From the accession of the Capet family until the Renaissance, variety in dress became developed in all those western provinces that were destined to be welded at a later period into one homogeneous France. In Brittany, Burgundy, Flanders, Gascony, and Provence, the women adopted a costume of their own, adding to one general principle of form a number of details. Some of these still exist at the present day, but it would be too tedious to describe them. The Duchy of France, which formed the kernel of our modern France, will suffice to afford us an exact idea of olden fashions; just as Paris is nowadays the great centre and starting-point of every innovation in the toilet of our fair contemporaries. Dress, fashion, and luxury varied considerably from and after the eleventh century. William, Archbishop of Rouen, caused a Council of the Church to be held in 1096. At this council it was decreed that men wearing long hair should be excluded from the Church during life, and that after death prayer should not be offered for their souls. Taste in France became improved through the commercial relations existing with the East, and the rudimentary style of dress of the two earlier races was succeeded by something more artistic, and more easily adapted to the art of chivalry. Women adorned their brows with bands of jewels, wreaths of roses, or golden nets. It is no exaggeration to say that each succeeding generation saw greater attention paid to dress by both men and women, the latter especially; that caprice began to show itself in those curious eccentricities which still afford us food for laughter, and that luxury reigned in consequence over all the population, in spite of the efforts of those in authority, who endeavoured to regulate the tastes of all classes by sumptuary laws. There are many miniatures of women of rank in the eleventh century, in which they are represented as wearing a mantle and veil. The latter was called a “dominical,” because it was usually worn at the services of the Church on Sundays. Women were bound to wear this veil when receiving Holy Communion. According to the synodical statutes women who were without their veil were obliged to defer their Communion until the following Sunday. At the moment of receiving the Sacred Host they held one end of the “dominical” in the left hand. A crown or a diadem encircled the veil of queens and princesses. Widows wore, in addition, a bandeau covering the forehead and fitting round the face so as to hide the throat and neck. They wore no jewels, not even rings. The veil of a lady of gentle birth reached to her feet, but that of a plebeian might not fall below the waist.