NB I thought you might find this article on French military garb in 1643 interesting in terms of comparison with English Civil War clothing -- I came across it while trying to get a decent idea of what fastenings little Jakob would have had to deal with in order to be able to dress himself. Laces and/or *lots* of buttons :-P https://www.lemondededartagnan.org/sites/default/files/2023-12/le-mousquetaire-de-rocroi.pdf
(And people wore haut-de-chausses (i.e. from the waist to the knee) -- the garments later called culottes -- *not* the 'braies' adopted universally by the BBC Musketeers fandom to allude to men's nether garments, one of their favourite subjects :-p)
The contemporary illustrations on P2 are fascinating in that they show, not the King's Musketeers (an elite royal mounted troop equivalent to the Life Guard and the Royals) but the actual infantry drilling with muskets in their shabby clothing, including a worn-out scabbard through which the point of the sword protrudes ,and sagging false boot-tops, worn above unglamorous souliers to make it look as if the owner could afford to buy boots....
It dawned on me for the first time recently when watching clips from the Soviet Musketeers just *why* Cavalier boots have those enormous turned-down tops -- they are in fact thigh-length riding boots and worn as such (or were originally worn as such) when on horseback! Presumably they were turned down below the knee for convenience when dismounted, and then developed into an exaggerated fashion statement ;-)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2026-01-29 11:29 pm (UTC)https://www.lemondededartagnan.org/sites/default/files/2023-12/le-mousquetaire-de-rocroi.pdf
(And people wore haut-de-chausses (i.e. from the waist to the knee) -- the garments later called culottes -- *not* the 'braies' adopted universally by the BBC Musketeers fandom to allude to men's nether garments, one of their favourite subjects :-p)
The contemporary illustrations on P2 are fascinating in that they show, not the King's Musketeers (an elite royal mounted troop equivalent to the Life Guard and the Royals) but the actual infantry drilling with muskets in their shabby clothing, including a worn-out scabbard through which the point of the sword protrudes ,and sagging false boot-tops, worn above unglamorous souliers to make it look as if the owner could afford to buy boots....
It dawned on me for the first time recently when watching clips from the Soviet Musketeers just *why* Cavalier boots have those enormous turned-down tops -- they are in fact thigh-length riding boots and worn as such (or were originally worn as such) when on horseback! Presumably they were turned down below the knee for convenience when dismounted, and then developed into an exaggerated fashion statement ;-)