Dr Kat and Historical Headwear

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome this is reading the past and i'm dr kat and today i'm discussing a topic that has been heavily requested in my comment sections both here on youtube and on my social media and it's to do with headwear i think this discussion and request all started after i made a video about a year ago on the mystery surrounding the death of amy dudley also known by her name before marriage amy robsart i will of course leave that video linked in the card in a text entitled lester's commonwealth we are told that at her death amy dudley had been able to quote break her neck but yet without hurting her hood which stood upon her head perhaps this assertion should be taken with a pinch of salt because the text it appears in was intended as a slander to her husband her husband of course being robert dudley elizabeth the first favorite courtier and the earl of leicester this text attempted to implicate robert in many offences including amy's death nevertheless propaganda or not i did make reference to this claim about amy's hood in my video on the mystery surrounding her death and in doing so i think i created some confusion because when we talk about tudor hoods they have very little in common with the hoods that we might recognize today things that are sewn to coats jumpers or if you're particularly fancy of course to cloaks in the hopes of putting up confusion and also bringing you some interesting information i've decided today to take you on a whistle stop tour through medieval and early modern headwear let's go i think that this is what many people might have in mind when they think of medieval headwear and or the headwear of a fairy tale princess i found this one for sale on amazon for the low low price of four pounds 97 and of course i'm sure other retailers are available as you'll be able to see they are selling it as a medieval princess gothic pointy cone hat fabric fairy child girl fancy dress new well seems like all bases are being covered there then in a moment i'm going to be showing you the item of clothing that i think this piece of costume was based on and to do so i'll be showing you a portrait in fact i'm going to be heavily reliant on portraiture throughout this video because when we want to explore medieval and early modern headwear and indeed clothing more generally painting i would say is one of our best resources fabric items like clothing and headwear don't survive very well down the ages and they certainly don't survive in very great numbers there are of course exceptions to this rule which i will be showing you in this video where relevant so while painting is a great resource for talking about the history of clothing there is of course a caveat in fact a couple of caveats first and foremost the people who are getting painted they tend to be the elite members of society so those are the clothes that we're gonna have a far better idea of additionally what we have in a portrait is a flat image we do not have the three-dimensional object that we can handle to find out how the fabric was cut and then sewn together to construct the garment also as we were talking about headwear we will see that it frequently is made into some quite unusual and apparently gravity-defying shapes that's then attached to the head seemingly by some magical means we have a best guess of how this might have worked but tellingly we cannot be sure how it worked in every case these are bespoke items not off the peg they are made for the wearer and how they choose to wear them may not be the same from person to person of course these bespoke goods this is the case for the elite lower down the social orders what we're going to see is more and more recycling fabric being re-cut perhaps a gift of clothing from a master to a servant who then re-cuts it to fit themselves and the newer fashions this is another reason why fabric goods don't survive they are recycled re-cut and remade this is what the costume item is based on the hennin a fashion reserved for elite european ladies during the 15th century this particular hennin is a tall conical or steeple henning with a fine veil hanging from it it was stiffened to hold shape and would have been made from the finest fabrics like silks and velvets we believe it covers her dressed hair in fact it's possible that bound or braided hair may have functioned as an anchor to support the weight of this henning and even allow it to be pinned in place however there were also examples of headings like this being worn with braided hair visible and hanging down about the shoulders the henning came in other styles as well there was also the truncated flower pot style henning which as we see here could be worn with or without a veil pinned to it the hennin were the accoutrements of the elite for a relatively short time during the medieval period there was a more democratized style of headwear and it involved the wearing of one or a combination of the following items the head wrap or whimple a length of fabric and a variety were in use depending on the wealth or rank of the wearer would cover the hair it would be wrapped around the head and come around to cover the chin for greater modesty the veil as with the head wrap this could come in a variety of fabrics depending on wealth and rank it also seems that in terms of the veil there was no standard size being employed the veil would be pinned to a supporting garment perhaps a whimple and it would be allowed to hang down about the shoulders the veil could be decorative edged with ruffles and frills as is the case with the ladies veil in the arnolfini portrait i did make a video on this portrait which i will be leaving linked in the card the fillet was a band that could be worn around the top of the head and would be used to secure the veil with pins there was also the barbette which was a band that was frequently used to accompany the fillet it encircled the face from the crown of the head to underneath the chin another option was the gorget a length of fabric used to cover the chin and neck it could be pinned or tucked into another piece of headwear or even dressed placked up bound hair of all the headwear we're going to look at today this garment the koif is the one that existed and was worn by the most people for the longest span of history the koif was worn by high and low born it was worn by men women and children the koif was usually made of linen and depending on your class it might be elaborately worked as is shown in this example from the later 1500s which as you can see is embroidered with black work the koi could be wired to create shapes even trimmed with cloth of gold as many have asserted is the case in this representation a portrait drawing by hans holbein that has been labeled as depicting anne berlin elite men and women would wear their coif by itself in bed or alternatively under a more elaborate headpiece during the day for ladies this would usually be a hood and this certainly seems to be the likely intention for the koif being worn here we think it was probably meant to be worn beneath a gable or a transitional hood and of course i will be discussing the various types of hoods in just a moment for gentlemen they might wear their koif under a richly jawed cap or they might employ a padded coif to protect their head when they wore either male or plate armor in this detail from the painting of the field of cloth of gold we see servants and labourers carousing but we also see how they are wearing their headwear servants and labourers male and female may wear the coiff on its own to go about their daily lives as well as wearing it alone for sleep alternatively it may be worn by both sexes beneath a woolen cap as is shown here but what about those hoods let's look first at the gable hood apparently so named because the shape resembled the gable roof of a building when we look at the examples being worn by cathode of aragon and jane seymour we see clear evidence of richly jeweled filaments being used around the edge of the hood to frame the face additionally in each case we can see that these hoods are made from fine fabric and apparently are intended to match the fine gowns that are being worn by the ladies in the portraits we also see the evolution of style as the pets to the side of the gable hood become shorter in the case of catholic aragon they sit below her chin while mary berlin and jane seymour's hoods have the lapettes at jaw height we also see the wearer's choice in how they pin up their veil catherine arrogan has left both sides of her veil unpinned while mary berlin and jane seymour appeared to have both pinned up one half of it while the gablehood may have been the staple fashion for the henrischen court in the early years it soon had a rival here we see the french hood as with the gablehood the french hood also made use of decorative filaments we can see here edging in jewels and pearls amberlynn was usually given the credit for introducing this style of hood into england but more recently this has been contested and it is now thought to be more probable that henry's sister and daughter queen of france mary tudor is the person who should get that honor however amberlynn's meteoric rise may well have meant that she had a large role in popularizing the style the french hood was more daring than the gablehood because scandalously it allowed a lady to show off the front of her hair how erotic indeed as we will soon see as the tudor period moved on these french hoods would get pushed back even further on the head to show off even more of that daring hair here we are being shown french hoods being worn by the king's daughters and his sixth wife from left to right we have mary catherine parr and elizabeth i hope you will agree and see what i see but certainly in the case of mary and elizabeth if not catherine parr we can see that evolution and moving forward of time they i believe have more hair on display it seems to me that in this it's quite evident the king's daughters are following fashion and they are choosing to wear their hoods pushed further back on their heads in these three portraits that at least at one time have all been claimed to show henry's fifth wife catherine howard we can see a hood that i think is pushed the furthest back on the head we can also see in a couple of cases how that hood was secured with a cord under the chin in cases where this cord isn't visible tied under the chin it's possible that it provided a similar function being tied elsewhere namely at the nape of the neck equally we should remember that these ladies all had very long hair and berlin's hair was famously so long she could sit on it so their hair would be dressed and bound up beneath these hoods and it's quite possible this dressed bound up hair may have been shaped to act as an anchor for these hoods it's also possible that the hood might have been pinned to the hair perhaps to the veil using a long straight pin that pin itself might have been decorative perhaps topped with jewels or pearls so it would be both an ornament and a way of creating extra security for this piece of headwear i have had experience of wearing a reproduction of a french hood and i also have pretty long hair it's not quite long enough me to sit on but it is long enough that i can tuck it into my trousers if i should so choose and so when i wore this hood i would bind up my hair braid it to provide just that kind of anchor that i could pin with straight pins and here's what i learned it does secure the hood with it being pinned in this way with your hair acting as an anchor and also with a cord to either tight under the chin or the nape of the neck it will stay in place you can dance in it you can move quite briskly you can even walk about outside in moderate wind but if someone comes up to you puts their arm around you and wants to take a picture and they start to drag on the back of that veil that hood is coming off it is not so secure that it will stay in place through anything if it's true that amy dudley was found at the bottom of the stairs wearing a pristine hood i don't see how she could possibly have made that fall because certainly at the very least the hood itself would have been crushed and if not then it would have been pulled off of her head that much to me is almost certain i also made mention to the transitional hood earlier in this video and here is an example of that it looks like it's part gable hood part french hood here it is being sketched by hans holbein for a preparatory drawing intended for his group portrait of thomas moore's family this is anne sir thomas moore's ward and future daughter-in-law she would marry his son john in 1529. as catherine parr is modeling here there was another option for ladies of the tudor court in terms of their headwear catherine parr is wearing a koif edged with pearls and presumably wired to hold it in the shape that is being shown in on top of her coif she wears an ornately decorated cap possibly made of silk velvet this cap i think is similar to that worn by her third husband king henry viii in this arguably his most iconic portrait these caps worn by henry viii and his final wife are the pinnacle of a fashion that was far more ubiquitous and one that lasted for an incredible period of time here we have a surviving object it is the cap of an artisan or apprentice it is elizabethan produced we think in the mid 16th century and found in london it is now in the collection of the british museum although this cap is clearly not quite as elaborate or ornate as that worn by henry viii or catherine parr this is still an incredibly fine example it is made of wool and silk indeed the curator for this object asserts quote this is one of the finest gauge and quality examples of the surviving types of this cap the very fine knitting and silk adornment suggest a high-end or perhaps special event accessory for church high days or holidays perhaps the owner of this hat might have taken his high day or holiday as an opportunity to visit one of elizabeth and london's theaters perhaps shakespeare's globe because when i look at hats like this one i think of shakespeare and his fellow actors at the globe and the other permanent sites of playing in london because when they looked out across the heads of the groundlings in their yard they would have seen no doubt a sea of hats just like this one as neil mcgregor points out quote this hat unlocks a whole language of social difference and a whole structure of social control both expressed through clothes elizabethan england had clear rules about what sort of garments could be worn by what sort of people between 1571 and 1597 for example a parliamentary statute stipulated that males over the age of six had to wear a wool cap on sundays and holidays the law was a shrewd device for supporting the english wool industry but it was also designed to reinforce social divisions by making them visible because in fact not every boy and man had to wear them only those who were neither noblemen nor gentlemen the capt were the lower echelons of society and for them not to wear a cap was to break the law these were the very people that would pay their penny to stand in the yard and watch shakespeare and his contemporary act out their plays here we have another survivor it is in the collection of historic royal palaces and it is known as the bristow hat it is made from silk tufting with an ostrich feather and silver braid button the collection's curator of historical palaces elairi lim explains this object in the following way quote family tradition has it that this was henry viii's hat apparently nicolas bristow hence the name the bristow hat caught it when king henry threw it in the air at the surrender of beloin in 1544 this is a good story but it cannot be verified however it has ensured that the family have treasured it and kept it in the best possible condition whether or not this is actually henry viii's hat what is clear is this was intended to be worn by somebody who occupied one of the very highest statuses in the land i may look at this hat and think it's rather gaudy but i can also see that it must have been very expensive the bright red remaining of the silk the dyed green of the ostrich feather work went into making this hat only a person of great wealth and status could possibly have afforded to own and wear a hat like this however here we have a hat that has a far stronger connection to king henry viii it is the cap of maintenance that king henry viii sent to the mayor of waterford in 1536. traditionally the cap of maintenance would be carried before the king on his way to his coronation in early years the cap of maintenance actually provided a very useful function it will be placed on the head of the monarch to hold the crown in place to maintain it there by sending this cap of maintenance king henry viii was publicly showing his gratitude to both waterford and its mayor for their continued loyalty especially in the face of the silken thomas rebellion what about the hood of amy dudley what might that have looked like how might she have worn that if indeed she was wearing it when she was found at the bottom of that set of stairs well for an idea of that i think we can look at a detail from this painting of a woman that would go on to become known as bess of hardwick and i think she is pretty amazing and i think i made that fairly clear in my video on her which i will be leaving linked in a card when this portrait was painted bess was still mistress and low and it's dated to the 1550s thus it's relatively near the time that amy dudley died she dies in 1560. in this image i think we are seeing the influence of the earlier ways of wearing the french hood but this has been pushed even further back on the head we can see that bess's hair has been puffed out at the front it's been quite clearly styled arguably i would say this hood is even more precariously placed in the head than any we have seen thus far and if this was the fashionable way to wear these hoods in the mid 16th century might we also assume that it's how amy dudley was wearing hers on the day she died but what do you think as always i'm looking forward to reading your conversation in the comments section beneath this video or you can find me over on my social media i'll be leaving links to my instagram and twitter in the description box follow me there and we can continue this conversation i do hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful if you did then please let me know by hitting the thumbs up please also subscribe to this channel and while you're there hit the notification bell beside the subscribe button so that youtube tells you when i've next uploaded i hope you're going to have a great day whatever you're doing and i look forward to speaking to you in my next video take care of yourselves bye bye for now [Music] you

Channel: undefined

Views: 27,083

Rating: 4.985034 out of 5

Keywords: Gable Hood, French Hood, Tudor, Henrician, Elizabethan, Sumptuary Laws, Medieval, Portrait, Material Culture, Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance

Id: NeW60tjy25M

Length: 20min 42sec (1242 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 16 2020