The bishop's stockings part I

When I was updating the course contents of my Medieval Embroidery Course, I came across beautifully embroidered ceremonial stockings. The use of these stockings ended after the Second Vatican Council in 1962.  Bishops, but also some male nobility, were laid to rest in them. They are often the best-preserved part of the funeral clothing due to the way the body decomposes. I came under the impression that these stockings (also called buskins or caligae) are somewhat uniform when it comes to the embroidered decoration and the goldwork technique used. But is this true? And if so, what could that mean? Let's have a look at the Bishop's socks!

Stockings of William II of Sicily, second half 12th century, Kaiserliche Schatzkammer Wien, Inv. Nr. WS XIII 12.

So far, I have come across the socks of six important medieval men. Some were laid to rest in England, others in Germany or France. We will look at all of them in chronological order of their deaths. First up are the socks of King William II of Sicily (AD 1153-1189). William was of the Norman house of Hauteville and married Joan of England (AD 1165-1199), a daughter of Henry II. His beautiful cochineal-red samite socks with goldwork embroidery were made for him in the Royal Workshops of Palermo, Sicily. We know this through the Arabic dedication on the tapestry bands attached at the tops.

The embroidery is very special (Seipel 2004, 272-274). The design consists of interlocking quatrefoils. In the middle of each sits an identical motive. It is interpreted as being a simple four-lobed flower or small star. The socks are all-over embroidered with this design, leaving out only the heel and the foot (this is probably easier for when the corresponding sandals were put on). The embroidery is executed with pure gold wire (0.15 mm in width). Not a gold thread made of gold foil wrapped around a textile core. The technique used is normal surface couching, but the couching pattern is a slanting line and not normal bricking. The couching thread is naturally coloured silk. Once the embroidery was completed, the gold wire was hammered flat. The embroidery pattern transferred onto the red samite consists of dark lines (ink?).

Episcopal stocking of Archbishop Hubert Walter, AD 1170-1200, Canterbury Cathedral Archives CCA-DCC-HW/14/1+2.

The tomb of Archbishop Hubert Walter (AD c. 1160-1205) was opened in 1890. The beautifully embroidered socks were in exceptional condition. Christie (1938) describes the original colour of the silk twill fabric as possibly having been green. The silver-gilt threads have been underside couched. The pattern is geometric with diamonds filled with eagles, stars and crosses. The socks were made in England around AD 1170-1200.

Shaft of one of the stockings found in the grave of Philip of Swabia, D 521, Domschatz im historischen Museum der Pfalz.

Philip of Swabia was king of Germany from AD 1198 until his assassination in AD 1208. Philip belonged to the Hohenstaufen family and was born in AD 1177 in Pavia, Italy. His father was Holy Roman emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his mother was Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. The textiles were found in his grave in Speyer Cathedral in 1900. However, this was not Philip's first resting place. Since he was murdered in Bamberg, he was initially buried in Bamberg Cathedral and relocated five years later. It is likely that some of his funeral attire came from the Bamberg Cathedral Treasury. Most notably, the stockings as they are much older than Philip himself. The fabrics used and the quality of the embroidery point to the 11th century and not the late 12th/early 13th.

The embroidery on the shaft of the socks is quite unusual. The design of the heavy silk fabric (proto-lampas) has been embellished with gold embroidery. Some elements have been completely filled with couched gold threads, whilst other elements only have an outline in couched gold thread. It is possible that gold threads of different gold content, and thus colour, were used on purpose to achieve a shaded effect. The couching thread was likely a red silk. The original colour of the silken fabric could not be determined as it is so degraded.

The gold embroidery is very fine with 50 to 60 parallel threads per centimetre. This sounds familiar. The Imperial Vestments kept at Bamberg (the place where Philip was murdered!) Cathedral and dating to the 11th century are also decorated with very fine goldwork embroidery.

The embroidered stockings of King William, Archbishop Hubert Walter and King Philip share several characteristics. 1) The design has been embroidered directly onto a heavy silken fabric. 2) The embroidery only uses gold thread, either surface or underside couched, and no coloured silks for part of the design. and 3) The design is non-religious. I'll have three more socks for you next week!

Literature
Browne, C., Davies, G., Michael, M.A. (Eds.), 2016. English Medieval Embroidery: Opus Anglicanum. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Christie, A.G., 1938. English Medieval Embroidery: A brief survey of English Embroidery dating from the beginning of the tenth century until the end of the fourteenth. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Herget, M. (Ed.), 2011. Des kaisers letzte Kleider.: Neue Forschungen zu den organischen Funden aus den Herrschergräbern im Dom zu Speyer. Historisches Museum der Pfalz, Speyer.
Muthesius, A., 1995. Chapter III: The silks of the tomb of Archbishop Hubert Walter, in: Muthesius, A. (Ed.), Studies in Byzanthine and Islamic silk weaving. The Pindar Press, London, pp. 45–54.
Seipel, W. (Ed.), 2004. Nobiles Officinae: Die königlichen Hofwerkstätten zu Palermo zur Zeit der Normannen und Staufer im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Wien.