15th Century Livery

15th Century Livery Coats for Soldiers by Lord James de Biblesworth M.K.A. James Barker

www.historiclife.com

Image taken at MTA in Jamestown in 2004

March 3, 2008 James de Biblesworth of 10

http://www.historiclife.com/

What is Livery? "Livery and Maintenance" is the giving of identifiable clothing and the maintaining of an individual’s well being in return for that individuals service. Those who served were not usually domestic servants in the way we commonly think of servants today. They were often incomed or landed individuals with some standing in their communities. What is a Livery Coat? Livery coats, badges and symbols were the first military uniforms. They identified the wearer’s loyalty, who was responsible for his maintenance and for whom he fought. In a time of war an indentured retainer could, based on the terms of his contract bring additional men to serve his Lord. Each of those men would in turn be given a livery coat in the Lord’s design.

For what was Livery used? During the War of the Roses kings tried to limit the practice of giving livery because noblemen with large standing personal armies had become a threat. In England, the privilege of “Livery and Maintenance" was given to Lords only for as long as they lived and did not transfer to their heirs. Ordinances of the time limited Barons such as Lord Grey to 401 retainers at one time. This limit was put in place to prevent noblemen from gaining too much power in the form of fighting men. Often Lords kept more retainers on staff than allowed by ordinances but not all were in service to him at any one time. This practice enabled 15th century noblemen to circumvent the laws governing livery

The Portrayal This garment is for the portrayal of a yeoman archer in the house of Lord Henry Grey of Codnor. Yeoman were middle class men in the 15th century; men of the yeomen class ran estates or businesses for a Lord, could earn income from land in their own right and participated in the livery and maintenance system just like men of the Squire and Knight classes. Given that Lords were not allowed to keep large standing armies, they hid their military forces in their retinues among those that worked as servants during the peace. The portrayal is of a man in Lord Grey’s Buttery. The term Buttery comes from the Middle English name for wine casks or butts. In additional to wine this department of the household was also responsible for linens and bread; a buttery in a castle stores the wine, beer, bread, linens for the dinning area, and other dry foods. The portrayals wartime occupation is that of a yeoman archer.

1 Myers, A. R. The Household of Edward IV: The Black Book and the Ordinance of 1478. (The English Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 303 Apr., 1962); 111


Observations of Construction Details from Art:

• The body is made of four panels and the peplum is made of four panels like a doublet • The body and peplums meet at the true waist • The arm holes on the body panels are wider than the arm holes for a doublet. They must be big

enough for a ball shoulder to go through • The peplum can be either a straight fit or pleated • The peplum can range in length from just below the doublet peplums to just below the groin. • The front neck opening should be round and slightly larger than the opening on a doublet • The back neck opening can be triangular or circular and should be slightly larger than the doublet

neck hole • The shoulder should be slightly smaller than the shoulder of the doublet

Closures With no extant example of one of these garments we must take an educated guess at how they close based on other garments from this time period. Thus far no depictions with buttons or lacing have been found so the following methods have been tried:

• Making the garment a little big and making it a pull over garment. • Hook and eyes • Tiny solid brass rings sewn to the under side of the garment that lace the opening closed.

The Details of the Four Construction Styles Seen in Art Sleeveless that covers the body with a pleated peplum. This style can be seen in the English manuscript Life of Edward IV on armored men, on Charles VII men from France, in The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, manuscript images from Jean Fouquet, and many examples in King Rene's Book of Tournament. Likely construction:

• Four panel body construction with armholes slightly larger than a doublet. • Two or four panel peplum construction pleated into the waist of the body. • Wool exterior and linen lining for the body


Sleeveless with a slim body with a pleated peplum (Over armor or jacks only). This style can be seen in the English manuscript Life of Edward IV on armored men. Likely construction:

• Four panel body construction with a slim cut. Likely lined with linen. • Two or four panel peplum construction pleated into the waist of the body. • Wool material for the exterior.

Sleeveless that covers the body with a straight peplum. This style is seen in the Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, King Rene's Book of Tournament, and on the archers in La Cité de Dieu. Likely construction:

• Four panel body construction with armholes slightly larger than a doublet. • Four panel peplum construction. • Wool exterior with linen lining.


Sleeveless with a slim body with a straight peplum (Over armor or jacks only). As seen on the archers in La Cité de Dieu:

• Four panel body construction with a slim cut. Likely lined with linen. • Four panel peplum construction. • Wool material for the exterior.

The Reconstructions: The reconstructions are based on the artwork of the time frame; currently the reenactment community has no knowledge of an extant example of a livery garment like this. The colors of the livery gown are based on written document of the time that talk about Lord Grey’s badge. Document Ms. 2nd M.16 at the College of Arms (London, England) tells us “Grey, de Codnor, Lord. Gules and vert. A white badger within a tres with crown or2; in other words Lord Grey’s badge was red and green with a white badger (a badger is called a Grey in middle English) over a gold crown and white trestle. This is an image from that document:

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Some venders sell badges made with a machine; in the middle ages the badge would be either embroidered or appliqué. There are references to white fustian (a blend of cotton and flax) used to make badges on livery coats. In 1459 Edward, Prince of Wales, distributed a “livery of swan”4 to the troops fighting for his mother; the swans were cut from fustian. It could be that the fustian had details painted on like banners made in this time frame. There are several extant examples of painted linen banners; the banner with three crowns from the mid-15th century and the banner for the city of Ghent circa 1482. A historical text tells us the way to paint such banners:

2 Terence Wise. The War of the Roses. (Osprey Publishing. 1984); 22 3 Scan from the College of Arms - London 4 Andrew Boardman. The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses, (Alan Sutton Publishing, Ltd. 1998); 66


CLXII A Section Dealing with Work on Cloth: First, Painting and Gilding.[194] Now let us speak about how to work on cloth, that is, on linen or on silk.[195] And you will adopt this method for cloth: in the first place, stretch it taut on a frame, and begin by nailing down the lines of the seems. Then go around and around with tacks, to get it stretched out evenly and systematically, so that it all has every thread perfectly arranged. When you have done this, take gesso sottile and a little starch, or a little sugar, and grind these things with the kind of size with which you tempered the gesso on panel; grinding them good and fine; but first put on an all-over coat of this size without any gesso. And it would not matter if the size were not as strong as for gesso. Keep it as hot as you can; and, with a blunt soft bristle brush, lay some on both sides, if you are going to do painting on each side. Then, when it is dry, take the cloth; take a knife blade which is even on the edge, and as straight as a ruler; and lay some of this gesso on the canvas with this edge, putting it on and taking it off evenly, as if you were scraping it down. And the less gesso you leave on, the better it is; just so you fill up the interstices between the threads. It will be amply sufficient to put on one coat of gesso. When it is dry, take a penknife which scrapes well, and look over the cloth to see whether there is any node or knot on it, and get rid of it; and then take your charcoal. Draw on cloth just the way you draw on panel; and fix it with a wash of ink. Then I will teach you, if you wish, how to lay the diadems or grounds in gold, burnished as on panel, which, on any cloth or silk, are ordinarily laid with a mordant, that is, with the linseed [p. 103] one. But, because this method is a source of wonder among the others, since much [. . .][196] done, I will tell you about it. And you may roll up and fold the cloth without hurting the gold and the colors. First take some of this gesso sottile, and a little bole: and temper this gesso with a little white of egg and size, and lay a coat on the part which you want to gild. When it is dry, scrape it a little bit; then take bole, ground and tempered, just like what you lay on panel, and in the same way put on five or six coats of it. Let it stand for a day or so. Lay your gold just as you do on panel, and burnish it, holding a very smooth and solid board underneath this cloth, keeping a cushion between the cloth and the board. And in this way stamp and punch these diadems, and they will be just the same as on panel. But you must afterward; because sometimes these banners, which are made for churches, get carried outdoors in the rain; and therefore you must take care to get a good clear varnish, and when you varnish the painting, varnish these diadems and gold grounds a little, too. In the same way as for anconas you should paint, step by step, on this cloth; and it is more pleasant to work on it than on panel, because the cloth holds the moisture a little; and it is just as if you were working in fresco, that is, on a wall. And I will also inform you that, in painting, the colors must be laid in many, many times, far more than on panel, because the cloth has no body as the ancona has, and it does not show up well under varnishing when it is poorly laid in. Temper the colors the same as for panel. And I will not enlarge upon this any more. 5

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5 Il Libro dell' Arte (The Craftsman's Handbook); http://www.noteaccess.com/; accessed 9/9/07 6 Image of a banner with crowns - The Royal Institute for the study and Conservation of Belgium’s Artistic Heritage http://www.kikirpa.be; accessed 9/9/07 7 Image of the banner for the city of Ghent circa 1482 - Sankt Annen Museum http://www.bildindex.de; accessed 9/9/07


The Coat Construction The pattern is based off the same shapes as a doublet pattern but opened the neck slightly and the arms slightly. In most cases modernly constructed the livery coats were made a bit larger than the wearer’s doublet in order to fit over linen jacks (layered cloth armor) which are worn over a doublet and sometimes over maille over the doublet too. Other modern constructed coats close in the front by either hook an eyes or by lacing rings hidden on the inside. Hook and eyes can be seen in the portrait of Ferraran jester Gonella and lacing rings are visible in the Braque family Triptych. Several of the coats have no front opening and just slip over the head like the example on display.

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The coat’s outer material is wool and the coats are lined with white or natural linen. The reconstruction on display is lined with natural colored linen. The arms neck and peplum are finished with a running stitch of waxed linen thread; having no extant example of a doublet or livery coat from the 15th century to use as an examples on how to finish the livery coat examples of other clothing from the 14th,, 15th, and 16th century on were used to finish this reconstruction. Looking at extant examples of clothing from the 14th century from London most wool garments of that time did not have full linings like later garments but many had silk facings on the inside to strengthen the neck, button holes on the arms, or the front openings of garments. Fragment number 509 has a silk facing held by running stitches on the neck. Fragment number 7810 has a silk facing stitched on with a set of running stitches for what is either a neck are arm opening. Fragments number 3211, 6412, and 6713 have silk facings on the side of the arm for the button holes stitched on with running stitches; fragment 64 also has a rolled edge at the wrist with a running stitch.

8 Paintings of Ferraran jester Gonella and the Braque family Triptych. http://www.wga.hu/; accessed 9/11/07 9 Elisabeth Crowfoot; Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing, c.1150-c.1450. (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London), (London: Boydell Press, 2004); 160 10 Elisabeth Crowfoot; 159 11 Elisabeth Crowfoot; 162 12 Elisabeth Crowfoot;166 13 Elisabeth Crowfoot;162


There is an extent gown dated to 1477 that is said to have been owned by Charles the Bold in the Berne Historical Museum14. The outer layer is red silk satin and it is lined with white linen. It is opened in the front and buttons to the waist. The arms, neck, hem, and front opening are all stitched with a running stitch. On both of the De’ Medici doublets from 156215 and 157416 the neck, front opening, wrist, and bottom of the garment all have running stitches holding the lining to outer shell. Most of the garment has a satin facing with cut work but not the bottom or the arm where the buttons are; those areas the linen lining is equal is size to the shell. The Svante Sture doublet 156717 also has a peplum with equal sized lining and shell with a running stitch at the seem edge to hold them together. The Erik Sture doublet 156718 has a silk cord on the outside material at the peplum but on the inside you can see a running stitch is holding the lining and the outer material together like the above examples. The Hever Castle, Kent doublet 156019 also has an equal sized lining that is held on with a running stitch around the front opening, neck, and arms. In this case the there is a series of lacing holes on a cloth strip at the bottom and not a peplum; this part does not have a visible lining the silk is on the inside and out. The Badge Construction Fustian is mentioned as being used but modern fustian is not the same as period fustian. Modernly it is a blend of cotton and flax threads but in the Middle Ages it was a cotton warp linen weft fabric. The badge in this display has shapes cut out of flax linen and appliquéd those onto the livery coat with linen thread; then the details were painted on. A small running stitch was used to hold down the shapes and the paint helped stop problems with the linen fraying. First the drawings were applied to the linen using a charcoal stick like Craftsman's Handbook recommends. Then they were cut out and appliquéd to the livery coat. Then the edges were painted black. Paint the edges on the design first and then cut after the paint is dried may help prevent the material from fraying; the next livery gown will be done this way to see if it changing the steps will help.

14 Boucher, Francois. 20000 Years of Fashion. (New York, Harry N. Abrams. 1987); 209 15 Janet Arnold. Patterns of Fashion. The cut and construction of clothes for men and women c1560-1620. (Macmillian Publishers Ltd., London. 1985); 53 16 Janet Arnold; 55, 56 17 Janet Arnold; 57, 58 18 Janet Arnold; 60, 61 19 Janet Arnold;70, 71


Images of Livery Coats:


Bibliography

• Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion. The cut and construction of clothes for men and women c1560-1620. Macmillian Publishers Ltd., London. 1985

• Boardman, Andrew W. The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses, Alan Sutton Publishing, Ltd. 1998

• Boucher, Francois. 20000 Years of Fashion. New York, Harry N. Abrams. 1987 • Crowfoot, Elisabeth; Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing, c.1150-c.1450.

(Medieval Finds from Excavations in London), London: Boydell Press, 2004 • Myers, A. R. The Household of Edward IV: The Black Book and the Ordinance of 1478. The

English Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 303 (Apr., 1962) • Thompson Jr., Daniel V. Translator. Cennino D' Andrea Cennini. The Craftsman's Handbook.

The Italian "Il Libro dell' Arte.". New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1933, by Yale University Press. • Wise, Terence. The War of the Roses. Osprey Publishing. 1984 • Woolgar, C.M. The Great Household in Late Medieval England, Hew Haven London: Yale

University Press, 1999 Paintings and Manuscripts

• Dieric Bouts the Elder. The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek c. 1464-67. Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven

• Fouquet, Jean. Des Cas des Nobles Hommes et Femmes, Boccaccio, Cod. Gall. 6, fol. 2v. c. 1460. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

• Fouquet, Jean. Ferraran jester Gonella c. 1445. • Fouquet, Jean. Unknown illustration c. 1460. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. • King René's Tournament Book. Varying Illustrations c. 1460s. • Manuscript, Augustine, La Cité de Dieu, Books I-X 1475 came from Koninklijke Bibliotheek

National Library of the Netherlands (Click here for the search engine) • Manuscript, Life of Edward IV. c. 1461. British Library, England • Weyden, Rogier van der. Braque Family Triptych c. 1450. Musée du Louvre, Paris

From the Web

• Bibliothèque nationale de France http://expositions.bnf.fr

• Karen Larsdatter http://www.larsdatter.com

• http://www.noteaccess.com/ • The Royal Institute for the study and Conservation of Belgium’s Artistic Heritage

http://www.kikirpa.be • Sankt Annen Museum

http://www.bildindex.de • Web Gallery of Art

http://www.wga.hu/


15th Century Livery

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