Type of short coat
A
tabard
is a type of short coat that was commonly worn by men during the
late Middle Ages
and
early modern period
in Europe. Generally worn outdoors, the coat was either sleeveless or had short sleeves or shoulder pieces. In its more developed form it was open at the sides, and it could be worn with or without a belt. Though most were ordinary garments, often work clothes, tabards might be emblazoned on the front and back with a
coat of arms
(
livery
), and in this form they survive as the distinctive garment of
officers of arms
.
In modern
British
usage, the term has been revived for what is known in American English as a
cobbler apron
: a lightweight open-sided upper overgarment, of similar design to its medieval and heraldic counterpart, worn in particular by workers in the catering, cleaning and healthcare industries as
protective clothing
, or outdoors by those requiring
high-visibility clothing
. Tabards may also be worn by
percussionists
in
marching bands
in order to protect their uniforms from the straps and rigging used to support the instruments.
Middle Ages
[
edit
]
A tabard (from the French
tabarde
) was originally a humble outer garment of tunic form, generally without sleeves, worn by peasants, monks and foot-soldiers. In this sense, the earliest citation recorded in the
Oxford English Dictionary
dates from
c.
1300
.
[1]
By the second half of the 15th century, tabards, now open at the sides and so usually belted, were also being worn by
knights
in military contexts over their
armour
, and were usually emblazoned with their arms (though sometimes worn plain). The
Oxford English Dictionary
first records this use of the word in English in 1450.
[1]
Tabards were apparently distinguished from
surcoats
by being open-sided, and by being shorter.
[
citation needed
]
In its later form, a tabard normally comprised four textile panels ? two large panels hanging down the wearer's front and back, and two smaller panels hanging over his arms as shoulder-pieces or open "sleeves" ? each emblazoned with the same coat of arms. Tabards became an important means of battlefield identification with the development of plate armour as the use of shields declined. They are frequently represented on
tomb effigies
and
monumental brasses
of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
A very expensive, but plain, garment described as a tabard is worn by
Giovanni Arnolfini
in the
Arnolfini Portrait
of 1434 (
National Gallery, London
). This may be made of
silk
and/or
velvet
, and is trimmed and fully lined with fur, possibly
sable
.
[2]
At
The Queen's College
,
Oxford
, the scholars on the foundation were called tabarders, from the tabard (not in this case an emblazoned garment) which they wore.
[3]
A surviving garment similar to the medieval tabard is the monastic
scapular
. This is a wide strip of fabric worn front back of the body, with an opening for the head and no sleeves. It may have a hood, and may be worn under or over a belt.
British heraldry
[
edit
]
By the end of the 16th century, the tabard was particularly associated with
officers of arms
. The shift in emphasis was reported by
John Stow
in 1598, when he described a tabard as:
a Jacquit, or sleevelesse coat, whole before, open on both sides, with a square collor, winged at the shoulders: a stately garment of olde time, commonly worne of Noble men and others, both at home and abroade in the Warres, but then (to witte in the warres) theyr Armes embrodered, or otherwise depicte uppon them, that every man by his Coate of Armes might bee knowne from others: but now these Tabardes are onely worne by the Heraults, and bee called their coates of Armes in service.
[4]
In the case of Royal officers of arms, the tabard is emblazoned with the coat of arms of the sovereign.
Private officers of arms
, such as still exist in
Scotland
, make use of tabards emblazoned with the coat of arms of the person who employs them. In the
United Kingdom
the different ranks of officers of arms can be distinguished by the fabric from which their tabards are made. The tabard of a
king of arms
is made of
velvet
, the tabard of a
herald of arms
of
satin
, and that of a
pursuivant of arms
of damask
silk
.
[5]
The oldest surviving English herald's tabard is that of Sir
William Dugdale
as
Garter King of Arms
(1677?1686).
[6]
It was at one time the custom for English pursuivants to wear their tabards "athwart", that is to say with the smaller ("shoulder") panels at the front and back, and the larger panels over the arms; but this practice was ended during the reign of
James II and VII
.
[5]
[7]
The derisive
Scots
nickname of "
Toom Tabard
" for
John Balliol
(
c.
1249
? 1314) may originate from either an alleged incident where his arms were stripped from his tabard in public,
[8]
or a reference to the Balliol arms which are a plain shield with an
orle
, also known as an
inescutcheon voided
.
[9]
Canadian heraldry
[
edit
]
In the
Diamond Jubilee
year of the
Queen of Canada
, the
Governor General
unveiled a new tabard for the use of the
Chief Herald of Canada
. This new royal blue tabard, for exclusively Canadian use and of uniquely Canadian design, is a modern take on the traditional look. The tabard differs from others of more traditional design in that the
Canadian royal arms
appear on the sleeves, while the front and back of the tabard are covered with Native Canadian-inspired emblematic representations of the raven-polar bears of the
Canadian Heraldic Authority
's
coat of arms
.
[
citation needed
]
Gallery
[
edit
]
Cultural allusions
[
edit
]
A tabard was the
inn sign
of the
Tabard Inn
in
Southwark
, London, established in 1307 and remembered as the starting point for
Geoffrey Chaucer
's pilgrims on their journey to
Canterbury
in
The Canterbury Tales
, dating from about the 1380s.
In
E. C. Bentley
's short story "The Genuine Tabard", published in his collection
Trent Intervenes
in 1938, a wealthy American couple purchase an antique heraldic tabard, having been told that it was worn in 1783 by Sir Rowland Verey,
Garter King of Arms
, when proclaiming the
Peace of Versailles
from the steps of
St James's Palace
. The amateur detective Philip Trent is able to point out that it in fact bears the post-1837
royal arms
.
[10]
See also
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Tabards
.
Look up
tabard
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"tabard"
.
Oxford English Dictionary
(Online ed.).
Oxford University Press
.
(Subscription or
participating institution membership
required.)
- ^
Campbell, Lorne (1998).
The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools
. National Gallery Catalogues. London: National Gallery.
ISBN
185709171X
.
- ^
Farmer, John Stephen (1903).
Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A Dictionary, Historical and Comparative, of the Heterodox Speech of All Classes of Society for More Than Three Hundred Years : with Synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, Etc
. Unknown. p. 54.
- ^
Stow, John
(1598).
A Survay of London
. London. p. 338.
- ^
a
b
Eirikr Mjoksiglandi Sigurdharson (December 31, 2003).
"A Review of the Historical Regalia of Officers of Arms"
. heraldry.sca.org
. Retrieved
8 June
2012
.
- ^
Marks, Richard; Payne, Ann, eds. (1978).
British Heraldry: from its origins to c.1800
. London: British Museum. p. 51, plate.
- ^
Fox-Davies, A. C.
(1969).
Brooke-Little, J. P.
(ed.).
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
. London: Nelson. pp.
31
?2.
ISBN
9780171441024
.
- ^
Young, Alan (2010).
In the Footsteps of William Wallace: In Scotland and Northern England
. The History Press. p. 74.
ISBN
9780750951432
. Retrieved
2 December
2018
.
- ^
Hodgson, John; Hodgson-Hinde, John (1832).
A History of Northumberland, in three parts
. Printed by E. Walker. p. 124
. Retrieved
2 December
2018
.
- ^
Bentley, E. C.
(1953) [1938]. "The genuine tabard".
Trent Intervenes
. London: Penguin. pp. 7?24.