RaveVlog

Did Prince Albert really have a 'Prince Albert' piercing? If so how do we know? If he didnt have one where did this myth start? Was this a common practice among Victorian gentlemen?

Michael O'Neill, Oxford Oxfordshire

• Though I've read a fair amount of Victorian erotica - fiction as well as the candid memoirs of Coral Pearl, Frank Harris and a few other uninhibited souls - I don't recall a single mention of piercings of any sort. I tend to doubt that this was a widespread fashion in the 19th century. Although I?ve heard the story of Albert?s little gold ring before now, it would surprise me to learn that the Prince Consort actually sported this novelty. Judging by Albert?s apoplectic fury (his letters from the period border on the irrational) at his eldest son?s fling with an actress at an army camp in 1861, he was undoubtedly uptight about sexual matters and thus unlikely to go in for even this mild bit of kinkiness. To hazard a guess, could it be that from some angles a foreskin held together with a gold ring resembles the double-breasted frock coat known as a Prince Albert?

  Peter Post, Boston USA

• I heard that the Prince Consort was so well endowed he needed to anchor his manhood to his leg via a chain when horseriding and the ring was what the chain was attached to.

  Matt Stephenson, London

• I don't know about Victorian erotic fiction, but tattoo/piercing mags & websites tend to the view that piercing went on then. A Victorian female fashion for wearing a chain across the upper bodice of a dress, attached to two rings situated over the nipples, is widely believed to represent such a chain worn under the clothing. Ouch.

  Carla, Crewe UK

• I believe it was Albert and Victoria's grandson, also called Prince Albert, who was responsible. The Prince was a well known sexual pervert, dying of 'pneumonia' in the 1890s, and was a Jack the Ripper suspect.

  Ed West, London England

• The only problem with the idea that it was the Duke of Clarence and Avondale who was the Prince Albert of the piercing, is that he was known as Prince Eddy, or "Collar and Cuffs". No Victorian or Edwardian would have thought of anyone other than the Prince Consort if they heard the phrase Prince Albert. The Prince Consort was just about the greatest prude ever to live, and he certainly would not have had such a thing for pleasure. The idea that it in some way restrained the penis might have appealed to him, however.

  Susan Deal, Sheffield UK

• Knowing Albert, I doubt he would have undergone such an operation, if only because of the pain and danger of infection. Besides I'm not sure Victoria would have liked it. If Prince Albert was so sexually inhibited, how did he end up with 9 children?

  Chuck, Trenton, NJ USA