\Clay"more`\, n. [Gael. claidheamhmor a broadsword; Gael. claidheamh sword + mor great, large. Cf. Claymore.] A large two-handed sword used formerly by the Scottish Highlanders.

\Sling"er\, n. One who slings

Medieval swords

The Rapier

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Medieval Costume

The Middle Ages spans a huge amount of time - call it roughly (depending on exactly who you ask) around 400 AD to about 1500 AD, more than 1000 years. Stop and think a moment about how much fashion has changed in the last 200 years alone... Americans are no longer wearing the kind of clothes that George Washington would have worn! Similarly, clothing fashions changed enormously throughout the Middle Ages, and different regions had differing modes of dress at times.

For the medieval person, clothing and dress always had a special meaning. The symbolic aspects of a given garment, and not simply the utility functions such as protection, played a significant role in medieval society. Costumes composed a part of courtly life as well, their special meaning having been defined and refined by members of the aristocracy for their own use. One of the main functions of a given garment was to distinguish social rank as precisely as possible.

Clothing also was symbolic of a person's profession. Workers and peasants wore coarse, heavy clothing that was durable and which would protect them against injuries while performing heavy labor. Craftsmen in various guilds often worked with dangerous chemicals and thus wore protective aprons and smocks, just as modern chemical workers do today. Within the Church, various types of garments differentiated between the ranks of priests, between the various orders of monks and nuns, and set the religious apart from the laity.

The meaning of colours also played an important part in the Middle Ages. Green, for instance, stood for love, grey for sorrow, yellow for hostility. Blue, partly because of its connection with the Virgin Mary, became the colour of fidelity, and was allowed to be worn by everyone from the 13th century. In the Low Countries, however, this was the colour for adulterous wives. Red, on the other hand, was strongly connected to the nobility. It is notable that black and grey, colours of lower status people in the Early Middle Ages, in the 15th century were worn by the high aristocracy and royal personages.

Another reason why clothing was important was that the manufacture of thread, cloth, and finally clothing were all major industries in the Middle Ages. There were no machines to make these items - spinners spun wool or flax into thread by hand, weavers wrapped the thread onto looms by hand and wove cloth, individuals sometimes made their own clothing or else a tailor/seamstress was hired to make clothing. Without machines to make these processes quick and easy, every bit of thread or cloth produced cost both many hours of human labor, and accordingly those laborers had to be paid.

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