English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
Richard The First - 1189-1199
By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com
English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
Richard The First - 1189-1199
This costume history information consists of Pages
55 to
61 of the chapter on late 12th century dress in the era of Richard The First
- 1189-1199 and
is taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830. This page is about dress in
the 10 year reign of King Richard The First - 1189-1199.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they are mostly 400 pixels high and can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
Reigned ten years: 1189-1199.
Born 1157. Married, 1191, to Berengaria of Navarre.
THE MEN
The King had but little influence over dress in his time, seeing that
he left England as soon as he was made King, and only came back for two
months in 1194 to raise money and to be crowned again.
The general costume was then as plain as it had ever been, with long
tunics and broad belts fastened by a big buckle.
The difference in costume between this short reign and that of Henry II,
is almost imperceptible; if any difference may be noted, it is in
the tinge of Orientalism in the garments.
There is more of the long and flowing robe, more of the capacious
mantle, the wider sleeve.
No doubt the many who came from the Crusades made a good deal of
difference to English homes, and actual dresses and tunics from the
East, of gorgeous colours and Eastern designs, were, one must suppose,
to be seen in England.
Cloth of gold and cloth of gold and silks - that is, warf of silk and
weft of gold - were much prized, and were called by various names from the
Persian, as 'ciclatoun,' 'siglaton.'
Such stuff, when of great thickness and value - so thick that six threads
of silk or hemp were in the warf - was called 'samite.'
Later, when the cloth of gold was more in use, and the name had
changed from 'ciclatoun' to 'bundekin,' and from that to 'tissue,' to keep such
fine cloth from fraying or tarnishing, they put very thin sheets of
paper away between the folds of the garments; so to this day we call
such paper tissue-paper.
Leaf-gold was used sometimes over silk to give pattern and richness to
it.
A curious survival of this time, which has a connection with
costume, was the case of Abraham Thornton in 1818. Abraham Thornton was
accused of having drowned Mary Ashford, but he was acquitted by the
jury. This acquittal did not satisfy popular feeling, and the brother of
Mary Ashford appealed.
Now Thornton was well advised as to his next
proceeding, and, following the still existent law of this early time of
which I write, he went to Westminster Hall, where he threw down, as a
gage of battle, an antique gauntlet without fingers or thumb, of white
tanned skin ornamented with silk fringes and sewn work, crossed by a
narrow band of leather, the fastenings of leather tags and thongs.
This done, he declared himself ready to defend himself in a fight, and
so to uphold his innocence, saying that he was within his rights, and
that no judge could compel him to come before a jury.
This was held to be good and within the law, so Abraham Thornton won his
case, as the brother refused to pick up the gauntlet. The scandal of
this procedure caused the abolishment of the trial by battle, which had
remained in the country's laws from the time of
Henry II, until 1819.
It was a time of foreign war and improvement in military armour and
arms. Richard I, favoured the cross-bow, and brought it into general use
in England to be used in conjunction with the old 4-foot bow and the
great bow 6 feet long with the cloth-yard arrow - a bow which could send a
shaft through a 4-inch door.
For some time this military movement, together with the influence of the
East, kept England from any advance or great change in costume; indeed,
the Orientalism reached a pitch in the age of
Henry III, which, so far
as costume is concerned, may be called the Age of Draperies.
To recall such a time in pictures, one must then see visions of
loose-tuniced men, with heavy cloaks; of men in short tunics with
sleeves tight or loose at the wrists; of hoods with capes to them, the
cape-edge sometimes cut in a round design; of soft leather boots and
shoes, the boots reaching to the calf of the leg.
To see in the streets
bright Oriental colours and cloaks edged with broad bands of pattern; to
see hooded heads and bared heads on which the hair was long; to see many
long-bearded men; to see old men leaning on tan-handled sticks; the
sailor in a cap or coif tied under his chin; the builder,
stonemason, and skilled workman in the same coif; to see, as a whole, a
brilliant shifting colour scheme in which armour gleamed and leather
tunics supplied a dull, fine background. Among these one might see, at a
town, by the shore, a thief of a sailor being carried through the
streets with his head shaven, tarred and feathered.
THE WOMEN
It is difficult to describe an influence in clothes. It is difficult nowadays to say in millinery where Paris begins and
London accepts. The hint of Paris in a gown suggests taste; the whole of
Paris in a gown savours of servile imitation.
No well-dressed Englishwoman should, or does, look French, but she may
have a subtle cachet of France if she choose.
The perfection of art is to conceal the means to the end; the
perfection of dress is to hide the milliner in the millinery.
The ladies of Richard First's time did not wear Oriental clothes, but they
had a flavour of Orientalism pervading their dress - rather masculine
Orientalism than feminine.
The long cloak with the cord that held it over the shoulders; the long,
loose gown of fine colours and simple designs; the soft, low, heelless
shoes; the long, unbound hair, or the hair held up and concealed under
an untied wimple - these gave a touch of something foreign to the dress.
Away in the country there was little to dress for, and what clothes they
had were made in the house. Stuffs brought home from Cyprus, from
Palestine, from Asia Minor, were laboriously conveyed to the house, and
there made up into gowns. Local smiths and silver-workers made them
buckles and brooches and ornamental studs for their long belts, or
clasps for their purses.
A wreck would break up on the shore near by, and the news would arrive,
perhaps, that some bales of stuff were washed ashore and were to be
sold.
Left - In this costume plate the woman keeps her very full cloak
in place by the cord which passes through loops. At the neck a large
buckle holds the gown well together. The hem and neck of the gown are
richly embellished with embroidery and the gown overall is ornamented
with a simple diaper pattern.
The female anchorites of these days were busy gossips, and from their
hermitage or shelter by a bridge on the road would see the world go
by, and pick up friends by means of gifts of bandages or purses made by
them, despite the fact that this traffic was forbidden to them.
So the lady in the country might get news of her lord abroad, and hear
that certain silks and stuffs were on their way home.
The gowns they wore were long, flowing and loose; they were girded about
the middle with leathern or silk belts, which drew the gown loosely
together. The end of the belt, after being buckled, hung down to about
the knee. These gowns were close at the neck, and there fastened by a
brooch; the sleeves were wide until they came to the wrist, over which
they fitted closely.
The cloaks were ample, and were held on by brooches or laces across the
bosom.
The shoes were the shape of the foot, sewn, embroidered, elaborate.
The wimples were pieces of silk or white linen held to the hair in front
by pins, and allowed to flow over the head at the back.
There were still remaining at this date women who wore the tight-fitting
gown laced at the back, and who tied their chins up in gorgets.
English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
Richard The First - 1189-1199
Born 1157. Married, 1191, to Berengaria of Navarre.
This costume history information consists of Pages
55 to
61 of the chapter on 12th century dress in the era of Richard The First
- 1189-1199 and
is taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830. This page is about dress in
the 10 year reign of King Richard The First - 1189-1199.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they are mostly 400 pixels high and can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
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This costume history information consists of Pages
55 to
61 of the chapter on late 12th century dress in the era of Richard The First
- 1189-1199 and
is taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The King had but little influence over dress in his time, seeing that
he left England as soon as he was made King, and only came back for two
months in 1194 to raise money and to be crowned again.
Orientalism
Left - In this costume plate the woman keeps her very full cloak
in place by the cord which passes through loops. At the neck a large
buckle holds the gown well together. The hem and neck of the gown are
richly embellished with embroidery and the gown overall is ornamented
with a simple diaper pattern. 
