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The wealthier lords and even peasants now wore linen shirts and underpants and a woollen doublet. A doublet is a close-fitting, sometimes padded jacket. They still had hose, which was like tights but one for each leg, and the hose would be attached to the doublet with lace so that it could be rolled down in hot weather. Women had linen shifts covered by a long dress. In summer the women would remove the sleeves but these had to be pinned back on when they attended church. Bare arms were not allowed in church. Both men and women might have a sheepskin coat for winter. In the middle of this period, laws were made which said which materials the various classes could have their clothes made of and the idea was to stop people dressing above their class. Not all linen was soft. Poor linen was a bit like sandpaper. Think about that. Try wearing sandpaper underwear. Sorry did I hear an ouch? Outer clothes were never washed while underwear was washed in rivers, if you were poor, and in tubs, if you were rich although of course it would be done by the poor for you. Some people might be using the rivers as a toilet so the clothes may not have been as clean as they could be. The clothes for both rich and poor would be hung out to dry in the wind. Just going back to our Iron Age people, and before, as they worshipped water, they would never go to the loo in a river.
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