Quilting and fringes could also be worked into the cloth to provide added decoration. Silk, silver, and gold threads were regularly used, and jewels were sometimes sewn into the patterns. In the earlier Middle Ages much embroidery thread was made and dyed with local materials by the eleventh century embroiderers used costly imported materials. The threads and materials used varied greatly. The designs could be quite elaborate and specific to a profession as well while robes for a clergyman might have the story of Christ’s life embroidered on them, court robes for nobles could be decorated with hunting scenes or heraldic devices. Embroidery decorated capes, hats, money pouches, and even shoes. This idea carried over into noble clothing. By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries embroidered wall hangings and bedclothes were important marks of noble status. To supply the demand for ornate clothes and linens professional embroiderers increased in number during the course of the Middle Ages. For example, in the eleventh century when King Canute of England presented altar cloths embroidered by his wife to the abbeys of Croy-land and Romsey, clergymen and nobles throughout his kingdom saw it as a sign of royal favor for those abbeys. Embroidery was considered an appropriate occupation for noblewomen throughout the era, and embroideries produced by the wives and daughters of high-ranking men could have powerful symbolic value when presented as gifts. One way of decorating clothing in the Middle Ages was to embroider it. Tailored clothes of the finest material and with the most costly decorations shouted a noble’s status and aspirations, and men and women alike had an extensive knowledge of the quality and cost of various kinds of cloth.Įmbroidery. Clothing was particularly important to a noble because of the value placed on display. At the highest levels of society and during royal or ecclesiastical ceremonies, clothing might even be encrusted with jewels or embroidered with precious metals. In the early fourteenth century buttons were employed as both decoration and fasteners, which allowed for a tailored fit. Lacings were also used to make clothing fit more closely to the body. Some nobles, men and women, went so far as to have themselves pinned into pieces of their garments to make them as close-fitting as possible. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, even court clothing followed patterns similar to peasant clothes yet, by the twelfth century fitted clothing had come into styleįor the aristocracy. When a piece of clothing faded, nobles had it re-dyed or gave it to an underling and commissioned a new garment. Nobles were able to afford more elaborate dyes, and there is some evidence that their clothing was more colorful and that the colors lasted longer than those in peasants’ clothes. Even when they were woolen, however, cloaks and other clothes were lined with luxurious furs for warmth ermine and sable were two of the most prestigious furs. Silks, velvets, and other luxury fabrics were staples of nobles’ wardrobes, although nobles might have their everyday clothes made from wool or linen. Basic clothing for aristocrats was based on the same patterns as that of villagers and craftsmen, but it was made of more valuable materials and had more intricate detailing and decoration. These changes affected only the greatest castles and their lords yet, the development of this noble, court culture was a distinctive feature of the later Middle Ages.Ĭlothing the Lord and Lady. At the same time nobles became less itinerant, and powerful lords increasingly divided their time among only a few residences, except when they were needed elsewhere for political considerations. More outbuildings were constructed in castle yards to supply more goods and services, and the number of castle servants was increasing. As the seats of noble courts, the largest castles were becoming more elaborate as well. The castles of the highest nobility during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries became increasingly luxurious, and, by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, noble culture was becoming increasingly formal and complex. Lords and Ladies: Court Culture and FashionĬastles Are Transformed.
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