18. Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas
Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde were in a relationship which came to the attention of Alfred’s father, the Marquess of Queensberry. The Marquess publicly called Wilde a sodomite, which led to the playwright charging him with criminal slander. Douglas encouraged the action. During the Marquess’s trial, evidence emerged that his accusations were in fact true, forcing Wilde to drop the charges, and exposing him to criminal charges, as same-sex relations were at the time illegal in Britain. The trial also strained the relationship between Douglas and Wilde, following the evidence of Wilde’s homosexual behavior with several other young men.
Wilde was tried and convicted of gross indecency in 1895 in a second trial, after the first ended with a hung jury. Following his conviction, which likely would never have occurred had Wilde not first charged the Marquess of Queensbury with libel, he was imprisoned for two years. After his release, Wilde and Douglas were reunited briefly in Naples, though by the time Wilde relocated to Paris in 1898, Douglas had returned to England. After converting to Catholicism, Douglas denied any relationship with Oscar Wilde other than friendship, a stance he maintained for the rest of his life. Wilde, who died in 1900, was the only one of the many men cited in his trials to face charges, or go to prison for his acts. Douglas later served six months in prison for libel, on unrelated charges brought by the crown on behalf of Winston Churchill.
