page_title: Anglo-Saxon dress
section_title: Military dress
hierarchical_section_title: Anglo-Saxon dress / Military dress
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the Sutton Hoo helmet from the front in 2015 Français&#160;: Le casque de Sutton Hoo, vu de face. Photo de 2015. accession number 1939,1010.93 / British Museum&#58; online database&#58; entry 86159
context_page_description: Anglo-Saxon dress refers to the clothing and accessories worn by the Anglo-Saxons from the middle of the 5th century to the eleventh century. Archaeological finds in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have provided the best source of information on Anglo-Saxon costume. It is possible to reconstruct Anglo-Saxon dress using archaeological evidence combined with Anglo-Saxon and European art, writing and literature of the time period. Archaeological finds have both supported and contradicted the characteristic Anglo-Saxon costume as illustrated and described by these contemporary sources.
  The collective evidence of cemetery grave-goods indicates that men's and women's costume was not alike. Women's dress changed frequently from century to century, while men's dress changed very little. Women typically wore jewellery, men wore little or no jewellery. The beginning of the seventh century marked the conversion of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to Christianity. Religious art, symbols and writings from the conversion years greatly influenced costume fashion from this period onward, especially's women's dress and jewellery.
context_section_description: Historian Gale Owen-Crocker, in her book, Dress in Anglo-Saxon England writes, "Despite allusions to mailcoats in the heroic poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period, the general absence of archaeological evidence for them, even in graves equipped with fine weapons, suggests that, at least in the earlier centuries of the Anglo-Saxon era, they were a rare luxury, and it was not unusual to fight without protective clothing; on the Franks Casket some spear-carriers are not equipped with armour".
  Burial finds from the fourth or early fifth century in Oxfordshire (prior to the Anglo-Saxon migration) have found evidence that military leaders of that time period wore belts that were elaborate, wide, and fastened by "a narrow strap which was riveted to the broad belt and passed through a buckle which was much narrower than the belt itself" leaving the end of the belt to hang down; attached to the belt were pouches which allowed soldiers to carry their weapons. 
  Archaeological excavations in the 1990s uncovered three 7th century male graves, each with tablet-woven bands. The clothing remnants appeared to be part of a jacket garment. The artefacts were analysed and later interpreted to be the front borders of a wrap-over fighting jacket, as seen on the Sutton Hoo helmet panels and other 7th century art. Historians believe that Anglo-Saxon soldiers wore wrap-over, knee-length coats decorated like chain mail with sleeves that narrowed at the wrists. The jacket would be decorated with "patterned tablet woven bands stitched to the front opening and perhaps also to the hem and cuffs....Most of the comparative material suggests that the jacket was usually worn over trousers."
  In the ninth and tenth centuries, military attire did not differ much from that of civil attire. The only changes were in the form of short linen tunics with metal collars and the addition of a sword, spear, shield, and helmet. Weapons and clothes fittings worn on the battlefield were highly decorated with jewellery techniques, as seen in the discoveries at Sutton Hoo and in the Staffordshire Hoard; the concept of parade wear did not exist for the Anglo-Saxons.
caption: 7th Century Anglo-Saxon helmet
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