ROOMS 2 & 3 Tudor Costume

In the Tudor and Jacobean period the type of clothes a person wore was seen as a true reflection of his or her position in life. By the 1550s England became known as the place where a man’s clothes, rather than his birth, defined the status of a ‘gentleman’. Textiles were extremely expensive and were probably a person’s most costly and prized possessions. The majority of the portraits in the Long Gallery and its side rooms depict sitters associated with the court and demonstrate the changing fashions worn by wealthier members of society.

The Court of Henry VIII (Room 2)

In this period men’s costume was characterised with gold braid or cord over a dark ground, by an exaggerated masculinity, with wide in this case of costly scarlet damask with shoulders tapering to narrow hips and a an embroidered design that includes a padded codpiece. The portrait of Henry VIII Tudor rose. gives a good idea of the sense of width and mass that was created. Portraits of statesmen and professionals, such as Sir William Butts and Sir William Petre, often appear dressed in black. Black cloth was extremely expensive due to the amount of dye needed to make a true black. It was worn by such men both for its sober qualities and, often trimmed with expensive fur, as a way of displaying wealth without appearing ostentatious.

Records of the royal wardrobe show that both Henry VIII and Katherine Parr owned many Detail of Henry VIII (NPG 496) showing a gold clasp with a ruby and diamonds – Room 2 crimson, black and white items, as seen in their portraits. Henry was particularly fond of jewellery and owned more than any previous king: the jewel-encrusted clothing in his portrait features ruby and diamond clasps, sleeves stitched with rubies, and a bonnet ornamented with a number of jewelled hat badges.

The basic components of women’s dress consisted of a bodice, skirt (kirtle) and gown. Katherine Parr’s bonnet borrows from masculine fashions and is similar to that worn by Henry VIII. The queen’s bodice and sleeves Detail of Katherine Parr‘s (NPG 4618) bodice showing are typical of the taste for embroidering the embroidered design of a Tudor rose – Room 2 Tudor Costume

Elizabethan England (Room 3)

In the reign of Elizabeth I, courtly dress was For men the basic elements of dress consisted characterised by an overblown, dramatic of a shirt, doublet, hose (short trousers) and quality, which emphasised and distorted the cloak or gown. Male dress lost the assertive shape of the body. Both male and female dress shape it had acquired in the reign of Henry was subject to the same areas of exaggeration, VIII and became more effeminate and better namely the neck, arms and hips. The ruff, suited to dancing and the chivalric rituals of which had begun as a frilled edge to a shirt, courtly life. For example, in the portrait of had become a separate accessory. With the Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, the introduction of starch in the 1560s ruffs globe-like silhouette of his trunk hose gives began to assume enormous proportions, as them a feminine, skirted appearance and the can be seen in the portrait of Elizabeth I doublet is close-fitting, like a woman’s bodice. with its large, lace-trimmed example. The doublet is shaped to the waist with an artificially curved point known as a ‘peascod The queen also holds a feather fan. These belly’ (so-called as it resembled the shape of fashionable accessories had been introduced a pea pod), also seen in the armour of Sir to England from Italy in the early sixteenth Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex and century. Fans were expensive and a sign of Sir Edward Hoby. high social status, but were also durable as the feathers in their jewelled handles could Robert Dudley demonstrates his allegiance to be replaced. Elizabeth I by wearing black and white, colours associated with the queen. Other portraits demonstrate the sitters’ loyalty to Elizabeth through clothing and jewellery. William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, wears the robes, collar and pendant of the Noble Order of the Garter while Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, wears a Garter medal. There were (and still are) only twenty five Garter knights, appointed by the monarch as a mark of royal favour.

Above: Elizabeth I (NPG 2471) – Room 3 Right: Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (NPG 247) and detail showing the ‘Greater George’ pendant of the Order of the Garter, with St George of horseback – Room 3