It is especially significant, then, that the body of Charlemagne was covered in lavish Byzantine silks like the textiles covered in elephants (right) or depicting charioteers (far right) found in his tomb. By burying the great ruler in this luxurious fabric, although he did not frequently wear it in life, the Franks were marking his body as something sacred or elevated above the ordinary. Although the symbolic use of textiles and regalia began as a funerary ritual as seen here, it became part of the Carolingian’s political program while they still reigned. Byzantine fashion and textiles would play a huge part in this transformation.
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Frankish CostumeCharlemagne and his descendants usually wore the national dress of the Franks, which the scholar Einhard’s Vita Caroli and Notker the Stammerer’s De Carlo Magno describe as linen underclothes, long hose covering the legs and held by bands, a short tunic edged with silk, shoes, a jerkin of otter or ermine, a long cloak, and a sword belt.[1] A good example of this type of dress is the image of a Carolingian king (likely Charlemagne) from the ninth century Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (left). This illustration shows the short tunic, the hose held with bands, the shoes, and the cloak described by contemporary sources, along with the hand of God granting the king authority by offering the crown; however, this image does not show the silk embellishments on his tunic.
During the Carolingian period, silk was not commonly used in daily wear even for the emperor. Charlemagne only wore garments largely of silk on the most special occasions.The scarcity of silk in the West can at least be partially explained by the great expense of importing it from Byzantium and elsewhere, because silk was not woven in the Christian West until about the twelfth century. The Byzantine Empire, on the other hand, had been involved in sericulture since the reign of Justinian I (527 to 565 CE). As a result, silks became a major tool of diplomacy because gifts of the rare and precious fabric increased Byzantine prestige abroad. According to essays written by Anthony Cutler and David Jacoby, these political gifts of silk could have been meant to stimulate the silk trade between the East and the West as well as emphasize Byzantine prestige and created political ties.[2] However, as Jacoby mentions, silk was still too expensive to gain ground as daily wear even for the elite.[3] |