During the Plantagenet period it was usual to wear two shoes of different colours, and they were often slashed on the upper surface, to show the bright hose beneath. These were superseded by a large, padded shoe, gored over the foot with coloured material, a fashion imported from Italy, and exaggerated as much as the pointed shoe had been. Buskins were high boots, made of splendid tissue, and worn by the nobility and gentry during the Middle Ages, generally on occasions of State. They were also largely adopted by players of tragedy. They covered the knee, and were tied just below. The sock, or low shoe, on the other hand, was the emblem of comedy.
GREEK AND ROMAN SHOES. MEDIÆVAL SHOES.
One of the greatest follies ever introduced was the chopine, a sort of stilt which increased the height of the wearer. These were first used in Persia, but appeared in Venice about the Sixteenth Century, and their use was encouraged by jealous husbands in the hope of keeping their wives at home. This desire, however, was not realised, as the ladies went out as usual, and required rather more support than hitherto. Chopines were very ornate, and the length determined the rank of the wearer, the noblest dames having them half-a-yard high. Shakespeare refers to them when he makes Hamlet say:—"Your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine." He also alludes to the general use of shoes for the left and right foot, when he speaks of a man:—-
"Standing in slippers which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet."
The exercise of the gentle craft of shoemaking was for a long time carried on in monastic institutions, and increased the revenues of the clergy. Richard, the first Abbot of St. Albans, objected to canons and priests of his era associating themselves with tanners and shoemakers, not one of whom, in his opinion, ought to be made a bishop or an abbot. It is said, however, that Pope John, elected in 1316, was the son of a shoemaker at Cahors; and in the description of Absalom, the Parish Clerk, Chaucer tells us, "the upper leathers of his shoes were carved to resemble the windows of St. Paul's Cathedral," which inclines one to believe in their priestly origin.
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S BOOTS. SHOE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. SHOE WORN BY CHARLES I.
From various sources, we have descriptions of royal shoes. Richard C[oe]ur de Lion had his boots striped with gold; those of his brother John were spotted with gold in circles. Henry III. had his boots chequered with golden lines, and every square enriched with a lion. In the splendid Court of Edward III., the royal shoes were elaborately embroidered. The coronation shoes of Richard III. were covered with crimson tissue cloth of gold. Henry VIII. is described as wearing square-toed shoes, which were slashed with coloured silk, and exposed a portion of the foot. Some worn by his daughter, Queen Elizabeth, of brocaded silk, are remarkably clumsy in appearance, and have lappets which fasten over the instep. They form a striking contrast to those used by the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots (now in the possession of Sir James William Drummond), which are of kid, embroidered with coloured silks; the toes are somewhat squarer, but in other respects resemble those in fashion at the present day.
