MEDIEVAL UNDERWEAR

A discovery in Austria suggests our ancestors’ dressing habits weren’t so diferent from our own.


Men wore shirts and braies (medieval underpants resembling modern-day shorts). Women sported a smock or chemise – but no pants. Until recently, that’s all we knew about medieval underwear. But archaeological finds made in 2008 in East Tyrol, Austria provide a better idea of what some women wore underneath their dresses.

Lengberg Castle, first documented in 1190, was rebuilt into a representative palais in the 15th century by the addition of a second floor. During extensive reconstruction in July 2008, a vault filled with waste was found beneath the floorboards of a room on the second storey of the castle, where it was dumped during the 15th-century reconstruction. Because of dry conditions in the vault the organic waste, mainly consisting of worked wood, leather (shoes) and textiles, had been extremely well preserved.

Significantly, four of the linen fragments resemble modern bras, and feature cut cups – in contrast to antique Greek or Roman breast bands, simple strips of cloth or leather wound around the breasts to flatten rather than enhance.

There are some written medieval sources on possible female breast support, but they are rather vague. Henri de Mondeville, surgeon to Philip the Fair of France and his successor Louis X, wrote in his "Cyrurgia" in 1312–20: “Some women... insert two bags in their dresses, adjusted to the breasts, fitting tight, and they put them [the breasts] into them [the bags] every morning and fasten them when possible with a matching band”.

Support and enhance

These ‘bags’ served the same purpose as antique breast bands – that is, to contain too-large breasts. However, the “shirts with bags in which they put their breasts” that Konrad Stolle complained about in his chronicle of Thuringia and Erfurt in 1480 seem to have had the opposite effect, because he concludes his description with the words “all indecent”. An unknown 15th-century author of southern Germany was definitely referring to breast-enhancement in his satirical poem as he wrote: “Many [a woman] makes two breastbags, with them she roams the streets, so that all the young men that look at her, can see her beautiful breasts; But whose breasts are too large, makes tight pouches, so there is no gossip in the city about her big breasts.” As we can see, medieval bras worked both ways.

Two of the ‘bras’ from Lengberg Castle seem to be ‘shirts with bags’. Unfortunately, they are fragmented, with only one cup preserved on each. But they appear to have had additional cloth above the cups to cover the cleavage, thus being a combination of a short shirt – ending right below the breasts – and a bra.

The third ‘bra’ looks a lot more like a modern bra and is possibly what the unknown German author called tuttenseck – “breastbags”. It has two broad shoulder straps, and the partially torn edges at the cups indicate a back strap. This ‘bra’ is elaborately decorated with needle-lace on the shoulder straps. All ‘bags’ are decorated at the lower end with finger-loop-braided laces and needle-lace.

The fourth ‘bra’ can best be described with the modern term ‘longline bra’, a type of bra popular in the 1950s but still fashioned today. The cups are each made from two pieces of linen sewn together, and the surrounding fabric extends down to the bottom of the ribcage with a row of six eyelets on the side of the body for fastening with a lace. There are narrow shoulder straps, and needle-lace decorates the cleavage. Two of the bras have been radiocarbon-dated at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, giving dates ranging from the end of the 14th to the second half of the 15th century.

We don’t know if all women in the Middle Ages wore ‘breastbags’ – though some definitely did. But while it might have been socially acceptable to do so in order to flatten the bosom, the complaints and satirical comments suggest that breast-enhancement was not generally approved of.

It is believed that women did not wear underpants or drawers until as late as the very end of the 18th century. The find of a pair of completely preserved linen underpants in Lengberg arouses anew the question: male or female?

Who’s wearing the pants?

The underpants from Lengberg are of a type that developed during the late 14th and 15th century, when men started to wear joined (full) hose or trousers instead of single-legged (split) hose. Thus, long-legged braies were no longer needed to fill the gap between the two trouser legs. Spread out, the underpants have a slightly hourglass-shaped cut with narrow straps at the corners. They were repaired three times with linen patches, now overlaying one another.

Paintings, woodcuts and book illustrations of both sacral and secular themes show only men wearing this type of underpants: a small piece of cloth covering the buttocks and pubic area fastened with narrow straps tied in a bow at the hips. When women are shown wearing pants it’s always in the context of ‘a world turned upside down’.

Trousers and underpants were considered symbols of male power, so women wearing them were pugnacious wives trying to usurp the authority of their husbands, or women of low morality. A book illustration from a German translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s "Famous Women", published in 1474, displays Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians, and two of her ladies-in-waiting wearing underpants. But of her it is said: “Semiramis, a woman once Ninus’s wife, masqueraded as a boy, his son” and “it is believed that she gave herself to many men. Among her lovers was her own son Ninyas.”

Woodcut from a German translation of Boccaccio's "Famous Women" (1474)

However, the same thing can be said of underpants as bras: just because it was thought that women should not wear them doesn’t mean they never did – especially because such garments come in handy during certain days of the month. So what did women do during their menstruation?

According to some stories, told mostly by men, they did nothing – evoking disgusting images of women leaving behind a trail of blood wherever they went. Yet two translations of the Bible, the Douay–Rheims Bible from 1609–10 and the King James Bible from 1611, mention “rags of a menstruous woman” (Isaiah 64:6) and “menstruous cloth” (Isaiah 30:22). To have it translated that way means the translator must have known about the possible use of a strip of cloth for this purpose – and underpants would have kept those ‘rags’ in place.

In the 16th century some Italian women wore drawers. Eleanor of Toledo (1522–62) owned a pair in 1561, and 50 years later many pairs were made for Maria de Medici (1573–1642), the new queen of France. But women wearing drawers was still frowned upon by some. In his "Costumes of Different Nations" of 1594, Pietro Bertelli shows only the Venetian courtesan wearing drawers.

On the other hand, the Englishman Fynes Moryson, who travelled continental Europe between 1591 and 1595, wrote about the Italian ladies: “The city virgins, and especially gentlewomen...in many places wear silk or linen breeches under their gowns.” But he also writes: “I have seen courtesans... apparelled like men, in carnation or light coloured doublets and breeches.” And it seems that some women in the Netherlands also wore drawers: Moryson tells us that “some of the chief women not able to abide the extreme cold... do use to wear breeches of linen or silk”.

What about women in England? Did Elizabeth I wear drawers? Her funeral effigy, made in 1603, wears a corset and drawers. Though some claim that the narrow drawers nailed on to the effigy were added as late as 1760, the ‘"Accounts of the Great Wardrobe"’ (1558–1603) note that John Colte was paid £10 to provide “the Image representing her late Majestie... with one paire of straite bodies, a paire of drawers”. In addition, there is a reference to Elizabeth having owned “six pairs of double linen hose of fine hollande cloth” made in 1587. Are these drawers or stockings? Why would the queen of England not have claimed for herself the same right to wear drawers as did the queen of France? And who would have dared question her choice of underwear?

And in the 17th century? In his diary Samuel Pepys, suspecting his wife of having an affair, wrote on 15 May 1663: “But I am ashamed to think what a course I did take by lying to see whether my wife did wear drawers today as she used to, and other things to raise my suspicion of her; but I found no true cause of doing it,” and on 4 June 1663: “...and I did so watch to see my wife put on drawers, which poor soul she did.”

Of course, this does not mean that all women in the Middle Ages or early modern times owned bras or drawers, but some did. Considering the Lengberg ‘breastbags’ were found in a castle, they were probably most common among members of the upper class or women who were, for whatever reason, not overly concerned with social standards.

By Beatrix Nutz in "BBC History Magazine's Medieval Life - Collector's Edition 2016" excerpts pp. 22-25. Adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.