Introduction
For many years, the Norman barons who dwelt in English castles took more interest in wide estates for hunting, and a large retinue for serving and entertainment, than in soft furnishings or dainty ornaments. But from the time of Henry III (r. 1216-1272) that began to change, and one of the new fashions in interior decoration was the ‘halling’ — a tapestry for one’s Hall.
TAPESTRY only occasionally appeared among domestic furniture previous to the thirteenth century, but during the ages which followed it was the principal ornament in the great hall.* It was one of the many household luxuries which the example of Eleanor of Castile rendered fashionable.* The merchant princes of England acquired fortunes by their commerce in the rich stuffs of Arras and Brabant.*
The cost of these household treasures was enormous.* A monarch wishing to propitiate the favour of a royal potentate, sent a few yards of arras as a present.* The sale or transfer of a ‘halling’ was completed by a deed, signed and sealed with due formality. They were bequeathed with minute specifications of their measurement, to an ell,* even in the wills of kings and princes. They were paraded on state occasions; and chroniclers recording the magnificence of a baron, and wishing to impress their readers with his domestic luxury, rarely forgot to enumerate his arras* and baudekin.*
* According to Scottish tapestry historian William George Thomson (1865-1942), in the strictest sense the word ‘tapestry’ “should be used only to describe a hand-woven material of ribbed surface, resembling rep, but into which the design is woven during manufacture, so that it forms an integral part of the textile.” Nevertheless, embroidery and needlepoint are often spoken of as tapestry, though they are not made in this way.
* Eleanor of Castile (1242-1290) married Prince Edward, son and heir of King Henry III (r. 1216-1272) of England, in 1254. When she arrived in England on October 17th, 1255, she found her new lodgings already hung with sumptuous woven hangings. Tapestry was not new to this country: Anglo-Saxon nobility had dressed their halls and their churches with tapestries, and the Normans celebrated victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 with the famous Bayeux tapestry (technically an embroidery). But in the thirteenth century, records of English tapestry-makers and domestic tapestry-buyers begin to be more common. The tapestry makers of London received their statutes in 1331.
* Arras is a town in northern France, some sixty miles southeast of Calais. Brabant is a neighbouring region to the east, in what is now Belgium. The wool used in making them had often come from England, creating an economic and political sympathy across the Channel.
* The writer mentions that “Edward the Fourth paid £984 8s. 8d. for some pieces of arras, with the history of Nebuchadnezzar, the passion, and judgment wrought thereon, given to him by the Duke of Burgoyne.” Edward IV reigned from 1461 to 1483. In 1461, £984 8s. 8d. would be equivalent to about £746,000 in 2021.
* Tapestries were increasingly given as presents in less exalted circles too. In 1598, so the Calendar of State Papers tells us, one Charles Lister gave a suite of bedroom tapestries to his fiancée, a widow named Mrs Bridges. Unfortunately, after accepting the tapestries and £1,150 (over £235,000 now) in gifts, loans and redeemed pawn tickets, Mrs Bridges suddenly could not remember ever saying anything about marriage. Mr Lister submitted a painstakingly itemised bill; whether he recovered anything remains a mystery.
* The ell was originally the length of a man’s arm from finger tip to elbow, some sixteen to eighteen inches; but for cloth measurement the English ell usually meant the double ell, twice the length or about a yard, paid out from the body to the finger tips.
* An arras is a tapestry. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act III, Scene iv) Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius when he playfully plunges his sword through an arras stirred by what he thinks is a rat.
* Also spelt baldachin, or baldaquin (from the Italian word baldacchino), a canopy of state typically found above a throne or a church altar.
Précis
Though known in England for centuries, tapestries did not become a fashionable addition to the houses of English gentlemen until the thirteenth century, thanks in no small part to the taste of Eleanor of Castile, Edward I’s queen. Those imported from the Continent were the most prized, but all were extremely expensive, and testified to high rank and great wealth. (60 / 60 words)
Though known in England for centuries, tapestries did not become a fashionable addition to the houses of English gentlemen until the thirteenth century, thanks in no small part to the taste of Eleanor of Castile, Edward I’s queen. Those imported from the Continent were the most prized, but all were extremely expensive, and testified to high rank and great wealth.
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