Poulaines, also known byother names, were a style ofunisexfootwear with extremely long toes that werefashionable inEurope at various times in theMiddle Ages. The poulaine proper was ashoe orboot of soft material whose elongated toe (also known as a poulaine or pike) frequently required filling to maintain its shape. The chief vogue for poulaines spread across Europe frommedieval Poland in themid-14th century and spread across Europe, reaching upper-classEngland with the 1382 marriage ofRichard II toAnne ofBohemia andremaining popular through most of the 15th century. Sturdier forms were used asovershoes and thesabatons of theera's armor were often done in poulaine style.
Poulaines were periodically condemned byChristian writers of the time asdemonic or vain.Kings of the era variouslytaxed them as luxuries,restricted their use to thenobility, oroutright banned them.
Poulaines seem to have been unhealthy; archeaological evidence shows that people who wore them were more likely to havebunions, and broken bones from falls.
After becoming more common as women's footwear and expanding to awkward lengths, poulaines fell from fashion in the 1480s (seeduckbill shoe) and were seldom revived, although they are considered an influence on some later trends such as the 1950s Britishwinklepicker boots.
The usual English namepoulaine[1][2] (/puˈleɪn/) is aborrowing andclipping of earlierMiddle Frenchsoulers a la poulaine ("shoes in the Polish fashion") from the style's supposed origin inmedieval Poland.[3] They have also been known aspikes[2][4] from thecommon weapon of the era; aspiked,peaked, orcopped shoes;[1] ascracows,crakows,[5] andkrakows[6] from theformer Polish capital;[5] or simply aspointed shoes,pointy shoes, orlong toed shoes.[7] Poulaine,[3] pike,[8] crakow,[9] andliripipe[10] can also be used particularly for the elongated toe itself, causing some writers to mistakenly restrict the usage of poulaine toonly the toe and to insist on crakow as the name of the footwear itself.[7] Despite appearing in a 2014Vogue article,[6] however, use of crakow for the shoe is now so uncommon as to be marked obsolete in theOxford English Dictionary.[5] The elongated toe was also known as abeak,[11] although this was not generally applied to the shoe itself.[12]
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Shoes with pointed, curled, and/or elongated toes are documented in the archeological record back to at least 3000 BC[13][14] and have passed in and out of fashion over time. Inclassical antiquity, theEtruscancalceus repandus ("turnedcalceus") was worn by both genders before becoming particularly associated under theRomans withJuno Sospita and relatedgoddesses.[15] InByzantine fashion,priestlyvestments includedgilt slippers ending in forward point from at least the 5th century.[16]
Pointed-toed shoes first became a major trend inWestern fashion with thelate-11th-centurypigache.[17] They were ridiculed by poets and historians and censured by the clergy,[18] who compared them toscorpion's tails andram'shorns[19] and repeatedly connected them toeffeminacy andhomosexuality[20][21] while simultaneously condemning how most courtiers adopted the fashion to "seek the favors of women with every kind of lewdness".[22] As a returningpapal legate, the former professorRobert de Courson banned other faculty of theUniversity of Paris from wearing them in August 1215.[23] The same year, theFourth Lateran Council also banned embroidered and pointed-toe shoes forclergy.[24][25]Guibert of Nogent blamed the origin of the pigache on footwear exported fromIslamicCordoba,[21]Orderic Vitalis on the promiscuousFulk ofAnjou's attempts to disguise the deformity of hisbunions.[19][20] Thefashion historian Ruth Wilcox offers that it may have been a simple adaptation of theNormans' ownsabatons, which they had extended to a point and turned down in the late 11th century to better hold theirstirrups during battle.[26] After its initial excesses reaching about 2 inches (5 cm) beyond the foot[26] and a trend of stuffing and styling the ends started byWilliam Rufus'scourtier Robert the "Horny" (Robertus Cornardus),[20] the style settled into a more conservative and compact form for a century until theBlack Death.[17] It was still necessary, however, to restate the injunctions against clerical use of the shoes in 1281 and 1342.[25]
Poulaines proper spread across Europe in themid-14th century[17] before falling out of fashion in the1480s.[27][28] It spread from thePolish court ofCasimir the Great toFrance and thence toBurgundy,Germany,England, andScotland.[29]
The arrival—or resumption—of this fashion in England is traditionally associated with the marriage ofRichard II andAnne ofBohemia, daughter of theemperorCharles IV, in 1382.[30] In his entry for the year 1394, theEvesham monk who wrote theHistory of the Life and Reign ofRichard II claimed that "with this Queen there came fromBohemia into England those accursed vices, namely shoes with a long beak—the Englishcracows orpikes—taking up 0.5 yards (46 cm) in length so that it is necessary to tie them to the shin with silver chains before they can be used to walk forward".[30][a] In fact, the style had reached England before Anne's birth. In his entry for the year 1362, theMalmesbury monk who wrote theEulogium Historiarum states that "Moreover they have beaked shoes a finger in length that they callcracows. They are better called demons' claws than decorations for men."[32][b] Similarly,John ofReading complained in the 1360s of Englishmen's "shoes... with sideways beaks".[34][c] It seems more likely, instead, that Anne's entourage further popularized the style or simply that the monastic author at Evesham was using the fiction for political ends.[36]
The 14th-century poulaines so far recovered in London have only been found only in men's sizes,[28]: 88–9 although depictions of Lora St. Quintin—wife ofJohn de Grey's son Robert de Marmion—show her wearing shorter poulaines with their points curved to the sides.[19] By the 15th century, art shows frequent use by both men and women, with the toes of men's shoes being the most extravagantly long.
They were a controversial fashion and faced criticism from several quarters. In 1368,Charles V of France issued an edict banning their construction and use in Paris. An English poem from 1388 complained that men were unable to kneel in prayer because their toes were too long.[37] Thec. 1440morality playCastle of Perseverance includes the footwear in the "advice" that Humanum Genus ("Mankind") gets from Superbia ("Pride"): "Look that thou blow mickle boasts with long crakows on thy shoes".[38][d]
In 1463,Edward IV passed asumptuary law that "no knight under the state of a lord, esquire, gentleman, nor other person shall use nor wear after the...feast of Saint Peter any shoes or boots having pikes passing the length of two inches" (5 cm).[39][40] In 1465, they were banned in England altogether, so that allcordwainers andcobblers within theCity of London and environs were prohibited from making shoes with pikes more than 2 inches long.[28]: 117 [41]
By the 1480s, poulaines had generally fallen from fashion in favor of the wideduckbill shoes supposedly popularized byCharles VIII ofFrance owing to his ownsix-toed foot.[11] The poulaine inspired later footwear fashions, such as the 1950swinklepicker boots.
Archaeological evidence in the form of surviving shoe soles shows that the length of the point beyond the toes of the foot was rarely, if ever, more than 50% of the length of the foot.[27][28]: 88–9 This is consistent with depictions of highly fashionable European men from the third quarter of the 15th century when poulaines were at the height of their popularity. As with many items of high fashion, the most extreme examples were worn by the upper classes.
Poulaine toes were packed with stuffing to provide rigidity and help them hold their shape. Surviving examples from medieval London have the points stuffed withmoss.[27] An Italian chronicler noted in 1388 that they were also sometimes stuffed with horsehair.[37]
Although there is no archaeological or medieval iconographic evidence to support the idea that the toes were ever tied up to the leg,[7] as noted earlier, there is direct literary evidence dating from 1394 which states that this was the practice at the time these shoes were introduced into England. Additionally, the practice is mentioned by the antiquarianJohn Stow in his 1698 publicationA Survey of London, where he wrote:
In Distar Lane, on the north side thereof, is theCordwainer's Hall, which company were made a brotherhood or fraternity in the eleventh of Henry IV. Of these cordwainers, I read, that since the fifth ofRichard II (when he took to wifeAnne, daughter toWenceslaus [sic], King ofBohemia), by her example the English people had used piked shoes, tied to their knees with silken laces, or chains of silver or gilt, wherefore in the fourth of Edward IV it was ordained and proclaimed that beaks ofshoon and boots should not pass the length of two inches, upon pain of cursing by the clergy, and by Parliament to pay twenty shillings for every pair. And every cordwainer that shod any man or woman on the Sunday, to pay thirty shillings.[42]
However, given that John Stow was writing over 100 years after the shoes fell out of fashion, and the lack of rigorous historical research in the writings of the time, he cannot be considered a reliable source. His record of Act 4 of Edward IV is exaggerated—the actual act does mention restrictions in length, but not monetary penalties, parliament or clergy:
Nulle persone Cordewaner ou Cobeler .. face.. ascuns soler galoges ou husend oveqe ascun pike ou poleine qe passera la longuer ou mesure de deux poutz.[7]
A 2005 study of early and late medieval remains foundbunions exclusively incorpses from the poulaine era.[43] A 2021 study of 177 corpses from fourcemeteries aroundCambridge,England, affirmed this, finding that those who lived in more fashionable neighborhoods during the height of the poulaine fashion were far more likely to have bunions, misshapen feet, andFOOSH (fall on outstretched hand) bone fractures associated with injury from falling.[44][45][25] One of the coauthors, Piers Mitchell, noted "People really did wear ridiculously long, pointy shoes, just like they did inBlackadder".[44] Of the remains that could be dated, 27% from the 14th and 15th centuries had bunions pronounced enough to causeskeletal deformation versus only 6% prevalence during the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries.[44] Emma McConnachie of theCollege of Podiatry noted that the findings "highlight these have been around for quite some time" and "the fashion choices of the 14th century inflicted similar issues from footwear as we see presenting in clinics today."[44]
Pattens were protective overshoes frequently worn in the late medieval and early modern period to protect footwear from mud and filth while outdoors. They were typically made from wood and fitted to the shoe with leather straps. The namepoulaine was sometimes used for the elongated pattens necessary to protect the full length of the long-toed shoes of the period.[46]
Sabatons were the protective footwear used withmedieval European armor. During the period that poulaines were in fashion, the sabatons sometimes became similarly awkwardly long or pointed and interfered with soldiers' ability to walk or run. At the 1386Battle of Sempach, it became necessary for the knights ofLeopold III, Duke of Austria, to quickly dismount and fight on foot. Because they had not prepared for this, many were obliged to cut off the tips of their sabatons on the field to continue. Swiss chroniclers report a huge pile of these shoetips were found in a heap after the battle and this was illustrated in the account of the battle in the 1513Luzerner Schilling. A surviving pair ofsabatons belonging toMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, have extremely long ends for use on horseback but these are detachable if fighting on foot became necessary. The catches can be seen over the area of the big toe.
Loke þou blowe mekyl bost
Wyth longe crakows on þi schos
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