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Welcome or welcome back to Timely Fashions! This week we’re wrapping up the FitzWilliam Hours with this edition on elite dress. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that they were at times custom produced for elite clientele, Books of Hours often feature courtly scenes, with certain activities undertaken by members of the upper echelons of society depicted according to the seasons, as these events varied throughout the year. In my research thus far, I have found hunting, wooing, feasting, boating and churchgoing to be the most common scenes.

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Lady of the White Linen Hood

I have dubbed this character, who appears several times in this book as the Lady of the White Linen Hood due to her characteristically Lowlands-style headwear.

We first see her in January, feasting indoors. She wears a black kirtle with a higher neckline underneath her low-necked red gown. The ‘hood’ she wears, is almost certainly (as many 16th century headdresses are) just a rectangle of starched linen, framing the face and then neatly folded at the back, tucked up and pinned to itself. The back has been left loose to drape like a veil in later instances, such as the April illustration, where she accompanies her lord hunting and sports a similar gown with looser sleeves.

In December, she returns to a tighter-cuffed gown, under which is a deep blue layer. She is wearing a similar linen headdress but has placed atop it a black huik – a type of hood or cloak which came in a variety of styles and was worn across the Lowlands and beyond.

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Lord of the Wide Furry Hat

The companion to our lady (above) is her lord, whom I have dubbed Lord of the Wide Furry Hat, as this is the garment he is most easily identified by. He first appears feasting with his lady in Folio 1r, seated by the fire in a long-sleeved and ankle-length gown to keep the cold at bay. He wears a smaller black hat with an upturned brim.

He later appears in folio 3v, directing labourers who are replanting the gardens. Here we see the wide furry hat, worn over a red cap or coif. He also sports yellow or potentially cloth of gold doublet, red hose and an open-fronted gown with hanging sleeves slit partway down. Note the shape of the collar, which is likely a fur lining throughout the gown, and his luscious locks.

He sports a similar outfit when hunting, having changed the doublet and added boots. This may be a different gown altogether as it has a higher hemline with heavier pleating, making it more practical for chasing down a stag on horseback.

Come December, he has returned to his original gown, keeping it closely fastened over the front to keep out the chill. I love the detail of him tucking his arms into his sleeves to stay warm.

In November, he wears a very different, much more formal gown as he pays farmers for some hogs. Observe how the sleeves are much longer and the hem pools on the ground slightly.

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Young Lad of the Fancy Dress

The last consistent character I can identify, is an elite child, the son of our lord and lady; the Young Lad of the Fancy Dress.

He first appears in January, warming up by the fire as his parents eat. Thanks to the fantastic detail, we can see the seams in his gown and the heavy pleating at centre back.

He reappears in December, holding his mother’s hand on the way to church. Here, he wears a tighter sleeved gown belted at the waist with a handkerchief hanging from the belt. Schoolboys and young boys are often shown with such an item hanging from the belt, but this one is almost completely see-through, displaying a very high quality of linen his wealthy family can afford.

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Sledding Scene

A collection of elite figures appear sledding in Folio 1v, January, as they are all seated together I’d like to treat them as a group. On the left is potentially our lord, sporting a split-sleeved gown lined with brown fur. His doublet also features voluminous upper sleeves gathered into tighter cuffs at the elbow. The lady on his right, as well as on the far right, both appear to be wearing French hoods. This headdress is at this time a black hood, often with contrasting lining to be turned back at the brim, as per the rightmost lady. An interesting detail is the split in the hem, such that one part falls before the shoulders, whilst the rest hangs behind. 

The lady on the left is likely wearing what is often called a French gown; the style popular at the Tudor English court. This style has long and loose sleeves, a tight bodice, smooth at the front and cut into a deep squared neckline, and a heavily pleated trailing skirt. We can see some of the details of construction in this image, with a v-shape in the centre likely showing centre-back lacing, getting looser towards the top of the gown. The heavy pleats at the back are likely stuffed with rolls of wool to give them some extra ‘oomph’. The second male figure wears a gown similar to his companion, but with a red cap and doublet with looser sleeves.

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Boating Scene

Depictions of May often feature courtly romance, wooing and music. Here we see three elite men and three women boating, some are playing music, others engaged in conversation and potentially flirtation. The leftmost lady wears a French hood, we can see the turned back brim quite clearly, which reveals her hair parting and a gathered gold decoration on the coif or cap worn underneath. Similar to our lady, we see a low square-necked gown over a higher necked black kirtle. The lady in the centre’s gown is laced at the back, looser towards the top and in an elegant v-shape. She also has heavy pleats starting at the waistline, likely stuffed. Of particular interest is her headdress. I have seen similar styles in tapestries from the period, but the split-tailed nature of the veil is very much reminiscent of the English headdress often called a “Gable Hood”. The section at the top may be a cap or a net to encase the hair. The man to her left has a very loose gown drawn in to pleats with the addition of a belt.

And with that, we have finished looking at the FitzWilliam Hours! This has been a wonderful book to get started on, and a good incentive for me to post regularly. Next, we will be moving on to the Hennesy Hours, which comes from the same region, but a little later in period.

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The FitzWilliam Hours is currently housed in the FitzWilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, under the registration MS 1058-1975, and was originally produced as the result of collaboration between multiple masters in Bruges around 1510-1520.  The images used in this post are just a small selection of those available, and I recommend you have a look at the digitised edition yourself.

The contents of the book can all be found via the FitzWilliam Museum’s online collection, with higher quality digitisations of some folios via ILLUMINATED: Manuscripts in the making, located here https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/illuminated/ (link accurate as of 5 March, 2025). 

I commend the FitzMuseum for allowing the free use of content and images on this website for research and educational purposes.

Digitised edition, with some pages: https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/illuminated/manuscript/discover/book-of-hours (link accurate as of 11 March, 2025)

Online collection edition, with all pages: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/images/id/170636 (link accurate as of 11 March, 2025)

Until next time

Kate