Forget the white wedding dress—if you were a medieval bride, you were more likely to walk down the aisle in bright red, deep green, or shimmering blue. From silk brocades and fur-trimmed mantles to belts of silver and sprigs of rosemary, bridal fashion in the Middle Ages was full of colour, texture, and symbolism.
While surviving records are scattered, they offer fascinating glimpses into what women wore on their wedding day—from royal princesses to merchants’ wives. This guide explores the colours, fabrics, accessories, and sumptuary laws that shaped medieval bridal fashion, helping modern brides and history lovers alike envision what it meant to dress for love in the Middle Ages.
When looking through evidence about wedding dresses from medieval Western Europe, one thing becomes very clear – brides liked to wear colourful dresses, with greens, reds, and blues being prominent. While some historians suggest that brides simply wore their best outfit at the wedding, we can find many records indicating that they had a specific bridal gown, worn only for their wedding, which would then be passed down to their daughters.
A Merchant’s Bride: A Glimpse of 16th-Century Wedding Fashion
One of the best descriptions of a wedding dress comes from John Whitcomb, a wealthy clothier in the English town of Newbury. Writing in the 16th century, he describes the bridal dress of his wife:
The bride, being habited in a gown of sheep’s russet, and a kertle of fine worsted; her head attired with a billiment of gold, and her hair, as yellow as gold, hanging down behind her, which was curiously combed and plaited, according to the manner of those days, was led to church between two boys, with bride-laces and rosemary tied about their silken sleeves.
Sheep’s russet would be a reddish-brown colour of wool that came from black sheep, while a kertle was a one-piece garment worn underneath the gown. A billiment was a type of hooded headdress popular in Tudor-era England. To complete her look, the bride also wore a length of blue ribbon binding sprigs of rosemary, a flowery plant popular in England for its fragrance and beauty.
Going back about a century, the diary of Luca Landucci, who owned an apothecary in Florence, Italy, includes a description of his wife’s wedding dress from the day they were married in 1466. Her outfit consisted of a pale blue garment embroidered with pearls and a purple gown with sleeves that had a thin brocade. A brocade was a fabric with a pattern of raised figures, sometimes made of silk interwoven with threads of gold or silver. Underneath, she wore a white under-gown.
Another description of a wedding dress comes from the governmental records of King Henry III of England in the 13th century. In 1259 he commanded that a wedding dress be made for the daughter of a nobleman named William Bluet. The outfit was to be “a tunic, an overcoat, and a mantle, of green or burnett (brownish), with a coat of fine biss (a dark fur) and furs.”
A wedding scene from the 15th century. British Library MS Royal 17 F. IV, f.65v
Wills can also reveal details about wedding dresses, as they were passed down to descendants. Lucie Laumonier, who has been researching the archives of the French town of Montpellier, found 13 instances between the years 1350 and 1490 of testators bequeathing a wedding dress to a daughter, granddaughter, or niece. The wedding dress is always described as red and often comes with a silver belt.
The choice of colours was very much influenced by medieval people’s perceptions of each hue. Green, for instance, was seen as the middle colour between black and white and had a reputation for being soothing. Meanwhile, blue was something of a neglected colour for much of the Middle Ages, partly because it was so hard to recreate for painting or clothing. It wasn’t until the 12th century that it began to be used more widely, and from that time it became incorporated into wedding fashion as well.
Medieval Fashion Rules: Venice’s Laws on Wedding Dresses
In the year 1299, the ruling council of Venice passed a new set of sumptuary laws—rules about what women could wear. While these were often framed as promoting modesty, in reality, they were meant to prevent lower-ranking women from dressing like the nobility.
What is interesting about the 1299 laws is that they specifically address weddings. The rules carved out exemptions for wedding dresses—these would be the only occasions when women could wear particular outfits. For example, it states that brides:
may have borders of pearls on their wedding dress a single time, and similarly one headpiece of pearls; and they may not place the aforesaid borders on any gown other than the wedding gown.
The law adds that if the cost of the wedding dress exceeded 20 soldi di grossi, the family would be fined another 20.
Detail of a historiated initial ‘C'(oniugium) of a priest joining hands of a man and a woman. Royal 6.E.vi, f. 375.
In another section, brides were exempted from prohibitions on the length of a train:
Item, that henceforth no woman’s tunic may have a train of more than one arm’s length trailing on the ground or an underdress train of more than half an arm’s length, under the aforesaid penalty. Except that a bride may have whatever sort of train she wishes a single time, on her wedding tunic.
What Royal Brides Wore in Medieval England
When it comes to descriptions of weddings in the Middle Ages, chroniclers tended to write few details about clothing and were usually more interested in what was served at the feast. However, we do get some glimpses. In her book The Plantagenet Socialite, Jan-Marie Knights describes what princesses and queens wore on their wedding days:
1236 – Eleanor of Provence & King Henry III
Wore a long-sleeved, shimmering golden dress cinched at the waist and flaring out to her feet in wide pleats.
1290 – Princess Margaret & John of Brabant
Her dress featured a gold belt studded with pearls, rubies, and royal leopards in sapphires.
1308 – Isabella of France & King Edward II
Wore a shiny blue and gold mantle over a gown of blue.
1361 – Princess Mary & John de Montfort, Duke of Brittany
Dressed in a cloth-of-gold tunic and a long mantle trimmed with the fur of six hundred squirrels and forty ermines.
1396 – Isabella of France & King Richard II
The six-year-old princess wore a blue velvet dress decorated with gold fleur-de-lis.
1406 – Princess Philippa & King Eric of Denmark (in Lund, Sweden)
Wore a white tunic and a white silken cloak bordered with squirrel fur and ermine.
Illuminated miniature depicting the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Anciennes Chroniques d’Angleterre by Jean de Wavrin, 15th century
1464 – Elizabeth Woodville & King Edward IV
Wore a gown of the richest blue bordered with ermine, paired with a pearl necklace.
1468 – Princess Margaret & Charles, Duke of Burgundy
Arrived for her wedding wearing a white cloth-of-gold and ermine gown.
These were important political events, so it’s not surprising that the brides’ clothing reflected political alliances—both French princesses, for example, arrived in outfits with a lot of blue. These were also very extravagant occasions. The groom would also be dressed in fine clothing, and sometimes the entire wedding party and even the guests wore matching outfits.
We can see the effort put into royal wedding dresses from records relating to the 1297 wedding of Elizabeth, daughter of England’s King Edward I, to John I, Count of Holland, Zeeland, and Lord of Friesland. In the weeks before the wedding, the royal government paid a team of thirty-five tailors in London 70 shillings to create the bridal dress. They worked for four days and nights to complete it, embroidering it with silk and adorning it with silver and gold buttons. At least another 52 shillings were spent on materials, transport, and storage—the gown cost about the same as a small house.
The Golden Gown: A Rare Surviving Medieval Wedding Dress
It is very rare to have physical examples of medieval clothing that have survived to the present day. One notable exception is a wedding dress that has remained mostly intact since the Middle Ages. Known as the ‘Golden Gown’ of Queen Margaret, it is kept in Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden. For centuries, it was believed to be the wedding dress of Margareta, Queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (1353–1412), but recent research reveals that the silk and linen used in the dress date to between 1403 and 1439.
Most likely, this was the wedding dress of Princess Margaret (1456–1486), the daughter of Christian I of Denmark and Dorothea of Brandenburg, worn when she married King James III of Scotland in 1469. She became Queen of Scotland, but her wedding dress appears to have been returned to Scandinavia and deposited in the cathedral as a kind of royal family relic.
Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen-Crocker offer this description of the dress:
The gown is made of a sumptuous, gold brocade cloth. The gold content of the gilding was 75%, evidence of opulent royal fashion in medieval Europe. On a base of red silk, gold thread is used to create an all-over pattern. The central element of the design is a fruit, like a pineapple, surrounded by a frame of laurels and pomegranates. Each pattern is 30cm (11.8in) wide and 49–50cm (19.2–19.6in) high. The style of elaborate patterning – often oriental influenced – on diasper weave is characteristic of the fourteenth-century luxury cloth produced in Lucca.
This expensive dress was made by someone very skilled, with the only blemish being a small tear in the skirt which was patched up. Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker add:
The skirt may have been intended to pool at the wearer’s feet at the front, and it certainly trailed at the back, an extravagant use of the expensive cloth. It may have been altered: unmatching material in the underside sleeve gussets, and the possible reduction in the size of the waist by taking in the back seam, suggest some re-tailoring. The remaining facing at the top may suggest that an edging of luxurious fur was once part of the gown.
Whether you’re planning a medieval-themed wedding or simply fascinated by historical fashion, the evidence is clear: medieval brides embraced bold colours, luxurious fabrics, and meaningful accessories. From royal gowns trimmed with ermine to red dresses passed down through generations, these garments were more than just beautiful—they were statements of status, tradition, and identity.
While no single “medieval wedding look” existed, the diversity of styles and regional customs means there’s plenty of inspiration to draw from. So if you’re dreaming of a gown fit for a medieval bride, think colour, character, and a touch of historical flair.
Forget the white wedding dress—if you were a medieval bride, you were more likely to walk down the aisle in bright red, deep green, or shimmering blue. From silk brocades and fur-trimmed mantles to belts of silver and sprigs of rosemary, bridal fashion in the Middle Ages was full of colour, texture, and symbolism.
While surviving records are scattered, they offer fascinating glimpses into what women wore on their wedding day—from royal princesses to merchants’ wives. This guide explores the colours, fabrics, accessories, and sumptuary laws that shaped medieval bridal fashion, helping modern brides and history lovers alike envision what it meant to dress for love in the Middle Ages.
When looking through evidence about wedding dresses from medieval Western Europe, one thing becomes very clear – brides liked to wear colourful dresses, with greens, reds, and blues being prominent. While some historians suggest that brides simply wore their best outfit at the wedding, we can find many records indicating that they had a specific bridal gown, worn only for their wedding, which would then be passed down to their daughters.
A Merchant’s Bride: A Glimpse of 16th-Century Wedding Fashion
One of the best descriptions of a wedding dress comes from John Whitcomb, a wealthy clothier in the English town of Newbury. Writing in the 16th century, he describes the bridal dress of his wife:
The bride, being habited in a gown of sheep’s russet, and a kertle of fine worsted; her head attired with a billiment of gold, and her hair, as yellow as gold, hanging down behind her, which was curiously combed and plaited, according to the manner of those days, was led to church between two boys, with bride-laces and rosemary tied about their silken sleeves.
Sheep’s russet would be a reddish-brown colour of wool that came from black sheep, while a kertle was a one-piece garment worn underneath the gown. A billiment was a type of hooded headdress popular in Tudor-era England. To complete her look, the bride also wore a length of blue ribbon binding sprigs of rosemary, a flowery plant popular in England for its fragrance and beauty.
Going back about a century, the diary of Luca Landucci, who owned an apothecary in Florence, Italy, includes a description of his wife’s wedding dress from the day they were married in 1466. Her outfit consisted of a pale blue garment embroidered with pearls and a purple gown with sleeves that had a thin brocade. A brocade was a fabric with a pattern of raised figures, sometimes made of silk interwoven with threads of gold or silver. Underneath, she wore a white under-gown.
Another description of a wedding dress comes from the governmental records of King Henry III of England in the 13th century. In 1259 he commanded that a wedding dress be made for the daughter of a nobleman named William Bluet. The outfit was to be “a tunic, an overcoat, and a mantle, of green or burnett (brownish), with a coat of fine biss (a dark fur) and furs.”
Wills can also reveal details about wedding dresses, as they were passed down to descendants. Lucie Laumonier, who has been researching the archives of the French town of Montpellier, found 13 instances between the years 1350 and 1490 of testators bequeathing a wedding dress to a daughter, granddaughter, or niece. The wedding dress is always described as red and often comes with a silver belt.
The choice of colours was very much influenced by medieval people’s perceptions of each hue. Green, for instance, was seen as the middle colour between black and white and had a reputation for being soothing. Meanwhile, blue was something of a neglected colour for much of the Middle Ages, partly because it was so hard to recreate for painting or clothing. It wasn’t until the 12th century that it began to be used more widely, and from that time it became incorporated into wedding fashion as well.
Medieval Fashion Rules: Venice’s Laws on Wedding Dresses
In the year 1299, the ruling council of Venice passed a new set of sumptuary laws—rules about what women could wear. While these were often framed as promoting modesty, in reality, they were meant to prevent lower-ranking women from dressing like the nobility.
What is interesting about the 1299 laws is that they specifically address weddings. The rules carved out exemptions for wedding dresses—these would be the only occasions when women could wear particular outfits. For example, it states that brides:
may have borders of pearls on their wedding dress a single time, and similarly one headpiece of pearls; and they may not place the aforesaid borders on any gown other than the wedding gown.
The law adds that if the cost of the wedding dress exceeded 20 soldi di grossi, the family would be fined another 20.
In another section, brides were exempted from prohibitions on the length of a train:
Item, that henceforth no woman’s tunic may have a train of more than one arm’s length trailing on the ground or an underdress train of more than half an arm’s length, under the aforesaid penalty. Except that a bride may have whatever sort of train she wishes a single time, on her wedding tunic.
What Royal Brides Wore in Medieval England
When it comes to descriptions of weddings in the Middle Ages, chroniclers tended to write few details about clothing and were usually more interested in what was served at the feast. However, we do get some glimpses. In her book The Plantagenet Socialite, Jan-Marie Knights describes what princesses and queens wore on their wedding days:
1236 – Eleanor of Provence & King Henry III
Wore a long-sleeved, shimmering golden dress cinched at the waist and flaring out to her feet in wide pleats.
1290 – Princess Margaret & John of Brabant
Her dress featured a gold belt studded with pearls, rubies, and royal leopards in sapphires.
1308 – Isabella of France & King Edward II
Wore a shiny blue and gold mantle over a gown of blue.
1361 – Princess Mary & John de Montfort, Duke of Brittany
Dressed in a cloth-of-gold tunic and a long mantle trimmed with the fur of six hundred squirrels and forty ermines.
1396 – Isabella of France & King Richard II
The six-year-old princess wore a blue velvet dress decorated with gold fleur-de-lis.
1406 – Princess Philippa & King Eric of Denmark (in Lund, Sweden)
Wore a white tunic and a white silken cloak bordered with squirrel fur and ermine.
1464 – Elizabeth Woodville & King Edward IV
Wore a gown of the richest blue bordered with ermine, paired with a pearl necklace.
1468 – Princess Margaret & Charles, Duke of Burgundy
Arrived for her wedding wearing a white cloth-of-gold and ermine gown.
These were important political events, so it’s not surprising that the brides’ clothing reflected political alliances—both French princesses, for example, arrived in outfits with a lot of blue. These were also very extravagant occasions. The groom would also be dressed in fine clothing, and sometimes the entire wedding party and even the guests wore matching outfits.
We can see the effort put into royal wedding dresses from records relating to the 1297 wedding of Elizabeth, daughter of England’s King Edward I, to John I, Count of Holland, Zeeland, and Lord of Friesland. In the weeks before the wedding, the royal government paid a team of thirty-five tailors in London 70 shillings to create the bridal dress. They worked for four days and nights to complete it, embroidering it with silk and adorning it with silver and gold buttons. At least another 52 shillings were spent on materials, transport, and storage—the gown cost about the same as a small house.
The Golden Gown: A Rare Surviving Medieval Wedding Dress
It is very rare to have physical examples of medieval clothing that have survived to the present day. One notable exception is a wedding dress that has remained mostly intact since the Middle Ages. Known as the ‘Golden Gown’ of Queen Margaret, it is kept in Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden. For centuries, it was believed to be the wedding dress of Margareta, Queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (1353–1412), but recent research reveals that the silk and linen used in the dress date to between 1403 and 1439.
Most likely, this was the wedding dress of Princess Margaret (1456–1486), the daughter of Christian I of Denmark and Dorothea of Brandenburg, worn when she married King James III of Scotland in 1469. She became Queen of Scotland, but her wedding dress appears to have been returned to Scandinavia and deposited in the cathedral as a kind of royal family relic.
Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen-Crocker offer this description of the dress:
The gown is made of a sumptuous, gold brocade cloth. The gold content of the gilding was 75%, evidence of opulent royal fashion in medieval Europe. On a base of red silk, gold thread is used to create an all-over pattern. The central element of the design is a fruit, like a pineapple, surrounded by a frame of laurels and pomegranates. Each pattern is 30cm (11.8in) wide and 49–50cm (19.2–19.6in) high. The style of elaborate patterning – often oriental influenced – on diasper weave is characteristic of the fourteenth-century luxury cloth produced in Lucca.
This expensive dress was made by someone very skilled, with the only blemish being a small tear in the skirt which was patched up. Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker add:
The skirt may have been intended to pool at the wearer’s feet at the front, and it certainly trailed at the back, an extravagant use of the expensive cloth. It may have been altered: unmatching material in the underside sleeve gussets, and the possible reduction in the size of the waist by taking in the back seam, suggest some re-tailoring. The remaining facing at the top may suggest that an edging of luxurious fur was once part of the gown.
Whether you’re planning a medieval-themed wedding or simply fascinated by historical fashion, the evidence is clear: medieval brides embraced bold colours, luxurious fabrics, and meaningful accessories. From royal gowns trimmed with ermine to red dresses passed down through generations, these garments were more than just beautiful—they were statements of status, tradition, and identity.
While no single “medieval wedding look” existed, the diversity of styles and regional customs means there’s plenty of inspiration to draw from. So if you’re dreaming of a gown fit for a medieval bride, think colour, character, and a touch of historical flair.
Further Readings:
Medieval Celebrations: Your Guide to Planning and Hosting Spectacular Feasts, Parties, Weddings, and Renaissance Fairs, by Daniel Diehl and Mark P. Donnelly (Stackpole Books, 2011)
The Dictionary of Fashion History, by Valerie Cumming, C. W. Cunnington and P. E. Cunnington (Berg, 2010)
Medieval Dress and Textile in Britain: A Multilingual Sourcebook, by Louise M. Sylvester, Mark C. Chambers and Gale R. Owen-Crocker (Boydell, 2014)
Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook, edited by Emilie Amt (Routledge, 2010)
Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe, by Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen-Crocker (Brill, 2018)
Top Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 12575, fol. 26v
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