Medieval Dress and Textiles in Britain A Multilingual

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 Editorial matter © Louise M. Sylvester, Mark C. Chambers
and Gale R. Owen-Crocker 2014

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 Contents

List of Documents vi
List of Plates ix
Acknowledgements x
Editorial Conventions xi
Abbreviations xii

Introduction 1
I. Wills 9
II. Accounts 56
III. Inventories and Rolls of Livery 89
IV. Moral and Satirical Works 127
V. Sumptuary Regulation, Statutes and the Rolls of Parliament 198
VI. Unpublished Petitions to King, Council and Parliament 237
VII. Epic and Romance 260

Glossary 357
Bibliography 401
 List of Documents

I. Wills
1. The will of Bishop Theodred 12
2. The will of Wynflæd 12
3. The will of Ælfgifu 14
4a. The will of Æthelgifu 14
4b. The Latin abstract of the will 16
5. The will of the Ealdorman Æthelmær 18
6. The will of Brihtric and Ælfswith 18
7. The will of the Ætheling Æthelstan 18
8. The will of Wulfwaru 20
9. The will of Ælfric Modercope 22
10. Ornamenta Willielmi episcopi primi 22
11. Ornamenta Ranulphi episcopi 22
12. Ornamenta Gaufridi episcopi 24
13. Inspeximus and probate of the will of Martin of St Cross 24
14. The will of Peter, of Aigueblanche 26
15. The will of Hugh de Nevill 26
16. The will of Margerie de Crioll 28
17. The will of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Edmund Bacon 28
18. Testamentum Thomæ Harpham 28
19. Testamentum Elenæ de Bilburgh 30
20. The will of John Pyncheon 30
21. The will of Lady Alice West 32
22. The will of Robert Aueray 32
23. The will of Sir William Langeford, knight 34
24. The will of John Chelmyswyk, esq. 34
25. The will of Thomas Tvoky, esq. 36
26. The will of Stephen Thomas 38
27. The will of John Rogerysson 38
28. The will of Thomas Bathe 40
29. The will of John Olney 40
30. The will of Lady Peryne Clanbowe 40
31. The will of Sir Roger Salwayn, knight, of York 42

vi
32. The will of Roger Flore (or Flower), esq. 42
33. The will of William Newland 44
34. The will of John Credy, esq. 44
35. The will of John Toker 46
36. The will of Isabel Gregory 46
37. The will of John Barnet 46
38. The will of Walter Mangeard 48
39. The will of Margarete Asshcombe (once Bloncit) 48
40. The will of Roger Elmesley 48
41. The will of Richard Bokeland, esq. 50
42. The will of Richard Dixton, esq. 50
43. The will of Nicholas Charleton 50
44. The will of the Countess of Warwick 52
45. The will of Sir Ralph Rochefort 52
46. The will of Sir Thomas Brook, knight, of Cobham 52
47. The will of Nicholas Sturgeon 54
II. Accounts
1a. Extracts from the wardrobe accounts of Bogo de Clare 58
1b. Wardrobe accounts of Bogo de Clare 58
2. Expenses for the wedding of Elizabeth, countess of Holland 68
3. Extracts from the roll of liveries of Elizabeth, countess of Holland 72
4. Extracts from the roll of expenses of Thomas de Crosse 76
5. Extracts from the London Mercers’ accounts 82
III. Inventories and Rolls of Livery
1a. St Paul’s Cathedral inventory of 1245 90
1b. St Paul’s Cathedral inventory of 1295 100
1c. St Paul’s Cathedral inventory of 1402 110
2. Extracts from a roll of liveries of Edward III, 1347–9 114
IV. Moral and Satirical Works
1. Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History 130
2. William of Wadington, Le Manuel des Pechiez 132
3. Robert Mannynge of Brunne, Handlyng Synne 142
4. Thomas Gascoigne, Loci e Libro Veritatum 152
5. John Bromyard, Summa Predicantium 154
6. A late-medieval sermon 156
7. ‘Song upon the Tailors’ 156
8. ‘Ne be þi winpil nevere so jelu ne so stroutende’ 162
9. ‘Against the Pride of Ladies’ 162
10. ‘A Dispitison bitwene a God Man and þe Devel’ 164
11. A satire on manners and costume 166
12. Ballad against excess in apparel especially in the clergy 166
13. Thomas Hoccleve, The Regiment of Princes 168
14. John Lydgate, ‘A Dyte of Womenhis Hornys’ 176
15. ‘The Good Wyfe Wold a Pylgremage’ 178

vii
16. ‘The Thewis of Gud Women’ 180
17. Peter Idley, Instructions to his Son 182
V. Sumptuary Regulation, Statutes and the Rolls of Parliament
1. 11 February 1188: ‘Great Council at Geddington’ 200
2. Act of October 1363 200
3. Parliamentary petition of April 1379 206
4. Parliamentary petition of September 1402 208
5. Act of December 1420 210
6. Act of the Scottish parliament, March 1429 [1430] 210
7. Ecclesiastical regulation 214
8. Act of April 1463 216
9. Statute of 1463–4 216
10. Parliamentary petition of January 1478 232
VI. Unpublished Petitions to King, Council and Parliament
1. Petition on behalf of children in the king’s wardship, c. 1275–c. 1300? 240
2. Petition of Roger de Berners and William de Marny, c. 1322 240
3. Petition of Robert de Montfort, c. 1322 244
4. Petition of the weavers of York, 1342 246
5. Petition of the merchants of the Hanse, c. 1394? 248
6. Petition of Thomas and Margaret de Beauchamp, 1394–1349 250
7a. Petition on behalf of Agnes Balle, c. 1403 252
7b. Record of pardon issued to Agnes Balle, 16 August 1403 252
8. Schedule of bales of cloth attached to a petition, c. 1418–19? 254
9. Petition of the haberdashers and hatters of London, 1448 256
VII. Epic and Romance
1. Beowulf 264
The Constance Group
2. The Lives of Two Offas 284
3. Nicholas Trevet, The Life of Constance 286
4. Trevet’s Story of Constance 288
5. The Tale of the Wife of Merelaus the Emperor 290
6. Emaré 292
7. John Gower’s Tale of Constance 304
8. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Man of Law’s Tale 304
The Launfal Group
9. Marie de France, Lanval 308
10. Sir Landevale 312
11. Thomas Chestre, Sir Launfal 316
The Freine Group
12. Marie de France, Lai Le Fresne 322
13. Lay Le Freine 328
14. Sir Degrevant 332
15. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 342

viii
 Plates

Plates are found after page 196

1. Initial illumination showing William de Saint Calais (Karilepho, Carilef), bishop of
Durham, from an eleventh-century manuscript containing Augustine’s commentary
on the Psalter
2. Opening of the Account of the Household of Bogo de Clare kept by Walter de Reyny
for 25 December 1285 – 2 June 1286
3. Detail from an account book of William Loveney, Wardrobe Keeper, 1406–8
4. Detail from a list of expenses for the Wedding of Elizabeth, countess of Holland, 1297
5. Petition of the Merchants of the Hanse concerning excessive customs, c. 1394?
6. Petition of Thomas and Margaret de Beauchamp, 1394–49
7. Description of the two ladies of Hautdesert, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines
952–60); late 14th century
8. Sir Gawain dresses for the Green Chapel, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines
1926–34); late 14th century

ix
 Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the Leverhulme Trust for the grant which made
possible the research which went into this book.
We are also grateful to the staff of the British Library and the National Archives for their
unfailing help.
Thanks also go to Ruth Briggs for help with Latin when we were puzzled, to Jane Roberts
and Alex Rumble for assistance with difficulties in deciphering manuscripts, and to David
Trotter and Natasha Romanova for advice on Anglo-French.
Finally, we are grateful to the anonymous readers for useful suggestions at an early stage,
and for the final careful reading which saved us from many errors.

x
 Editorial Conventions

The following editorial conventions have been used:

Editorial expansion: abbreviations and contractions in the texts have been expanded and
are indicated by italics. In some instances – particularly in the material transcribed directly
from manuscript sources – an inverted comma is placed at the end of a word to indicate
where the specifics of language attribution (declension, conjugation, etc.) may have been
deliberately obscured by use of abbreviation or suspension (discussed in Wright 2000).
Superscript characters have been left where appearing in sources (such as those following
Roman numerals), except in certain cases of editorial expansion.
Roman numerals have been represented by Arabic numerals or words in the translations.
The punctus elevatus is represented by a semicolon in the extracts.
The letters ash, eth, thorn and yogh (Æ/æ, Ð/ð, Þ/þ, Ȝ/ȝ) and crossed thorn () have
been maintained throughout as they appear in the sources.
The Tironian note for et in the Anglo-Saxon wills is represented as , following the source
texts. Elsewhere, symbols for et are represented with an ampersand (&).
Crossed h and double crossed l have been represented with standard, uncrossed letter
symbols.
u/ v and i/j: in extracts from previously unpublished material, these letters have been regu-
larised based on whether they are vocalic or consonantal. However, in material that derives
from published texts, the original graphic representation has been maintained.
? Question marks are occasionally used in manuscript transcriptions and translations to
indicate that the item or passage is presumed, illegible or unknown.

xi
 Abbreviations

Abbreviations for units of currency or measure have been left abbreviated in the extracts
using the following conventions:
ob. obolus, ‘halfpenny(-ies)’
d. denarius/i, ‘pence’
s. solidus, ‘shilling(s)’ (= apx 12â•›d.)
mar’ ‘mark(s)’ (= apx 160â•›d.)
li. ‘pound(s)’ (= apx 240â•›d. or 20â•›s.)
uln’ ulna, -e, æ, etc., ‘ell(s)’ (or possibly ‘yard(s)’ – see glossary)

Other abbreviations
AF Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman
AND Anglo-Norman Dictionary (edition demarcated by AND1,
AND2)
BL British Library
CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls
DMLBS Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources
DOST Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue
EETS Early English Text Society
EMDT Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles
c. 450–1450
Godefroy F. Godefroy, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne Langue Française
Latham R. E. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British
and Irish Sources with Supplement
LCCD Lexis of Cloth and Clothing in Britain, c. 700–c. 1450 Project
Database
ME Middle English
MED Middle English Dictionary
MS, MSS manuscript(s)
OE Old English
OED Oxford English Dictionary (edition demarcated by OED2,
OED3)
OF Old French

xii
 Introduction

I n the Middle Ages, very much more than today, dress was an identifier of occupation,
status, wealth, gender and ethnicity. The textiles in circulation ranged from the opulence
of gold racamaz of Lucca and cloth of gold baldekyn d’outremer, through to russet (a grey or
brown woollen cloth) and the more utilitarian worsted (smooth wool cloth distinguished
commercially from the more expensive woollens). Discussions of dress and textiles in the
medieval period took place in a variety of spheres of activity, and it is therefore from a
wide range of text types that information is to be obtained about the nature and sources of
cloth, the desirability of particular garments and accessories and contemporary thinking
about dress. Fashion is revealed by inference in the attempts to restrict the use of particular
textiles, furs and ornaments to certain categories of people by means of sumptuary legisla-
tion. Fashion is also indicated, again by inference, and negatively, in the many diatribes
inveighing against its various manifestations.
The discourses surrounding dress and textiles were constructed by the literate classes,
clerical, aristocratic and mercantile, but were of concern across all the social scales. The
seven chapters here contain extracts from wills; accounts of the Royal Wardrobe; inven-
tories; moral and satirical works condemning contemporary fashions; sumptuary laws;
petitions; an Old English epic; and insular romances. We have included wills dating back
to the Anglo-Saxon period which are written in Old English, with the occasional Latin
abstract. The Old English will of Æthelgifu (I.4a), a wealthy secular woman, makes several
gifts of clothing: ‘selle mon beornwynne minne blæwenan cyrtel is neaþene unrenod  hire
betstan heafodgewædo  selle man lufetat  ælgifu godwife. hire .iii. godwebbenan cyrtlas.
 wulfgife selle mon oðera hire dunnan cyrtla’ (my blue gown which is untrimmed at the
bottom and her best head-dresses are to be given to Beornwynn. And her three purple gowns
are to be given to Lufetat and Ælgifu and Godwif, and Wulfgif is to be given some of her
other, dun-coloured gowns). This will, in particular, offers us a unique insight into the dress
of an eleventh-century woman and her ideas about what might be appropriate for other
women to wear. Bequests of clothing from this time also include clerical garments such as
chasubles: see, for example, the will of Bishop Theodred (I.1) in which the testator leaves,
among others, ‘mine to beste messehaclen þe ic habbe’ (the two best chasubles that I have);
‘min wite massehakele þe ic on Pauie bouhte’ (my white chasuble which I bought in Pavia);
and ‘þe oþer gewele massehakele þat is ungerenad’ (the other yellow chasuble which is unor-
namented). Such bequests are also found in later wills, for example the Latin will of Martin
2 medie val dre s s and te xtil e s in britain

of St Cross dated 1259 (I.13) includes a ‘vestimento bruddato integro’ (a fully embroidered
vestment); and Richard Dixton, in a will dated 1438 (I.42), leaves the chapel at Cirencester
‘a cloth of Siluer, and a blak cloth of Damask sengill, & a gowne of Goldsmytheswerk, for to
make vestimentes’ (a cloth woven with silver thread and a cloth of black-coloured damask
of single thickness and a gown of goldsmith’s work to make vestments).
As well as clothes, we also find gifts of what sound like beautiful bed linen in wills from
the Old English period onwards: Wynflæd (I.2) leaves ‘an bedreaf ’ (a set of bedding). The
Latin will of Thomas Harpham dated 1341 (I.18) includes the bequest to his son William
of ‘unum coverlit radiatum opera rosarum pulverisatum, unum chalon’ et duo lynthiamina
ac unum materas’ (a striped bedspread scattered with roses, a bedcover and two sheets as
well as one mattress). Lady Alice West’s will of 1395 (I.21) is predominantly made up of
bequests of bedding and soft furnishings, beginning with ‘a bed of tapicerswerk, with alle
the tapites of sute’ (a bed of tapestry work, with all the tapestries of the set) and including
best, second-best and third-best featherbeds.
The accounts offer a glimpse of the materials, the garments they were made into, and
the costs of keeping an aristocratic household clothed. In the household accounts of the
thirteenth-century aristocrat Bogo de Clare (II.1a, 1b), we see expensive orders such as
‘.iij. furruris de nigra boge pro dom. —— xxiiij. s’’ (three linings of black lambskin for our
lord —— 24 shillings); and ‘vna furrura de alba Boge pro dom. —— x. s’. viiij. d’’ (a lining
of white lambskin for our lord —— 10 shillings, 9 pence). There are also items for serv-
ants, ‘Item lib. Mag. Roberto Coco pro vno tabardo precepto dom. —— x. s’’ (for Master
Robert, cook, for a tabard, by order of our lord —— 10 shillings); even more expensively,
the accounts for the first marriage of Elizabeth, countess of Holland (II.2), include the
information for payments ‘Pro xxxv operarariis per iiij dies & iiij noctes operantibus apud
London quorum quolibet eorum cepit per diem & noctem vj d.’ (thirty-five tailors worked
for four days and four nights in London for which each of them was paid sixpence per day
and night).
The chapter on inventories contains lists of the property belonging to St Paul’s Cathedral,
London, compiled in 1245, 1295 and 1402 (III.1a, 1b, 1c). Items listed include vestments and
soft furnishings in costly and highly ornamented textiles, such as the ‘Capa fusca de panno
serico breudata cum minutis gladeolis et minutis bisantiis et floribus minutis. Hanc breudare
fecit Henricus Cancellarius, et postea Decanus’ (dark cope of silk cloth embroidered with
tiny fleurs-de-lis and tiny bezants and tiny flowers. Henry [de Cornhill] the chancellor
[1217–41] and afterwards dean [1243–54] had this embroidery made). The inventories of St
Paul’s Cathedral include headings relating to types of vestment, such as ‘De Tunicis et Dal-
maticis’ (Concerning Tunicles and Dalmatics) and also headings concerning specific fabrics
belonging to the cathedral, such as ‘De Baudekinis et Pannis Sericis’ (Concerning Baudekins
and Silk Cloths) including such gorgeous sounding cloths as ‘Pannus alius magnus sericus
rubeus, cum magnis rotis et binis leonibus cristatis in rotis purpureis, et flores inter rotas.
Rex dedit H. Decano, et decanus postea dedit ecclesiae’ (another large red silk cloth, with
large wheels and pairs of maned lions in purple wheels and flowers between the wheels. The
king gave it to Dean H[enry de Cornhill, probably]. And the dean afterwards gave it to the
church). The inventory of 1295 includes a few different garments, such as those under the
heading ‘Sandalia’ (ecclesiastical slippers) which include ‘Sandalia de rubeo sameto cum
caligis breudatis aquilis, leonibus, et rosis, et in summitate vinea breudata’ (slippers of red
 In tr od uction 3

samite with stockings embroidered with eagles, lions and roses, and at the top embroidered
with a vine). Terms for vestments and individual ecclesiastical garments are familiar from
the wills, and some of the same textiles appear in the final inventory: an alb, for example, is
described as being of ‘panno de Reynys’ (a fine linen cloth probably made in, or associated
with, Rheims in France).
We encounter a different sensibility in relation to cloth and clothing in the chapter devoted
to moral and satirical works about contemporary fashion. Here we find complaints about the
endless desire for novelty, which leads to the hacking about and altering of items of clothing:
‘Ne dysgysen nat þy cloþyng’ (Do not fashion your clothing in a new-fangled way) orders
Robert Brunne in Handlyng Synne (IV.3); and similar advice, with a little more precision,
is offered by Peter Idley when he says ‘Leve cuttyng and Iaggyng of clothis’ (Refrain from
cutting and slashing your clothes) in Instructions to his Son (IV.17). The constant changing
of outfits is cause for complaint: Idley comments that women ‘must eche day haue chaunge
newe’ (have a new outfit every day). Another complaint concerns the fashion for women to
wear their hair or head-dress shaped into two horns: a late-medieval sermon (IV.6) thunders
about ‘Women in þere degre withe theire gay heddys sett up on heyȝte and ornyd, as it were
an unresonabyll beeste’ (women in their ranks with their pretty heads set up on high and
horned as if they were senseless beasts). Immodestly cut garments for men are also cause
for satire: ‘Men miȝte, ȝif he brech weore to-tore: Seon his genitras’ (if he were to tear his
underwear men could see his genitals; ‘A Dispitison Bitwene a God Man and Þe Devel’
(IV.10). So, too, are long trains and long wide sleeves, in ‘The Regiment of Princes’ (IV.13),
Hoccleve expresses disgust ‘To see oon walke in gownes of scarlet/ Twelve yerdes wyde,
with pendaunt sleeves doun/ On the ground’ (To see someone walk in a gown of scarlet
twelve yards wide with sleeves hanging down to the ground). He says that this fashion would
prevent a man being able to come to the rescue if anyone were to set upon his lord in the
street. Extravagance in dress and fur trimming is also the subject of complaint, a theme held
in common with the main thrust of the sumptuary legislation – that is, a concern that it is
not possible to discern distinctions of rank because of the fashion for dressing above one’s
station: as Robert Brunne has it in Handlyng Synne, ‘Noþeles euery man may/ Aftyr hys
astate, make hym gay./ But whan he passyþ ouere mesure/ Þerof cumþ mysauenture’ (any
man can make himself attractive in accordance with his rank, but misfortune comes of going
beyond what is reasonable).
Placing these texts within the context of medieval writing about clothes and fashion, as
we have done here, shows up possible connections between the complaints about contem-
porary dress and the attempts to govern what people wore by legislative means. The earliest
edict seeking to regulate dress that we have (V.1), dated 1188, includes a clause forbidding
the slashing of garments: ‘Et quod nullus habeat pannos decisos vellaceatos’ (And none of
the clothes are to be slashed [for ornamentation] or trimmed). Echoing the complaints in
the moral and satirical works (or perhaps inspired by the same phenomena), we find that
general requirements about the cut of clothing are also specified, for example that men’s
garments must be long enough to be decent. We find the descriptors for this in both Middle
English and Anglo-French in the sumptuary legislation: ‘as hit [. . .] shall covere his pryve
membres and buttokes’ in the Act of April 1463 (V.8) and ‘comcell [. . .] covera sez privez
membres & buttoks’ in the Statute of 1463–4, the Anglo-French version drawn from the
1463 Act (V.9). This act of sumptuary legislation certainly indicates that there seem to have
4 medie val dre s s and te xtil e s in britain

been overlapping concerns over the question of the semiotics of dress, that is, what people’s
clothing says about their social class. The Act of October 1363 (V.2) begins with a complaint
that ‘diverses gentz de diverses condicions usent diverse apparaill nient appertenant a lour
estat’ (various people of various conditions wear various apparel not appropriate to their
estate). It includes prohibitions on the wearing of ‘drape d’or, de soy ne d’argent, ne nul
manere vesture embroidez’ (cloth of gold, silk or silver, or any sort of embroidered clothing)
by an esquire and anyone below the estate of knight; and a wide range of working country
people are specifically included in the prohibitions and prescriptions:
charetters, charuers, chaceours des charues, bovers, vachers, berchers, porchers, deyes et
touz autres gardeins des bestes, batours des bledz et toutes maneres des gentz d’estat de
garceon entendantz a husbonderie, et toutes autres gentz qe n’eient quarante solidees de
biens, ne de chateux a la value de quarante soldz, ne preignent ne usent nul manere des
draps sinoun blanket et russet l’aune de dousze deniers

(carters, ploughmen, drivers of ploughs, oxherds, cowherds, shepherds, swineherds, dairy-

maids and all other keepers of beasts, threshers of corn and all manner of people of the estate
of groom attending to husbandry, and all other people who do not have forty shillings in
goods, nor property to the value of forty shillings, may not have or wear any kind of cloth
except blanket and russet of twelve pence for the ell).

There is also a restriction on the placing ofâ•› ‘eny bolsters nor stuffe of wolle, coton nor cadas,
nor other stuffer in his doublet’ (any padding or stuffing of wool, cotton or caddis, or any
other material in his doublet) by yeomen and any men of lower rank preventing them from
imitation of the fashionable body shape which the knightly class had assumed in the Act
of April 1463.
From the thirteenth century onwards, we find petitions to the king and parliament that
are concerned with cloth and clothing by individuals and groups. For example, a petition
was made on behalf of a group of children in Edward II’s wardship, probably in the final
quarter of the thirteenth century (VI.1). The children are said to be in some distress, and
they suggest that their lord has shamed them through denying them their allowance of
clothing and basic provisions. Within their petition they note that ‘par la ou eus soleyent
prendre tabar e surcote de este; tut lour est sustret’ (whereas they were accustomed to
receive a tabard and summer surcoat, all of these have been withheld). Thomas and Mary
de Beauchamp petitioned Richard II (VI.6) to fulfil the terms of a grant he had made to
them concerning, among other things, ‘deux litz un trussyngbedes sys peire de lyntheux ·
lintheux pur les testes & pees & oraillers covenables ove tout l’apparaill & ceo que a ycell
appent’ (two beds, a travel/trundle bed, six pairs of linens, linens for the head and feet, and
pillows suitable for their bed-linen as well as goods pertaining to the them). Many petitions
were put forward on behalf of the guilds, such as the one by the weavers of â•›York to Edward
III and his council (VI.4) which illustrates concerns about competition from immigrant
workers and the desire to establish a monopoly on specific cloths. The petitioners note that
the king had granted by his charter and confirmed to the weavers that ‘nul homme par tut le
counteefreit ne freit faire draps rayes ne de colour · forque en la dite cite & en altres certeyns
villes de les demeignes nostre dit seignour le Roy deinz mesme le counte sur forfaiture de
.x. lj devers nostre seignour le Roy; et pur cele fraunchises avoir les ditz Tistours Deverwyk’
 In tr od uction 5

graunterent rendre al Escheqer nostre seignour le Roy .x. li par an’ (no one throughout the
county shall make or cause to be made striped cloth nor coloured cloth, except in the said
city and in certain other towns in the demesne of our said lord the king, in the same county,
upon pain of forfeiture of ten pounds to our lord the king, and by that authority have the
said Weavers of York consented to give to the Exchequer of our lord the king ten pounds
per year). Their complaint is that foreign weavers from Brabant and elsewhere have been
granted relief of taxes and other charges, and the York weavers cannot afford to pay their
taxes and want a repeal of the privilege granted to foreigners.
Cloth and clothing also play telling parts in the one Old English epic and the romances
that we have included here. Many of the stories are told again and again, with differing
emphases on what the characters are wearing and varying glimpses of what seem to be the
fashions of the day. In some cases, an earlier fashion moment is carried over in the transla-
tion of a text from Anglo-French to Middle English, as we see in the various versions of
the Launfal story and the dress of his fairy mistress. As we might expect, the Anglo-Saxon
epic poem Beowulf (VII.1) is principally concerned with armour, and our extracts begin
with the question ‘Hwæt syndonge searohæbbendra/ byrnum werede, þe þus brontne
ceol/ ofer lagustræte lædan cwomon/ hider ofer holmas?’ (What are you armour-bearing
men, protected by mail coats, who in this way came bringing a steep ship over the sea-road,
here over the waters?). Armour also makes an appearance in the romances, notably in the
long scene of the arming of the hero in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (VII.15): on a cold
morning his chamberlain first ‘clad hym in his cloþez þe colde for to were,/ And syþen his
oþer harnays, þat holdely watz keped,/ Boþe his paunce and his platez, piked ful clene,/ Þe
ryngez rokked of þe roust of his riche bruny’ (dressed him in his clothes that would keep
out the cold, and then his other gear that had been kept carefully, both his belly protection
and his plate-armour, very brightly polished, the rings of his rich mail-coat burnished free
of rust). Armour occasionally plays a part in the plot in romance: in Sir Degrevant (VII.14),
we hear that ‘The Eorlus doughder beheld/ That borlich and bolde./ For he was armed so
clen./ [. . .] Was joy to behold’ (The earl’s daughter saw that stately and bold one for he
was so splendidly armed [. . .] he was a joy to see). As in the wills, clothing and fabrics in
romance signify wealth as seen in the gorgeous furnishings in Gawain’s bedroom at the
castle of Hautdesert: ‘þer beddyng watz noble,/ Of cortynes of clene sylk with cler golde
hemmez,/ And couertorez ful curious with comlych panez/ Of bryȝt blaunner aboue,
enbrawded bi sydez,/ Rudelez rennande on ropez, red golde ryngez,/ Tapitez tyȝt to þe
woȝe of tuly and tars,/ And vnder fete, on þeflet, of folȝande sute’ (there the furnishings for
the bed were magnificent: curtaining of elegant silk with bright gold borders and elaborate
coverlets with beautiful panels of pure white ermine, embroidered at the edges. Curtains
ran on cords through red-gold rings. Red Chinese silks hung on the walls, and underfoot
on the floor were more of matching material). Melidor’s bedroom in Sir Degrevant boasts
similar décor:
With testur and celure,
With a bryght bordure
Compasyd ful clene.
And all a storye as hyt was
Of Ydoyne and Amadas,