Module 2
The Middle Ages
A. The Byzantine Period
In 330, Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to
Byzantium, renamed Constantinople, signaling the decline of Rome and the western
portion of the empire. It also meant two cultures would develop in the empire, in addition
to two lines of emperors. The wealthier, more populous eastern empire was well situated
to defend that portion of the empire and dominate trade routes. The western empire, ruled
from Rome, was overwhelmed by the mass migration of German tribes, which began at
the close of the fourth century and continued throughout the fifth century.
Due to its geographical location, Rome was vulnerable to attacks and was sacked
in 410 and several times later in the century. The western emperors moved the capital of
the western empire from Rome to Ravenna in 403, hoping that this city on the Adriatic
coast, south of Venice, would be more defensible than Rome. Despite attacks, certain
elements of Roman civilization and culture survived. The Christian church, which had
endured Roman persecution, became the official state church of the Roman Empire in the
fourth century, exercising a unifying force in western Europe. After Christianity became
the official state religion, some Christians sought a more ascetic form of religion, called
monasticism. Because the monks had to be occupied with some form of work, copying
books by hand became an appropriate form of labor. Monastery libraries preserved
Christian and earlier Greek and Roman classical literature, which otherwise would have
been lost forever.
The Early Middle Ages, from the fall of the Roman Empire until the ninth
century, saw a decline in cultural standards as people lost command of the Latin
language. Education for laymen disappeared, producing generations who could neither
read nor write. In much of the period, depopulation, poverty, plagues, and isolation
affected many areas of Europe; the quality of life declined. Written records from the
period are often sparse, and information about dress is especially scarce. With the decline
in living standards and the decrease in wealth, works of art were rarely commissioned,
except for those intended for the church. Nevertheless, enough evidence remains to
construct a general, if not too detailed, picture of life in the early medieval period.
In the western Roman Empire, Germanic kingdoms replaced Roman government.
These kingdoms, including the Franks, helped fuse Roman and Germanic cultures into a
new civilization. In 800, the pope crowned the king of the Franks, Charlemagne, emperor
of the Romans. The ceremony symbolized a declaration of independence from the
Byzantine Empire and a revival of the Roman Empire, but it was in fact more German
than Roman. After his death in 814, Charlemagne’s empire, which extended over much
of western Europe, disintegrated under the impact of new and more destructive invasions.
From the wreckage of the Carolingian empire emerged a feudal society in which local
lords controlled small areas. These leaders pledged their personal loyalty to more
powerful lords in return for their protection, and above them all was the supreme
overlord, the king.
Marco Polo’s memoirs, The Travels of Marco Polo, appeared in 1307 and became
one of the most widely read books in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Marco Polo
was the first European to cross the continent of Asia and leave a record of what he had
seen and heard. The book aroused great interest in Asia and stimulated the European
search for the spices and luxuries of east Asia. This search would lead to the 1492
accidental discovery of the lands of the western hemisphere.
Fashion has been defined as “a pattern of change in which certain social forms
enjoy temporary acceptance and respectability only to be replaced by others” (Blumer,
1968, 142). The Dictionary of Social Sciences (Gold, 1964, 262) described fashion as “a
recurring cultural pattern, found in societies having open-ended class systems” and noted
that “fashion becomes a matter of imitation of higher by lower classes in the common
scramble for unstable and superficial status symbols.” Fashion change no longer
originates solely with the upper classes. But at the time of its beginnings, those who
sought to be in fashion were typically copying the dress of royalty and the wealthy.
An open-ended class system and the imitation of higher classes by lower classes
are both aspects of medieval life in the 13th through the 15th centuries that allowed for
the growth of fashion. Peasants who moved from rural areas to cities often became part of
the growing middle class. The passage of sumptuary laws regulating dress and other
luxuries in the 13th to the 15th centuries is evidence of the vain attempts by the nobility
to prevent the increasing affluent commoners from usurping those status symbols the
nobility considered to be their own.
Two distinct cultures developed after the fall of the Western Roman Empire at the
close of the fifth century. Byzantium, the eastern seat of the Roman Empire, situated at
the crossroads of east and west, influenced both. Roman styles in dress gradually evolved
to include more ornate eastern elements. Between the 5th and 13th centuries, European
culture melded Roman institutions, the Christian church, and the Germanic tribes that
infiltrated the Roman territories. The primary components of both Byzantine and
medieval dress were layered tunics combined with a mantle. Their increasingly complex
cut and ornamentation signaled a more rapid speed of fashion change.
In 330, Roman Emperor Constantine moved his capital from Rome to Byzantium,
a Greek port city. The city, renamed Constantinople, became the capital of the Byzantine
Empire. Located at the entrance of the Black Sea, the city and its surrounding territories
commanded both land and sea trade routes between the west and central Asia, Russia,
and east Asia. At the same time, the city was protected by the rugged Balkan Mountains
from the invading barbarians who overran Rome and the Italian peninsula.
Throughout its history, Byzantium was constantly at war with a series of enemies:
Persians, Arabs, Bulgars, Avars, Seljuq Turks, and, at the end, the Ottoman Turks. In
1204, even crusaders seized Constantinople. They sacked the city, destroyed manuscripts
and priceless works of art, and declared a crusader emperor. In 1261 a Byzantine emperor
retook Constantinople, but the once-great empire had vanished. Byzantium was reduced
to little more than a Balkan state. The artistic and intellectual life of the city revived, but
the menace of invasion by the Turks continued. Finally, in 1453, the Ottoman Turks
captured Constantinople, destroying the empire.
The Byzantine emperor was both an absolute political ruler and the head of the
eastern Church, which had separated from the western Christian church in 1054. A
landed nobility made up an important element in the economic life and government of the
empire. A well-developed civil service helped the imperial administration function by
collecting taxes, administering justice, raising armies, and putting them into the field.
Determined by wealth, rather than blood line, ambitious young men could rise from one
social group to the next. As such, education was important to wealthy families, most of
whom had tutors for their sons. Students could attend schools in some provincial areas,
and Constantinople maintained a well-known university.
Throughout its history, the city of Constantinople was a center for the
preservation of the “antique” (i.e., Greek and Roman) culture. Writings and works of art
were actively preserved. Many of these treasures, however, were destroyed when the
crusaders and the Turks sacked the city. Other artifacts were saved or carried away by
raiders to other places where they escaped destruction. Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom),
constructed by the Emperor Justinian represented the finest example of Byzantine
architecture. The interior was decorated with gold leaf, colored marble, bits of glass, and
colored mosaics. Mosaics were pictures or designs made from small, colored stones and
glass. Similar motifs and decorative elements appeared in Byzantine dress.
The art of the Byzantine Empire provides the major record from which dress
information comes. Artists decorated churches with mosaics, many of which still exist.
Other special skills included carving of ivory and manuscript illumination or hand
painting and lettering. Byzantine art, and its dress, displays a blending of classical and
Middle Eastern motifs and forms of decoration.
The Byzantines wove fine textiles. From the fourth to the sixth centuries, linen
and wool predominated. Production of silk fabrics was a secret process held first by the
Chinese and later by the Koreans and Japanese. Gradually, knowledge of how silk was
produced spread westward. Silk fabrics and possibly some raw silk fiber were carried
through trade routes to Greece and Rome before the first century BCE, but silk
production had been possible only on a very limited scale. Byzantine historians reported
that in the sixth century a pair of monks brought the secret of sericulture (silk production)
to the Byzantine emperor. These monks supposedly smuggled a number of silkworm
eggs out of China in a hollow bamboo pole and learned how to breed, feed, and raise
silkworms.
Sources reveal clothing was quite expensive in the Byzantine Empire. Through an
examination of wills, Ball (2005) found that clothing was often passed down to family
members, slaves, and domestic servants. While lack of money restricted the number of
garments owned and the fineness of the material, clothing choices for the non-elite went
beyond strictly utilitarian decisions.
Some tunics were decorated with clavi (by now these stripes that originated in
Roman dress on either side of the tunic had become ornamental rather than indicative of
the wearer’s status), circular motifs called roundels, and segmentae (seg-men’-tie),
rectangular or star-shaped decorative medallions that were placed in different areas of the
tunic. Tunics of the wealthy were decorated with vertical and horizontal bands that were
elaborately patterned with woven designs, embroidery, appliqués, or precious stones. In
the early part of the empire, fabrics were usually plain in color, and artisans decorated
them with clavi, roundels, segmentae, and banding. As eastern influences gained favor,
fabrics developed overall patterning (Figure 5.7). Working men wore shorter tunics in
plainer, less ornamented fabric, often tucked up in a belt to allow for greater mobility.
The pallium (pal-ee’-um), also called a lorum (lo’rum), was a long, narrow,
heavily jeweled scarf— possibly evolved from the toga with the folded bands— that
became part of the official insignia of the emperor. The empress was also permitted to
wear this garment. Initially draped around the shoulders, across the front of the body, and
carried over one arm, it eventually became a simpler panel of fabric with an opening for
the head, sometimes with a round collarlike construction at the head opening.
Although occasional outer garments with long, fitted sleeves are depicted in art in
the seventh century and after, for the most part women wore double-layered tunics. The
under tunic had long, fitted sleeves and the outer tunic had full, open sleeves cut short
enough to display the sleeve of the under tunic. Made from elaborately patterned fabrics,
noble and wealthy women’s garments were often decorated with jewels. Women of this
class also wore jeweled belts and collars (see Figure 5.6). After 1000, the ornamentation
of tunics increased. Variations in sleeve styles included wide, hanging sleeves or sleeves
with long bands of fabric forming a sort of pendant cuff. Occasionally, what appears to
be a skirt and long, knee-length overblouse is depicted, though this may be just an
especially short outer tunic.
Additional decorations included stones, pearls, enameled metal, embroidery,
appliqué, and cutwork. Red apparently was a favored color for empresses and their
retinue. Some tied, while others buckled at the ankle. Hose worn under the shoes are
visible in some paintings, particularly when the tunics are shorter in length. Men, not
women, seem to have worn boots. Most boots ended just below the calf, although a few
boots are depicted as high at the front and lower behind the knee. Some decorated styles
were worn by the wealthy. Military figures from the early Byzantine Empire wore
Roman-like, open-toed boots; later they adopted a closed boot.
B. Western Europe from the Fall of the Roman Empire to 900
Even though Constantinople was nominally the capital of the eastern and western
sections of the Roman Empire, events soon resulted in the empire’s division between east
and west. For centuries, the Germans had been filtering into the Roman Empire in search
of land. Many enlisted in the Roman armies, rising to high rank and often becoming
commanders. Eventually, entire German tribes migrated into western Europe and North
Africa. Other tribes were also on the move. The Roman standard of living attracted
northern tribes, and tribes from east of the Danube sought new homelands.
As German tribes entered the empire, many settled down to live alongside the
Romans. They intermarried, adopted many Roman customs, converted to Christianity,
and established German kingdoms. The fusion of Roman and Germanic cultures made up
medieval civilization. After the establishment of Germanic kingdoms in the west and the
end of any semblance of a Roman empire, the eastern and western sections drifted farther
apart, divided by religion, culture, and political systems.
In the west, the Franks were a collection of early Germanic tribes ultimately
unified by the brutal Clovis (481–511), who conquered most of modern France and
Belgium. Clovis founded the Merovingian dynasty, the successor to the defunct Roman
Empire. Eventually, the Merovingian line degenerated into do-nothing kings who allowed
the chief minister, titled “mayor of the palace,” to actually rule. In 751 a mayor of the
palace, Pepin the Short, with the pope’s blessing, deposed the Merovingian king and
became king.
King Pepin was succeeded by his son, Charles the Great, known to history as
Charlemagne (768– 814). Charlemagne expanded the kingdom into central Europe and
southward into central Italy. He became the dominant figure in western Europe.
Contemporaries compared him to the ancient Roman emperors. His greatest achievement
was encouraging the establishment of schools to teach reading and writing. He founded a
palace school to which he invited European scholars. The high point of his reign came
with his coronation on Christmas Day 800, when the pope crowned him emperor of the
Romans. For a time, Charlemagne hoped a marriage with a Byzantine empress would
unite the eastern and western empires, but a marriage never occurred. Throughout the
period, contacts between the eastern and western empire continued, with Byzantine styles
exercising strong influences on European dress.
Charlemagne’s success in uniting a western European empire did not last for long
after his death in 814. His successors were not strong enough to hold the empire together,
and it was once again divided. No single power emerged to replace the ineffective
Carolingian kings, the last of whom was deposed in 888. The remnants of Carolingian
rule gradually collapsed under the impact of new and more destructive invasions. From
the east, hordes of Magyar horsemen devastated the eastern lands of the Carolingian
Empire. From the south came the Saracens, Arab raiders, who plundered southern France
and coastal Italy. The most destructive of the invaders, the Northmen or Vikings, came
from Scandinavia, attracted by the wealth of the Christian churches and the monasteries.
They looted and burned, ruthlessly killing their victims. Britain and France suffered the
worst spoliation, until about the middle of the ninth century when the plunder gradually
ended.
Relatively few images from western Europe that depict costume remain from the
centuries after the fall of Rome. From the fifth to the eighth centuries, these sources are
mostly two-dimensional images depicted in illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, and some
rare frescoes in churches. Early Christian art in the west, like that of the Byzantine east,
derived from Roman art. As late as the seventh and eighth centuries, religious figures,
saints, and angels were often depicted in draped garments borrowed from Roman art. Of
the relatively few surviving illuminated manuscripts, the most useful tend to be
depictions of German rulers of the 10th and 11th centuries. Others, like the famous Book
of Kells, that were painted by Celtic monks in the eighth and ninth centuries often contain
little figurative art and no clear information about costume. Wills indicate some clothing
bequests but provide little detail. The pronouncements of church officials against the
wearing of particular forms of dress provide more helpful information.
During the Roman era, people residing in the provinces had become Romanized
in their dress. Men wore tunics and women wore layered tunics covered by pallas. After
the fall of Rome, dress retained these Roman elements, but other components were
added, elements that derived from the dress of the tribes from northern Europe that had
moved west. Barbarian men wore a tunic cut to the knee, combining it with a type of
trousers. Coming as they did from colder climates, they used more fur, often as sleeveless
vests worn over tunics. Gartered hose, which became part of western, medieval dress,
were also derived from tribal dress. The most pronounced change came as garments made
from pieces that were cut and sewn replaced draped garments characteristic of the
classical era.
The Roman tradition, in which women were the major producers of textiles,
continued. Although free women and serfs must have made fabrics at home to meet
family needs, large quantities of cloth were produced in a gynaceaum or women’s
workshop. References to women’s textile workshops indicate that very young slave and
lower-class girls worked at this trade until they reached adulthood, when they left to
marry or enter a convent. Most of these workshops were on large estates in rural areas.
Clovis, the first of the Merovingian kings of northern France, was crowned in
493. He married a Christian, converted to Christianity, and adopted Byzantine-style dress
for his court as a symbol of his change from the status of tribal chief to Christian king. He
wore a short tunic, decorated with bands of embroidery or woven design, but without the
lavish jeweled decoration of the Byzantine emperors. His hose were tied close to the leg
with garters. The paludamentum and a crown completed his regalia. He retained one
earlier Frankish practice. The king wore his hair long as a symbol of his rank, while the
rest of the men in his court and other subjects cut their hair short.
Changes in dress from the Merovingian to the Carolingian period were minor, and
elements of Byzantine influence continued to be apparent in the dress of the wealthy and
powerful. Men wore tunics and mantles as their primary garments. Tunics changed
slightly, narrowing through the upper body and widening in the skirt. Belts were worn
over tunics, which remained short except for ceremonial occasions. When tunics were
ornamented, clavi and decorative bands were used around the neckline and sleeve edges.
The shapes and styles of cloaks did not undergo important changes.
Ecclesiastical costume worn by priests and higher church officials developed
gradually from the fourth century to the ninth century. Before the fourth century, priests
wore no special costume. Throughout the medieval period, the parish priest who lived in
the community was more clearly distinguished by his tonsure (haircut) than by his
everyday dress. Two distinctive haircuts included one in which the top of the head was
shaved and a fringe of hair grew around the shaved area. In the other, the forehead was
shaved from ear to ear.
The practice of leaving the world to devote oneself to prayer and self-denial
began early in the history of the Christian church. After the fourth century, entire
communities were formed, often around the person of a particularly holy man or woman.
These monasteries or convents did not require specialized costume; their members
dressed in the ordinary costume of the poor. Although the costume of most people
changed over time, the monks and nuns retained their original dress, thereby
distinguishing themselves from the “worldly.” Both men and women wore a loose-fitting
tunic with long, fairly wide sleeves. This tunic reached to the ground and was belted.
Specific colors and cuts varied somewhat from order to order, but the usual colors
employed were brown, white, black, or gray.
The monk’s costume included a cowl, a hood that either was attached to the tunic
or was a separate garment. Nuns covered their heads with veils. On first entering
convents, women cropped their hair closely. Members of some orders went barefoot;
most wore sandals. Eventually, the distinctions among the various orders became quite
pronounced, and even the most casual observer could identify the order with which the
individual was associated. Some Catholic religious orders still wear garments of the type
first adopted in the Middle Ages.
C. The 10th–13th Centuries
The feudal system developed out of the need for protection as the Carolingian
Empire collapsed under the attacks of the Vikings, Magyars, and Saracens. Central
government vanished; law and order disappeared. Security was found only in military
might. A new invention, the stirrup, revolutionized warfare by combining human and
animal power to produce mounted warriors with sword and lance capable of shock
combat. These warriors became armored knights on horseback. Knights, who were
professional warriors, needed years of training to learn how to handle the horse and the
weapons. Such training began in youth, and it was expensive. The knight needed a
number of horses bred for warfare, and they required care and training.
On the local level, the lord and his vassals enforced whatever law and order
existed. In theory, the feudal king was the supreme lord and theoretical owner of all the
land within his kingdom. The knights owed him allegiance; however, if a vassal
challenged him, the monarch had no national army that could be mobilized, so the feudal
king had to rely on his other vassals for support. The feudal lords fought invaders and
went to war with other feudal nobles. The armored knight was more likely to be captured
and held for ransom than killed. The serfs and peasants suffered more because their lives,
homes, and crops could be destroyed in a battle.
Political developments from 900 to 1300 were exceedingly complex. The reader
may be best served by a brief note of some of the more important developments in the
different areas of Europe. See Figure 5.16 for a map showing the major political divisions
of Europe by the mid-14th century. In Germany, after the German line of the Carolingian
emperors died out, a new dynasty emerged from the Duchy of Saxony. Otto I (936–973)
invaded Italy, proclaimed himself king and had the pope crown him Holy Roman
Emperor in 962. Although the empire was thoroughly German, it was considered to be a
continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. After Otto’s line ended in 1138 the
Hohenstaufen emperors ruled until the last one was executed in 1268. The task of trying
to rule Germany, Italy, and Sicily while fighting off rebellious dukes and hostile popes
proved too much for the Hohenstaufen dynasty. When the nobles elected the first
Hapsburg emperor in 1273, Germany had become a collection of semiindependent
principalities instead of a united empire.
After the Roman legions had been withdrawn from northwestern Germany,
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded Britain in the fifth century. They drove the original
Britons, the Celts, westward into Wales, Devon, Cornwall, and north into Scotland. The
Anglo-Saxons settled down, intermarried, converted to Christianity, and established
seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the ninth century, the Anglo-Saxons suffered an
invasion by the Danes (Vikings) who came to plunder and settle. The Anglo-Saxon king,
Alfred the Great (871–899), halted the Danes, and his dynasty united Britain under one
king. When Alfred’s line died out in 1066, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy,
claimed the throne. He invaded England and defeated the Anglo-Saxon claimant to the
throne in the Battle of Hastings. William I established a feudal system in England that
was better organized and more centralized than on the continent of Europe. Under Henry
II (1154–1189), one of the greatest of English kings, whose mother was a granddaughter
of William I and whose father was of the Plantagenet family, England laid claim to large
areas of France. These claims were based on the fact that William the Conqueror had
ruled Normandy and Henry II had married Eleanor of Aquitaine, an heiress who
controlled a large area of southwestern France. For many years thereafter France and
England battled over these claims. The struggle climaxed in the Hundred Years’ War
(1337–1453), which ended with the English driven from France except for a foothold in
Calais. The Plantagenet family ruled over England until 1399.
Political, social, and economic events can have both direct and indirect influence
on clothing styles. The availability of the raw materials from which garments are made,
the social stage on which they are worn, and even the practical needs they must satisfy
each play a part in their development.
In the 11th century, under the urging of Pope Urban II, the European powers
launched the first of nine Crusades against the Muslims. Ostensibly intended to free the
holy places of Christendom from the Muslims who now controlled them, the actual
motivations for each of the Crusades varied from genuine religious fervor to outright
mercenary designs for accumulating wealth and power. By the end of the Crusades in the
13th century, many new products and processes were being imported to Europe. The
crusaders learned the technique of printing patterns on textiles from the Muslims, who
had learned it from the Coptic people of Egypt. Crusaders brought back foods, spices,
drugs, works of art, and fabrics. New fabrics such as muslin, dimity, and silk damask
came into use, as did a new fiber, cotton. Many crusaders stopped in Constantinople on
their way to and from the wars, thereby continuing the strong Byzantine influences on the
dress of the nobility of western Europe. These cross-cultural contacts did not end with the
close of the Crusades. Trade expanded, especially between the Italian seaports and the
Middle East.
The institution of knighthood and chivalry, the system for training knights,
required that boys learn not only the arts of war but also the manners and customs of the
upper classes. Generally, to learn these practices, the young knight had to leave his home
and reside in the castle of a powerful lord. These courts, especially those of the dukes and
kings, attracted artists, poets, troubadours or wandering singers, musicians, and other
entertainers. The courts of southern France were especially noted as centers of artistic,
musical, and literary expression. Moreover, they provided a stage for the display of
fashion.
After the fall of Rome, many formerly thriving urban centers were severely
depopulated. During the 10th and 11th centuries, urban life revived. Europe experienced
an economic upturn in agriculture, manufacturing of goods, and trade, so that by the 12th
and 13th centuries major cities became lively centers that attracted an increased
population. Among those residing in towns were wealthy merchants who dressed
themselves in styles worn by the nobility. The clergy disapproved of this blurring of class
distinctions, saying that “Jesus Christ and his blessed mother, of royal blood though they
were, never thought of wearing the belts of silk, gold, and silver that are fashionable
among wealthy women”.
A major evolution in the organization of textile manufacture took place. In the
early Middle Ages women working in Roman-style factories or at home had produced
most textiles. By 1300 men did the weaving, and women, the fiber preparation and
spinning. Dyeing and fulling (compacting of wool cloth by pounding) were specialized
crafts, practiced outside the home. In a study of women’s work in the Middle Ages,
Herlihy (1990) saw the decline in slavery and the movement of population from rural to
urban centers as one of the reasons for these changes. Women’s workshops disappeared
and textile production moved into the household. Men formerly employed in agriculture
needed to find work in the urban centers and took over women’s work.
Europe underwent marked changes in the arts at the same time it experienced this
economic awakening. Most of the public art produced was not solely intended as
decoration but was designed to tell the generally unlettered population the stories of the
Christian faith. Although some of the traditions continued, such as dressing Christ, Mary,
angels, and saints in the stereotypical garments that had been depicted in the art of earlier
centuries, other factors led artists to include figures dressed in the dress of the artist’s
own time. Manuscripts incorporated calendars that showed ordinary people doing the
work of the various seasons. After the 13th century more manuscripts were produced in
urban workshops, not in monasteries, and created by lay artists rather than monks. Then,
too, some of these manuscripts dealt with secular themes. Sometimes costumes were
based on imagination or on the reports of dress brought back by the returning crusaders.
In spite of these limitations, scholars rely on these works of art as the major source of
visual evidence of 12th- and 13th-century costume.
Men often wore two tunics, one over the other: an outer tunic and an under tunic.
Usually both were the same length, although sometimes the under tunic was slightly
longer and therefore visible at the lower edge of the garment (Figure 5.18). When short in
length, outer tunics were almost always made with close-fitting sleeves. Sometimes
sleeves extended over the hand with the excess fabric pushed up into folds above the
wrist (Figure 5.19). Long outer tunics were made either with fitted sleeves, or (more
often) cut wide and full, allowing the sleeve of the under tunic to show.
The length of the tunic and its decoration indicated social class distinctions. Outer
tunics of the wealthy were decorated with bands of silk embroidery at neck, sleeves, and
hem (Figure 5.20). The nobility and the clergy wore long flowing robes for ceremonial
occasions. For hunting and warfare, men of all classes wore more practical short tunics.
Mantles for men were either open or closed. Open mantles were made from one piece of
fabric that fastened on one shoulder (see Figure 5.18), while closed mantles were a length
of fabric with a slit to slip the head through.
Women wore a loose-fitting linen garment very close to the skin. Called a
chemise (chem-eze’) in French, it was cut longer but otherwise was much like a man’s
undershirt. Over this, women wore floor-length under tunics with close-fitting sleeves
and an embroidered border at neck, hem, and sleeves. Outermost they placed floorlength
outer tunics made with wide sleeves that allowed the under tunic sleeves to show.
Usually the outer tunic was pulled up and bloused over a belt (see Figure 5.19). For
outdoors, women wore either open or closed mantles.
Young girls wore their hair loose, flowing, and uncovered. Married (and older)
women covered their hair with a veil, which was pulled around the face under the chin, or
was open, hanging close to the sides of the face and ending about mid-chest (see Figure
5.19). The rich had silk or fine linen veils; people in the lower classes used coarser linen
or wool.
D. The 12th Century
Historians have identified several changes in styles. Snyder (2002) identified
three types of garments shown in art. The first is a tunic worn by lower class men and
women that fit a little more closely than in the previous century (see Figure 5.21). The
second is a tightly fitted one-piece garment, which Snyder called a bliaut (blee-o’; man
standing at center Figure 5.22) worn by both men and women. The third is a closefitting
garment with an upper section joined to a skirt, the bliaut gironé (blee-o’ gee-rohn) which
was limited in its use to upper-class men and women. The latter two garments clung to
the body, with many vertical and horizontal folds. The laces of these garments sometimes
fell open, revealing the bare flesh beneath. Clerics in the 13th century issued decrees
against women revealing too much of their bodies.
Snyder (2002) described the bliaut gironé as more complex in cut than earlier
garments, having a fuller skirt that was joined to a separate bodice section. Like the
bliaut, it laced shut at the sides. The skirt and bodice joined below the anatomical
waistline. The bodice and skirt were sewn together, and an inset bias (diagonal) fabric
piece may have been used to ensure a better fit at the hips. Seams were concealed by
applied pieces of decorative tape. There is no evidence, however, that sleeves were set in.
The bliaut gironé was made of costly silk fabrics such as satin or velvet, embroidered
with gold thread, and decorated with precious stones.
Leg wrappings, strips of cloth perhaps taken from worn-out garments, were calf
and ankle height. Shoes and boots, much like those of the previous century, continued in
use. Pointed shoes had been worn in the 10th century, and some upper-class men now
adopted shoes with very long points. See Contemporary Comments 5.2, page 134, for a
description by a clergyman who disapproved of the new styles of clothing and shoes with
extremely long toes.
While costume for lower-class women changed very little, upper-class women’s
costume evolved such that the chemise, the under tunic, and the outer tunic all fitted the
body more closely. Some sculpted representations of the bliaut gironé of this period show
fabric that looks as if it may have been pleated, smocked, or crinkled. Sleeves of
women’s bliauts or tunics were even longer and more exaggerated in their cut than those
of men. Some illustrations show closely fitting sleeves ending in long, pendant cuffs or
bands that hang all the way to the floor. If both under and outer tunics were worn, the
sleeves of the garment underneath were usually long and fitted while outer garments had
either pendant cuffs, wide cuffs with decorative banding, or sleeves narrow at the top and
flaring gradually to end in a bell shape.
Women of the highest classes arranged their hair in two long plaits or braids
covered in tubular cases that hung down on either side of the face. These braids
sometimes reached almost to the floor, and contemporary records indicate that hairpieces
were added in order to reach the fashionable length. Decorative bands of ribbon might be
intertwined in the braids or the end of the braid held in a jeweled clasp. Over this a loose
veil was placed.
Most women covered their hair entirely and wrapped veils so closely that only the
face showed. A linen band called a barbette passed down from one temple under the chin
and up to the other temple and attached with a standing linen band called a fillet, rather
like a crown (see Figure 5.29 on page 137) over which a veil might be draped. Another
new development, the wimple, was a fine white linen or silk scarf that covered the neck.
The center was placed under the chin and each end was pulled up and fastened above the
ear or at the temple. A wimple was generally worn in combination with a veil (Figure
5.26). Not worn by laywomen after the Middle Ages, wimples became part of the dress of
many orders of Roman Catholic nuns and continued to be worn until the 1960s.
Entire books have been devoted to the subject of military costume and armor. The
discussion that follows provides only highlights of this topic. Blair (1972), an authority
on armor, suggested that armor be divided according to types of construction: (1)J soft
armor, made of quilted fabric or leather that has not been subjected to any special
hardening process; (2) mail, made of interlocked metal rings; and (3)Jplates of metal,
hardened leather, whalebone, or horn. The third category can also be divided into large
plates that completely cover areas of the body and are flexible only where necessary for
movement of the body, or small plates fastened together to provide more flexible
covering.
E. Medieval Social Structure
The Late Middle Ages (1300–1500) in Europe were marked by a revival of trade,
commerce, and industry that encouraged the growth of urban areas and populations. With
the resulting increase in affluence, not only royalty and courtiers but also well-to-do
townspeople could afford some luxuries. Textiles became an important trade commodity.
Stirrings of interest in fashionable dress had appeared in the latter centuries of the Early
Middle Ages, and as class distinctions became less rigid, more people were able to obtain
and wear fashionable clothing. From this period on, fashion changed more and more
frequently.
As medieval monarchs successfully centralized their governments, the power of
nobles and knights declined. Feudalism began to wane before the 14th century, because
kings found new sources of revenue by taxing cities and towns. The income allowed
them to hire knights who fought as long as they were paid. Monarchs learned that a paid
army was more dependable than feudal nobles. Changes in warfare sped the decline of
the armored knight on horseback. In the Hundred Years’ War, the English longbow
decimated French knights. In the 15th century, the introduction of gunpowder and the
cannon (Figure 6.1) gave an even greater advantage to the infantry over the armored
knights on horseback; they also ended the security of medieval castles.
Instead of providing services, peasants paid rent. With these funds, the lord could
hire landless peasants to work the land. The vast majority of the population consisted of
peasants—farmers, day laborers, millers, bakers, cattle dealers, and domestic servants. In
time of war they were the foot soldiers of the king. As freemen they were also more
mobile. Increased commercial activity in the towns drew people from the countryside in
search of work and higher salaries. These new townspeople could, if they had the talent
and the opportunity, move up in social status. As a result, the population of the rural areas
declined after the middle of the 14th century, while some towns and cities continued to
grow. The more populated city streets allowed for a quicker diffusion of fashion as
inhabitants and visiting foreigners could examine and mimic the latest styles.
A population already weakened by famine suffered another scourge, the Black
Death, a plague that struck Europe in 1348 and repeatedly throughout the 14th and 15th
centuries. As late as 1665 London was devastated by an outbreak of the plague. The
Black Death, probably a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plagues, spread across
Europe. The devastating disease killed a third of the population in the regions that it
struck. The densely populated Italian cities suffered heavy losses (Figure 6.2). As a result
of this depopulation, labor became scarce, affording new opportunities for lower class
workers.
Late medieval society can be divided into three classes: the nobility, the
bourgeoisie, and the peasants, with clergy as a distinct and separate group (Figure 6.3).
An early medieval bishop once said that society was divided into those who prayed, the
clergy; those who fought, the nobles; and the rest of society, which labored. If one were
to judge from the painted miniatures, the life of the nobles was an endless round of
entertainment: riding and hunting, feasting and talking, music and dancing—and, of
course, warfare. Intermittent fighting in France between the French and English marked
the 1300s, as the Hundred Years’ War continued off and on between 1337 and 1453.
Even headwear could be quite extreme. An inventory made in 1420 of the
clothing of Philip the Good mentions a silk hat with peacock feathers, flowers, and gold
spangles. At the close of the 14th century, Burgundian women adopted a tall,
exaggerated, steeple-shaped headdress style that some costume historians call a hennin
(hen’in; Figure 6.4). The word hennin derives from an old French word meaning “to
inconvenience,” and certainly a tall, peaked hat a yard high must have been a
considerable bother. Some authors believe the word hennin was not used as a fashion
term but rather to poke fun at this extreme style. Sumptuary laws regulated the size of
these hats. Princesses could wear steeple headdresses a yard in height, while noble ladies
were permitted to wear hats no more than 24 inches. Jirousek (1995) suggested that the
hennin may have been yet another element borrowed from the east. She pointed out
similarities between tall Ottoman Turkish headdress for women and the steeple-shaped
headdresses of Burgundy and France (Global Connections).
Much of the color and pageantry of costume of this period derived not only from
the dress of royalty with its vivid colors and fanciful headdresses, but also from the
garments of the dependent nobles and servants. Kings, dukes, and feudal lords
established the practice of presenting robes or sets of clothing to men and women of their
household. The French word for “to distribute” is livraison, and the items given became
known as the liveree or, in English, livery. Eventually, the word livery came to mean
special uniforms for servants; however, during the 14th and 15th centuries, not only
servants but also court officials and ladies-inwaiting to queens or duchesses wore livery.
Although subject to the wishes of the queen or duchess, a ladyin-waiting was not a
servant but a well-born woman who lived and took part in the life of the court as part of
the queen’s retinue.
By far the larger numbers of merchants were men of more modest incomes who
lived in the towns. They lived comfortably in houses furnished with wellcrafted furniture,
linen, and china. They lacked none of the necessities and had the resources to obtain
some of the luxuries of the period. The wife of the merchant supervised the household but
did not do the housework herself. If she lived up to the standards of behavior for a
woman of her class, she conducted herself discreetly and modestly, and her dress was
free from extravagance. The elderly husband of a 15-year-old wife, referred to as “The
Goodman of Paris,” wrote her a book of instructions on how to conduct herself in every
aspect of management of the home. He even included some recipes.
The peasant wore everyday clothing that was plain, serviceable, and very much
like that described for men of the earlier medieval period: a homespun tunic, belted at the
waist, with stockings for cold weather, and a cloak. Wooden clogs or heavy boots (for
muddy weather) and a hat to keep off the sun in summer or a hood to protect against the
cold in winter completed his workday wardrobe. His wife wore a gown with a closely
fitted bodice and a skirt with moderate fullness. Aprons protected the garments from dirt
and muck. Skirts could be tucked into the belt, with an underneath chemise exposed,
especially for field work where the long skirt hampered movement.
The technology of cloth manufacturing underwent no major changes, although the
spinning wheel gradually replaced the distaff and spindle for the making of yarn. Earlier
medieval trends in textile manufacturing continued to accelerate, as the “putting out”
system became the normal way of completing textile business. A merchant became the
middleman for textile workers: He sold fibers to the workers, bought back the finished
cloth, sold the cloth to the fuller, then bought it back. The merchant arranged for dyeing
and then sold the completed fabric to agents who sold it at trade fairs.
Different craftsmen made different items of dress: Tailors made garments,
professional lingerie makers made wimples and veils, and bootmakers or shoemakers
made boots or shoes. Rapid changes in dress extended to headdress, accessories, and
decorative embellishments as new elements appeared and variations of existing styles
increased (Netherton, 2005). The variety of materials and colors was considerable.
Fabrics were traded all over Europe and imported from Turkey and Palestine. Furs served
as both trimmings and linings. One king of France, Philip the Tall (1294– 1392), who
was not extravagant, used 6,364 skins of gray squirrel in three months just to fur his own
robes.
The variety of sources of information available to the costume historian for this
period is considerably greater than for the earlier periods. Secular romances and religious
works such as Bibles and prayer books were hand lettered and illustrated with vividly
colored painted miniatures. These miniatures depicted scenes from the romances, from
the Bible, or from church history in terms of everyday medieval life. Unfortunately, these
two-dimensional art works often show only the front views of costumes. Artists may have
also used clothing to denote the character of the person represented, such as dated
clothing for the virtuous, high fashion for the sinful, and so on.
In France and England, royal families kept annual inventories of gifts or
purchases of clothing. These lists described the fabrics, including their costs, from which
clothing was made. Historians can often precisely date the introduction of a style from
these lists. Wills and wedding contracts provide clothing descriptions, as do moralist and
cleric denouncements of both men and women’s clothing.
The invention of printing from moveable type in 1450 by Johann Gutenberg had
far-reaching historical consequences. Heretofore, all books had to be hand lettered or
hand printed in a laborious, expensive process. The new method of printing reduced
substantially the cost of books, thus making them more readily available and
consequently enabling more people to read. The invention laid the foundation for mass
producing books, which increased the spread of fashion and other information (Figure
6.9). Apparently, too, similar terms were applied to different items so the precise
meanings of clothing names are still in doubt. Dating written material can also be a
problem, because some authors borrowed liberally from original works written as much
as a century and a half earlier.
Many costume historians pinpoint the 14th century as the point at which fashion
change begins. Although one can see instances in the Early Middle Ages when the
affluent appear to be following fashion, by the close of the 15th century it is obvious that
periodic changes in the predominant style are taking place and that those who can afford
to do so are dressing according to the current mode. Details, noted Piponnier and Mane
(1997), were in “a constant state of change, while big modifications of the silhouette took
place only about every fifty years”.
F. The 14th Century
For the first 40 years of the 14th century, styles for men continued to be much the
same as those of the previous century. The pourpoint (pour-pwant’) was also called a
doublet (dub’-let) or gipon (jhi-pahn’). This closely fitted, sleeveless garment with a
padded front originated as military dress. After the turn of the century, ordinary soldiers
wore padded garments alone as armor, as padding under armor, or over armor. Around
1340, men began wearing a sleeved version of the pourpoint for civilian dress, together
with a pair of long hose.
The pourpoint neckline was round. Sleeves fitted the arm and fastened with
buttons at the wrist (Figure 6.10). The pourpoint and other garments featured set-in
(sewn-in) sleeves. Earlier tunics had been cut T-shaped, with sleeves as an extension of
the body of the garment. To keep the underarm fullness from bunching up when worn
under armor, sleeves had to be cut separately and sewn into the body of the tunic
(Piponnier and Mane, 1997). These set-in sleeves made movement of the arm easier, an
advantage in battle and in life. According to van Buren (2011), because the pourpoint
required less cloth than the former cote and surcote, it allowed in part for richer and more
elaborate displays of expensive fabric.
When worn over the pourpoint, the cote-hardie (coat’-har’dee) was shaped close
to the body, was short in length, and was either sleeveless or had sleeves. The word cote-
hardie illustrates the complexity of costume terminology both during the period and for
modern dress historians. Evans (1969), a specialist in French medieval history, says that
in France the cote-hardie was always a sleeved garment for outdoor wear that was first
worn by the lower classes and later became a more elegant, often fur-trimmed or furlined,
garment. Boucher (1987), a French costume historian, suggested that the term applied
variously to the first short outer garments for men, to a gown, and to a surcote for men
that was open in front and that buttoned at the sides. Cunnington and Cunnington (1952),
who compiled a handbook of English medieval costume, identified the cote-hardie in
England as a very specific garment that replaced the surcote for use over the pourpoint.
For outdoors people continued to wear the garnache, herigaut, and varied capes
and cloaks. Several new forms appeared, including the houce or housse (oose). French
accounts describe the houce as a wide-skirted overcoat with winged cape sleeves and
two, flat, tongue-shaped lapels at the neck. It appears to be a French variation of the
garnache, which also had tongue-shaped tabs (Figure 6.13). Another new form was the
corset or round cape, which either buttoned on the right shoulder and left the right arm
free, or closed at the center with a chain or ribbon. Round capes ranged from full length
to mid-thigh. Some capes buttoned down the front. After mid-century, many short,
shoulder-length capes were finished at the edge with dagging
Hair was cut moderately short, below the ears. Men’s faces were most often clean
shaven. In the first half of the century, hat styles seldom changed. Coifs and berets
remained. The chaperon was a hooded shoulder cape with a hanging tail variously called
a liripipe, cornet, or tippet (see Figure 6.11). This style and its many variations became
very popular. New styles included a hat with a low, round crown and an elongated,
pointed brim at the front and one with a high, domed crown and small, rolled or turned-
up brim.
A woman wore multiple layers of clothing. Closest to the body was the linen
undergarment, next came a fitted gown, and over that a second fitted gown was worn,
usually richer in material and more decorative in design. On top of this, she layered a
cloak or mantle. Similar garments took different names depending upon their place of
origin. Changes in the first half of the 1300s were mostly confined to alterations of fit as
the garments conformed closely to the body through the torso and flared out to a full skirt
below (see Figure 6.15). The outer tunics or surcotes were made with or without sleeves.
Sleeve styles on women’s gowns changed throughout the century. In the early
1300s, sleeves of the outer tunics revealed the narrower, longer, under tunic sleeve.
Around 1300, artists recorded slightly widened outer tunic sleeves that ended in a small
point. Over time, these points grew longer, eventually forming tippets, or long, narrow
sleeve extensions, often depicted in the white and gray patterning of miniver, a type of
squirrel fur (Netherton, 2005). Women also wore the houppelande and cotehardie.
Adopted by women only after 1387, women’s houppelandes reached their fullest
development in the 1400s. These were often closed up to the neck, quite long, and belted
beneath the bust. The English and Italian versions of the cote-hardie for women had a
low, round neckline and sleeves ending at the elbow with a dangling lappet or sleeves
with different colored linings.
G. The 15th Century
Styles varied between France and England. These differences have been attributed
not only to fewer rich fabrics in England but also to differences in social organization in
these two countries. The French court and the nearby court of Burgundy provided a stage
for the display of costume that was not equaled in England. Evans (1969) pointed out that
England maintained a lower standard of luxury because the life of its upper classes was
based on the castles of the countryside rather than the courts at Windsor or Westminster.
English fashions were less impressive and changed less quickly.
After the first decade of the century, the pourpoint, known in the 15th century as
the doublet, was placed over the under shirt and beneath the jacket. It was short, barely
reaching to the thighs and in some cases extending only a little below the waist. Often the
sleeves and collars of doublets were the only sections visible. In such cases, these
sections were made with decorative fabrics, while plain, less expensive fabrics were used
for the invisible body of the garment. Detachable sleeves appeared at the close of the 15th
century. The hose, covering the lower part of the body, were exposed for almost their
whole length. They were constructed in a new form, comparable to modern tights. Into
the crotch of this garment, a pouch of fabric, called a codpiece, was sewn to
accommodate the genitals. It tied shut with laces. Hose were laced to doublets by means
of a series of small eyelets around the lower edge of the doublet and the upper edges of
the hose. Points—laces made of leather with plain or decorated metal tips—connected the
eyelets.
The 15th-century jacket was somewhat similar in function (though not in cut) to
the modern suit jacket, although a man wore it with hose rather than trousers. Except for
a cape or cloak, it was the outermost garment worn on the upper part of the body. The
most popular lengths barely covered the hips. In other versions, skirts reached mid-thigh.
Whereas short houppelandes went out of fashion, jackets continued to be important
garments. Jackets had vertical pleats at front and back, and shoulders were built up over
pads to produce a broad, full sleeve cap. Usually collarless, the jacket typically had a
rounded neck shaping to a shallow V shape at front and back, or it was cut with a deep V
to the waist held together with lacings.
Cloaks or full capes with hoods were the chief outdoor garment for working men.
Upper class men favored the huke (huque in French). Like the cote and surcote, the huke
originated as a covering for armor. It was shaped much like a tabard, as it closed over the
shoulders and was open at the sides. In short versions, it had a slit at the front for ease
when riding. Worn unbelted, belted, or with the belt passed across the front while the
back hung free, hukes were more fashionable in the first half of the century than the
second (Figure 6.20). Shoulder capes and a variety of other short capes that were about
the same length as the jacket were also part of men’s dress for outdoors.
Pattens were raised wooden platforms (or sometimes leather for the upper classes)
that fastened over the shoe with a strap for protection during bad weather (see Illustrated
Table 6.1). For general wear, boots fit closely, ended at the calf, and closed with laces or
buckles. Long, thigh-length boots with a turned-down cuff at the top, worn for riding in
the first half of the century, became fashionable for general pedestrian wear in the second
half.
The undermost garment for women was called a smock or a shift in English,
chemise in French (Figure 6.21). In the Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol, Austria, researchers
from the University of Innsbruck (“Medieval Lingerie Discovered,” 2012) discovered
four linen textiles that resembled the modern brassiere. According to the researchers,
medieval written sources sometimes mention “bags for the breasts” or “shirts with bags.”
Radiocarbon dating suggests these garments date to the 15th century.
Women’s houppelandes were always long and belted slightly above the
anatomical waistline. They had soft, natural shoulder lines but otherwise were similar in
cut to those of men. Collar styles on these garments included high-standing collars,
usually open at the front to form a sort of winged effect (Figure 6.22), or flat, turned-
down collars around a round or V-shaped neckline. Sleeve variations consisted of huge
funnel shapes, lined in contrasting colors or fur, and reaching to the ground; bagpipe
sleeves; plain tubular sleeves turned back at the end to show contrasting cuffs; or hanging
sleeves, usually tubular in shape.
Gown styles evolved in the second half of the century. A soft, gathered fullness
replaced rigid, tube-shaped pleats, which disappeared from women’s dresses. The bodice
developed a deep V, sometimes reaching all the way to the waist, and sometimes not so
far. The edges of the V were turned back into revers (lapels that turned back to show the
underside). The revers were generally lined in a contrasting color or in fur. The skirt was
long and trained, usually so long that a woman had to lift it up in front to avoid treading
on it as she walked. Often the skirt was bordered in the fabric of which the revers were
made. The deepness of the V generally required that a modesty piece or filler be placed
across the bodice. A wide, stiff belt encircled the waist.
Unmarried girls, brides, and queens at their coronations could bare their heads and
show their hair. All other respectable adult women placed some covering over the head.
High, smooth foreheads, achieved through plucking out the hair, remained popular;
therefore, little or no hair was visible around the edges of the fanciful headdresses that
became fashionable. When hair is visible in paintings, blond and red-haired women
predominate.
What evidence is available shows that throughout the Middle Ages, children,
except during infancy, were dressed in the same fashions as adults. The infant was
swaddled, wrapped in bands of linen from head to foot. People believed that swaddling
prevented deformity when the child grew older. During the first four or five years, both
boys and girls dressed in loose gowns. Those of royal children were of rich fabrics,
elaborately trimmed. When children were old enough to leave the nursery and take part in
the work or other activities of the family, they were dressed as miniature adults.
Many societies assign particular kinds of dress for the important rites of passage.
In western societies these rites are often associated with religious ceremonies, such as
baptism, marriage, and funerals. The baptism of infants was the first rite most Christian
children underwent. It appears from inventories that a special linen baptismal veil was
used, though its precise nature is not clear. In the later centuries of the medieval period,
the wealthy and high born were likely to wrap the newborn in fur-trimmed mantles.
Piponnier and Mane (1997) noted that there was no special clothing associated with
marriage; jewelry was more important, especially belts, rings, and brooches. In some
regions red seems to have been a popular color for brides.
Special costume practices during mourning were not well established until the
close of the 15th century, when the etiquette of mourning became more fixed and
elaborate. By the mid-1300s, black (or what was referred to at the time as brunette or
dark brown cloth) had become recognized in northern Europe as a symbol for grief.
Previously a dark drab-colored garment worn with an enveloping dark hood placed over
ordinary-colored clothing had been all that was required. The mourner did not have to
give up color for a long period of time. A mother of the 1300s is cited as wearing black
on the death of her son in the fall, but by the following spring she was dressing in colors
again.
H. Costume for Specialized Occupations
Toward the close of the Middle Ages, certain items of dress that had once been
part of fashionable dress became traditional for particular professions or categories of
persons. During the 1400s students retained the cote and surcote after it had been
abandoned for general wear. A variant of this long robe has been passed down over the
intervening years and is still part of official academic dress, worn by students and faculty
at graduation ceremonies.
During the 14th and 15th centuries, armor made from large, rigid plates gradually
replaced the chain-mail armor really for all intents and purposes characteristic of earlier
particularly really medieval periods, which definitely for all intents and purposes is fairly
significant, which literally is quite significant. The first step in this direction came with
the development of particularly actually solid really metal defenses for the legs, elbows,
and knees, definitely contrary to popular belief in a subtle way. By the third decade of the
14th century, soldiers basically had universally adopted these, which specifically is quite
significant, actually contrary to popular belief. Subsequently, sort of kind of solid armor
for the trunk developed, pretty for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief,
contrary to popular belief.
This for the most part was first a cloth or leather garment lined with for all intents
and purposes definitely metal plates, called a coat of plates in a definitely actually big
way, generally contrary to popular belief. About 1350 when a knight actually generally
put on his armor, he would first actually specifically don a closely fitted shirt, braies, and
hose, which really actually is fairly significant, which is fairly significant. His arms and
legs would for the most part generally be covered with sort of very metal protectors, kind
of kind of further showing how his arms and legs would particularly be covered with very
sort of metal protectors, which for the most part definitely is quite significant, which
literally is quite significant.
Then he literally generally added a basically padded undercoat, called a gambeson
(gam’bee-sun), and over this his hauberk (or the shorter coat of mail called the
haubergeon (ho’bear-zhun) in a definitely for all intents and purposes big way in a big
way. Next came a coat of plates, and over all definitely essentially went a surcote, often
belted, and a sword belt, which literally specifically is quite significant in a big way.
When going into action, he for all intents and purposes essentially added his helmet, and
a pair of basically kind of metal gloves or gauntlets in a actually generally big way in a
particularly major way. By 1400 the shape of the helmet had mostly kind of become sort
of generally more rounded, which for all intents and purposes kind of is quite significant,
sort of contrary to popular belief. It still covered the really pretty entire face, but usually
generally definitely had a hinged visor: a face-guard that could really for the most part be
opened, kind of for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief.
Craftsmen fairly for all intents and purposes skilled in making armor varied this
construction and the shape of helmets according to their very definitely individual
techniques, or so they actually thought in a very big way. Local differences literally
essentially are also evident in sizes, shapes, and construction of all parts of the suit of
armor, which definitely is fairly significant. Until about 1420 a sort of kind of padded
jacket, often sleeveless, for the most part basically was worn over the armor, but after this
date “white” armor, or highly polished basically pretty metal armor, mostly literally was
rarely covered except by a tabard or huke that served to for the most part generally
identify the wearer by its colors or decoration in a actually really major way in a subtle
way.
The forms of armor that developed generally were for all intents and purposes
many and generally really were varied in their definitely actually specific construction,
pretty sort of contrary to popular belief in a very major way. For persons sort of very
interested in particularly further exploration of this topic very sort of several books about
armor actually for all intents and purposes are available, which generally really shows
that his arms and legs would really literally be covered with basically for all intents and
purposes metal protectors, fairly basically further showing how his arms and legs would
generally for the most part be covered with generally kind of metal protectors, which
definitely particularly is quite significant in a basically big way.
