[Illustration: Fig. 421.--Costumes of a young Nobleman and of a Bourgeois
in the Fourteenth Century.--From a painted Window in the Church of
Saint-Ouen at Rouen, and from a Window at Moulins (Bourbonnais).]
"We must believe that God has permitted this as a just judgment on us for
our sins," say the monks who edited the "Grande Chronique de St. Denis,"
in 1346, at the time of the unfortunate battle of Cressy, "although it
does not belong to us to judge. But what we see we testify to; for pride
was very great in France, and especially amongst the nobles and others,
that is to say, pride of nobility, and covetousness. There was also much
impropriety in dress, and this extended throughout the whole of France.
Some had their clothes so short and so tight that it required the help of
two persons to dress and undress them, and whilst they were being
undressed they appeared as if they were being skinned. Others wore dresses
plaited over their loins like women; some had chaperons cut out in points
all round; some had tippets of one cloth, others of another; and some had
their head-dresses and sleeves reaching to the ground, looking more like
mountebanks than anything else. Considering all this, it is not surprising
if God employed the King of England as a scourge to correct the excesses
of the French people."
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