Detail of one of the Triumphs of Petrarch, a series of Flemish tapestries on classical themes hanging in the Great Watching Chamber of Hampton Court Palace, each measuring a generous 27’ x 14’3”. They originally belonged to the Bishop of Durham, Thomas Ruthall, and were bought from the late bishop’s estate in 1523 by Thomas Wolsey, who had been Henry VIII’s Chancellor since 1511. Wolsey was an indefatigable buyer of tapestries for his residences at Hampton Court and Westminster; in 1522 he had bought twenty-one sets of hangings, made up of 130 separate pieces, for Hampton Court, which told Bible stories from Jacob to Esther as well as one for each of the Nine Worthies.
Part 1 of 2
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)
Part Two
This tapestry from the turn of the sixteenth century hangs today in Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, and boldly displays the royal arms against a background of close-set flowers. Tapestries and cushions etc. bearing the owner’s coat of arms were a feature of many collections. Bishop Ruthall had one with his arms and St Cuthbert woven into it. King Henry VIII, who was as much a tapestry-lover as his Chancellor and ‘acquired’ his collection after Wolsey’s fall from grace in 1529, had the royal arms worked into several of the 2000 pieces he owned when he died in 1547. Many came from Arras and other Continental workshops, where buyers for Europe’s crowned heads would congregate, often conducting classified business while casually turning over a nice bit of cloth.
The eye was delighted with the glories of ancient chivalry and the love-scenes of romance elaborately wrought in figures of gold on azure silk. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,* the mighty deeds of Guy of Warwick,* of Alexander,* and Charlemagne,* and sometimes the more alluring scenes from Ovid,* glittering upon the cloth of gold, aroused the imaginations of the guests within the festive hall; while the most striking incidents of Bible history represented on the chamber hanging, appealing to the thought, led many who could not read, and who heeded not the matin-bell,* to become curious about the word of truth.
These representations were rendered still more valuable and instructive from the mottoes, wise sayings, and terse explanatory sentences which accompanied them, and which, from constant repetition, became household words, and gave birth to much of the proverbial wisdom current for ages among our ancestors.*
* Legendary figures from French romance, set in sub-Roman Britain (i.e. after 410). Arthur was celebrated as one of the Nine Worthies, a list of heroes of chivalry compiled by Jacques de Longuyon in 1312. They included: three pagans, Hector, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar; three Jews, Joshua, David and Judas Maccabeus; and three Christians, King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon.
* A legendary figure from the thirteenth century, though his story is set in Anglo-Saxon times just as the legend of Arthur is set in sub-Roman Britain. Some slipped Guy into the list of Nine Worthies, replacing Godfrey of Bouillon.
* A historical figure this time, Alexander the Great, King of Macedon from 336 BC when he was aged just twenty, to his death in 323 BC. For some stories, see Alexander the Great of Macedon (5).
* Another historical figure, Charles the Great (or Charlemagne) was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy Roman Emperor from 800 until his death in 814.
* Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC - AD ?18), a Roman poet whose Metamorphoses and Heroides bring to life many wonderful tales from Classical myth. See posts tagged Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) (2).
* That is, they did not go to morning prayer in their local church.
* The subjects of tapestries recorded in the possession of Henry V at his death in 1422 included rural scenes, hawking and hunting, a lady at her harp, the legendary Sir Bevis of Hampton, St George, St Edward, Biblical scenes, and mottos such as ‘Credo in unum Deum’ and ‘Jeo vous ayme loialment’.
Précis
In private chambers, mediaeval gentlemen preferred Biblical themes for their tapestries, whereas in public areas the subjects were more likely to be scenes from classical mythology, heroes of Arthurian romance, or great warriors of history. Some of the hangings incorporated lettering, including explanatory texts and heraldic mottoes, as well as expressions which over time have become proverbial. (57 / 60 words)
