In A.D. 1286 the Council of Cordova decreed that knights and squires, upon the celebration of their marriage, were not to present their brides with more than two dresses, one of these to be of scarlet, without trimming of ermine or grey fur, or decoration of gold, silver, or _aljofar_. A law of Alfonso the Eleventh, dated May 6th, 1338, proclaimed that the women of the upper classes were not to clothe themselves in any silken fabric decorated with gold thread. Similar restrictions were laid upon the other sex. "No man, whatever be his condition (excepting only Us, the King), shall wear cloth of gold, or silk, or any stuff adorned with gold lace, _aljofar_, or any other trimming, or with enamel: only his cloak may bear _aljofar_ pearl-work, or fillets without pearls." Other dispositions signed by the same monarch show that the Spaniards of his time were in the habit of wearing costly cloth adorned with gold and silver, pearls, gold buttons, enamel, and other ornament, while even the squires wore furs and gilded shoes. The _ricos-hombres_ loaded their saddles with gold and with _aljofar_-work, and their wives were licensed to bear on each of their dresses the same _aljofar_-work or strings of tiny pearls, to the value of four thousand _maravedis_. Provisions of the same tenor are contained in the prolix sumptuary pragmatic of Pedro the Cruel, signed in the year 1351 at Valladolid, as well as in that of Juan the First, A.D. 1385, which ordained, together with other vexatious prohibitions, that "neither man nor woman, whatever be their condition or estate, shall wear cloth of gold or any silk-stuff, gold or silver _aljofar_, or other precious stones, excepting the Infante and Infantas, who may wear whatever pleases them." The extravagance of Isabella the Catholic in dress and personal adornment generally, was illustrated in an earlier chapter of this work. A further instance is recorded by Clemencin. According to this chronicler, in 1476 and 1477, upon her reception at Alcalá of two embassies from France, the queen was dressed in a magnificent robe, which drew upon her a sharp rebuke from her confessor, the virtuous and austere Hernando de Talavera. From this charge Isabella defended herself with more spirit than truthfulness. "Neither myself nor my ladies," she wrote in her letter of reply, "were dressed in new apparel. All that I wore on this occasion I had already worn in Aragon, and the French themselves had seen me wearing it. I only used one robe at all, and that of silk with three marks of gold, the plainest I could find: in this was all my festival. I say this much in that my clothing was not new; nor did we deem that error could dwell therein."[3] [3] _Elogio de la Reina Católica_, p. 374.