John/Eleanor Rykener

John Rykener, also known as Eleanor, was a 14th-century male prostitute arrested in December 1394 for performing a sex act with John Britby, in London's Cheapside, while wearing female attire. Although historians tentatively link Rykener, who was male, to a prisoner of the same name, the only known facts of Rykener's life come from an interrogation made by the mayor of London. Rykener was questioned on two offences: prostitution and sodomy. Prostitutes were not usually arrested in London during this period, while sodomy was an offence against morality rather than common law and so pursued in ecclesiastical courts. There is no evidence that Rykener was prosecuted for either crime.