One word more in reference to female head-dress.  The fashion of wearing false hair continued in great favour during the middle of the fourteenth century, and it gave rise to all sorts of ingenious combinations; which, however, always admitted of the hair being parted from the forehead to the back of the head in two equal masses, and of being plaited or waved over the ears.  Nets were again adopted, and head-dresses which, whilst permitting a display of masses of false hair, hid the horsehair or padded puffs.  And, lastly, the escoffion appeared—­a heavy roll, which, being placed on a cap also padded, produced the most clumsy, outrageons, and ungraceful shapes (Fig. 424).

At the beginning of the fifteenth century men’s dress was still very short.  It consisted of a kind of tight waistcoat, fastened by tags, and of very close-fitting breeches, which displayed the outlines of the figure.  In order to appear wide at the shoulders artificial pads were worn, called mahoitres.  The hair was allowed to fall on the forehead in locks, which covered the eyebrows and eyes.  The sleeves were slashed, the shoes armed with long metal points, and the conical hat, with turned-up rim, was ornamented with gold chains and various jewels.  The ladies, during the reign of Charles VI., still wore long trains to their dresses, which they carried tucked up under their arms, unless they had pages or waiting-maids (see chapter on Ceremonials).  The tendency, however, was to shorten these inconvenient trains, as well as the long hanging and embroidered or fringed sleeves.  On the other hand, ladies’ dresses on becoming shorter were trimmed in the most costly manner.  Their head-dresses consisted of very large rolls, surmounted by a high conical bonnet called a hennin, the introduction of which into France was attributed to Queen Isabel of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI.  It was at this period that they began to uncover the neck and to wear necklaces.

[Illustration:  Fig. 425.—­Italian Costumes of the Fifteenth Century:  Notary and Sbirro.—­From two Engravings in the Bonnart Collection.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 426.—­Costumes of a Mechanic’s Wife and a rich Bourgeois in the latter part of the Fifteenth Century.—­From Windows in the Cathedral of Moulins (Bourbonnais).]

Under Louis XI. this costume, already followed and adopted by the greatest slaves of fashion, became more general.

“In this year (1487),” says the chronicler Monstrelet, “ladies ceased to wear trains, substituting for them trimmings of grebe, of martens’ fur, of velvet, and of other materials, of about eighteen inches in width; some wore on the top of their heads rolls nearly two feet high, shaped like a round cap, which closed in above.  Others wore them lower, with veils hanging from the top, and reaching down to the feet.  Others wore unusually wide silk bands, with very elegant buckles equally wide, and magnificent gold necklaces of various patterns.