Asafeguard orsaveguard was a riding garment oroverskirt worn by women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some safeguards were intended to protect skirts or kirtles worn beneath.[1]Mary Frith, dramatised as the character Moll Cutpurse inThe Roaring Girl, wore a black safeguard overbreeches.[2] The safeguard, and its French equivalent, thedevantiére, can be described as a wrap-around apron, possibly worn over some kind of breeches.[3]
One of the earliest mentions of a safeguard is in a list of purchases made around 1546, when lace and fringes were bought "for my Mistress's gown, cloak, and safeguard".[4] In 1555, a cloak and a safeguard ofbroadcloth were made for Thomasine Petre, an English gentry woman, the youngest daughter ofWilliam Petre, in anticipation of travel from London to Hampshire to join the household of theMarchioness of Exeter. She ordered similar garments in 1559.[5]Margaret andMary Kitson were bought "savegardes" of peach coloured cloth in February 1573.[6] Mary, as Countess Rivers, made bequests of clothing in 1641 including "my best cloak and safeguard laid with gold buttons" and an "old safegard laid with gold lace".[7]
Safeguards made forElizabeth I seem to have been tied to the stirrup or foot.[8] Some safeguards had pockets. In 1574, Elizabeth's tailor,Walter Fyshe worked on a safeguard of French "ashe colour Abramamasio" fabric, with laces of Venice gold, silver and silk, and added "newe pockettes" of green taffeta.[9] During a tournament and entertainment atNew Hall in September 1579, theEarl of Sussex gave Elizabeth a horse, a cloak, and a safeguard "to keep her from evil weather that might hap" in the next day's hunting.[10] Some records of Elizabeth's wardrobe describe "safeguard or kirtles", and the tailor William Jones made a gown and "sauffegard or kirtell" for the "woman dwarf" (perhapsThomazina Muliercula) in February 1584.[11]
Elizabeth's inventory of clothing includes safeguards matched in sets or ensembles with cloaks, and withjupes, and sets of matching cloaks, jupes, and safeguards.[12] As aNew Year's Day gift for 1589,Francis Walsingham gave Elizabeth a doublet with a cloak and a safeguard of "fair coloured velvet" lined with white sarsenet, and a Mistress Dale gave a safeguard of russet satin, with buttons and loops of Venice gold and silver at the front.[13][14] A favourite safeguard and jupe embroidered with stars of Venice silver and gold wheat ears was repaired twice, and washed and mended by the queen'ssilkwomanDorothy Speckard.[15]
Godfrey Goodman doubted that Elizabeth I rode very often by 1597, when discussing a plot involving a clerk in the royal stableEdward Squire to poison her.[16] Squire is said to have confessed to sprinkling poison on her saddle without effect.[17]
In July 1590, Paul Rey, a Danish tailor working in Scotland forAnne of Denmark, made her a set of riding clothes, including a cloak and "rydding saifgard" of 15ells of Spanish incarnadine coloured satin lined with taffeta of the same colour, and trimmed with silk ribbons and gold passementerie.[18] Another safeguard was made for her in October 1594 of fine tanny London cloth with strings of orange Florence ribbon. Orange ribbon was supplied for riding clothes of London brown in October 1597.[19]
Anne of Denmark's wardrobe inventory of 1608 lists eight "saveguards", four made with white, grass-green, orange, and straw coloured satin, trimmed with silver and gold lace, and three party-coloured safeguards, one of crimson and white damask, another of deer colour and whitecamlet, and one of willow colour and white damask. Another had a ground of silver camlet tufted with orange silk "of small tuft", lined with sarsenet. This safeguard had gold and silver seams with long buttons and loops woven of silver and gold thread.[20]
Lady Anne Clifford bought more practical and hardwearing riding garments when she stayed atBrougham Castle inWestmorland in November 1616, a "cloak and a safeguard of cloth laced with black lace to keep me warm on my journey" to London.[21] Safeguards of cloth (broadcloth) are listed in many inventories of costume. In 1586, Margaret Grey and Mary Grey, daughters of aNewcastle miller, owned broadcloth safeguards listed with their petticoats.[22] In 1596, Elizabeth Woode ofRamsey left a russet petticoat and a russet safeguard to her daughter.[23] Bequests made by Anne Bikarstaffe ofStockport in 1599 include a "partelytt and savegard".[24] Dame Honor Proctor ofCowling Hall nearBedale made a bequest of her "ryding savegard and cloak, hoodd and mittons" in 1625.[25]
WhenArbella Stuart tried to leave England in disguise, the black hat and riding safeguard worn by one of her companions reminded a witness, John Bright, of Moll Cutpurse.[26] This was a probably a reference to the playThe Roaring Girl.[27] In the play, a speech makes reference to the safeguard, an item of female clothing, transformed into a slop, a word for male breeches.[28]
In 1613,Princess Elizabeth was provided with safeguards of green and murrey satin, with sleeves of rich tissue in Spanish fashion. They were made by her tailor, John Spens or Spence.[29]Henrietta Maria brought five safeguards ordevantières to England in 1625. These richly embroidered garments, like those of Princess Elizabeth, were listed with their sleeves and stomachers.[30]
A number of safeguards seem to have been provided by a tailorJohn Anderson for the family ofRegent Arran in Scotland in the 1540s and 1550s. Described in theScots language aswardegardes, a word sometimes interpreted as a carrying bag for clothes,[31] these may have been practical riding garments of hard-wearing buckram, fustian, and gray wool. A piece of leather was used in their construction.[32] The French equivalent word for safeguard seems to have beendevantiére.[33]
Aninventory of the clothes ofMary, Queen of Scots, includes avardingard of black taffeta with a satin foreskirt embroidered with goldpassementerie, another of black taffeta, and a third of buckram. Possibly a source of confusion, the same inventory uses the wordvardingaill forfarthingale, a support undergarment to volumize a skirt.[34] One of her French inventories includes a black taffetaverdugall which likely indicates a farthingale.[35] A satirical poem describing women's riding garments in theMaitland Quarto using the formfartigard may mean a safeguard.[36]
The word "safeguard" for the women's riding garment, as in England, appears in a number of Scottish 16th- and 17th-century wills.[37]
