There is no reason to suppose that royal personages do not enjoy their sex the same as the rest of us. Apart from the occasional scandal, however, we know very little of the sexual predilections of reigning monarchs: sometimes, after the event, some information leaks out. There is one nice case on record – of royal oral sex. The T’ang Dynasty Empress Wu Hu evidently a keen feminist, designed a sexual custom aimed at elevating the female and humbling the male. To her fellatio represented supposed masculine supremacy: so she devised a means whereby “licking of the lotus stamen” could be exalted into prime extra coital importance and thus symbolise the advent of feminine domination. Wu Hu insisted that all governmental officials and visiting dignitaries pay homage to her Imperial Highness by performing cunnilingus upon her. Thus old paintings depict the empress holding her robe open while a dignitary kneels before her to lick her genitals (A. Edwardes & R. E. L. Masters, “The Cradle of Erotica”).