Westminster the barons and viscounts wore their parliament
robes,[1] the earls, marquesses and dukes wearing their robes of
estate of crimson velvet “furred with ermins, poudred according
to their degrees.” This was also the case at the coronation
of James I., and in Selden’s Titles of Honour 3rd ed., 1672) the
illustrations show the baron and viscount in parliamentary
robes, the higher ranks in robes of estate. By the time of
James II.’s coronation, however, the baron and viscount had
the velvet robes of estate (see illustration on p. 188 of Perkins’s
The Coronation Book, 1902, where the surcoat also appears to
have a pointed collar edged with white and to be sleeveless).
The colour. of these seems to have been crimson at first, sometimes varying to purple. They consisted of a long gown or
surcoat with girdle, a mantle lined with ermine, a hood and a
tippet of ermine, the rows being as follows: for a duke 4, a
marquess 312, an earl 3, a viscount 212, and a baron 2.
Till late in the 18th century peers continued to attend the House of Lords in parliamentary robes, with the stars and ribbons of their orders, but robes are now only worn in the House of Lords, e.g. at the opening of parliament, on occasions when the sovereign gives his assent to bills by “royal commission” (when five or six peers on the government side appear in robes, and the lord chancellor also wears his peer’s robe of scarlet ermine), and at the introduction of a newly created peer, when the new peer and his two introducers wear their parliamentary robes (over morning dress) during the ceremony of introduction only. The mover and seconder of the Address no longer wear robes, but uniform. On all the above occasions, and when the peers as a body attend church or some other ceremony, the parliamentary robe of scarlet cloth is worn; in the present day it takes the form of a mantle opening on the right shoulder, with a collar of “ermine,” and guarded with rows of ermine and gold lace round the right shoulder, varying in number according to the rank of the wearer. The modern coronation robes consist of a crimson velvet surcoat and a mantle with a tippet of ermine and with rows, of ermine as in the parliamentary robes. The surcoat is no longer a gown, but a short sleeveless garment.
For Scotland, an order of James II. (1455) prescribed for earls “mantles of brown granick colour” open before, lined and faced in front, as far as the girdle, with white fur, and with hoods to match; for the other lords of Parliament a red mantle lined with silk or fur, with a furred hood, while James I. (and VI.) in 1606 had to issue an order restraining the Scotch peers from wearing velvet robes in parliament, and confining, them to those of scarlet cloth (Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. i. p. 147). The robes of the Scottish peers are now, of course, similar, to those of the others.
The peeresses’ robes at the coronation of Anne Boleyn are also described in the account mentioned above. The duchess of Norfolk, the train-bearer, was followed by “ladies being lords’ wives” in scarlet robes furred with “lettice,” while Wriothesley (loc. cit.) adds that the duchess was also in scarlet.[2] The order of the earl marshal for the regulation of the peeresses’ robes at the coronation of James II. (given in J. H. T. Perkins’s The Coronation Book, 1902, pp. 202-5) shows that by then all peeresses wore the robes of state of crimson velvet, and minutely regulates all details, such as shape, orderings, length of train and width of the fur edging of the mantle. They have changed very little up to the present day.
Robes of the Orders of Knighthood.—The history of the robes of the two oldest orders is given in great detail in Ashmole’s Order of the Garter (London, 1672) and Anstis’s Order of the Bath (London, 1725); see also G. F. Beltz, Memorials of the Order of the Garter (London, 1841), p. l-lii. In each case the robes consisted of a mantle, surcoat and hood. The. robes of the Garter were originally of blue woollen stuff, the surcoat and hood "being powdered' with garters embroidered in silk and gold. In the time of Henry VI. the mantle was first made of velvet, and between the time of Elizabeth and of Charles I. it seems to have been sometimes purple in colour. The surcoat varied in colour from year to year; in the reign of the founder alone, e.g., it was first blue, then black (possibly as a sign of mourning for the plague), then “sanguine in grain.” The hood was made of the same material as the surcoat, and when hats began to be worn, was carried hanging over the shoulder. The number of garters embroidered on the surcoat and hood came to be fixed by rank, but after Henry VI. the surcoat seems to have been made of plain velvet. Robes were sometimes granted to ladies in the early days (see Beltz, p. ccxxi., for a list of those ladies), in which case the robe and hood were of the colour of the surcoat worn by the knights that year, and powdered with garters. The last lady to receive the robes was Margaret, countess of Richmond, in 1488. At the present day the mantle is of dark blue velvet, of the same colour as the ribbon, lined with this taffeta, and with the star embroidered on the left shoulder, the hood and surcoat of crimson velvet lined with white taffeta, and with these are worn a doublet and trunk hose of white satin and a plumed hat (see Lawrence-Archer, The Orders of Chivalry, p. 106).
The robes worn by the knights of the Bath created at the Coronation of Henry IV. were green with furred hoods, and a white silk cord hanging from the left shoulder.[3] In the various accounts of later creations of knights of the Bath quoted by Anstis, the costume worn before the ceremonial bath seems to have been a priest-like garment of russet or grey, with a girdle and hood; after the bath, was put on a red surcoat and mantle, the latter with a lace of white silk, from which hung a pair of white gloves; and the final costume was a blue (later a purple) velvet or satin gown, with hood furred with miniver (later lined with sarcenet), and the white cord hanging from the shoulder, until it should be removed by the sovereign or a lady for some deed of valour. The mantle in the present day is of crimson velvet lined with white over a white satin under-coat and trunk-hose, and~, a plumed hat and white boots with red tops are worn. The mantle of the Thistle is of dark green velvet over surcoat, &c., of cloth of silver; that of St Patrick azure, with doublet and trunk-hose of white satin; that of St Michael and St George of Saxon blue satin lined with scarlet; and that of the Star of India of light blue satin lined with white.
House of Commons.—The speaker of the House of Commons wears on state occasions a black damask robe with gold lace and a full-bottomed wig; in the House itself he wears a black silk robe with train and a full-bottomed wig. The clerks at the table wear barristers’ gowns and wigs.
Judicial and Forensic Robes.—It is frequently stated that judicial robes had their origin in the dress of ecclesiastics. But though ecclesiastics in early days frequently acted as judges, and though, as Fortescue says, the serjeant’s long robe was “ad instar sacerdotis,” judicial robes more probably arose from the ordinary civilian dress of the early 14th century. The chief argument for the ecclesiastical origin has been found in the coif (tena, birretum album), a cap of white linen or silk, tied under the chin, and described by Fortescue as “the principal or chief insignment and habit wherewith sergeants-at-law at their creation are decked,” which is said to have been used by ecclesiastics to hide the tonsure when in court. This view is disposed of by Pulling (The Order of the Coif, London, 1884). More probably the coif was a head-dress in common use in the 13th century, which survived as the distinguishing mark of men of law.[4] As such it is found in a wardrobe-roll of
- ↑ These are well described in the account of the opening of parliament by Henry VIII. in 1537 given in Wriothesley’s Chronicle of England (Camden Soc., 1875, ed. W. Hamilton): “all erles marques and lordes, all in their Perliament robes of scarlett furred with white, and their hoodes about their neckes, which were forty in number; everie duke having fower barres of white fur alongest the right side of their robes, and everie earle having three bars, . . and everie lord two barres in likewise.”
- ↑ After her followed ladies being lordes’ wives, which had circotes of scarlet, with narrow sleeves, the breast all lettice, with barres of ponders according to their degrees, and over that they had mantles of scarlet furred, and every mantle had lettice about the necke like a neckerchief, likewise poudered, so that by the pouderings their degrees might be known. Then followed ladies being knights’ wives in gownes of scarlet."
- ↑ “Longues cottes vertes a estroictes manches fourres de menever, et chapperons pareil fourres de menever, en guise de prelats; et avoient les dits chevaliers sur la senestre espaule ung double cordeau de soye blanche a blanche houppettes pendans” (Froissart).
- ↑ Mr Oswald Barron, in The Ancestor, vols. v. (p. 105) and vii. (p. 108 seq., plate xii.), has given reproductions of figures from MSS. of the 13th and 14th century, showing the coif worn by both clerks and laymen.
