Policy for the Masses - A legal history podcast

The Sumptuary Laws - 1336 & 1337

Season 1 Episode 15

So I finally got to the Sumptuary Laws, or at least the first 4.

Sumptuary Laws were pretty common in Europe and tended to enforce  appearance or reduce overt spending. This is the first 4 in England which cover clothing that could be worn or imported in 1336 and 1337.

The Sumptuary Law 1336
The Cloth Act 1337
The Fur Act 1337
The Importation Act 1337

References
The "Extremities" of Sumptuary Law in Robert Greene's "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay" - Link
Beyond Sumptuary: Constitutionalism, Clothes, and Bodies in Anglo-American Law, 1215-1789 - Link
The 1363 English Sumptuary Law: A comparison with Fabric Prices of the Late Fourteenth-Century  - Link

With special thanks to Purple Planet Music who provided me with the intro track - Passport