to fancy, very splendid gold chains. Knights
and squires, and even the varlets, wore silk or velvet doublets; and
almost every one, especially at court, wore poulaines nine inches or more
in length. They also wore under their doublets large pads (_mahoitres_),
in order to appear as if they had broad shoulders."

Under Charles VIII. the mantle, trimmed with fur, was open in front, its
false sleeves being slit up above in order to allow the arms of the under
coat to pass through. The cap was turned up; the breeches or long hose
were made tight-fitting. The shoes with poulaines were superseded by a
kind of large padded shoe of black leather, round or square at the toes,
and gored over the foot with coloured material, a fashion imported from
Italy, and which was as much exaggerated in France as the poulaine had
formerly been. The women continued to wear conical caps (_hennins_) of
great height, covered with immense veils; their gowns were made with
tight-fitting bodies, which thus displayed the outlines of the figure
(Figs. 427 and 428).

Under Louis XII., Queen Anne invented a low head-dress--or rather it was
invented for her--consisting of strips of velvet or of black or violet
silk over other bands of white linen, which encircled the face and fell
down over the back and shoulders; the large sleeves of the dresses had a
kind of turned-over borders, with trimmings of enormous width. Men adopted
short tunics, plaited and tight at the waist. The upper part of the
garments of both men and women was cut in the form of a square over the
chest and shoulders, as most figures are represented in the pictures of
Raphael and contemporary painters.

[Illustration: Italian Lacework, in Gold Thread.

The cypher and arms of Henry III. (16th century.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 427.--Costume of Charlotte of Savoy, second Wife of
Louis XI.--From a Picture of the Period formerly in the Castle of
Bourbon-l'Archambault, M. de Quedeville's Collection, in Paris. The Arms
of Louis XI. and Charlotte are painted behind the picture.]

[Illustration: Fig. 428.--Costume of Mary of Burgundy, Daughter of
Charles the Bold, Wife of Maximilian of Austria (end of the Fifteenth
Century). From an old Engraving in the Collection of the Imperial Library,
Paris.]

The introduction of Italian fashions, which in reality did not much differ
from those which had been already adopted, but which exhibited better
taste and a greater amount of elegance, dates from th