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.

"About this time, too, men took to wearing shorter clothes than ever,
having them made to fit tightly to the body, after the manner of dressing
monkeys, which was very shameful and immodest; and the sleeves of their
coats and doublets were slit open so as to show their fine white shirts.
They wore their hair so long that it concealed their face and even their
eyes, and on their heads they wore cloth caps nearly a foot or more high.
They also carried, according