Episode 70: White After Labor Day

Synopsis Just in time for Paris Fashion Week, join Em and Jesse for an exciting discussion of sumptuary laws and the medieval origins of prohibitions against wearing white, as well as a few digressions about John Waters films and Blackadder. Notes 0/ Rainbow Magic Space Con: https://www.rainbowspacemagic.org/ 1/ Serial Mom: (warning for violence) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnGHB-kI2ZM 2/ If you’re interested in the history of weddings, I suggest Carol Wallace’s All Dressed in White: The Irresistible Rise of the American Wedding, Penguin Books, 2004. 3/ Margery Kemp: see episodes 6, 7, 8, 9, 36, and 49. Jeez, it’s like we never STOP talking about her. We should call this the Margery Kemp Power Hour. 4/ Mary C. Erler, “Margery Kempe’s White Clothes.” Medium Aevum 62 (March 1993): 78-83. Jesse Njus, “Margery Kemp and the Spectatorship of Medieval Drama,” Fifteenth Century Studies 38 (2013): 123–51. 5/ “Tide Pods: the universal currency” is a random thing my husband said in his sleep one time that will now forever live in my head. And, hopefully, yours. 6/ We talked about the plague in EPISODE TWO. Go check it out. 7/ To clarify, England was England in 1363—but it wasn’t the UK. Scotland didn’t join until later (after 1603 when James I took the throne, and then formally with the Act of Union in 1707). 8/ The rolls of Parliament: https://www.british-history.ac.uk (Unfortunately, I think library access is needed to log on–check your local library’s access!) Edward III: October 1363: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/october-1363 Edward IV: April 1463: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/april-1463 Side note, remember that at this point, the king had some soldiers, but if he was fighting a war he’d call upon his lords (the dukes and earls and such) to bring men to fight. Armies were kind of a distributed thing. So he needed the country to have money so the wealthy could bring soldiers to come fight. 9/ Henry IV took the throne in 1399 and his son became Henry V in 1413. I am suddenly understanding the jokes about Henry V not speaking French very well in the play of that title in a different, more political light. 10/ Blackadder: Here is the clip where they talk about the robe: https://twitter.com/pitchblack....steed/status/1294974 Here is another clip where the robe (and collars) are clearly visible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD2iYSKHHzo 11/ In 1363, 100 GBP would be about 76,777.23 GBP in 2023 dollars. Five hundred GBP is 383,886.16 GBP today. Straight inflation isn’t always a good way to track buying power, because the price of goods and services vary significantly over time (t