Changes In Henry Viii's Statute Of Apparel During Elizabeth I

Monarchs such as Henry VIII in his Act against Wearing of Costly Apparel restricted anyone other than the King from wearing clothes of gold, silver, sables or woollen cloths. It was also forbidden to dress in velvet of crimson or blue for anyone below the status of Knight of the Garter. Of course these laws did not just include material goods, during the reign of Philip IV (1605-1665) he placed 'reform chapters' to cut down the excess of employed servants in his court. This on the one hand appear to be a noble gesture which set a good example, however on the other hand this gesture put down wide markers of restrictions to those of lower status to follow suit. He also banned the use of gold and silver being put on clothes, furniture and coaches, and placed restrictions on
Around the globe these laws dominated the nobilities status. Visitors to foreign lands could clearly distinguish nobles from peasants by their codes of dress, but the most notable changes and additions to sumptuary legislation occurring throughout the reign of Elizabeth I and Louis XIV. In Tudor England during Elizabeth's I reign she enacted Statutes of Apparel where she put precise limits on how much a person could spend on goods. On 5 June 1547 she issued a public proclamation with regard to excessive spending on luxury goods in which she states 'the manifest decay of the whole realm is likely to follow,' and that sumptuary spending causes 'the wasting and undoing of a great number of young gentlemen,' who led by vanity to wear and own the latest luxuries mount up massive debts which ultimately leads them in crime, therefore rendering them useless to the Kingdom. These statutes prohibited