This costume history information consists of Pages
121-140 of the chapter on late 14th century dress in the 22 YEAR REIGN era of
Richard The Second 1377-1399 and 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 reign of King Richard The Second 1377-1399. The images and
details are a good resource for costume ideas for Shakespeare's stage
plays of the Plantagenet era.
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.
The King himself was a leader of fashion; he had by grace of Nature the
form, face, and manner which go to make a dandy. The nobles followed the
King; the merchants followed the nobles after their kind; the peasants
were still clothed in the simplest of garments, having retained the
Norman tunic with the sleeves pushed back over the wrist, kept the loose
boots and straw gaiters, and showed the improvement in their class by
the innovation of gloves made as a thumb with a pouch for the fingers,
and pouches for money of cloth and leather hung on a leather belt. This
proved the peasant to be a man of some substance by need of his wallet.
Everyone wore the chaperon - a cap and cape combined.
We have now arrived at the reign which made such a difference to
the labourer and workman - such as the blacksmith and miller - and in
consequence altered and improved the character of his clothes. The
poll-tax of 1380 brought the labourer into individual notice for the
first time, and thus arose the free labourer in England and the first
labour pamphlets.
We have two word-pictures of the times of the greatest value, for they
show both sides of the coin: the one by the courtly and comfortable
Chaucer, the other by Long Will - William Langland, or
Piers the Plowman.
Picture the two along the Strand - Long Will singing his dirges for hire,
and Chaucer, his hand full of parchments, bustling past.
One must remember that, as always, many people dressed out of the
fashion; that many men still wore the cotehardie, a well-fitting garment
reaching half-way down the thigh, with tight sleeves coming over the
hand, decorated with buttons under the sleeve from the elbow to the
little finger. This garment had a belt, which was placed round the hips;
and this was adorned in many ways: principally it was composed of square
pieces of metal joined together, either of silver, or enamel in
copper, or of gold set with precious stones.
The cotehardie was generally made of a pied cloth in horizontal or
diagonal bars, in silk or other rich fabric. With this garment the
chaperon (to be more fully described) was worn as a hood; the legs were
in tights, and the feet in pointed shoes a little longer than the foot.
A pouch or wallet depended from the belt, and a sheath containing two
daggers, an anelace, and a misericorde. The pouch was a very rich
affair, often of stamped gilded leather or sewn velvet - ornamented, in
fact, according to the purse of the wearer. In winter such a man as he
of the cotehardie would wear an overcoat with an attached hood. This
coat was made in various forms: one form with wide sleeves the same
width all the way down, under which were slits in the coat to enable the
wearer to place his hands inside, as in the modern Raglan
coat-pocket.
Another form was made very loose and without sleeves, but
with the same slits at the side; it was buckled round the waist on
occasion by a broad leather belt, very plain. The common heavy
travelling-coat was made in this way, and it was only the very
fashionable who wore the houppelande for riding or travelling. Sometimes
such a man would wear in winter about the town a cloak fastened over the
right shoulder with three or four buttons, leaving the right arm free;
such a cloak is seen in the brass of Robert Attelathe, Mayor of Lynn.
In travelling, our gentleman would wear, often in addition to his
chaperon, a peaked hat of cloth, high in the crown, with a brim turned
up all round, ending in a long peak in front - the same hat that we always
associate with Dick Whittington.
His gloves would be of leather, often ornamented with designs on the
back, or, if he were a knight, with his badge.
On this occasion he would wear his sword in a baldric, a long belt over
his right shoulder and under his left arm, from which hung also his
daggers. Although I am not dealing even with personal arms, one
must remember, in representing these people, that daggers were almost as
necessary a part of dress as boots or shoes, and that personal comfort
often depended upon a skilful use of that natty weapon; the misericorde
was used to give the coup de grâce.
The farmer in harvest-time wore, if he did not wear a hood, a peaked hat
or a round, large-brimmed straw hat.
We may now arrive at the fashionable man, whose eccentricities in
clothes were the object of much comment. How the houppelande or peliçon
actually was originated I do not know, but it came about that men
suddenly began to clothe themselves in this voluminous and awkward
garment. It was a long loose-fitting robe, made to fit on the shoulders
only, having very long loose sleeves, varying according to the whim of
the owner.
These sleeves were cut at the edges into the forms of
leaves or other designs, and were lined, as the houppelande, with fur or
silk. It will be seen that such a garment to suit all weathers and
temperatures must be made of various materials and lined accordingly.
These materials were almost invariably powdered with badges or some
other device, sometimes with a flowing pattern embracing an heraldic
design or motto. The sleeves turned back disclosed the sleeve of a cotehardie underneath, with the little buttons running from the elbow to
the first knuckle of the little finger.
The houppelande had a very high
collar, coming well up to the middle of the back of the head; it was
buttoned up to the chin in front, and the collar was often turned down
half-way, the two top buttons being left undone. It was fastened about
the middle by a thin leather belt, very long; this was buckled, and the
long end turned under and brought over to hang down; the end was
ornamented with many devices - figures of saints, heraldic figures, or
other ornaments. Sometimes the entire belt was sewn with small devices
in precious metal or enamels.
Now, to be in the height of fashion, one either wore the houppelande
extremely long in the skirt or extremely short - so short, in fact,
as to leave but a frill of it remaining below the waist - leaving the
sleeves still their abnormal length. Pretty fads, as tying a dagger
round the neck, or allowing it to hang low between the legs, or placing
it in the small of the back, were much in vogue.
Mens Hair & Accessories
Every form of beard or moustache was used, and the hair was worn long
to the nape of the neck. By the dandy it was elaborately pressed and
curled at the ends. Bands of real or artificial flowers encircled the
heads of the dandies, the artificial flowers made in enamels or gold.
Rings were worn of great size on thumb and finger; long staffs with
elaborate heads were carried.
Under the houppelande was the skirt and the cotehardie of thin material,
and on the legs hose, pied or powdered, made of silk or cloth cut to the
form and sewn.
The shoes were of great length, with long points; rarely we find
examples of the absurd fashion of wearing the points so long that they
were tied back to the knees, but often they were so long that the points
came out 6 inches beyond the toe. They were made of every
material, sewn with pearls on cloth or velvet, stamped with gold on
leather, or the leather raised. The toes were sometimes stuffed hard,
sometimes allowed to hang limp.
For walking in the streets high clogs of wood were used, made with long
pointed ends to support the shoes.
I may add that the hose were gartered below the knee to hold them taut
with rich garters, but if a man were a Garter Knight he wore but the
garter of his Order.
Much in favour with this court of gallants were rich chains about the
neck, having for pendant their badge or some saint's figure in gold or
silver.
Now we come to the most interesting and universal
fashion of wearing the chaperon, which I am anxious to show in its
various stages. It began with a cape and a hood worn separately; these
were joined for convenience so that a man might put on both at once.
This fashion held for many years, and then the fashionable man in
search of novelty caused the peak of the hood to be lengthened until it
grew to reach to his feet.
Then he cast about for a fresh mode for his head-wear, and so he
twisted the whole affair about his head, leaving the end of the cape,
which was jagged at the edge, protruding like a cockscomb. Time went on,
and he avoided the trouble of tying this himself, so he had the hat made
up all ready tied, much in the manner of a turban.
Finally, the chaperon
grew into disuse, and it remains to-day a curious reminder in the
cockade worn by coachmen (it is almost a replica in miniature, with the
round twist and the jagged edge sticking up above the hat) and on the
cloaks of the Knights of the Garter, where it is carefully made,
and forms a cape on the right shoulder, and in the present head-dress of
the French lawyer, a relic of the Middle Ages.
The chains worn about the neck remain as badges of office in Mayors and
Judges and in various Orders.
The button worn by the members of the Legion of Honour and other foreign
Orders is, I believe, an idea resulting from the cockade, which, of
course, was at the beginning the chaperon in the colours of the
servant's lord.
When one knows a custom so well, one is apt to leave out many things
in describing it. For example, the houppelande was open from the bottom
of the skirt to the knee in front or at the side, and this opening was
often cut or jagged into shapes; also it was open all the way up the
side of the leg, and from the neck to the breast, and buttoned over.
I have not remarked on the jester, a member of many households, who wore
an exaggeration of the prevalent costume, to which bells were attached
at all points.
So was much good cloth wasted in vanity, and much excellent time
spent upon superfluities, to the harm of the people; perhaps useful
enough to please the eye, which must have been regaled with all these
men in wonderful colours, strutting peacockwise.
The poor peasant, who found cloth becoming very dear, cared not one
jot or tittle for the feast of the eye, feeling a certain unreasonable
hunger elsewhere.
And so over the wardrobe of Dandy Richard stepped Henry, backed by the
people.
If ever women were led by the nose by the demon of fashion it was at
this time. Not only were their clothes ill-suited to them, but they
abused that crowning glory, their hair.
No doubt a charming woman is always charming, be she dressed by woad or worth; but to be captivating with your eyebrows plucked out, and
with the hair that grows so prettily low on the back of the neck shaved
away - was it possible? I expect it was.
The days of high hennins was yet to come; the day of simple
hair-dressing was nearly dead, and in the interval were all the arts of
the cunning devoted to the guimpe, the gorgières, the mentonnières, the
voluminous escoffions.
At this time the lady wore her hair long and hanging freely over her
shoulders; her brows were encircled by a chaplet, or chapel of flowers,
real or artificial, or by a crown or plain circlet of gold; or she
tucked all her hair away under a tight caul, a bag of gold net enriched
with precious stones.
To dress hair in this manner it was first necessary to plait it in
tight plaits and bind them round the head, then to cover this with a
wimple, which fell over the back of the neck, and over this to place the caul, or, as it was sometimes called, the
dorelet. Now and again the caul was worn without the wimple, and this
left the back of the neck exposed; from this all the hair was plucked.
For outdoor exercises the lady would wear the chaperon (explained in
the previous chapter), and upon this the peaked hat.
The poorer woman wore always the hood, the wimple tied under the chin,
or plain plaited hair.
One must remember always that the advance of costume only affected the
upper classes in the towns, and that the knight's lady in the country
was often fifty years behind the times in her gowns. As an instance of
this I give the fur tippet hung with bells, used when hawking.
In the early part of the reign the cotehardie was the universal
woman's garment. It was made in two ways: the one a simple, well-fitting
garment, skirts and bodice in one, buttoned in front, with neck
well open, the skirts ample and long, the sleeves over the hands to the
first joints of the fingers, and ornamented with buttons from the elbow
to the little finger - this was the general form of the garment for all
degrees of rank.
The lady enriched this with a belt like a man's, narrow
in width round the waist with hanging end, or broad round the hips and
richly ornamented. The other form of cotehardie was exactly as the
man's, ending short below the hips, under which was worn the petticoat.
The winter addition to these was the surcoat (as usually worn by a
knight over his armour); this was often lined with fur. The surcoat was
a long garment without sleeves, and with a split down the sides from the
shoulder to the top of the thigh; through this split was seen the
cotehardie and the hip-belt. The edges were trimmed with fur, and very
frequently ornamental buttons were worn down the front.
Over the shoulders was the cloak, left open in front, and fastened by
means of a cord of rich substance passing through two loops in the backs
of large ornamental studs; this cord was, as a rule, knotted at the
waist, the ends hanging down as tassels.
Later in the reign, when the second Queen of Richard had brought over
many rich fashions, the ladies adopted the houppelande, with its heavy
collar and wide, hanging sleeves. Every lady and most women carried a
purse in the hand or on the girdle, ornamented according to their
station.
The merchant's wife wore, in common with her maids, a white apron. The
child who was spinning a peg-top in the street was simply dressed in a
short-skirted cotehardie.
For riding and sport the woman was dressed almost exactly as a man - with
houppelande or heavy cloak buttoned on the right shoulder,
hawking-glove on her left hand with a bell or metal ball depending from
it. She wore boots laced up at the side, or long boots of soft leather
fastened with hook and eye; shoes like a man's, but not so pointed and
extreme. Sometimes for riding a big round hat was worn over a hood.
In many cases the dresses were powdered with the monogram of the Blessed
Virgin, with badges of the family or some small device, or they were
ornamented with a simple flowing pattern, or were plain.
Left
- The lady wears a loose surcoat which has been cut away to show her under-dress.
Notice how her 'yellow' hair is almost totally hidden by her jewelled caul,
sometimes also know as the dorelet.
All the fripperies of fashion lay in pins for the wimple, the head made
as a figure of a patron saint; or girdles rich with precious stones; or
mirror-cases on whose ivory fronts were carved the Castle of Love, or
hunting scenes, or Calvary. The clasps of purses were rich in design,
and rings of every kind were worn on every finger and upon the thumb.
Charms against evil were hung about the neck or sewn into the clothes.
No matter who wrote, passed, and practised the many sumptuary laws,
still, one may know it to have been frequent for persons owning less
than £20 a year to wear gold and silver ornaments, although
expressly forbidden, and ladies of a lower estate than wives of
knights-banneret wore cloth of gold and velvet, and gowns that reached
and trailed upon the ground, while their husbands braved it in ermine
and marten-lined sleeves which swept the road.
The custom of wearing crowns was common to all people of rank, as
heraldic distinction of crowns did not commence until the
sixteenth
century.
What a magnificent time for colour was this reign! - the rich
houppelandes, the furs, the long-piked shoes with pearls and gold upon
them, the massive chains about men's necks; ladies whose heads shone
with rich caps and cauls of pearl-embroidered gold, the rich-sheathed
baselard stuck in the girdle or hanging from it on a silver chain. Even
the poor begging friar was touched by all this finery, and, forgetful of
the rules of Saint Francis, he made great haste to convert his alms into
a furred cote 'cutted to the knee and quaintly buttoned, hose in hard
weather fastened at the ankle, and buckled shoes.'
Imagine that amazing woman the
Wife of Bath, in her great hat and
pound-weight kerchief; the carpenter's wife in her gored apron, at her
girdle a purse of leather hanging, decorated with silk tassels and
buttons of metal.
It is almost impossible to describe clearly the head-dresses - the great
gold net bags which encased the hair - for they were ornamented in such
different ways, always, or nearly always, following some pattern in
diaper in contrast to the patterns which came later when the design
followed such lines as are formed by wire-netting, while later still the
connecting-thread of the patterns was done away with and the inside
decoration alone remained.
Well, Richard the King no longer can whistle to Matthew, his favourite
greyhound, and Anne the Queen lies stately in the Abbey at Westminster
without solace of her little lap-dog; but we are not all modern in our
ways, and ladies hang charms about them, from scarabs to queer evil eye
coral hands, from silver shoes to month-stones. Crowns of flowers have
been worn and crowns of jewels too, just as men and women wore them
then, except on Fridays and the eves of fêtes.
These things we do, and other ancient things beside, but let us hope
that Fashion has lost her cruel mood, and deems it wise to leave our
ladies' eyebrows where they be, nor schemes to inspire her
faithful devotees with mad desires to hide their hair and shave their
napes.
The crinoline is threatened - let it come; sandals are here, with short
hair and the simple life, but leave me, I pray thee, royal dame, an
eyebrow on my lady, if only to give occupation to the love-lorn
sonneteer.
English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
RICHARD THE SECOND
Reigned twenty-two years: 1377-1399
Born 1366. Married, 1381, Anne of Bohemia; 1395, Isabella of France.
This costume history information consists of Pages
121-140 of the chapter on late 14th century dress in the 22 YEAR REIGN era of
Richard The Second 1377-1399 and 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 reign of King Richard The Second 1377-1399. The images and
details are a good resource for costume ideas for Shakespeare's stage
plays of the Plantagenet era.
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
121-140 of the chapter on late 14th century dress in the 22 YEAR REIGN era of
Richard The Second 1377-1399 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The shoes were of great length, with long points; rarely we find
examples of the absurd fashion of wearing the points so long that they
were tied back to the knees, but often they were so long that the points
came out 6 inches beyond the toe. They were made of every
material, sewn with pearls on cloth or velvet, stamped with gold on
leather, or the leather raised. The toes were sometimes stuffed hard,
sometimes allowed to hang limp.
Finally, the chaperon
grew into disuse, and it remains to-day a curious reminder in the
cockade worn by coachmen (it is almost a replica in miniature, with the
round twist and the jagged edge sticking up above the hat) and on the
cloaks of the Knights of the Garter, where it is carefully made,
and forms a cape on the right shoulder, and in the present head-dress of
the French lawyer, a relic of the Middle Ages.
ornamental buttons were worn down the front.
Left
- The lady wears a loose surcoat which has been cut away to show her under-dress.
Notice how her 'yellow' hair is almost totally hidden by her jewelled caul,
sometimes also know as the dorelet.
