Ordinary woman: Townswoman, 1572

This figure comes from a painting showing people under attack in Paris in 1572. It offers a rare glimpse of a citizen in incomplete dress. (A citizen is one of the four "sorts" in Tudor society according to Sir Thomas Smith, a contemporary commentator in 1583). The townswoman is wearing a kirtle only partly laced and despite having no shoes on her feet has her head covered with a neat little cap. She is undressed because the scene depicts the massacre of Huguenots on St Bartholemew's Day. Several townspeople have been surprised and are not fully dressed or have been stripped by their attackers. The layer of dress the woman wears over her linen smock is a kirtle, a garment which is worn by an ordinary woman depicted in a plasterwork frieze at Montacute House in Somerset. Kirtles are often visible under a gown (as is the case with many church effigies) but it is hard to know for certain how they were constructed. Not only does this townswoman have front lacing which is visible, the slit in her skirts below the lace is also shown making it clear how she put the garment on and took it off.