What Not to Wear, by Elizabeth I

A decree issued by Queen Elizabeth I in 1597 details what people should and should not wear. The decree is very elaborate.
For men:
"Her Majesty doth straightly charge and command that none shall wear in his apparel cloth of gold or silver tissued, silk of colour purple, under the decree of an Earl, except Knights of the Garter in their purple robes only.
None shall wear cloth of gold or silver, tinselled satin, silk or cloth mixed or embroidered with gold or silver, woollen cloth made out of the realm under the degree of a baron, except Knights of the Garter, Privy Counsellors to the Queen's Majesty."

As for women, Elizabeth felt that only countesses could wear cloth of gold or silver tissued, or purple silk, except viscountesses who were allowed to wear cloth of gold or silver tissued in their kirtles only.

Every rank had its own particular way of dressing, textiles that only they could wear.
The poor wore coarse woollen garments...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Do you know if it's true what I read in a not particularly trustworthy book - it said Claudius choked to death on a feather without a word about the likelihood he was poisoned by Agrippina - that it was common in Elizabethan times for women including the Queen to wear dresses exposing the breasts completely?
Sunday, 10 July, 2005
Anonymous said…
Women wore dresses of that kind in the late 14th and early 15th centuries; I don't know if they were still around by Queen Elisabeth's time
Sunday, 10 July, 2005
Anna said…
Claudius used to tickle his throat with a feather in order to vomit after having eaten a particluarly large meal. This was done by many rich Romans for the purpose of making space in the stomach for more food. Thus they could eat and drink for hours on end. This however is not how Claudius died. See my recent post.
As for the dresses you refer to, I do not think they were in vogue in Elizabethan times were being buttoned up to the neck was the thing to do and top it all with an extremelly uncomfortable ruff around the neck. However, it is said that Elizabeth I wore a disconcertingly low neckline at times because she was a virgin. Of course what was low for those days usualy meant yopu could see a bit of cleavage.
Sunday, 10 July, 2005
Anna said…
Had some problems posting on Blogger last night, so bear with me...
Monday, 11 July, 2005
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Catherine the Great and her Many Lovers

Image
Catherine the Great was empress of Russia from 1762 until she died in 1796. She was born in 1729 in Poland and in 1744 was taken to Russia to marry the young Grand Duke Peter, heir to the throne and not of a sane mind. For seven years during their marriage Peter spent his time playing with toy soldiers and dogs and showed no interest in sex. In fact he had a physical disability, a very tight foreskin, which may have played an important part in that matter. Finally the empress Elizabeth gave Catherine the permission to take a lover, which she did and was soon pregnant. She convinced Peter it was his own child, as was the plan anyway. In the meantime he had been circumcised so that he could perform the sexual act. Catherine developed a taste for young soldiers. She had a special area built in her bedroom, which was curtained off and where she received her lovers. Gregory Orlov was her on and off lover for around thirteen years. He was said to possess excellent equipment, unbelievable ‘st...
Read more

Emperor Elagabalus; the Teenage Pervert

Image
When the emperor Caracalla was murdered in 217, the fourteen-year-old Elagabalus succeeded him. He only ruled for 4 years, but in that short period of time he commited a variety of grotesque and debauched acts, enough to make Caligula and Commodus seem rather plain. His real name was Bassianus but as he developed an intense interest in worshippng the Syrian god Elagabal, became High Priest of the cult and so had his name changed to Elagabalus. To honor his god, he demanded that hundereds of cattle were slaughtered daily on huge sacrificial altars. He had a temple built on the Palatine Hill and ordered the Romans to worship a statue of a giant phallus, which didn't go down very well at all... Eventually he decided he was the god embodied. He started to wear women's clothes and make-up, implored his surgeons to cut his penis off and make him a vagina and when they said tehy could not do this he settled for circumcision. His body is said to have been very effeminate and he had a m...
Read more

The Smelly Woad Dyers

Image
Woad leaves Before Indigo was imported from the East in the 16th Century, the only source of rich blue dye was Woad, Isatis Tinctoria, a plant which is a member of the cabbage family and which was brought to Britain by the Celts. They called it Glasto, hence Glastonbury, which means ‘a place where woad grows’. The process by which the dye was extracted was lengthy and very smelly indeed, (think combination of raw sewage and rotten cabbage) and the people who did this work, woad dyers, were outcasts of society, since they smelt so much. As a result they were isolated and inbred. There was no way of hiding if you were a woad dyer as even if you washed yourself really well to remove the stench, the blue dye could be seen on your fingers and under your fingernails. Queen Elizabeth I, not being able to stand the stench from their workshops, decreed that woad dyers should be at least 5 miles away from wherever she was staying. As it took 50 kilos of woad in order to produce 5 kilos of pigme...
Read more