Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


The Crusades also gave rise to the general use of the purse, which was
suspended to the belt by a cord of silk or cotton, and sometimes by a
metal chain. At the time of the Holy War, it had become an emblem
characteristic of pilgrims, who, before starting for Palestine, received
from the hands of the priest the cross, the pilgrim's staff, and the
purse.


We now come to the time of Louis IX. (Figs. 414 to 418), of that good king
who, according to the testimony of his historians, generally dressed with
the greatest simplicity, but who, notwithstanding his usual modesty and
economy, did not hesitate on great occasions to submit to the pomp
required by the regal position which he held. "Sometimes," says the Sire
de Joinville, "he went into his garden dressed in a camel's-hair coat, a
surcoat of linsey-woolsey without sleeves, a black silk cloak without a
hood, and a hat trimmed with peacocks' feathers. At other times he was
dressed in a coat of blue silk, a surcoat and mantle of scarlet satin, and
a cotton cap."

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