CHAPTER II.

THE MEROVINGIAN PERIOD.

428 TO 752.

Modifications in female dress after the Invasion of the Franks—Customs of the latter—The Merovingians—Costumes of skins and felt; cloaks and camlets—The coif, the veil, the skull-cap, the “guimpe,” the cape—Fashionable Merovingian ladies adorn themselves with flowers—Various articles of dress—The “suint”—Young girls dress their hair without ornaments—St. Radégonde—The hair of married women.

The influence of political events on costume is more decisive than is generally supposed. Cæsar’s conquest of Gaul had greatly modified the dress of the Gallic women. After the invasions of the barbarians, and when the Franks had snatched the most vivacious region of our country from the Romans, a material change took place in the dress of the women.

Former invasions had generally been of a temporary nature, but the invasion of the Franks was of a permanent character. This rendered it highly important in regard to the moral life of the population. The Franks, like the Romans at an earlier period, made a real conquest of our country, in which they founded a different state of society from that which had been established by Cæsar and his successors. The rough, not to say ferocious manners of the north crossed the Rhine together with the bold and indomitable warriors whose adventurous exploits have been made known to us by history, and both private and public life felt their influence.

The Frankish woman, who was large and coarsely built, wore a long black gown, or a gown edged with scarlet, but her arms were bare and her bosom was uncovered. She crowned her head with flowering gorse, and would rush fully armed into the bloody fray. At times inspired, or filled with the spirit of prophecy, she sang the deeds of father, husband, or son, or recounted the victories of the confederacy. She resembled the other Allemanni women in her dreamy creed and gentle superstitions, and she possessed quiet energy and comparative sociability which enabled her to triumph over obstacles. While holding tenaciously to many primitive customs she was not altogether averse to innovations, nor to art, industries, and southern civilization. She held her place admirably at the court of Clovis, who, as tradition informs us, liked to dispense his favours and had a taste for magnificence.

No sooner were the Franks firmly established this side of the Rhine, on the northern and eastern territories, than the rusticity of the Germans began to blend with the refinements of the Latin race, and in some cases to counteract the elements of corruption in the latter. The customs of the Franks took root among the Gallo-Romans, and for a time the smaller details of dress disappeared, or at least held their place with the utmost difficulty.

During the first period of the Merovingian monarchy, both men and women were clothed in the skins of animals. At times both sexes would wear garments of felt, or narrow, short-sleeved silken mantles, dyed red or scarlet, or garments of a coarse material made from camels’ hair and thence named camlet. Camlet was sometimes woven with a silk warp.

Generally speaking, the women covered their heads with coifs, not unlike the ancient mitres that originated in Persia, or they wore a linen or cotton veil, ornamented with gold and gems, and drew the end of the right side over the left shoulder. But the Frankish women proper wore a small skull-cap called an “obbou.” Any person who knocked this cap off rudely was mulcted in a heavy fine by the Salic law. Respect towards woman was enforced by Franks and Germans alike.

Queen Clotilde is frequently represented as wearing a tunic, confined round the waist by a band of some precious material. Her mantle is laced together across the breast, and her hair falls in a long plait. Later than this, St. Radégonde wore a sort of “guimpe” called “sabanum,” made of lawn, rudely embroidered in gold, if we may credit Fortunat the poet, who was frequently in her company. After her conversion the Queen of Clotaire I. followed the fashions of the barbarians. Six years after her marriage she withdrew from the court, in order to devote herself to religious exercises, diversified by literary pursuits.

The Merovingian women were partial to many-coloured tunics, to embroideries, to flowered stuffs, and to a sort of cape known to them of old. This consisted of a piece of striped material of circular shape, with an aperture for the head, and two holes for the arms; it covered the chest and shoulders, and was fastened by strings round the loins. They wore two belts, one above and the other below the bust. Their arms were bare, as it was the custom of dwellers on the banks of the Rhine.

Sometimes—an instance is supplied by Ultrogothe, the wife of Childebert—they made use of a large mantle, a sort of chlamys, fastened at the throat or on the right shoulder by a clasp.

If to this we add an “escarcelle” or purse, in which kings and queens carried coins to distribute to the poor, my readers will have an exact idea of the female dress of the time.

In such costumes the fair Merovingians were wanting neither in charm, nor dignity, nor in a certain modest elegance. They probably borrowed some details of attire from the Gallo-Roman fashions and added them to their own.

Bishop Fortunat, a Latin poet of that day, who was present at the wedding of Siegbert and Brunehilde, alludes to the custom his countrywomen had adopted of wreathing their hair with sweet-smelling flowers. Another bishop and historian, Gregory of Tours, who from his position was also well acquainted with the customs of the Merovingian court, speaks of silken robes, which he describes as splendid.

Every wealthy woman loaded herself with jewels. They wore pearl necklaces, jacinths, diamonds, gowns with long trains, mantles, tunics, hoods, veils, and casques; earrings, bracelets, necklets, and rings; stomachers and belts of woollen, linen, or silk.

Their dresses on festive occasions sparkled with gold and jewels. St. Gregory of Nazianzen rebuked them for their innumerable perfumed plaits of hair, yet they knew of one pommade only—“suint,” an animal grease which proceeds from the skin of the sheep and clings to its wool. Such a perfume would be nauseous to the women of our day, but it was much liked by the Frankish women, either for its novelty, or from its efficaciousness in giving smoothness to the skin.

A MS. of 660 gives the picture of a Merovingian lady wearing her hair smoothly parted on the brow and hanging down in two thick plaits, lessening in size as they fall over her shoulders. A fluted diadem of gold, placed like a crown on the head, confines the hair, and imparts to the pictured form a certain air of majesty.

Young girls, with whom it was customary to wear their hair flowing loosely, were permitted no ornaments on the head. This was so general a custom that if as they grew older they remained unmarried, they were said to “wear their hair.” The beautiful Radégonde, after the murder of her brother by her husband Clotaire I., received permission from the tyrant to withdraw from the world. As a mark of humility she placed on the altar her diadems, bracelets, clasps of precious gems, fringes, and golden and purple tissues. Then she broke in twain her belt of massive gold. The sacrifice was consummated; Radégonde belonged to God alone. She died in the odour of sanctity at the monastery of Sainte-Croix, which she had founded at Poitiers.

One of the councils forbade married women to cut their hair, as a symbol of their subjection to their husbands. But this prohibition did not cure them of their vanity; they might still plait their hair with ribbons, and wear it parted in the middle and falling in two wide plaits, like that of Swiss peasants at the present day.

Numerous statues have preserved for us this Merovingian fashion, which was not wanting in grace, while it conferred on women an appearance of severe simplicity, less majestic than that of the figure I have described in speaking of a manuscript of the seventh century.

[Illustration: CAPETIAN COSTUMES 1100 to 1364

CARLOVINGIAN COSTUMES 9th and 10th Centuries]