What Charlemagne’s Clothes Say about Him

Tags

Charlemagne, fashion, Franks, medieval, Middle Ages

Everything Charlemagne (748-814) did was political, right down to his choice of clothes. In The Life of Charlemagne, former courtier Einhard nicely has chapter called “Dress” and opens with, “He wore the national dress of the Franks.”

Einhard then provides this gem to historians and novelists everywhere:

“The trunk of his body was covered with a linen shirt, his thighs with linen pants. Over these, he put on a tunic trimmed in silk. The legs from the knee downward were wound with leggings, fastened around the calves with laces, and on his feet, he wore boots.  In winter, he protected his shoulders and chest with a vest made of otter skins or marten fur, and over that, he wrapped a blue cloak. He always carried a sword strapped to his side, and the hilt and the belt thereof were made of either silver or gold.”

The king also had a gold broach and a diadem. For special occasion or visits from foreign dignitaries, he had a jeweled sword. And during high festivals, he could wear golden cloth and jeweled boots.

“He disliked foreign clothes no matter how beautiful they were and would never allow himself to be dressed in them,” Einhard says.

From the ninth century Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (public domain image via Wikimedia Commons)

Charlemagne was sending a message by this choice: that he was a proud, patriotic Frank who submitted to no one but God.

In fact, he used fashion as a political weapon.  In 788, one of his conditions for freeing a hostage, the son of the late duke of Benevento, was that the southern Italian agree to shave his beard in the Frankish fashion. This was an apparently response to the rival Byzantine desire for a similar show of loyalty from the old duke.

Only twice did Charlemagne ever wear anything other than the Frankish costume, and it took two succeeding popes to convince him. They asked him to wear a long tunic, chlamys, and Roman shoes—the garb of an emperor. He later used that image on his coins, complete with a laurel wreath.

Sources

Einhard’s The Life of Charlemagne translated by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Edwin H. Zeydel

Carolingian Chronicles, which includes the Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories, translated by Bernard Walter Scholz with Barbara Rogers

Originally published July 24, 2012, at Unusual Historicals.

When Regency Boys Outgrow Dresses, It’s Time for Skeleton Suits

Tags

Boys Clothing, fashion, Regency, Regency daily life

It’s my pleasure to welcome Maria Grace back to Outtakes as she promotes her latest title, Twelfth Night at Longbourn, the fourth volume in the Given Good Principles series, a story about Kitty Bennet. Today, part two of two, Grace tells us about what boys wore when they outgrew their dresses. See yesterday’s post to learn what boys wore as infants and toddlers. – Kim

By Maria Grace

During the Regency, the point at which little boys stopped wearing dresses was called breeching and accompanied by a family ceremony.

Most boys were breeched about 4 years of age, several years earlier than their counterparts from the 1700s. Child rearing “experts,” though, argued for various ages, up to age 8.  They agreed though that a child’s size was a most important consideration. Boys who were small for their age or sickly might be breeched later. On the other hand, boys might be breeched earlier if there was concern that a parent might not live to see their son breeched.

Mothers were primarily responsible for the decision for their sons to be breeched. Fathers might exert some pressure, though, if the mother delayed the event too long.

Social class and standing would greatly influence the nature of the breeching ceremony. For the family with little means, it might be a simple affair or receiving hand-me-downs from an older brother. For the aristocracy, it might be an elaborate affair.

Exhibit in the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

During the Regency, the ceremony rarely took place on the little boy’s birthday. Rather, the convenience of extended family to attend the event might be the deciding factor for timing. If the child was the heir of an upper class family, the ceremony was likely to take place at the family’s country estate rather than in a town home. Extended family and close friends, like the child’s godparents, would be invited to attend.

In preparation for the ceremony, a mother would have at least one new suit of clothes made, assuming she had the means. Otherwise, hand-me-downs might be refreshed for the boy. Cotton or linen shirts, sashes, formal garments, and outerwear might also be acquired. Accessories like hats, gloves, stockings, and shoes could round out a little boy’s new wardrobe.

No single form existed for the breeching ceremony. Family and friends present, the little boy would make an appearance in his dress, then be led away behind a screen or to another room to change, with assistance, into his first set of distinctive male clothing.  In some cases a barber might be present to give him his first masculine haircut. The shorn curls might be given to attendees as mementoes of the event.

Refreshments would be served when the newly minted young man returned in his new clothes. Well-wishers might slip coins or banknotes into his pockets as they congratulated him on his new status.

 Skeleton Suits

A skeleton suit, one of those straight blue cloth cases in which small boys used to be confined before belts and tunics had come in … An ingenious contrivance for displaying the symmetry of a boy’s figure by fastening him into a very tight jacket, with an ornamental row of buttons over each shoulder and then buttoning his trousers over it so as to give his legs the appearance of being hooked on just under his arm pits. (Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 1838-39.)

The Basket of Cherries, by E.W. Gill, 1828

At the end of the 1700s upper and middle class boys typically wore a skeleton suit after they were breeched and would continue in these garments until around the age of 11. These suits featured a high button waist, long pantaloons, rather than the knee breeches worn by older men, and jackets adorned with many buttons. A blouse with an open, often elaborate collar was worn under the jacket which might be buttoned to the pants to help hold them up. Young boys might also wear pantalettes underneath with a trim or frills showing at the ankles.

Skeletons suits were cut close to the body but with far more ease in the cut than the skin tight breeches and coats worn by men. Thus, though boys today would likely find them very uncomfortable, boys of the era would consider them neither tight nor constricting.

The blouses for the suits were typically white and made of linen or cotton. For every day wear, the pants and jackets might be made of yellow-brown nankeen or other sturdy washable fabrics. Into the 19th century, improved dyeing techniques allowed fabrics to be more colorfast, thus more colorful skeleton suits appeared. During the Regency, dark blue was a favorite color, especially for more formal suits made of silks or velvet.

By Antonio Carnicero, circa 1798-1802

On special occasions, boys might wear a round straw hat with a brim, and a wide ribbon band or a military style cap. Colorful sashes might also be added to the skeleton suits, tied in large poufy bows around the waist or over the shoulder. To finish their ensemble, boys would wear plain white stockings and flat shoes with a single strap over the instep, typically in black.

Little boys were permitted more latitude in their dress than adult men, particularly when out of the public eye. At times they were permitted to go without the jacket, presumably with some other mechanism to help hold up their pants.  Some sources suggest some suits had midcalf length trousers and short or no sleeves. These were likely reserved for country wear, especially during warmer weather. It is also possible that in summer, skeleton suits might be worn without a shirt at all on very informal occasions.

Detail of fashion plate from Petit Courier des Dames, 1841

A fashion conscious mother could keep up with trends in children’s clothing starting in a 1779 edition of the Lady’s Magazine, which devoted a small section to children’s clothes. These fashion plates started with girls’ clothes only, but by the Regency, boy’s clothes were included as well, since the same seamstresses who made ladies’ clothes also made little boy’s clothes.  Children’s fashion illustrations did not appear frequently though. This irregularity had the effect of slowing the pace of change of children’s clothing, since there were fewer references available for new designs.

By 1840, skeleton suits were considered old fashioned and fell out of favor. However, their popularity as children’s wear influenced men’s fashion in the following years. Since the boys who wore skeleton suits did not associate long trousers with working class garb as their fathers did, but rather with comfortable clothing for both casual and formal wear, when they came of age, they did not want to trade in their comfortable trousers for the skin tight, restrictive knee breeches their fathers wore. So trousers rose in status and esteem, and breeches slowly fell out of fashion.

Previously: Boys in dresses and other quirks of Regency children’s fashions.

Public domain images via Wikimedia Commons

References

“A Lady of Distinction,” Regency Etiquette, the Mirror of Graces (1811). R.L. Shep Publications (1997)

Barreto, Cristina and Lancaster, Martin. Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion. Skira (2010)

Brooke, Iris. English Children’s Costume 1775-1920. Dover Publications Inc. (2003)

Davidoff, Leonore and Hall, Catherine. Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850. Routledge (2002)

Dickens, Charles. Sketches by Boz (1838-39)

Historic Boy’s Clothing

Kane, Kathryn. “Of Hanging Sleeves and Leading Strings,” Regency Redingote. January 20, 2012

Kane, Kathryn. “Regency Baby Clothes: Blue for Boys, ??? for Girls,” Regency Redingote. June 8 2012

Kane, Kathryn. “Boy to Man: The Breeching Ceremony,” Regency Redingote. August 31, 2012

Kane, Kathryn. “Portent of Pantaloons: The Skeleton Suit,” Regency Redingote. April 27, 2012

Kelly, Ian. Beau Brummell, The Ultimate Man of Style. Free Press (2006)

Sanborn, Vic. “The well-dressed Regency boy wore a skeleton suit,” Jane Austen’s World. August 17, 2009

Selbie, Robert. The Anatomy of Costume. Crescent Books (1977)

Selwyn, David. Jane Austen and Children. Continuum Books (2010)

Shoemaker, Robert B. Gender in English Society 1650-1850. Pearson Education Limited (1998)

Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was 10 years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful. She has one husband, two graduate degrees and two black belts, three sons, four undergraduate majors, five nieces, six cats, seven Regency-era fiction projects, and notes for eight more writing projects in progress. To round out the list, she cooks for nine in order to accommodate the growing boys and usually makes 10 meals at a time so she only cooks twice a month.

Connect with her by e-mail at author [dot] MariaGrace [at] gmail [dot] com, Facebook at facebook.com/AuthorMariaGrace, Amazon at amazon.com/author/mariagrace, her website Random Bits of Fascination, and Twitter @WriteMariaGrace.

Little Boys in Dresses? Typical Apparel in the 1800s

Tags

Boys Clothing, Children's Clothing, fashion, Regency, Regency daily life

It’s my pleasure to welcome Maria Grace back to Outtakes as she promotes her latest title, Twelfth Night at Longbourn, the fourth volume in the Given Good Principles series, a story about Kitty Bennet. Today, part one of two, Grace introduces us to young boys’ apparel, which included dresses. Tomorrow, Grace will tell us about what boys wore when they outgrew those dresses. – Kim

By Maria Grace

Along with the political and social changes of the 1800s, dramatic changes in fashion ushered in the turn of the century as well. These changes not only encompassed adult styles, but the clothes worn by children saw large alterations, moving away from stiff and restrictive imitations of adult fashions to much freer, more comfortable clothing conducive to play. Two of the most distinct changes were dresses for little boys and skeleton suits for slightly older boys.

Infant Clothes

By Fritz von Dardel, 1843

During the Regency, the majority of garments for infants and babies, whether swaddling bands for the first few months of life or simple gowns worn thereafter, were typically linen or cotton, either white or unbleached natural color cloth, possibly trimmed with colored ribbons. These ribbons would be chosen to the mother’s tastes, not restricted to blue for boys and pink for girls as would be seen much later in the century.

In wealthier families, babies had some “good” clothes to wear while being shown off to visiting family and friends. Typically these garments would be colored or trimmed in ways that would not stand up as well to the harsh laundry techniques of the day, so they would be worn sparingly.

During this era, parents felt little need to identify a small child’s gender by their clothing. Those personally acquainted with the family would already know the child’s gender, and for those who did not know the family that well, it was none of their business. Moreover, very young children rarely appeared in public. The age at which children began to be seen outside the house coincided with the age at which they would begin to wear gender differentiated clothing.

Family portrait Anna Ivanovna Tolstoy, by Angelica Kauffman, 1790s

One distinctive feature of infant clothing still present in the early 1800s was leading strings.  Leading strings were the fashion decedents of the hanging sleeves of the Middle Ages. They were attached to the back of children’s garments when the child began to move independently.

Leading strings might be sewn into individual garments when a family could afford multiple sets.  For those of lesser means a single set could be pinned onto different garments. They could be used as a horse’s reins to guide the child during the process of learning to walk. This approach was most prevalent in the upper classes.

For middle and lower class women who enjoyed less help from servants, leading strings might be used more as a leash to limit a child’s movement. The strings could be fastened to a bed-post or heavy piece of furniture while indoors or something immobile like a fence or tree while outside.

Though this might be an uncomfortable idea to modern parents, in a world where child safety measures were largely nonexistent, these methods could help keep a child safe while their mother’s attention was diverted elsewhere. Leading strings were usually removed when children learned to walk well, certainly by age 3 or 4.

Boys in Dresses

Portrait of William Henry Meyrick, by John Hoppner, c. 1793

Before learning to walk, babies wore long gowns that extended beyond their feet. Once out of infancy (walking age), both boys and girls were “shortcoated,” clothed in ankle length dresses. The early 19th century saw almost no difference between dresses for little boys and little girls.  Little boys might wear their sisters’ hand-me-downs and vice-versa. Dresses might be made of chintz or printed cottons. They were worn with small white caps, sashes and petticoats or long ruffled pantaloons.

Though it is difficult for the modern observer to wrap their minds around dressing little boys like little girls, the fact was that dresses were considered children’s wear, not little girls’ clothes.  Children’s dresses were distinct from women’s garments, so to the eye of the person in context, it was not a matter of boys in women’s garments. On a more practical note, in the days before disposable diapers and washing machines, dresses were much more practical garments for children who were not toilet trained.

Tomorrow: When boys outgrow their dresses and are old enough to be breeched.

Public domain images via Wikimedia Commons

References

“A Lady of Distinction,” Regency Etiquette, the Mirror of Graces (1811). R.L. Shep Publications (1997)

Barreto, Cristina and Lancaster, Martin. Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion. Skira (2010)

Brooke, Iris. English Children’s Costume 1775-1920. Dover Publications Inc. (2003)

Davidoff, Leonore and Hall, Catherine. Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850. Routledge (2002)

Dickens, Charles. Sketches by Boz (1838-39)

Historic Boy’s Clothing 

Kane, Kathryn. “Of Hanging Sleeves and Leading Strings,” Regency Redingote. January 20, 2012

Kane, Kathryn. “Regency Baby Clothes: Blue for Boys, ??? for Girls,” Regency Redingote. June 8 2012

Kane, Kathryn. “Boy to Man: The Breeching Ceremony,” Regency Redingote. August 31, 2012

Kane, Kathryn.  “Portent of Pantaloons: The Skeleton Suit,” Regency Redingote. April 27, 2012

Kelly, Ian. Beau Brummell, The Ultimate Man of Style. Free Press (2006)

Sanborn, Vic. “The well-dressed Regency boy wore a skeleton suit,” Jane Austen’s World. August 17, 2009

Selbie, Robert. The Anatomy of Costume. Crescent Books (1977)

Selwyn, David. Jane Austen and Children. Continuum Books (2010)

Shoemaker, Robert B. Gender in English Society 1650-1850.  Pearson Education Limited (1998)

Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was 10 years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful. She has one husband, two graduate degrees and two black belts, three sons, four undergraduate majors, five nieces, six cats, seven Regency-era fiction projects, and notes for eight more writing projects in progress. To round out the list, she cooks for nine in order to accommodate the growing boys and usually makes 10 meals at a time so she only cooks twice a month.

Connect with her by e-mail at author [dot] MariaGrace [at] gmail [dot] com, Facebook at facebook.com/AuthorMariaGrace, Amazon at amazon.com/author/mariagrace, her website Random Bits of Fascination, and Twitter @WriteMariaGrace.

Charlemagne’s Clothes: A Political Statement

Tags

Charlemagne, clothing, fashion, Franks, medieval, Middle Ages

And today we think wearing a flag pin is patriotic. Charlemagne used his whole outfit to express his national pride.

In The Life of Charlemagne, Einhard says the monarch “wore the national dress of the Franks” and “disliked foreign clothes no matter how beautiful they were and would never allow himself to be dressed in them.”

Visit Unusual Historicals to find out the message Charlemagne was conveying with his choice of clothes and when he made exception to foreign garb (hint: it has something to do with the ninth-century coin below).

A coin with Charles’s image from late in his reign (by PHGCOM, CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons)

When Artistry Trumps Accuracy

Tags

age of charlemagne, clothing, fashion, Heraldic Chivalry, Historical Fiction, historical novelists, medieval, Middle Ages

My inner stickler for accuracy is sulking, a rather hard thing for someone whose day job includes occasionally grilling people about whether information is correct. I’m sorry, I tell my inner stickler, historical accuracy would be perfect if you were a scholar, but you’re not. You’re a novelist. Of course, you do research to accurately portray the people and their times, but you also tell lies to improve the story. It’s fiction after all.

So is the banner on this blog, which is from Heraldic Chivalry by Alphonse Mucha, 1860-1939 (full image below).

My forthcoming novel, The Cross and the Dragon, is a love story with a twist set in the earlier years of Charlemagne’s reign, the 770s to be a little more specific.

The armor and clothing in this painting are not at all eighth century. The armor eighth-century warriors used is uncertain, but it could have been a leather jerkin with tiny metal plates. Uncomfortably heavy, most warriors would not wear it unless they had to, as in an enemy soldier charging at you with a sword.

Excavation of a Frankish grave revealed a high-born lady wearing a red silk gown with gold-embroidered sleeves over a purple tunic, along with jewelry and a red satin veil secured by gold pins.

And don’t get me started on the side saddle, which was invented centuries later. A horsewoman friend of mine pointed out the lady’s hands are in the air and her horse is flinging its head in an ungainly way.

So why choose this image, even though it doesn’t depict the eighth century, for the banner on my blog, website (kimrendfeld.com), Facebook fan page, and my Twitter page? To a casual observer, it says medieval and transports the viewer to a different time and place. But more importantly, it’s beautiful, with vibrant reds contrasting the greens.

It’s also proof that sometimes artistry must trump accuracy.

Sources:

Daily Life in the Age of Charlemagne, 2002, John J. Butt
“Carolingian Arms and Armor in the Ninth Century,” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vol.21, 1990, Simon Coupland