REIGNS OF CHARLES VI. AND CHARLES VII.
1380 TO 1461.
Taste in dress becomes purer—Heart-shaped head-coverings,
the “cornette,” and the “hennin” in the reign of Charles
VI.—Husbands complain—Preachers denounce—Thomas Connecte
declaims against the diabolic invention—Brother Richard tries
to reform it—The “hennin” gains the victory—Costume of Jeanne
de Bourbon—“Escoffion”—An absurd figure—Gravouère—Isabeau
de Bavière—Gorgiasetés—Tripes—Splendour of the court—Agnes
Sorel—“Coiffe adournée;” diamonds; the carcan—Walking-sticks.
It is a curious fact, of more frequent occurrence than might be imagined,
but the terrible Hundred Years’ War, which cost so much French and
English blood, in nowise diminished women’s passion for dress and
fashion, whims and extravagance of all kinds.
It must even be acknowledged that this melancholy period of our history
was remarkable for the splendour of its fashions.
From the time of the Capets there had been much variation in dress and in
luxury. The taste of the nation was stimulated and improved by foreign
importations. Emblazoned garments had become a thing of the past.
In the reigns of Charles V. and Charles VI. especially caprice began to
play an important part in the dress of women. The “beguins,” or hoods,
were changed at first into high heart-shaped head-gear, with two wide
wings fastened to the head with wire and bearing a strong resemblance to
the sails of a windmill. Next, the heart-shapes having been criticized
by the clergy were transformed into “hennins,” the _nec plus ultra_ of
fashion, and were of a most prodigious height.
Very different from the masculine head-gear bearing the same name was
the “cornette” or “hennin” worn by women. This was a kind of two-horned
head-dress, with horns about a yard high, which was introduced into
France by Isabeau de Bavière, the wife of Charles VI. The “hennins” were
made of lawn stiffly starched and kept in shape by fine wire, but were of
less exaggerated size.
Such a novelty was irresistible; all the ladies eagerly copied the
Queen, and vied with each other as to who should wear the most handsome
head-gear, “peaked like a steeple,” says Paradin, and the tallest
horns. From these horns there hung like flags, crape, fringe, and other
materials, falling over the shoulders. Such head-dresses were naturally
very expensive, and husbands were loud in complaint. Matrons and maidens
alike “went to great excesses, and wore horns marvellously high and
large, having great wings on either side, of such width, that when they
would enter a door it was impossible for them to pass through it.”
The height of the hennins was so great that a small woman looked at a
distance like a moving pillar.
In mourning, however, the cornette was rolled round the throat and thrown
backwards.
“Never, perhaps,” observes Viollet-le-Duc, “did extravagance in head-gear
reach such a pitch with the fair sex as during those melancholy years
from 1400 to 1450; the hair itself formed but a small part of the
head-dress; hoods, couvre-chefs, chapels, horns, cornettes, hennins,
twists, knots, frémillets, and chains were built up into the most
extraordinary edifices.”
Yet it was far worse than all this in England, where eccentricity and
caprice reached a height never attained at the French court.
Confessors in France, and monks especially, added their animadversions to
those of grumbling husbands. They considered the “hennin” as an invention
of the Evil One, and a deadly warfare against the obnoxious article was
soon organized.
In 1428 a Breton monk, named Thomas Connecte, preached throughout
Flanders, Artois, Picardy, and the neighbouring provinces. He travelled
from town to town, riding on a small mule and followed by a crowd
of disciples on foot. On reaching his destination he said mass on a
platform expressly prepared for him, then he preached against non-juring
priests, the “hennins” of great ladies, and also against gamblers,
calling upon the latter to burn their draught-boards and chess-boards,
cards, ninepins, and dice. He called on children to help him, frequently
shouting out the first, by way of example, “_au hennin!_” whenever he
caught sight of any woman wearing a high head-dress in the streets; and
if she failed to find a speedy refuge in some house she was soon covered
with mud, dragged in the gutter, and sometimes severely wounded.
Connecte was looked upon by the people as an admirable reformer, but he
failed to reform the head-gear of women; victory remained with the hennin.
Another monk, a Franciscan, one Brother Richard, followed in the steps
of Connecte the Carmelite. On the 16th April, 1429, he began a course
of sermons at the Abbey Church of St. Geneviève, which lasted till
April 26th. He ascended the pulpit at five in the morning, and remained
there until ten or eleven o’clock. He, too, endeavoured to reform the
dress of women and their towering head-gear. His discourses occasioned
some disturbances. After the tenth sermon Brother Richard received his
dismissal from the Governor of Paris.
It could not be said that the holy men preached in the desert, for
wheresoever they lifted up their voices there were large audiences, and
for a time the obnoxious hennins disappeared; but only for a time. “The
ladies,” wrote Guillaume Paradin, the historian, “imitate the snails who
draw in their horns, and when the danger is over put them out farther
than ever; and in like manner hennins were never more extravagant than
after the departure of Brother Thomas Connecte.”
Finally, whether their husbands spoke on behalf of economy, or their
priests appealed to the decrees of the Church, victory remained with the
women. They only gave up the hennins from a caprice similar to that which
had invented them.
No one will expect to find Frenchwomen more constant or more economical
in dress than their husbands. In the reign of Charles V., beauty had
already asserted its claims, and coquetry filled the heart of women who
sought for admiration. They gave up the fashions of the Middle Ages,
and uncovered their bosoms; in addition to hennins they wore padded
head-dresses with horns, or pieces of stuff cut out and laid one upon the
other like the petals of a flower.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century, scalloped sleeves were
attached to the corsets, or rather to the bodices, which were separated
from the skirt behind, ending in a horizontal fold on the hips, while in
front they were ungirdled, and reached down to the feet. These bodices
were cut very low in the neck: the shoulders were slightly covered by a
hood.
Jeanne de Bourbon, the wife of Charles V., wore “royal robes wide and
flowing, _en sambues pontificales_, that they call ‘chapes’ or copes,
that is, mantles of gold or silk covered with jewels.” The wives of
barons wore earrings, “outrageous toes to their shoes, and they seemed to
be sewn up in their too scanty garments.”
The expression “too scanty” was probably applied to the mantilla
introduced by Queen Jeanne, and which was called a “corset.” The mantilla
reached to the waist both in front and behind; in winter it was made of
fur, and in summer of cloth or of silk; it had a sort of busk covered
with gold braid, and matched in colour the borders of the surcoat, thus
relieving the monotony of the lines as well as the sameness of colouring.
Those ladies who wore trains to the skirts of their surcoats, used to
tuck them up for walking. The surcoat, in fact, was very similar to a
gown, and its dimensions soon became so enormous, that, as we learn from
Christine de Pisan, a man-milliner of Paris made a “cotte hardie” for a
lady in Gâtinais, in which were five yards, long measure, of Brussels
cloth. The train lay three-quarters of a yard on the ground, and the
sleeves fell to the feet. This, no doubt, was an expensive costume. There
were women whose surcoats were longer than themselves by a full yard.
They were obliged “to carry the trains thereof over their arms, and
there were long cuffs to their surcoats hanging to the elbows, and their
busts were raised high up.”
The fashions of head-dresses changed from bare heads to crépines, and
coifs with tow underneath, and stuffed “à l’escoffion,” a sort of padded
beretta. The name “escoffion” became afterwards popularly used for the
head-dress of the women of the lower orders, or the peasant-women,
or that of women with their hair badly done. The fishwomen, when
quarrelling, had a trick of tearing off each other’s escoffions.
At the same period, the most absurd adjuncts to dress were daily
invented, causing that charming poet, Eustache Deschamps, to exclaim,—
“Atournez-vous, mesdames, autrement,
Sans emprunter tant de barribouras,”[7] &c.
In the reign of Charles VI., the houppelande was the fundamental article
of women’s attire, but passing from one extravagance to another, they at
last adopted the strange fashion of giving an abnormal development to the
front of the figure! This continued in fashion for forty years.
In the Charvet Collection there is an earring of the fifteenth century,
ornamented with a polyedrus in incrusted purple glass. We still possess
framed rings (_bagues chevalières_) and other ornaments of that period,
and, in particular, one silver-gilt medal in the shape of a heart; on the
reverse the Virgin and St. Catherine are represented in mother-of-pearl.
Enamelled gems were much in vogue among the nobility during the reign
of Charles VI. There were also enamels of flowers, insects, domestic
animals, and small ornamented human figures, initials, and mottoes.
A little instrument was invented for parting the hair. It was a sort
of stiletto or bodkin called a “gravouère,” generally made of ivory or
crystal, and sometimes mounted in gold. It remained in use as an article
of the toilet during the whole of the Middle Ages.
The custom of wearing bracelets and necklaces dates so far back as the
reign of Charles VI., when Isabeau de Bavière introduced the fashion of
trinkets. They were called “gorgiasetés” in the language of the day, and
it used to be said of persons whose dress exceeded the limits of decorum,
that they dressed “gorgiasement.” Isabeau also patronized very long
trained gowns, and mantles with trains, carried by ladies’-maids or pages.
This custom still prevails at court; likewise liveries of certain colours
to distinguish all the household of great nobles. Liveries, which had
already existed for several centuries, became much more prevalent in the
reign of Charles VI.
The “cotte hardie” was long and flowing, but was confined at the waist,
partially revealing the outline of the figure. It was lined with rich
fur. As the surcoat concealed the cotte everywhere except at the sleeves,
the latter were tucked up very high by the wearers so as to display the
valuable material of the “cotte hardie.” They also made an opening in the
surcoat in order to show the girdle. Sermons were vainly preached against
the latter fashion.
Isabeau de Bavière, the sovereign arbiter of dress, had fanciful tastes
which became law to other ladies, both in the matter of head-gear and of
toilet generally.
There appeared successively the “tripe,” a sort of light jockey cap made
of knitted silk; the “atour,” stuffed with tow; and, lastly, head-dresses
of such towering height that the ceilings in the Castle of Vincennes,
then a royal abode, were raised to enable the ladies to move about in
comfort and safety.
It was of course absolutely necessary to be beautiful, to attract
admiration, to dazzle the crowd, to make use of every device to prove
that universal homage was both deserved and obtained. To this end
therefore the French ladies heaped ornament upon ornament. Beautiful
prayer-books were in general use, and indeed formed an integral portion
of fashionable attire:—
“Heures me fault de Nostre-Dame,
Si comme il appartient à fame (femme)
Venue de noble paraige,
Qui soient de soutil (subtil) ouvraige,
D’or et d’azur, riches et cointes,
Bien ordonnées et bien pointes,
De fin drap d’or très bien couvertes;
Et quand elles seront ouvertes,
Deux fermaux d’or qui fermeront,”[8] &c.
These prayer-books were carried in cases suspended to the arm or waist.
Until the reign of Charles VI. the under-garments of Frenchwomen were of
coarse stuff or serge, that is, of woollen material.
Isabeau de Bavière was the first to wear a linen chemise; she possessed,
however, two only. The fine ladies of the fifteenth century naturally
imitated her, and in order to show that they wore linen under-garments,
they made openings in their gown sleeves that the chemise might be seen;
they even opened their skirts on the hips in order to display the length
of the chemise; and they ended by having those garments made of fine
linen only in the parts visible to the public, the rest was in coarse
stuff or serge. Linen chemises were regarded as luxuries until the time
of Louis XI. They were called “robes-linges.”
In the reign of Charles VI., the dress of servant-maids was generally
composed of three pieces; a bodice of one colour, a tucked up skirt of
another, and a petticoat with a kilted flounce at the edge, such as are
worn at the present time. The hair was covered with a kind of cap “à la
musulmane.”
Such is the costume we find represented in the miniatures of the latter
period of the fourteenth century.
Every one knows what evil times had befallen our country under Charles
VI. The English were masters of a great part of France, at the time
that Charles VII. ascended the throne and was called in mockery “King
of Bourges.” That affront was wiped out by Joan of Arc. At that period,
Fashion was confined for a long time within narrow limits; but no sooner
had France returned to her normal state, than the court of Charles VII.
displayed a magnificence of which the sovereign set the example on the
occasion of his entry into Rouen. He rode a palfrey caparisoned in blue
velvet, embroidered with gold lilies, and the “chanfrein,” or nose-piece,
was of plates of solid gold with ostrich plumes.
The beautiful Agnes Sorel was as much devoted to splendour as Isabeau de
Bavière. Certain changes began to take place in women’s dress. We meet
with trailing gowns, high head-dresses in great variety, splendid stuffs,
lace, gloves, mittens, rings, and necklaces, towards the middle of the
fifteenth century; and with sundry additions of a still more extravagant
nature; with conical hats of which our Cauchoises have retained the
shape, and the “coiffe adournée,” a cylinder or tube diminishing in size
towards the top, where it either terminated in a flat crown, or curved
over towards the back and hung down like a veil.
Agnes Sorel, famous both for wit and beauty, acted as it were the part
of a queen. All women were led by her in the matter of dress, and this
brilliant creature, surnamed the “Lady of Beauty,” began to adorn herself
in the most magnificent costumes. If we may believe a chronicler of those
times, her “train was a third longer than that of any princess in the
kingdom, her head-gear higher, her gowns more numerous and costly,” and
her bosom bare to the waist.
She is thus represented by a painter of the time, whose portrait of
her may be seen in the Historical Gallery of Versailles. The fashions
introduced by the “Lady of Beauty,” were indecorous in other respects
besides that of uncovering the shoulders. Display became excessive under
her auspices; she was the first to wear diamonds in the hair, and it is
said also that she first endeavoured to get them cut with facets. Her
heavy and splendid diamond necklace she called “my carcan.”[9]
Isabelle de Portugal wore a necklace from which hung a locket. The
necklace was of pearls strung on gold thread.
In the fifteenth century the scarlet coat of a duke or baron cost twenty
livres the ell (about 400 francs of our coinage). Two ells and a half
were necessary for a very sumptuous coat, which therefore cost 1000
francs; it lasted however for several years. Cloth of gold cost ninety
livres the ell (1800 francs).
This gives us some idea of the cost of clothes in general.
Women’s gowns required a greater quantity of material, because of their
greater length. A lady who had neither page nor handmaiden to carry her
train, was obliged to fold it across her arm. Certain dresses, “à quinze
tuyaux” (or fifteen-fluted), fell in stiff tubes round the skirt, like
the pipes of an organ. On horseback women wore shorter gowns, called
“robes courtes à chevaucher.”
Many women of rank carried at that period light walking-sticks of
valuable wood, with handles ornamented with the image of a bird. In
place of mittens they wore violet-scented gloves, which were, according
to Olivier de la Marche, imported from Spain. Towards the end of the
fifteenth century, kid and silk gloves were in fashion, with gold and
silver embroidery on the back. It was indecorous to give one’s hand
gloved to any one, or to wear gloves for dancing. In France at the
present time the contrary is our custom.
Women made use of fans at church to disperse the flies. Their fans were
ordinarily made of feathers, peacocks’ feathers in particular.
The Queen of France astonished the Parisians by driving about among them
in a swinging chariot of great splendour, that she had received as a
present from the King of Hungary. For a long time she was the only woman
in France who possessed such a vehicle.
The court was beginning to decree official costumes of ceremony. Fashion
had now founded her absolute rule.
During the whole of the Middle Ages fair hair alone was considered
beautiful. On this point the French and the ancient Greeks were of one
mind. Homer has described the fair hair of Aphrodite, Hera, and Pallas
Athene; in like manner our ancient poets describe their heroines as
blonde beauties, and they invented the word “blondoyer,” to become, or
to grow fair-haired. This fashion must have led to the manufacture of
enormous quantities of false hair.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Charles VIII 1483 to 1498
Louis XII 1498 to 1515]