Figure 1.-- We see evidence of male underwear in 15th century France. This French minature is in a 15th century manuscript from Bruges. It is a codex of Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus. The image is probably set in a Bruge canal. As in other images from the same time several men are swimming in underpants while others without any clothing. We are not sure what is going on, perhaps some sort of swiming lesson. The underpants look rather modern. Source: Arsenal Library, Paris (Manuscript 5070).
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We have some information on historic French underwear. French art provides some information on medieval underwear but there is little actual written documentation. The medieval era was essentially an entire millenium. Our information at this rime only come from the late or high middle ages. The earliest informnation we have found is an image of expulsion of the Cathars. The secene is set in the 13th century (1209). The painting, however, dates to the 15th century. The artist had no way of knowing how people dressed in the 13th century, especially their underclothes. The convention was to paint people in contemoeary dress rather than tio try to depict the clothing of eralier eras. The expelled people were driven out without their possessions. Whether than meant without their clothing, we do not know. It is possible, many were not just expelled, but actually killed. The only clothing depicted under than the soldiers is underwear. We do not have a lot of information on medieval underwear. We suspect that the great bulk of the population did not have underwear. The fact that the expelled here did have underwear, at least for the men, suggests that they were not poor peasants, and they are being driven out of the city. This is thus a rare insight into 15th century underwear which looks surprisingly modern. We thought that the Carcassonne painting painting might be an effort at modesty, but the vpaunting here shows simoilasr male underpants (figure 1). So this was apparently underar gthat was being weorn at the time. There is no hint as to the fabric, but it would not have been cotton--which at the time was a luxury fabric. We can only assume it was linnen. We thought this may have been more of a concession to modesty than a an accurate depiction. A HBC contriburtor writes, "We have other evidence of this sort of male underwear in 15th century France. Probably in the 13th century common people, as mostly were the Cathars, didn't wear any underpants. Interesting that in the Carcassonne painting women unlike the men were not depicted wearing underpants. We know that wealthy French women wore underpants in the 16-17th century but yet in the early 20th century many peasant women didn't wear them. For the children we have little evidence. Anyway we know from the personal journal of Jean Héroard (1551-1628), French Court physician, that the young Luis XIII didn't wear underpants. Even in the French novel The War of Buttons by Louis Pergaud (1912) one of the boys didn't wear underpants."
