When a man sat, or mounted a horse, one might have quite a revealing view of his private parts. This was shocking, considering that their hose were still individual, one for each leg. Clothing for the poor remained unglamorous, of course, but for the wealthy man, changing one’s style became a way of displaying wealth, and masculinity. People across Europe admired Henry VIII for the curves of his legs, his calves especially. Here, in the late 15th century, with the use of the newly popular button, garments no longer needed to be cut to fit over one’s head and new fashion leaned away from long tunics and breeches to closely fitted vests, short doublets, and hose to reveal the men’s shapely legs. The sexually liberated Renaissance world looked to Italy for new fashion concepts and with the rise of the merchant class, fashion led to the codpieces for non-soldiers. Portraits of other potentates of the time, such as those of Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V of Spain, include codpieces. Was this for protection, for display, or to disguise disease? The codpiece in King Henry VIII’s suit of armor displayed in the Tower of London is extremely prominent. In many suits of armor, codpieces are visible. In France, on October 22, 1398, Charles VI (called both “Beloved” and “Mad”), addressed to the Provost of Paris a letter of permission to the hosiers of the capital to sell hose decorated with thongs that later served to affix the braguette or codpiece. ![]() At his command the nobility fighting with him followed Pinturicchio di Betto, Libreria Piccolomini, 1502-1507. While Edward III, the king of England from 1327-1377, was fighting the Hundred Years War, he ordered a monstrous codpiece for his armor as a way both to enhance his genitals and to intimidate the enemy. French satirist François Rabelais joked in 1532 in the Third Book (Chapter 8) of The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel that the braguette/codpiece constituted “the first piece of armor among men of war.” In the foreword he comically refers to a supposed book titled On the Dignity of Codpieces. Warriors begin to wear a braguette/codpiece, made of iron, that jutted out below the waist from the cuirass or breastplate. It was necessary to invent a shell to protect the soldier’s virility and his modesty. Suddenly the genitals found themselves vulnerable. So the tunics climbed above the buttocks, leaving at the same time the braiel/breeches (which went only from the belt to the knees) visible. Foot soldiers had to be free in their movements they could not be hampered in the tunics worn over the peasant breeches. Knights paraded on their palfreys and fought for fame, while foot soldiers attacked the enemy face-to-face for coins and booty. ![]() By the end of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), Western Europe was saturated with men-at-arms. One road to the creation of the codpiece was military. One was protected from exposure by tunics, which reached at least to the knees. The crotch was most often left almost completely open, for ease of access. These leggings were tubes of animal skins held on by strips of leather and connected together at the top. In the Middle Ages (400-1400), men wore robes, with the exception of the peasants who could have a bit of drawers, long or short, of linen or leather, called braiel or breeches, attached to the waist by a belt. However, this article will follow the history of the item beginning in more modern times, with the Middle Ages, glancing at its history not only in the English-speaking world but also in France and elsewhere in Europe. On the island of Crete in the Mediterranean, codpieces have been found on small Minoan figures. The Swiss had the Plunderhose, or devil’s pants, which were similar in appearance to the Hosenbeutel. Germanic soldiers, or the Landsknecht, clearly show codpieces around 1530. ![]() The Italians called it a sacco, the Germans a Hosenbeutel. The French called the codpiece a braguette and we are told that that is one of the few words current in their language that derives directly from the Celts who ruled Europe before the Romans and Germans did. ![]() Where did it come from and where did it go? There are various opinions here are some of them. YOU’VE ALL SEEN THEM-that pommel in the dress of Henry VIII and others-prominent, like something to rest your hand on, dependable, serviceable: the codpiece.
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