Cendal was a less costly fabric, and was also used largely in ecclesiastical vestments.
Taffeta was a thin transparent textile, and was used, as well as cendal, during the Middle Ages for linings.
Sarcenet also is a light webbed silk, and by degrees supplanted cendal.
Satin was also used in the Middle Ages, and is mentioned by Chaucer in his "Man of Lawe's Tale," but was not brought into general use until later. The beauties of the Court of Charles II., as pictured by Sir Peter Lely, are usually clad in satin.
Velvet, that most sumptuous material, has always been held in high estimation on account of the richness of its texture and fold. It has always been used, since its introduction into the West, for robes of state and for the more sumptuous kind of dress. The place of its origin is not known, but it probably comes from China.
DUCHESS OF ANCASTER (AFTER HUDSON).
In a letter preserved in the Record Office (circa 1505) to Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, from his steward Killingworth (De la Pole had been indicted of homicide and murder, "for slaying of a mean person in his rage and fury," and had fled to Flanders), conveying excuses from some person un-named, mentioned only as "your friend," for not having communicated with De la Pole earlier, as he had hoped, to send him news from England, the writer continues:—
"For your gown he axked me howe many elles velvet wold serve you. I told hym xiiij Englishe yerdis, and then he saied, 'What lynyng thereunto?' I answerde 'Sarcenet' by cause of the lest coste to helpe it forward. And he saide to me, 'Wel, I shal see what I can doo therin.' Soo, sir, if it please you to write to him in Duche, and thank him, and geve but oon worde therin towching your gown, I doubte not ye shal have hyt."