals. These were leather shorts with a belt that had a metal ring and suspenders with a lock. It was impossible to remove them yourself.
There was a third, steel version in the form of a clamp, worn simultaneously on the penis and testicles. It was rigidly fixed and prevented the flow of blood to the male organ.