Sumptuary Laws

(25th April 2021)

\*opening music\*

Liz

Hello and welcome to Bread and Thread, a podcast about food and domestic history. I’m Liz

Hazel

And I’m Hazel, we are two friends who studied archaeology together and love history, and we love making things, and we normally start off by telling each other what we’re making, so what are you up to?

Liz

I have had a very big week

Hazel

Oh wow

Liz

The blueberry mead is done! It’s beautiful and red and it smells amazing, and now it gets to age for several months, which...it should be ready just in time for the summer solstice, which feels appropriate for blueberry mead

Hazel

That is perfect timing

Liz

Especially since we’re probably going to be able to go to a folk thing

Hazel

Mead and merriment

Liz

Yeah!

Hazel

That’s fantastic

Liz

And I’ve also started making a rag rug. I actually managed to find hessian because everything is at Bury Market

Hazel

That’s impressive

Liz

And it turns out normally when people in the modern times make a rag rug they get a special tool, but I didn’t know that, but I am just using like, a crochet hook to push them through and that seems to be working?

Hazel

Ok, that probably works. Yeah I feel like I’ve seen that, isn’t it like a rug hook or a latch hook type thing?

Liz

There’s a few different ones, there’s one that’s like, kind of like a sharp carabiner

Hazel

Ok

Liz

And there’s one that kind of pulls them through like a big tweezer, and one that’s just a giant wooden, like, crochet hook shaped thing

Hazel

In that case I’d say that crochet hook is gonna do the job

Liz

It has done the job so far

Hazel

Yeah

Liz

I...when this episode goes up I will tweet a picture of what I’ve done so far which is not a lot but I have done some

Hazel

That’s cool, it sounds like the kind of thing that takes a while to build up

Liz

Yeah, it’s gonna be a very long-term project but that’s...that’s what I like doing. I’ve also been learning Tunisian crochet, is the third thing, ‘cause I have three things this time

Hazel

Nice, I love Tunisian crochet

Liz

I have never done it before, I was saving it to learn with someone, and then that someone turned out to be a not very nice person, so I decided to just do it, and I’ve got some leftover self-striping yarn, so I’m just making a big stripey scarf. Those are my makings, I have been very busy this week

Hazel

Yeah that’s a productive week, that’s like all the crafts

Liz

Well nonessential shops reopened, so I went to the market, and when I go to the market I get craft supplies

Hazel

There is yeah, for anyone that isn’t familiar with Bury Market there is, like, a legendary yarncraft stall where…

Liz

They have 100g balls of double knit for a pound

Hazel

Yeah, and they have like big packs of sort of, I don’t know if they’re end of line or whatever, but…

Liz

No they just have the wholesale packs and you can buy one of the whole ten ball packs, which is probably why it’s so cheap

Hazel

There you go. Yeah, ‘cause most, like, yarn shops they won’t just let you buy the pack as it is, right, you have to buy them individually

Liz

Mm

Hazel

But yeah, this place is good

Liz

I think it’s just called The Wool Stall, if anyone listening happens to live in Bury and goes there, tell them we sent you. Nothing will happen, but, you know

Hazel

I dunno, they might give us a discount next time

Liz

I mean, the nice people that run it might give us a listen, that would be fun

Hazel

Yeah

Liz

Oh! I should actually say, hello people listening because we have a tumblr now, ‘cause we have a tumblr now!

Hazel

Oh yeah, hello tumblr. We’re excited to be there. I mean, we’ve both been there for a while, but now we’re there, like, officially, you know, as a podcast

Liz

Yeah, someone...someone reblogged the, sort of, hello world type post and said that they were gonna download all the episodes to listen to on a cross-country trip so, if that’s you, hi, I hope your trip is going ok, because it sounds like a long trip

Hazel

You can do it! We believe in you

Liz

If you’re listening to this one you’re probably mostly there

Hazel

You’re almost there, keep going

Liz

You can do it! So what have you been up to Hazel?

Hazel

Gosh, what have I been…? I finished my rainbow sparkly jacket thing. I will...I don’t know if I have any pictures of that, but I’ll see if I can put it up

Liz

You can obtain some

Hazel

I shall, because I used, there’s like a technique where you can make a 3D braid, but it’s, like it’s in a knitted piece, and it’s really cool, so

Liz

Ok

Hazel

That was fun. Yeah, I will...I got that idea off a blog, so I’ll link to where I found that. So that was cool, that kind of worked. That’s the first thing I’ve, not really designed, but put together, I guess. It’s just like a cocoon-style shrug, but it’s rainbow yarn and sparkly, so, yeah

Liz

I mean that’s two of my favourite things

Hazel

Uh-huh. It was pretty good. Yeah, it was nice to actually finish a thing for once. Nice to get back to knitting, as well, ‘cause I haven’t done much of that in a while. So yeah, good times. Shall we get on to today’s topic?

Liz

Yes. So, it’s one that we’ve been saying we would do for a while, and then just not got around to, mostly ‘cause there’s a lot. It’s sumptuary laws

Hazel

I am excited for this, because this is just one of those things that tells you a lot about the mood of the time when it happened, I think

Liz

See you say “the time when it happened”, I have found examples from ancient Greece up to potentially the modern day, depending on how you define sumptuary law

Hazel

No way! Ok, so how would you define sumptuary law

Liz

Well the, the sort of general definition, I would say, is laws, sort of, restraining extravagance, that’s the definition that you tend to get in legal dictionaries

Hazel

Ok, so it doesn’t just apply to clothes?

Liz

Oh yeah, like there is...I didn’t find a lot of food based ones, but in 16th century France only members of the royal household could eat turbot, so it’s…

Hazel

I wonder how enforceable that was

Liz

It’s not just clothes

Hazel

Also turbot

Liz

It is mostly clothes

Hazel

Sometimes fish

Liz

Clothes and fish. I’ve lost my train of thought, but there’s an argument that things like prohibition, which is also a thing we’re definitely going to do an episode on, you can hold me to that, could potentially count as a sumptuary law. Like I think there was, there was a judge when prohibition was being introduced, and also Taft, the president of the United States right before the First World War, he called prohibition a sumptuary law

Hazel

Ok, that’s an interesting one

Liz

Because it is limiting something seen as unnecessary or, in the way prohibitionists talked about alcohol, excessive

Hazel

I suppose I can see it that way, but that’s more of limiting it for everyone, right? A traditional sumptuary law, you would think, it’s limiting it for some people, but other people can have it

Liz

Well it’s some people *or purposes*

Hazel

Ah, right

Liz

Like, there’s a similar argument that things like you’re not allowed to, you know, dress up as a police officer for no reason, could potentially be interpreted as a sumptuary law

Hazel

Ok

Liz

Because it’s “these clothes are for this class of people”

Hazel

Ah, I see, ok, so it doesn’t just apply to the “only rich people can wear this” type laws, ok

Liz

So, yeah, the earliest sumptuary law that I could find is from the 7th century BC

Hazel

Wow

Liz

Which is the Locrian Code, which is the earliest written Greek law code which...it’s kind of wild. Like, I know that we do have laws from earlier than that ‘cause we’ve got things like Hamarabi, which is basically a Mesopotamian, basically Mesopotamian human rights act

Hazel

Ok

Liz

Which is very cool

Hazel

Yeah

Liz

But yeah, the Locrian Code has things like not drinking undiluted wine, except for medical purposes, “a freeborn woman may not be accompanied by more than one female slave, unless she is drunk” which…

Hazel

Ok!

Liz

Is like, right away one of my favourite things that we’ve ever mentioned in this podcast

Hazel

Yeah. Doesn’t that kind of go against the not diluting wine one, ‘cause you’d have to drink a lot of diluted wine to get drunk enough you need two people to hold you up

Liz

Ah, but there are other things you can drink, aren’t there

Hazel

Aaaaaah, ok

Liz

But, I mean, there was a whole thing about, yeah, Athenians thinking that some other groups were horrible and uncultured because they drank undiluted wine and got drunk and that was awful

Hazel

Mm-hm

Liz

And it also mentions not wearing gold jewelry unless you’re a courtesan

Hazel

Ooh

Liz

And a man not wearing a gold-studded ring “unless he is bent upon prostitution or adutery”, is how it’s translated in the version I’ve got here. So gold jewelry shows that you’re up to something

Hazel

Ok. I like that, it’s...they're going well past “it’s just a bit tacky there”, like anyone who’s wearing gold jewelry is

Liz

Is up to no good

Hazel

Bent on vice!

Liz

Then in ancient Rome we’ve got, I think you mentioned in the Tyrian purple episode that that was basically restricted to the poshos

Hazel

Yeah, pretty much, but I don’t think that was necessarily...huh I don’t know, actually if it was a legal thing or not. It was…

Liz

It...during the late Roman empire...

Hazel

It was as good as, I think

Liz

Yeah during the late Roman empire it was made an official thing

Hazel

Right, but I think pretty much before that it was like, well no-one else can afford it anyway, so it was kind of a moot point

Liz

Yeah, but it’s basically senators could have a purple stripe, the emperor could have gold thread and a purple stripe

Hazel

Ooh, shiny

Liz

Yeah, it is also I think the first example of, yeah, sumptuary laws for, I guess you could argue for the greater good rather than just for putting people down, ‘cause there were heavy restrictions on who could wear silk, because it was incredibly expensive to import

Hazel

That doesn’t surprise me

Liz

Which brings me to east Asia. So I think it seems like Confusius was a big influence on sumptuary laws in China, and later in Japan, so you have things like in 14th century China restrictions on sizes of graves

Hazel

Oh!

Liz

Depending on your status, but yeah they would...adherence was varied

Hazel

Ok. I imagine it’s quite hard to prosecute someone for not adhering to the grave size sumptuary law after they’re dead

Liz

I mean, I would assume you’d prosecute the family?

Hazel

Yeah, I guess

Liz

Is my hot take. But yeah, you have...sumptuary laws in Tokugawa Japan are where it gets really wild. So that’s the period 1603 to 1868. My Japanese history is not great but that’s what the internet said was the dates. So earlier on in the period you had very specific rules like, yeah, farmers could only wear two kinds of fabric, couldn’t wear silk even if they were silk farmers

Hazel

Oh, that’s kind of unfair

Liz

Can’t have purple or plum or crimson clothing, or stripes or patterns or anything like that if you’re a farmer

Hazel

Ok

Liz

To the point that apparently people returning to the country from business in town had to re-dye fabric so that it would adhere to the laws, which is just...that’s, that’s a level

Hazel

Yeah that’s, that’s a lot to try and keep to

Liz

Then later on there’s a lot of, lot more laws introduced more generally in cities, like servants not to wear swords, and there were a lot of just very precise sumptuary laws which is more in the line of putting people down I think, ‘cause there’s speculation that it’s because the merchant and the farmer classes started getting richer than the samurai and the ruling class who basically went “but we’re the important ones, so now you can’t have gold on your house

Hazel

Ah-ha, ok, that...I mean that’s a familiar story I think. Isn’t that the reason for a lot of sumptuary laws?

Liz

Yeah. Like it reminds me a lot, I think, actually of, this is way off topic but, yeah, the thing you used...you got of spices being this very rich, luxurious thing in western Europe, then they start to get more affordable and the rich people go “actually they’re tacky”

Hazel

I feel like that is a never ending cycle

Liz

It really is. Yeah, so...yeah sumptuary laws basically fell apart once Japan, sort of, opened up to trade more

Hazel

I imagine, like, if the purchasing power is there, and there’s a lot of new good coming in, it’s very difficult to stop people

Liz

Yeah, and I mean once you’ve got the point where the country’s opening up more there’s just, you know, the ruling class have less control

Hazel

Mm-hm

Liz

Yeah, so while in Japan they weren’t allowed to put gold on their houses unless they were of the ruling class, in England, Wales, and the Channel Islands we have licenses to crenellate

Hazel

Ah

Liz

So, do you know what crenellations are?

Hazel

I do, so I believe they are those kind of fiddly bits on the top of castles right? The sticky up bits

Liz

Yeah, the square bits on the top of the walls. So, between the 12th and 16th centuries, you could only crenelate your home by permission of the king

Hazel

So I did know about that, but I didn’t realise that it was like a sumptuary law, like it was based on status

Liz

Well, I’m classing it as a sumptuary law because it is, you know, if your home is crenelated that implies you are powerful, because it’s a defensive structure

Hazel

Yeah, absolutely

Liz

But yeah, they seem to have gone in more on actually enforcing the licenses...they seem to have started being a lot stricter with the concept after The Anarchy, which is one of my favourite periods of English history. Basically a civil war. England has had a lot of civil wars but we don’t call most of them civil wars so we can just say “yes we definitely just had the one”. So the anarchy was basically “either this...the king...the late king’s daughter is king, or her cousin is king, we don’t really know, let’s fight for 15 years”

Hazel

Yeah, it seems to basically “the king is dead, whoever succeeds him is whoever can fight the best”

Liz

I mean, there’s a whole lot of drama and oath breaking, I’m firmly on the side of Matilda, but during the anarchy there was a significant uptake, uptick in the building of what was called adulterine castles

Hazel

The what now?

Liz

Adulterine

Hazel

What?

Liz

Which is basically castles build without the permission of the crown

Hazel

Ah, ok

Liz

Which, honestly I don’t really blame them, ‘cause it’s like, who is the crown right now and also everyone’s attacking each other

Hazel

Yeah I mean it is literally called The Anarchy, like, you’re gonna want a fortified house

Liz

Yeah, if I was living during a time called The Anarchy and I could afford it I would be crenallating all over the shop

Hazel

I’d just crenellate everything. Crenellate my house, crenellate my animal pens, I’m gonna crenellate my shoes

Liz

That would be a look

Hazel

Definitely crenellate my hat

Liz

I mean some crown designs are basically that. I’m gonna have to look up the etymology of crenellation now, ‘cause I bet it is making it look like a crown. No, unrelated

Hazel

Oh

Liz

Just means notched

Hazel

Ok

Liz

Sorry, a brief etymology break ‘cause Liz likes etymology. So yeah, some sumptuary laws also have a religious basis, like there are some sumptuary laws found in the Quran and the Hadith, which is basically an Islamic legal text

Hazel

Ok

Liz

So things like not wearing silk or things that, or very long clothes, which are a sign of excessive pride. That’s also where ideas about covering hair come from, comes under a sumptuary law because it’s about excess and showing pride rather than just wearing clothes

Hazel

Ok. Would the thing about not wearing mixed fibres in the bible come under that?

Liz

I don’t know enough about the origin of that to say either way

Hazel

Ok, neither do I, so…

Liz

I have seen people who know about fabrics saying that it makes things easier, not wearing mixed fibres when you’ve just got natural fibres, because of different requirements for actually looking after the fibres, but again, I am not a biblical scholar. Certainly not a Leviticus scholar, I’ve read Leviticus exactly twice in my life and I didn’t understand it either time

Hazel

But things like traditionally the prohibition on eating meat or dairy products during Lent, would that count as a sumptuary law?

Liz

Potentially, but again when religion comes into it it becomes very mixed up

Hazel

Ok. So, like, a law depending on who’s observing it, I guess

Liz

Yeah. So you remember our last episode, when we were talking about those crazy Lombards?

Hazel

Oh, yes, and their wacky clothes

Liz

In the 16th century laws were passed in Milan against low necklines and sables with their heads and feet made of precious metals and jewels

Hazel

That’s oddly specific

Liz

Yeah, that’s the kind of law where you kind of go “ok who did this and why?”

Hazel

I mean, would, would there possibly be like, that was a trend at the time for some reason? Like there was a brief fashion and they were like “nope, not allowed, kids these days”

Liz

I don’t know but they were also banned in Bologna 20 years earlier. So I mean something was going on

Hazel

It does make you wonder

Liz

And Bologna isn’t even Lombard, so I don’t know what’s happening there

Hazel

It does make you wonder how many people were walking around with these precious stone encrusted sables. Can’t have been that many

Liz

Well I’m gonna go with at least two: once in Bologna and once in Milan

Hazel

Maybe it was the same guy

Liz

Yeah, so, there was this priest/missionary who was later canonised called Bernardino of Siena, and also Savonarola in Florence, at different times but basically, again, bringing religion into it, talking about how all of these luxuries of dress and of lifestyle were vanity and against God and it’s all very terrible. Yeah, you’ve probably heard of the Bonfire of the Vanities, which was just burning all of this stuff in Florence

Hazel

I haven’t but it sounds like something that would happen

Liz

It took on, it took hold less in Siena, possibly because it was a large manufacturer of luxury goods, especially fancy clothes. So Bernardino, less successful, but also the one that got to be a saint, so you know swings and roundabouts

Hazel

Yeah

Liz

So yeah, you...and these ideas were exported to the Americas as well, once Europeans started heading over there. So there’s one of the earliest colonies in the US, in Massachusetts

Hazel

That seems like the kind of thing that you would have thought people would be leaving Europe and going to the Americas to escape right? Like these sumptuary laws keeping us down

Liz

I mean, you’re forgetting that a lot of the very earliest colonists of the US, at least from Britain, were puritans who thought that Britain was too lax with its religious freedoms, during the Tudor and Stuart eras...but yeah

Hazel

I forgot about the extremists

Liz

These particular ones said that only people who are worth at least £200 could wear lace, gold thread, embroidery, ruffles. Those laws didn’t last very long

Hazel

Any embroidery?

Liz

Again, puritans

Hazel

But it’s ok if you’re rich

Liz

Oh yeah. Not entirely sure on the logic of being less puritan if you’re rich but...I mean like I said it also didn’t last that long

Hazel

I can see why. All of those things are things it is very easy to do to your clothes

Liz

Yeah

Hazel

Even if you’re not rich

Liz

So yeah, that is a potted history of sumptuary law. There are other examples which are more...they’re sort of things that people class under sumptuary law but I think come under their own thing, things like suppression of native dress and things like that, which you could argue come under it in that, just from that definition at the beginning, but I think if the purpose of a sumptuary law is restraining luxury and extravagance saying “you’re not allowed to dress in a way traditional to your culture” isn’t sumptuary laws, it’s just being colonialist and awful

Hazel

I guess, yeah, that’s less a status thing and more a deliberately, like, trying to destroy a culture thing

Liz

Yeah, especially when you look at the Dress Act of 1746, which was a response to the Jacobite Risings, which were basically banning tartan

Hazel

Right

Liz

And kilts

Hazel

Hmm...that does lead me on nicely to the local larder, actually

(ad for The Probably Bad Podcast)

Liz

Do tell

Hazel

Because the Jacobite Risings are relevant. Before I do…

Liz

Are we by any chance heading to Scotland

Hazel

We are indeed. But yeah, how long did that last, banning tartan?

Liz

About 40 years, and then George IV got really into the Romantic highlander aesthetic

Hazel

Ok. Well, yeah, that does lead me nicely on to today’s local larder, which is haggis, and I’m very excited about it

Liz

I do like some haggis

Hazel

Yeah, I, like, I can’t believe we’ve not done haggis before. I should have done it in January, really, but, doing it now

Liz

I mean haggis is an all the time food

Hazel

Absolutely, yeah, it’s a heary, filling, year round meal, and I’ll get on to why it’s related to the Jacobite Rebellion and the banning of tartan in a bit, but first, for those of you who have not had the great fortune to encounter a haggis, it is not, as many Scottish people will tell you, a small beast that lives wild on the moors, that is kind of a national joke, but unfortunately…

Liz

Don’t forget that it has, the legs on one side are shorter than the other so it can run round and round the hills

Hazel

Oh yeah! Well, I mean, who am I to say it’s not, I can’t say they’re all lying

Liz

I haven’t examined every hill in Scotland personally

Hazel

Yeah, I can’t disprove it. But more generally speaking, a haggis is a kind of meat pudding, and it has this reputation for being, like, horrible food, because it’s made from offal, which is the parts of an animal that people these days usually don’t want to eat, like things like the liver, the kidney, the heart, the lungs

Liz

The bits where all the goodness and flavour is

Hazel

Yeah, and historically the, or traditionally the cheapest bits of meat, which is why we don’t tend to eat them these days, ‘cause

Liz

(whispering) Speak for yourself

Hazel

Well, I say don’t tend to eat them so much in Western Europe I guess, because there are most certainly a lot of famous dishes from around the world that are still really popular today and include offal. Yeah, so, haggis is the offal from a sheep minced up and put into, put together with, like, onions and spices and oats, and sort of mixed up together and put into the lining of a sheep’s stomach, and then boiled, so, yeah, it’s a pudding, that’s what a pudding is, it’s a mixture that is put into some kind of, like, bag, and then boiled

Liz

I was curious what word you were gonna go for then

Hazel

Yeah, I wasn’t sure, but it came to me. So that’s what a haggis is, and it’s actually quite nice. I mean, even if you don’t normally like offal, it’s all minced up, so it’s not like it looks weird or anything it just tastes like meat

Liz

Yeah it’s just kind of vaguely...I guess gamey? Is how…

Hazel

Yeah

Liz

Just ‘cause offal tends to be a bit more in that direction

Hazel

Yeah, definitely

Liz

Also one time I had, sorry, I had a haggis and brie and rocket ciabatta, and it was the best sandwich I’ve ever had

Hazel

I’m sorry, what?

Liz

So, you know, you can fancy it up

Hazel

That is, that is a completely new sandwich concept to me. How did it go with brie?

Liz

It just does

Hazel

Ok, hmm, I’ll give it a try. But yeah, haggis is basically the national dish of Scotland, although...if any Scottish people are listening to this, don’t come for me, I am going to explain why it *is* Scottish, but it didn’t really start out that way.

So there was some controversy in the haggis world in 2009, when a food historian claimed to have found proof that haggis was actually invented in England, and this is because a recipe for haggis, or a mention of haggis appears in the 1615 cookbook by Gervase Markham called The English Huswif, or housewife, and it is true that haggis was eaten, not just in Scotland, but all over the British Isles, and, kind of, in some form, all over the place, really, at the time, but it doesn’t really prove that it was invented in England, like, it’s something that was invented kind of everywhere, really? It’s just one of those foods that is so old we don’t know where it came from, because everyone was eating it. Various...

Liz

Because it’s delicious

Hazel

Yeah, it is pretty good. But it’s, it’s been in different variations, like apparently the Romans made a kind, a similar kind of thing with, like, a pig’s caul, where like they’d stuff it with, like, the offal and stuff, and boil it and take it with them, obviously…

Liz

Is the caul the stomach then? Or is...what is a caul

Hazel

I’m not exactly sure what a caul is. Yeah, I think it’s kind of a...ok, yeah, it’s, it’s like a membrane. Yeah, it’s a membrane. Anyway, it’s like a bag

Liz

It’s always a bag

Hazel

Yeah

Liz

If there’s offal in it it’s a bag

Hazel

Yep, so they kind of had a version of it. A haggis-like pudding is actually mentioned in The Odyssey, in Homer’s Odyssey, and that is translated in Thomas Hobbes’s translation as a haggis, so it’s obviously enough of a thing that he didn’t think too much about translating this minced meat filled pouch as a haggis, so there’s a haggis in The Odyssey

Liz

Sorry, just for clarity, that’s minced meat and not mincemeat, right?

Hazel

Minced meat, yeah

Liz

‘Cause mincemeat is a different thing that doesn’t have meat in it

Hazel

These days it doesn’t have meat in it

Liz

That’s true

Hazel

Yeah, so it’s pretty much, what it was is, it’s cheap, nutritious food, and it is mentioned, kind of, all around the British Isles, really. It appears in a few different, like, writings from the , kind of, early modern period, and, like, we pretty much know that it was being eaten before that, because it’s just like a really simple dish that makes sense. There are some rumours that it came from being out hunting and having to preserve the offal, because that’s the part that goes off the quickest, so just chopping it up and putting it into the stomach and boiling it to preserve it

Liz

So almost like with humble pie

Hazel

Well, yeah, but

Liz

Where you’re just getting the less meat bits

Hazel

Yeah, pretty much, but also often in hunts while the lord, or whatever, was hunting, they would take, like, the fancy meats, and the offal would be, like, the perks of the huntsman’s job, so, like, whoever was assisting them would get to take the offal home, but it’s always been really cheap, so like, haggis has always been cheap and nutritious food, which made it popular, and it was being referred to as a haggis quite a long time ago. So yeah, it’s referred to as a haggis in Gervase Markham’s book in 1615 and it’s...there’s a few rumours about where this name comes from.

It’s thought that it could be from a Norse word that means to chop, or it could be related to a French verb that means to mince, to chop up, and that one is possible because there was, like, a historic alliance between Scotland and France like, basically it was like a “ah I see you hate the English, we also hate the English, we should be friends”

Liz

I mean there was also a lot of Norse influence in Scotland though, so I like that you can’t rule either of them out

Hazel

Yeah, and they do both sound quite similar to be honest, like they both start with hag so, I mean who knows. It’s a haggis now. Like, it’s just a boiled pudding. But the haggis wasn’t particularly associated with Scotland until the, after the Jacobite Rebellion, really. I mean it started before then, because Scotland in the late 17th century was kind of in economic decline, whereas England’s fortunes were going up, which is what lead to the Union with England in 1707

Liz

Yeah, these two facts were also quite related

Hazel

Yeah. So, whereas haggis was starting to become less common, still popular food with, like, the lower classes, but starting to be less common on, like, say, the tables of the middle class in England, it was still pretty popular in Scotland. But then after the Jacobite Rebellion, so when a group of supporters of the Bonnie Prince Charlie, I guess. So like, the...now, my Jacobite history at this point is not great, so

Liz

Would you like me to summarise the Jacobite rebellion? I did it for one of my folk videos not long ago

Hazel

Excellent. So that is...is that the son of James I?

Liz

Yeah so, James II is Catholic. People don’t like that, but he has a Protestant daughter who is married to the King of the Netherlands, William of Orange, who’s basically one of the most Protestant kings, so they’re just like “well when he dies we’ll have her and her husband and it’ll be fine.” Then he has a son, Charles, who naturally he decides to raise Catholic, and they go “actually, maybe not” and have what’s called the Glorious Revolution, where they basically kicked him out and brought in William and Mary, and, you know, years later Charles is an adult is going “you know what I think I would like to be king, actually” and gets the Scots, who are largely Catholic, on his side and has several failed attempts to invade England

Hazel

Yeah, so a series of rebellions trying to bring back Charles as king which, none of which succeed, and after this it basically becomes popular, or, like, fashionable to make fun of Scotland in, like, wealthy English circles, so you get a lot of cartoons and things portraying the Scottish, and especially the highlanders, who were big supporters of the Jacobite Rebellions, as, like, kind of barbaric haggis eating underdeveloped people and, like, there’s a few writings of people being quite sniffy about haggis. I think that’s, like, that’s when it starts to be really associated with Scotland

Liz

That makes sense

Hazel

Yeah, so, just because of the ingredients in it, it’s being seen as a poor man’s dish, and then also, like, as you said, the banning of tartan, the banning of kilts. Anything that’s like, Scottish

Liz

No being Scottish

Hazel

Anything that would fuel Scottish nationalism is, like, made fun of or, like, banned, and then when it becomes really associated with Scotland. So, like, the first associations of haggis toward Scotland come from the English, really, in quite a hostile way, but Scotland kind of, not one to take this lying down, just kind of embraces this stereotype of haggis being a Scottish thing and is kind of like...but it kind of backfires on them ‘cause Scotland kind of turns around and goes “you know what, yeah, we eat a lot of haggis, and we love it, it’s great, so take that”.

They kind of embrace this stereotype of haggis being a Scottish thing, and in fact when in the famous Robert Burns poem Address to a Haggis written in the late 18th century

Liz

“Chieftain o’ the puddin’ race”

Hazel

“Chieftain o’ the puddin’ race”, yep, he like, extolls the virtues of the haggis, I mean this is still during the time that this, kind of, English mockery is going on. He extolls the virtue of the haggis and, in fact, like, just, kind of, praises it as this manly food, like “real men eat haggis”, like “you all with your fricasses and your fine sauces and whatever, it’s turning you into wimps, haggis is, like, food of the conquerors''. Yeah

Liz

Beautiful

Hazel

And that’s really where it becomes a Thing, and by the 19th century it’s established as pretty much the national dish of Scotland, and part of this is because of George IV’s, like, craze for Scottish things, makes it fashionable again. When he visits Scotland the author Sir Walter Scott, kind of basically creates a lot of these ideas of Scottish tradition when he serves him haggis and this banquet and there’s like tartan everywhere and, yeah, that kind of cements it as the national dish of Scotland, and of course now it’s, not only is it still popular today, as like a, just, thing that you eat, it’s also, like, a crucial part of the Burns’ Night celebrations on January 25th, and it’s, yeah, it’s probably one of the things Scotland is most known for worldwide, and it’s really nice, so go try some haggis

Liz

It is, try it hot on a ciabatta with brie and rocket. It’s a French cheese, it’s the Auld Alliance

Hazel

Wait, where does the ciabatta come from?

Liz

I wanna say Italy? That’s just nice bread

Hazel

They probably hate the English too, they can have a piece

Liz

I mean even the English hate the English at this point. So, thank you for listening. If you want a special bonus episode just for you, access to the Discord server, and recipes which are more complicated than a haggis and brie sandwich, you can head over to patreon.com/breadandthread

Hazel

We also have a twitter @breadandthread where you can keep up to date with what’s going on and see teasers for the next episodes, also things that we mention during the podcast we might post about on twitter. And we now have a tumblr! Is our tumblr just breadandthread?

Liz

It is indeed

Hazel

Cool, we have a tumblr, it’s breadandthread, we are very excited, come say hi

Liz

And if you want to email us, if you know more about the origin of the restriction on mixed-fibre fabrics, we would both be fascinated, you can email [[1]]

Hazel

Right, and we will see you next time for more unexpected history

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