Picture of Queen Elizabeth I
 

Elizabethan Clothing Law for Women

  • Interesting Facts and information about Elizabethan Clothing for Women
  • Queen Elizabeth I
  • Greenwich 1574
  • Clothing and Statutes of Apparel for Women
  • Elizabethan Women's Clothing

Picture of Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabethan Clothing Law for Women

Elizabethan Clothing - Elizabethan Clothing - Women
In Greenwich on 15 June 1574 Queen Elizabeth I enforced some new Sumptuary Laws called the 'Statutes of Apparel'. The reasons were to limit the expenditure of people on clothes - and of course to maintain the social structure of the Elizabethan Class system!

 
 
 

Her proclamation for the Statutes of Apparel Sumptuary Laws for women are as follows:

Enforcing Statutes of Apparel Elizabethan Clothing Laws for Women

None shall wear

Any cloth of gold, tissue, nor fur of sables: except duchesses, marquises, and countesses in their gowns, kirtles, partlets, and sleeves; cloth of gold, silver, tinseled satin, silk, or cloth mixed or embroidered with gold or silver or pearl, saving silk mixed with gold or silver in linings of cowls, partlets, and sleeves:

 

except all degrees above viscountesses, and viscountesses, baronesses, and other personages of like degrees in their kirtles and sleeves.

Velvet (crimson, carnation); furs (black genets, lucerns); embroidery or passment lace of gold or silver: except all degrees above mentioned, the wives of knights of the Garter and of the Privy Council, the ladies and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bedchamber, and maids of honor.

None shall wear any velvet in gowns, furs of leopards, embroidery of silk: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, the wives of barons' sons, or of knights.
Cowls, sleeves, partlets, and linings, trimmed with spangles or pearls of gold, silver, or pearl; cowls of gold or silver, or of silk mixed with gold or silver: except the degrees and persons above mentioned; and trimmed with pearl, none under the degree of baroness or like degrees.

Enameled chains, buttons, aglets, and borders: except the degrees before mentioned.

 
 

Satin, damask, or tufted taffeta in gowns, kirtles, or velvet in kirtles; fur whereof the kind groweth not within the Queen's dominions, except foins, grey genets, bodge, and wolf: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, or the wives of those that may dispend £100 by the year and so valued in the subsidy book.

Gowns of silk grosgrain, doubled sarcenet, camlet, or taffeta, or kirtles of satin or damask: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, and the wives of the sons and heirs of knights, and the daughters of knights, and of such as may dispend 300 marks by the year so valued ut supra, and the wives of those that may dispend £40 by the year.

Gentlewomen attendant upon duchesses, marquises, countesses may wear, in their liveries given them by their mistresses, as the wives of those that may dispend £100 by the year and are so valued ut supra.

None shall wear any velvet, tufted taffeta, satin, or any gold or silver in their petticoats: except wives of barons, knights of the order, or councilors' ladies, and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bed chamber, and the maids of honor.

Damask, taffeta, or other silk in their petticoats: except knights' daughters and such as be matched with them in the former article, who shall not wear a guard of any silk upon their petticoats.

Velvet, tufted taffeta, satin, nor any gold or silver in any cloak or safeguard: except the wives of barons, knights of the order, or councilor's ladies and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bedchamber, and maids of honor, and the degrees above them.

Damask, taffeta, or other silk in any cloak or safeguard: except knights' wives, and the degrees and persons above mentioned.

No persons under the degrees above specified shall wear any guard or welt of silk upon any petticoat, cloak, or safeguard.

Elizabethan Era Clothing Law for Women
Details, facts and information about the new Sumptuary Laws called the 'Statutes of Apparel' relating to women as decreed by Queen Elizabeth I on 15 June 1574. For additional information please click the following link:

 

Elizabethan Clothing allowed for Women

Elizabethan Clothing Law for Women

  • Interesting Facts and information about Elizabethan Clothing Law for Women and Elizabethan Clothing
  • Interesting Facts and information about Elizabethan Clothing for Women
  • Queen Elizabeth I
  • Greenwich 1574
  • Clothing and Statutes of Apparel for Women
  • Elizabethan Women's Clothing
 
 

Queen Elizabeth's Coat of Arms

 

Elizabethan Era - Free Educational Resource. Author Referencing Information

The contents of www.elizabethan-era.org.uk are subject to Copyright Laws - the name of the Website Author is Linda Alchin. The referencing protocol is suggested as follows:

Alchin, L.K.
 Elizabethan Era
e.g. Retrieved May 16 2012 from
www.elizabethan-era.org.uk

The content of Elizabethan Era is free but solely for educational purposes. Reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.". We would respectfully direct our visitors to our Elizabethan Era Copyright page and Elizabethan Era Privacy Statement regarding the Terms of Use of this history site, both may be accessed from the links provided at the bottom of this page.

Queen Elizabeth's Coat of Arms

Elizabethan Clothing Law for Women

 

Privacy Statement

© 2017 Siteseen Ltd

Cookie Policy

By Linda Alchin