Among women of noble rank the love of dress harmonized with the taste for needlework displayed by the kinswomen of Charlemagne, as recorded by the old chroniclers. They worked with their own hands on silk and wool, but this did not prevent them from loving and seeking to acquire magnificent possessions, splendid ornaments and trimmings of excessive richness. The Empress Judith, mother of Charles the Bald, was considered to have great skill in embroidery. She gave to her godchild, the Queen of Denmark, a gown made by herself and adorned with gold and gems. The ladies excelled in the manufacture of small articles, such as bags, scarfs, sleeves, and belts. Narrow purple bands were plaited in Queen Luitgarde’s beautiful hair, and encircled her brow of dazzling fairness. Cords of gold held together her chlamys, a splendid mantle thrown over her right shoulder. A beryl, that clear and precious stone of bluish green, was set in her diadem. Her gown was of fine linen, dyed purple; her neck sparkled with jewels. Rotrude, the eldest daughter of Charlemagne, wore a mantle with a clasp of gold and precious stones. Violet bands were plaited with her luxuriant fair hair. A golden coronet diapered with gems as beautiful as those in the clasp of her mantle encircled her brow, and gave her a truly queen-like look. Rotrude had been promised in marriage to the Emperor Constantine, who had heard of her beauty from beyond seas and mountains. Bertha, another of Charlemagne’s daughters, who was married secretly to Angilbert, a disciple of Alcuin, and a member of the Palatine school, wore her hair confined in a golden fillet, and her head-dress was as impressive as that of her sister. Yellow-green chrysolites sparkled on the gold leaves with which her garments were embroidered. Gisla, the best known of the great Emperor’s kinswomen, wore a purple striped veil, and a dress dyed with the stamens of the marsh-mallow or “mauve.” Rhodaide rode on a superb horse; a gold bodkin set with jewels fastened her flowing silken chlamys. The mantle of Théodrade was hyacinth, and trimmed with moleskin; beads of foreign fabric shone on her beautiful throat; on her feet she wore the Greek cothurnus, like the Byzantine women. Such are the descriptions given us by writers of the period, from whom we also learn that the Carlovingian ladies wore but one girdle, placed very low. The materials of their gowns were frequently transparent, revealing the shoulders, arms, and lower limbs, and the gowns themselves were somewhat clinging, so that the graceful undulating movement of the body was visible, as in the antique times. These transparent materials disappeared by degrees under the successors of Charlemagne, and women’s dress became heavier and more ample. Long veils were worn.