tabard

A tabard worn by Francis Sedley Andrus, Beaumont Herald of Arms Extraordinary.

A tabard is a short coat, either sleeveless, or with short sleeves or shoulder pieces, which was a common item of men's clothing in the Middle Ages, usually for outdoors. It might be belted, or not. Tabards might be emblazoned on the front and back with a coat of arms, and in this (livery) form they survive now as the distinctive garment of officers of arms in heraldry.

Middle Ages

A Tabard (from the French tabarde) was originally a humble outer garment of tunic form, generally without sleeves, worn by peasants, monks and foot-soldiers, including Chaucer's ploughman. In this sense the first OED citation is 1300. See also The Tabard, the inn at which the principals meet in that same Prologue. (Wikisource:The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue) In the late middle ages tabards, now open at the sides and so usually belted, were worn by knights over their armour, and usually emblazoned with their arms (though sometimes worn plain). OED first records this use in English in 1450. In this meaning they were apparently distinguished from surcoats by being open at the side, and by being shorter. These became an important means of battlefield identification with the development of plate armor as the use of shields declined.

A very expensive, but plain, garment described as a tabard is worn by Giovanni Arnolfini in the Arnolfini Portrait of 1434 (National Gallery, London). This may be made of silk velvet and is trimmed and fully lined with fur, possibly sable.^[1]

Similarly at Queens College, Oxford, the scholars on the foundation were called tabarders, from the tabard, obviously not an emblazoned garment, which they wore.^{[citation needed]}

It can also be the British English word for a cobbler apron.^{[citation needed]}

British Heraldry

Pursuivant wearing his tabard with the sleeves front and back.

In the case of Royal officers of arms, the tabard is emblazoned with the coat of arms of the sovereign. Private officers of arms, such as still exist in Scotland, likewise make use of tabards emblazoned with the coat of arms of the person who employs them. In the United Kingdom the different ranks of officers of arms can be distinguished by the fabric from which their tabards are made. The tabard of a king of arms is made of velvet, the tabard of a herald of arms of satin and that of a pursuivant of arms of damask silk. It was once the custom for pursuivants to wear their tabards with the sleeves at the front and back, but this practice was ended during the reign of James II and VII.

Gallery

Peter O'Donoghue in his tabard at the Garter Service	Marcel van Rossum, Deputy Herald of South Africa, and Themba Mabaso, State Herald of South Africa, wearing their tabards 2006	Slains Pursuivant Peter-Drummond-Murray of Mastrick wearing the tabard of the Earl of Erroll	Sir Anthony Richard Wagner, wearing his tabard while serving as Richmond Herald of Arms in Ordinary in 1952
The tabard of Blanc Coursier Herald John Anstis from 1727	Clarenceux King of Arms John Hawley wearing a tabard in a 1556 grant of arms	Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, Lord Lyon King of Arms, in his tabard	Officers of arms wearing their tabards at the Garter service in 2006
Godfrey of Bouillon wearing a tabard of the Kingdom of Jerusalem	Alexander Walter Lindsay, Endure Pursuivant to his father, the Earl of Crawford	Hubert Chesshyre in the procession to the annual service of the Order of the Garter

Popular Culture

Tabards are used in the identification of player-run guilds & factions in many fantasy MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft.

See also

• Heraldry
• Surcoat

References

1. ^ National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings by Lorne Campbell, 1998, ISBN 185709171