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''The Whores' Petition'' (also known as ''The Poor Whores' Petition'') was a satirical letter addressed from brothel owners and prostitutes affected by the Bawdy House Riots of 1668, to Lady Castlemaine, lover of King Charles II of England. It requested that she come to the aid of her "sisters" and pay for the rebuilding of their property and livelihoods. Addressed from madams such as Damaris Page and Elizabeth Cresswell, it sought to mock the perceived extravagance and licentiousness of Castlemaine and the royal court. ==Bawdy House Riots== Starting on Shrove Tuesday 1668, widespread violence swept London in a period that would become known as the 'Bawdy House Riots'. Apprentice boys and men burnt and smashed up brothels, including those owned by madams such as Damaris Page and Elizabeth Cresswell; the rioters assaulted the prostitutes and looted the properties. Many thousand London apprentices could neither afford their prostitutes nor, due to their own working contracts, legally marry. 〔 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography〕 Some of the brothels were supported by the patronage of King Charles II were representative of Charles's continental Catholic-style court, awash with unaffordable debauchery.〔 Linnane (2007) p. 76〕 ==Petition== Following the riot, a satirical petition began to circulate, addressed from Page and Cresswell and other London madams. Written to Lady Castlemaine, the King's lover, notorious for her own wild promiscuity, the brothel owners requested that the aristocrat act on the behalf of her 'sisters' and repay the madams for the rebuilding of their brothels, funded by the national tax coffers. They address Castlemaine as a prostitute herself, a great practitioner of "venereal pleasures", and list the sites of the brothels where her fellows struggle. It is addressed as:
Given her great experience in whoring, Lady Castlemaine would, they argued, be able to deeply sympathise with prostitutes across the city.〔〔 "Should your Eminency but once fall into these Rough hands", they wrote, "you may expect no more Favour than they have shewn unto us poor Inferiour Whores".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Poor-Whores Petition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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