Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

the tips of their toes where the body ends, and gaze with admiration on these scorpion-
like shapes. They sweep the dusty ground with the unnecessary trains of their robes and
mantles; their long, wide sleeves cover their hands whatever they do; impeded by these
frivolities they are almost incapable of walking quickly or doing any kind of useful
work... They curl their hair with hot irons and cover their heads with a fillet or a cap.
Later, after Rufus' death and his brother Henry's accession to the throne, Ordenc
recounts how Bishop Serlo of Seez preached against the long hair ol the courtiers
saying:
All of you wear your hair in woman 's fashion, which is not seemly for you who are
made in the image of God and ought to use your strength like men. Paul the apostle,
who was a chosen vessel and teacher of the Gentiles, showed how unseemly and
detestable it is for men to have curly locks... The perverse sons of Belial grow the tresses
of women on their heads... Many imitate these utterly depraved fashions, not realizing
how much evil is in the long tresses of which they boast. So, glorious king,
I beg of you to set a praiseworthy example to your subjects; let them see first inyou how
they ought to prepare themselves.
He then produced a pair of shears and cut short the hair of the king and his familia.
Long-toed shoes are a recurring motif in the complaints about new fashions.
In the 1340s fashion once again took a major turn, and many writers expressed their
disquiet at the new styles. The Italian writer Giovanni Villani (who had begun the
chronicle continued by his nephew Filippo) and the Englishman John of Reading,
the writer of the Grander Chroniqued de France (the official chronicle ol the French
crown) even Geoffrey de Charny, all decry the same changes: clothing so tight that
men were unable to dress themselves and found it difficult to move, even to kneel in
prayer. Tunics and doublets were so short that they exposed their loins. John of
Reading says that they wear shoes with beaks in front as long as your finger, called
cracowed, more suitable as the claws ol devils than as the apparel ol men'. Hair too
caused concern again, particularly beards. Villani and a number of other Italian writers
note that along with the tight clothes and grotesquely long shoes, the fashionable
young men had also adopted beards in order to make themselves look fearsome.
Another regular complaint on the part of churchmen, and an unsurprising one,
perhaps, was that men were too fond of decoration and ornamentation. Bernard
of Clairvaux's praise of the Knights Templar focuses as much on their simplicity of
lifestyle compared to the vainglorious pomp of the secular knighthood, and such
remarks are common ones. Raymon Lull and Geoffrey de Charny both say that the