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SUMPTUARY LAWS

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CLOTHING CARE

Sumptuary Laws
ENGLISH LAWS 1363 - PARIS LAWS 1360

Sumptuary Laws were brought in place periodically to restrict what people wore.

The upper classes were increasingly concerned about the newly affluent townfolk and merchant classes who could now afford to dress like their social superiors. In a world where one's dress generally denotes one's social status, and as merchants were born lower, this was deemed not in the least acceptable by the upper classes. Not to mention, many a merchant's wife sent him to the poorhouse attempting to keep up with the latest court fashions which they could not afford, all for the sake of appearances.

Sumptuary laws passed by the King was the answer to this, although with varying degrees of success. Pictured is a detail from an illumination dated at 1373-76 of the Clermont en Beaurais showing noble ladies in their mi-parti gowns.

Listed below are some selected Sumptuary Laws. This is by no means an all-encompassing list.

Clothing regulations imposed
by the English Sumptuary laws of 1363

Lords with lands worth £1 000 annually and their families
No restrictions

Knights with land worth 400 marks. ie £266 13s 4d annually and their families
May dress at their will, except they may wear no weasel fur, ermine or clothing of precious stones other than the jewels in women's hair.

Knights with lands worth 200 marks. ie. £133 6s 8d annually and their families
Fabric worth no more than 6 marks ie £4 for the whole cloth: no cloth of gold, nor a cloak, mantle or gown lined with pure miniver, sleeves of ermine or any material embroidered with precious stones; women may not wear ermine or weasel-fur, or jewels except those worn in their hair.

Esquires with land worth £200 per year, and merchants with goods to the value of £1 000 and their families
Fabric worth no more than 5 marks. ie £3 6s 8d for the whole cloth; they may wear cloth of silk and silver, or anything decorated with silver; women may wear miniver but not ermine or weasel-fur, or jewels except those worn in the hair.

Esquires, gentlemen with £100 per year, and merchants with goods to the value of £500 and their families
Fabric worth no more than 4 1/2 marks, £3, for the whole cloth; no cloth of gold, silk, or silver, no embroidery, no precious stones or fur.

Yeoman and their families
Fabric worth no more than 40s, ie £2 for the whole cloth, no jewels, no gold, silver, embroidery, enamelware or silk; no fur except lamb, rabbit, cat or fox; women not to wear a silk veil.

Servants and their families
Fabric worth not more than 2 marks for the whole cloth; no gold, silver, embroidery, enamel or silk; women not to wear a veil worth more than 12d.

Carters, ploughmen, drivers of ploughs, oxherds, cowherds, swineherds, dairymaids and everyone else working on the land who does not have 40 shillings of goods
No cloth except blanket and russet at 12d per ell, belts of linen (rope).

 

Clothing regulations imposed
by the Paris Sumptuary laws of 1360

Prostitutes are forbidden to wear embroidery of any kind, pearls, gilt or silver buttons and squirrel edges on their clothes.

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