Chapter 23 - Benjamin Wild

Clothing Royal Bodies:
Changing attitudes to royal dress and appearance from the Middle Ages to modernity

Since the twentieth century royal dress and appearance has become a more critical means of defining royal status: where the clothing of royal bodies had long been important for reflecting the power of monarchy, it is now important for refracting its relative powerlessness. If this appears counterintuitive, it reveals the ambivalence of modern monarchy in the face of increasing public scrutiny, which has followed the establishment of representative institutions and the continuation of globalisation. As rulers and their families have increasingly been required to justify their positions, their clothing choices have become subject to a larger range of interpretations as they try to satisfy conflicting demands to remain distinct and regal, while also becoming approachable and relevant. By taking the longue durée approach to encompass the medieval to the modern, this chapter suggests the two hundred years between c.1640 and c.1840 were an important transitional period in changing attitudes to royal dress and appearance. This transition was largely due to the period’s witnessing of the decisive curtailment of the executive and spiritual authority of royalty, even if the institution of monarchy in Europe continued to be widespread until the first half of the twentieth century.

By Benjamin Wild

Benjamin Wild

Benjamin Wild received his PhD in medieval history from King’s College London. He has worked for a number of cultural institutions, including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal Academy. He has published widely on the subject of material culture, particularly on this history of dress, and is interested, broadly, in how inanimate objects become imbued with meaning.

Bibliography

Amelekhina, Svetlana, A. and Alexey, K. Levykin. Magnificence of the Tsars: Ceremonial Men’s Dress of the Russian Imperial Court, 1721-1917. London: V&A Publishing, 2008.

Asserate, Asfa-Wossen. King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. London: Haus Publishing Ltd, 2015.

Borchert, Till-Holger. “Philip the Good.” In Charles the Bold (1433-1477): Splendour of Burgundy, ed. Susan Marti, Till-Holger Borchert, and Gabrielle Keck, 174. Berne: Historisches Museum Berne, 2009.

Bracewell, Michael. “Just So.” Esquire: The Big Black Book A/W 2016: 8 (2016), 156.

Bright, Mynors, ed. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. London: J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1959.

Burke, Peter. The Fabrication of Louis XIV. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992.

Burke, Peter. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. Third edition. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.

Cannadine, David. “The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual; The British Monarchy and the ‘Invention of Tradition’, c.1820-1977.” In The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, 101-164. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [1983] 2016.

Collinson, Patrick. Elizabeth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Cormack, Robin and Maria Vassilaki, ed. Byzantium 330-1453. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2008.

Davis, Fred. Fashion, Culture, and Identity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Dickinson, Gary and Linda Wrigglesworth. Imperial Wardrobe. Berkeley and Toronto: Ten Speed Press, 2000.

Dutton, Paul E. “Charlemagne’s Mustache.” In Charlemagne’s Mustache and Other Cultural Clusters of a Dark Age. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.

Eberhard, Wolfram. A History of China. London and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977.
Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Pscyhogenetic Investigations. Revised, edited, and translated by Edmund Jephcott. Edited by Eric Dunning, Johan Goudsblom, and Stephen Mennell. London: Basil Blackwell, 1939.

Elias, Norbert. The Society of Individuals. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Edited by Micahel Schröter. London: Basil Blackwell, 1991.

English, Rebecca. “Kate’s £1,000 dress is not such a common touch.” The Daily Mail, 24 April 2013, 5.

Fawtier, Robert, ed. Comptes du Trésor (1296, 1316, 1384, 1477). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1830.

Gaulme, Dominique and François Gaulme. Power & Style: A World History of Politics and Dress. Paris: Flammarion S.A., 2012.

Gillingham, John. “Wirtschaftlichkeit oder Ehre? Die Ausgaben der Englischen Könige im 12. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert.” In Luxus und Integration: Materielle Hofkultur Westeuropas vom 12. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, ed. W. Paravicini, 151-167. Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2010.

Halls, Zillah. Coronation Costume and Accessories 1685-1953. London: HMSO, 1973.

Harvey, John. “From Black in Spain to Black in Shakespeare.” In The Men’s Fashion Reader, ed. Peter McNeil and Vicki Karaminas, 19-43. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2009.

Hassall, A.G. and W.O. Hassall. The Douce Apocalypse. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1961.

Hayward, Maria, ed. Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII: The Wardrobe Book of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared by James Worsley in December 1516, edited from Harley MS 2284, and his Inventory prepared on 17 January 1521, edited from Harley MS 4127, both in the British Library. Leeds: Maney Publishing, 2007.

Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution. London: Penguin Books, 1975.

Houston, S.J. James I. Harlow: Longman Group, 1973.

Howey, Catherine L. “Dressing a Virgin Queen: Dress, and Fashioning the Image of England’s Queen Elizabeth I.”  Early Modern Women 4 (2009): 201-208.

Hughes, Lindsey. Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998.

Jones, Liz. “Is Kate auditioning to be the catalogue queen.” The Daily Mail, 30 April 2016.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3567529/Duchess-Vogue-cover-star-LIZ-JONES-dares-say-s-bit-Boden.html#ixzz49fRp9qzd.

Keane, John. The Life and Death of Democracy. London: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2009.

Kuchta, David. The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity: England, 1550-1850. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2002.

Lachaud, Frédérique. ‘Dress and Social Status in England before the Sumptuary Laws.” In Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England, ed. Peter Coss and Maurice Keen, 105-124. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2002.

Lewis, Ted and Jerry Greene. “John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th President of the United States in 1961.” Daily News, 21 January 1961. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jfk-sworn-35th-president-u-s-1961-article-1.2479922.

Llorente, Mercedes. ‘Mariana of Austria’s Portraits as Ruler-Governor and Curadora by Juan Carreño de Miranda and Claudio Coello.” In Early Modern Habsburg Women: Transnational Contexts, Cultural Conflicts, Dynastic Continuities, ed. Anne J. Cruz and Maria Galli Stampino, 197-224. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.

Luaces, Joaquín Yarza, ed. Vestiduras Ricas: El Monasterio de Las Huelgas Y Su Época 1170-1430. Madrid: Patrimonio Nacional, 2005.

Lytton, Charlotte. “‘I have to be seen to be believed:’ The hidden significance of the Queen’s colourful wardrobe.” The Telegraph, 20 April 2016. www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/i-have-to-be-seen-to-be-believed-the-hidden-significance-of-the/.

Mansel, Philip. Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005.

Mansfield, Alan. Ceremonial Costume: Court, civil and civic costume from 1660 to the present day. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1980.

Mantel, Hilary. “Royal Bodies.”  London Review of Books 35, no. 4 (21 February 2013): 3-7.

Marti, Susan, Till-Holger Borchert, and Gabrielle Keck, ed. Charles the Bold (1433-1477): Splendour of Burgundy. Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2009.

McCracken, Grant. Culture & Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990.

Mead, Rebeca. “Costume Drama.” The New Yorker, 19 September 2006. 50-59.

Pastoureau, Michel. Figures et Couleurs: Études sur le symbolique et la sensibilité médiévales. Paris: Le Léopard d’Or, 1986.

Pastoureau, Michel, ed. Le Vêtement: Histoire, archéologie et symbolique vestimentaires au Moyen Age. Paris: Cahiers du Léopard d’Or, 1989.
Rangström, Lena. Kläder för tid och evighet: Gustaf III sedd genom sina dräkter. Helsingborg: AB Boktryck, 1997.

Rasche, Adelheid, ed. Wardrobes in Wartime: Fashion and Fashion Images during the First World War. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2015.

Reynolds, Anna. In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion. London: Royal Collection Trust, 2013.

Ridley, Jane. Bertie: A Life of Edward VII. London: Vintage Books, 2012.

Rosalind Jones, Ann and Peter Stallybrass. Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Rose, Tessa. The Coronation Ceremony of the Kings and Queens of England and the Crown Jewels. London: HMSO, 1992.

Rosenblum, Robert. “Portraiture: Facts versus fiction.” In Citizens and Kings: Portraits in the Age of Revolution 1760-1830, edited by David Breuer et al., 14-24. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2007.

Ross, Robert. Clothing: A Global History. Or, The Imperialists’ New Clothes. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008.

Sherwood, James. Savile Row: The Master Tailors of British Bespoke. London: Thames and Hudson, 2010.

Safi, Michael. “Queen's 'green screen' outfit ensures she stands out from the crowd.” The Guardian, 12 June 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/12/queens-green-screen-outfit-ensures-she-stands-out-from-the-crowd.

Silver, Larry. Marketing Maximilian: The Visual Ideology of a Holy Roman Emperor. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008.

Smith, E.A. George IV. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999.

Staniland, Kay. In Royal Fashion: The Clothes of Princess Charlotte of Wales and Queen Victoria 1760-1901. London: Museum of London, 1997.

Stollber-Rilinger, Barbara, et al. Spektakel der Macht: Rituale im Alten Europa 800-1800. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgellschaft, 2008.

Strasdin, Kate. Inside the Royal Wardrobe: A Dress History of Queen Alexandra. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.

String, Tatiana C. Art and Communication in the Reign of Henry VIII. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.

Strong, Roy. Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987.

Styles, John. The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007.

Trevor-Roper, Hugh R. Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1945: His Private Conversations. London: Phoenix, 2000.

Underdown, David, Revel, Riot and Rebellion: Popular Politics and Culture in England 1603-1660.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Vale, Malcolm. The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe 1270-1380. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Vollmer, John E. Ruling from the Dragon Throne: Costume of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2002.

Warren Hollister, C. Henry I. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001.

Weber, Caroline. Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. London: Aurum Press Ltd, 2006.

Wild, Benjamin L., ed. The Wardrobe Accounts of Henry III. London: Pipe Roll Society, 2012.

Wild, Benjamin L. “The Civilizing Process and Sartorial Studies.” Clothing Cultures 1, no. 3 (2014): 213-224.

Wild, Benjamin L. “Reasserting Medieval Kingship: King Henry III and the Dictum of Kenilworth.” In Baronial Reform and Rebellion in England 1258-1267, edited by Adrian Jobson, 237-257. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2016.

Willeford, William. The Fool and His Scepter: A Study in Clowns and Jesters and Their Appearance. London: Edward Arnold Ltd., 1969.

Yates, Frances A. “Queen Elizabeth as Astraea.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 10 (1947): 27-82.

Annotated Bibliography

  • Burke, Peter, The Fabrication of Louis XIV, New  Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992.
    • An accessible and considered survey of the ways in which Louis XIV used material culture and ceremonial, chiefly at Versailles, to convey, extend and maintain his authority.
  • Cannadine, David, “‘The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual: The British Monarchy and the ‘Invention of Tradition’, c.1820–-1977.”’, in The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, 101–-164. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,  [1983] 2016), 101-164.
    • An important article that seeks to explore the changing role of monarchy – culturally and constitutionally – in the twentieth century.
  • Gaulme, Dominique, and François Gaulme, Power and& Style: A World History of Politics and Dress, Paris: Flammarion S.A., 2012.
    • An accessible survey of rulers’ dress from around the world, from pre-history to the present.
  • Halls, Zillah, Coronation Costume and Accessories 1685–-1953, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1973.
    • As with Tessa Rose’s volume below, a useful and accessible overview of the ceremonial dress worn at the coronations of English and British monarchs from the Middle Ages to the reign of Elizabeth II.
  • Mansel, Philip, Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005.
    • One of the few monographs to study the changing role and meaning of royal dress from the early modern period, albeit focused on the courts of Europe.
  • Mantel, Hilary, “‘Royal Bodies’”, London Review of Books, 35, no. 4 (21 February 2013), 3-7.
    • A polemical and thought-provoking argument about the role and meaning of royals and their bodies (dressed or otherwise) in the present.
  • Reynolds, Anna, In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, London: Royal Collection Trust, 2013.
    • This catalogue accompanied an exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, London, of the same name. It brings together a rich assortment of garments from the Royal Collection.
  • Rose, Tessa, The Coronation Ceremony of the Kings and Queens of England and the Crown Jewels, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1992.
    • As with Zillah Halls’ volume above, a useful and accessible overview of the ceremonial dress worn at the coronations of English and British monarchs from the Middle Ages to the reign of Elizabeth II.
  • Ross, Robert, Clothing: A Global History. Or, The Imperialists’ New Clothes, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008.
    • An interesting study that considers the communicative possibilities of clothing in the present, informed by actions and ideas of the past.

Reading and viewing lists

  • Chroniques de Hainaut, Bibliotheque royale de Belgique.
    The manuscript is freely accessible here. Illustrations of the clothing worn in the Ducal court demonstrates the importance of dress is defining status in the medieval and early modern period
  • Commentary on Queen Elizabeth II’s green outfit, worn as part of the monarch’s ninetieth birthday celebrations in 2016, in Guardian, Express, Telegraph, Huffington Post, reveal much about attitudes towards the role and meaning of contemporary rulers.
  • Commentary on the Duchess of Cambridge’s cover shoot for the one-hundredth anniversary of British Vogue in 2016 is interesting for what it reveals about contemporary expectations of how royal bodies should appear: Vogue, Vogue. Commentary in British newspapers varied and was often critical Guardian, Daily Mail. The Duchess’s Erdem dress in Daily Mail, which she wore to visit a council estate in Manchester, apparently the second largest council estate in Europe, was similarly criticised for its cost.
  • The imperial coronation of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran. British Pathe, and also here, but without sound. The footage shows how the Iranian Shah used clothing and ceremonial traditions associated with European royalty to exalt and legitimise his authority.

Links

Links to Images and Videos

  1. Philip the Good in Chroniques de Hainaut. Bibliotheque royale de Belgique. The manuscript is available online, and the image is freely accessible here.
  2. Mary of Modena by Simon Verelst. Here.
  3. Duchess of Cambridge. Commentary on Erdem dress - Daily Mail.
  4. Elizabeth II's 'green screen' outfit. Commentary in Guardian, Express, Telegraph, Huffington Post.
  5. Duchess of Cambridge on Vogue cover. Commentary in Vogue, Vogue, Guardian, Daily Mail (critical commentary).
  6. Gustav III in military dress. here.
  7. George IV in coronation robes. Here.
  8. Charles II in simpler raiment. Here.
  9. Shah's coronation. YouTube clip from British Pathe, and also here (but without sound).

    10. The Disappointed Parisian cartoon and the Elegante Welt cover with Prince Joachim would not be freely available and are not currently online.

Keywords

Thematic

Clothing; symbolism; ceremonial

People

Charlemagne, King of the Franks; Charles I, King of England; Charles II, King of England; Jacques-Louis David; Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom; Elizabeth I, Queen of England; Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom; Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria-Hungary; Frederick II, King of Prussia; George IV, King of the United Kingdom; Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger; Gustav III, King of Sweden; Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia; Henry I, King of England; Henry III, King of England; Henry VIII, King of England; Adolf Hitler; James II, King of England; James VI, King of Scotland; Joachim of Prussia; Jackie Kennedy; John F. Kennedy; Jeremy Langmead; Louis XIV, King of France; Louis XVI, King of France; Mariana of Austria; Marie Antoinette, Queen of France; Mary of Modena; Alessandro Michele; Catherine Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge; Napoleon I; Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran; Samuel Pepys; Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia; Philip IV, King of Spain; Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy; Anthony Van Dyck; Victoria; Queen of the United Kingdom; Wilhelm II, King of Germany; William II, King of England; William III; King of the United Kingdom

Places

America; Austria; Belgium; Burgundy; China; England; Germany; France; Kenilworth; London; Manchester; Prussia; Russia;

Related Chapters

Christoph de Spiegeleer: The Nationalisation and Mediatisation of European Monarchies in Times of Sorrow: Royal Deaths and Funerals in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century (See Chapter 14)

Catriona Murray: Raising Royal Bodies: Stuart Authority and the Monumental Image (See Chapter 21)

Chad Denton: From Galanterie to Scandal: The Sexuality of the King from Louis XIV to XVI (See Chapter 41)