trousers history question...

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Elleth
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trousers history question...

Post by Elleth »

Question for the guys who've done deep medieval period pants research:

If I look at Viking/Saxon reenactors, I see more-or-less recognizable trousers of wool. A different cut, but all one piece nonetheless.
If I look at high medieval reenactors, I see the poofy linen underthings with leggings of wool tied up with points.

Does anyone know exactly what changed when, and why?

Was it a Norman v. Saxon thing? Something the Norse picked up from the Franks or something before becoming the "Normans" we know?
Was it a continent-wide style change? (and if so, do we know why?)

Is there a particular point where the changeover happens in Britain?

Thanks!
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Kortoso
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Re: trousers history question...

Post by Kortoso »

It's a very good question, and as a former Viking-Age reenactor, I asked myself this question many times.
The "reenactorism" assumes that the hose/braies combination was brought into Britain by the Normans, but that's conjecture.
It's often assumed that since "braies" came from the old word "braccae" that the sort of braies we seen in the 14th century began with the migration age, but that's far from certain.
By the way, here's a good discussion of "Viking" trousers and the archaeo sources:
http://urd.priv.no/viking/bukser.html

And a video showing current interpretation of medieval braies:
https://youtu.be/VOvPOUYEbfk
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Elleth
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Re: trousers history question...

Post by Elleth »

That's excellent Kortoso - thank you! :mrgreen:
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Taurinor
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Re: trousers history question...

Post by Taurinor »

I've been doing some digging around, but unfortunately there are so few extant garments from that period and the art is not very detailed, so I've had a hard time getting a handle on the "when", let alone the "why".

Marc Carlson's Breches/Braies/Trousers page has some discussion of the etymology of braies, in addition to the extent trousers he could get information on in 2006. He also compares some possible patterns for braies, fully admitting that they are probably all wrong. The wrapped braies idea is another interesting possibility, and looks very much like some 13th and 14th century illustrations of braies (especially those from The Maciejowski Bible), but some illustrations look a bit more like baggy linen boxers, and they eventually turn into more fitted (probably cut and sewn) undergarments, like these from The Decameron).

The different theories on construction of braies seem like they might be relevant to the "why" part of the changeover. I've read where some folks have hypothesized that trousers and knee length hose (there's a discussion of vikings socks and hosen here) gradually turned into braies and hosen - perhaps hosen allowed for showing off shapely legs more effectively than trousers, so the hose got longer and were pulled up over the trousers, which eventually became the light, baggy boxer-type garments some folks think braies might have been in the 13th and 14th centuries.

If braies are wrapped, though, that derivation of the garment doesn't makes as much sense to me. Maybe instead of coming from trousers, they came from wrapped Roman loincloth-type undergarments that I have seen called subligar or subligaria or subligaculum. Interestingly, this late Roman reenactment group soft kit description talks about "short bracae or femoralia of wool or [...] plain linen", and this Wikipedia stub states "Femoralia or feminalia and tibialia were a kind of leg covering used in ancient Rome, the femoralia covering the upper leg (cf. femur) and the tibialia covering the lower leg (cf. tibia). Femoralia are sometimes described as short trousers or breeches, and tibialia as leggings." Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else about "tibialia". If braies and hosen are maybe derived from Roman garments, it might make sense for them to be found in continental Europe before in England, and it would make sense for the Norman conquest to introduce them to England in that case, but there are a lot of “maybe”s and “if”s there.

I went looking for extant garments to see if I could find anything that might help. I found the silk hose of Holy Roman Emperor Henrich III, dated to 1056. They are long and fancy (like they might be meant to be seen), but I don’t see any obvious indication that they were pointed up like later hosen. I also found the burial hose of Rodrigo Ximenez de Rada, the Archbishop of Toledo, dated to his death in 1247. Those look like they were pointed up to some sort of waistband, but I can’t tell if it’s a belt, which would possibly support the wrapped braies idea, or if it’s a drawstring casing-type thing, which would support the boxer-type braies construction. Frustratingly, I found an image of “trousers made of fabrics imported from Spain in 1270-80”, supposedly from Prague Castle, which really look like they could be braies, but I could only find that mention of that garment and no other information, so I don’t really feel like I can put a lot of faith in it.

So, in summary, I don’t know why the fashion changed from trousers to braies and hosen, but braies and hosen were worn throughout much of Europe from (at least) the 12th to 15th century, and possibly earlier. It seems possible that they were introduced to England by the Norman conquest, but I don’t really have any evidence for that. I can tell you from personal experience that they are comfy, though!
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Elleth
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Re: trousers history question...

Post by Elleth »

WOW Taurinor - that's amazing! Thank you so much for researching and sharing all that! You're a hero. :mrgreen:

I know it sounds too pat, but at least on first hearing I can absolutely believe the braies-and-hosen came through a Roman inheritance via the Franks. I know the Romans (at least in their earlier days) put great store in being people of the toga, and if I recall correctly found trousers a savage custom. I can easily imagine a sort of convergent evolution necessarily taking shape once they reached northern climates. Hrm.. interesting idea.

Anyhow - since you do the braies-and-hosen thing: do you notice anything particularly different about that solution from regular trousers? If fashion weren't an issue at all, would you have reason to choose one solution over the other?

Related, it seems to me braies-and-hosen have an interesting similarity to the breeches-and-leggings of guys in the colonial era - but that similarity reads to me as more an accident of historical fashion than anything intrinsic about the solution itself. Or am I wrong?
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Re: trousers history question...

Post by Odigan »

I was going to bring up the "barbaric" (in the sense of being non-Roman) nature of trousers, though they were tolerated by those serving on the Northern frontier, particularly in Britain. Beyond that I cannot contribute to the discussion as to why, when, or where exactly the predominance of braies and hose took place, but I think we could consider some of their advantages over trousers.

We've all seen depictions of peasants working in the fields, stripped to the waist (even women are shown to have done so), and often either in their braies alone, or with their hose/chausses rolled down like socks. So unlike trousers, the combination garment permits some temperature regulation while maintaining a level of protection and modesty, as well as not having to completely remove them. Likewise, this piecemeal nature potentially eases things like laundering and drying (being smaller items), and of course simplifies their construction somewhat, not requiring some creative crotch stitching.

Frankly, I find them more comfortable as well, and in any talk of loose-fitting clothing vs. fitted pants, I can't help but interject with my favourite essay of Umberto Eco, "Lumbar Thought," in which he muses upon the nature of his jeans and how clothing influences demeanour. The confining nature of his jeans - while not uncomfortable - made him aware of his body, and therefore forced him to exist in an externalized state. Such was the case throughout history for those ensconced in armour, either literally or figuratively in the form of tight collars or corsets, constraining the body and therefore the mind, which must then remain focused on the physical. To the contrary, those who were devoted to intellectualism donned flowing robes or habits, which left the body free and the mind to wander. "Though," he wrote, "abhors tights."
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