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

BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT IN MEDIEVAL SOCIETY -•
knight should be well dressed. Charny, however, warns the young knight that though
it is right to look elegantly and fashionably dressed, he should be careful not to become
so devoted to his appearance that he neglects his chivalric duty or forgets God. The
same sort of thing is said by other laypersons. Many commentators decry the luxurious
embroidery and decoration of the new fashions of the 1340s, encrusted with pearls
and precious stones and cinched with ornately worked belts from which hung purses
and daggers. One French chronicler of the 1350s notes that the French nobility had
become so fond of pearls that their price had risen drastically, and there does appear
to have been a shortage at that time: French royal accounts for 1351 show that a piece
of pearl embroidery lor a dress for the Queen of France could not be completed
because not enough pearls could be found.
The French poet Machaut wrote in 1358 deploring the habit of the higher nobility
ol dressing too simply, so that they appeared no better dressed than those who served
them. He argued that whilst the king and princes should be distinctive in their dress,
and wear clothes and adornment as befitted their station, those who served in their
household should all look alike, and be dressed in livery. Although it is common to
think of livery as being the uniform of servants, merchant guilds and footsoldiers,
in fact it was part of the duty of every lord to provide some form of livery to those in
service. This could take any form of support, whether it be food, drink, shelter or,
'liveries of robes'. This comprised clothing, or more usually the cloth for the clothing
to be cut from, which was given out prior to major religious festivals and household
knights received it in the same way as the foresters, butlers, henchmen and other
members of the dorruu.
The status of the household knight was marked out, sometimes by the colour but
more often by the quality and amount of the cloth and lining to be used for making the
suit. The knights serving in Edward Ill's chamber received the same tan striped cloth
for their livery as the other servants, except they received a greater amount of cloth,
allowing for the greater waste entailed in the new more tailored fashions or for longer
gowns, and lining furs of grod vair and but he (two different types of squirrel pelt) rather
than the white lamb given to the squires of the chamber. The domiu of kings, princes
and nobles would have seemed at first glance to be uniform in their dress, but on closer
inspection the finer distinctions would have become clear.
The knight was to be found in other liveries. The secular chivalric orders all had
specific liveries to be worn at their feasts and convocations; the Order of the Garter's
appears to have consisted of a blue robe decorated with the emblem of the garter whilst
the Order of the Golden Fleece wore red-lined white.
Such liveries were for key festivals and ceremonies. At other times the knight might
wear what he liked. Whilst the sumptuary laws that appeared at various times might
197