Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
The Norman man was clean shaven on his face and around his ears and at
the nape of the neck. His hair was short. He wore a long- sleeved
under-tunic of linen or wool that reached to his ankles. Over this the
Norman noble wore a tunic without sleeves, open at the sides, and
fastened with a belt. Over one shoulder was his cloak, which was
fastened on the opposite shoulder by being drawn through a ring brooch
and knotted. He wore tight thick cloth stockings to protect him from the
mud and leather shoes. Common men wore durable, but drab, wool tunics to
the knee so as not to impede them in their work. They could roll up
their stockings when working in the fields. A lady wore a high-necked,
long- sleeved linen or wool tunic fitted at the waist and laced at the
side, but full in the skirt, which reached to her toes. She wore a
jeweled belt, passed twice around her waist and knotted in front. Her
hair was often in two long braids, and her head and ears covered with a
white round cloth held in place by a metal circlet like a small crown.
Its ends were wound around her neck. In winter, she wore over her tunic
a cloak edged or lined with fur and fastened at the front with a cord.
Clothes of both men and ladies were brightly colored by dyes or
embroidery. The Norman knight wore an over-tunic of leather or heavy
linen on which were sewn flat rings of iron and a conical iron helmet
with nose cover. He wore a sword at his waist and a metal shield on his
back, or he wore his sword and his accompanying retainers carried spear
and shield.
Norman customs were adopted by the nation. As a whole, Anglo-Saxon men
shaved their beards and whiskers from their faces, but they kept their
custom of long hair flowing from their heads. But a few kept their
whiskers and beards in protest of the Normans. Everyone had a permanent
surname indicating parentage, place of birth, or residence, such as
Field, Pitt, Lane, Bridge, Ford, Stone, Burn, Church, Hill, Brook,
Green. Other names came from occupations such as Shepherd, Carter,
Parker, Fowler, Hunter, Forester, Smith. Still other came from personal
characteristics such as Black, Brown, and White, Short, Round, and Long.
Some took their names from animals such as Wolf, Fox, Lamb, Bull, Hogg,
Sparrow, Crow, and Swan. Others were called after the men they served,
such as King, Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Knight. A man's surname was passed
on to his son.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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