Medievalists.net has a short article about the clothing recorded as having been purchased for Eleanor de Montfort, Countrss of Leicester, in 1265, the year which saw the death of her second husband Simon, and their eldest son, Henry, at the battle of Evesham. The youngest child of King John, and hence sister of King Henry III, by birth and marriage she was at the centre of the political disputes which dominated the middle and later years of her brother’s reign.
The article, which has a useful and impressive come on by the mini bibliography as well as links to other articles on medieval women’s attire, can be seen at Inside Eleanor de Montfort’s Lavish Medieval Wardrobe
Wikipedia has a biographical account, with all the appropriate links, of the Countess, at Eleanor of England, Countess of Leicester
John Maddicott’s acclaimed biography of Earl Simon discusses the fact that the Montforts wore russet or similar simple fabrics when at their country estates and castles as, he argues, an aspect of their lifestyle influenced by Franciscan ideals. He also makes the point that Countess Eleanor was still keen on her finery, as per Adam Marsh’s letter. If this choice of simple attire was a conscious choice then it was perhaps rather more than the thirteenth century equivalent of “smart casual” or “dressing down ”, or indeed modern photographs of aristocrats posing in immaculately ironed jeans and tee shirts in the grand rooms of their ancestral homes for newspaper articles.
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