France and the Netherlands after 1700

AbstractLike London, Paris after 1700 saw a large increase in the recording of sodomy cases (or attempted ones), thanks to a change in policing practice. Agents provocateurs entrapped many men in the streets or public gardens. Most were released with a warning; some received punishment, though few were sent to the criminal courts. Police reports also described taverns where sodomites would gather for socializing and sex; there is some slight evidence of effeminate behaviour there, but not as the dominant style, and certainly not as a way of life. In the Netherlands a moral panic, triggered in 1730, led to many sodomy trials, revealing networks of sodomites in several towns. Some socializing in taverns or private houses, called lolhuizen, was also revealed, as well as much public ‘cruising’. The chapter concludes with a brief survey of changing attitudes to sodomy in 18th-century Northern Europe.