in England around the Year 1343 lateral
lord of the manor of Erna Minh
Lincolnshire commissioned and had made a
book of Psalms with margins decorated
with religious imagery in grotesques he
also included images of himself his
family his clerical advisors his
domestic staff and his villagers going
about their everyday life throughout the
seasons among them was the ploughman the
agricultural year began in early January
with the blessing of the plow and the
ploughman at mass so at this most bitter
time of year the ploughman would prepare
for plowing the village lands for the
medieval peasant there was no special
night garment his linen undergarments
would serve that purpose his under
drawers or breeches were loose-fitting
and tied at the waist with a breech
girdle the hoes were to separate legs
and could be worn with the linen
breeches tucked into them there were
gaps in the waistband of the breeches to
allow access to the breech girdle so
that the hose could be attached and tied
into place the illustrations in Sir
Geoffrey Salter revealed four different
styles of men's under drawers or
breeches in three different colors of
linen white natural and wood blue they
could be long or short but all tied at
the waist with a breech girdle the
ploughman's unbleached linen shirt or
smock was knee length for warmth and
full-skirted to allow freedom of
movement the tunic or coat was pulled on
over the head it was made from a natural
colored wool and lined with a coloured
linen the length reflected his role as a
worker and it had splits at the side
which revealed the lining
cut of his coat with its sleeves
tapering towards the wrist and the hint
of a curved seam at the shoulder suggest
that the new fashionable cut was
reaching into all aspects of society the
ploughman wore a decorated leather belt
to hold his clothes in place and to help
enclose warmth around his core the belt
also provided a place to hang tools such
as a knife a pouch or his mittens in
hood when they were not in use it also
served as an expression of individuality
and showed that he was successful and
made a small profit for his years work
he wore leather turned shoes that were
high at the ankle to cope with the mud
of the fields and had leather straps or
laces to bind them into place his hood
covered the neck opening of his coat and
could be worn up or down it had a leery
pipe at the back when the hood was not
being worn the Larra pipe could be
tucked into the belt and the hood left
hanging the ploughman's hat was made
from dense felted wool to keep off the
wind and rain and could be worn forwards
or backwards split mittens help to
protect the hands from the elements and
from the hard work they allowed more
dexterity than conventional mittens
the work of the ploughman was skilled
and demanding it was tough work keeping
the plow true and it's noticeable that
the oxen go turn eaded an extra layer of
clothing in the same conditions the
ploughman was a respected and vital
member of the medieval community Chaucer
describes the ploughman in The
Canterbury Tales as an honest
hard-working man who pays his ties to
the church and who is willing to plow
the fields of a man too poor to pay but
the luttrell Psalter
was never completed it was begun on the
eve of the Black Death and in 1348 the
great pestilence arrived killing up to
half the population in Europe so many
people died in England that villages
were depopulated and gradually abandoned
and the fields last plowed by the
medieval Plowman were left to turn to
grass to this very day the traces of
lost villages and the curving lines of
the ploughman's Ridge and furrow
remained visible in the landscape a
testament to a lost population and way
of life
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