We need not here repeat what has already been said upon the antiquity of the embroiderer's art, an art in which the Phrygian women had attained such perfection, that embroidered stuffs came to be known as phrygioniae, the adjective phrygianus being employed in the sense of embroidered.

The special object of this work will best be consulted by coming at once to the Middle Ages, the waifs of which may still be here and there picked up by the diligent inquirer, and some rare specimens of which may be studied in our museums.

The Marquis de Laborde does not hesitate to recognise, at least during the first centuries, the supremacy of this ancient art over painting itself, and the serious rivalry maintained by it to the close of the fifteenth century. "I know of no greater service," he adds, "that could be rendered to the arts than to write a history of embroidery; it would be not so much the complement, as the introduction and the necessary accompaniment of a genuine history of painting".

In the Middle Ages spinning and embroidering were the favourite and indispensable occupation of women of all ranks of society. The maidens of noble birth were placed in charge of the great ladies, not only to acquire the lofty and elegant manners suitable to their position, but also to be instructed in the womanly arts that queens themselves considered it an honour to profess.

There was, moreover, developed a sharp spirit of rivalry between ladies of the world and those who had entered the cloister, in the production of sacerdotal vestments and religious ornaments. Gifts of this sort, vying in costliness, were eagerly offered to the church, but we may be permitted to suspect that profane works were not entirely excluded. So early as the sixth century we find St. Cesaire, Bishop of Aries, forbidding the nuns placed under his rule to embroider robes adorned with paintings, flowers, and precious stones. This prohibition, however, though made also by some other prelates, was not of a very general character. Some of the nunneries retained their manufacture of church ornaments, and there were male communities in which this manufacture was carried on by women at a distance from the monastery. Thus we read that near Ely, an Anglo-Saxon lady had brought together a number of young girls who worked with her for the benefit of the monastery, producing embroideries and tissues in which they excelled.

State Bed of oak, period of Louis XIII. - Valance and Counterpane of Silk, with applique work and braiding. - Curtains of Brussels Tapestry. (Collection of M. A. Moreau).

In the seventh century St. Eustadiole, Abbess of Bourges, made sacred vestments, and decorated the altars with ornaments prepared by herself and her community.

A century later, two sisters, successively Abbesses of Valentina in Belgium, became famous for their excellence in all feminine pursuits They imposed this work on the inmates of the convent as a protection against idleness, the most dangerous of evils.

At the beginning of the ninth century ladies of rank are found engaged in the art of embroidery. St. Viboradc, living at St. Gall, adorned the beautiful coverings intended for the sacred books of that monastery; for it was then customary to wrap in silk and carry on a linen cloth the gospel used in the offices of the church. Richlin also, sister of the Abbot Hartmot, presented a magnificent veil through him. The same abbey also received from Hadwiga, daughter of Henry, Duke of Swabia, chasubles and ornaments embroidered by the hand of this princess; and an alb, on which she had represented in gold the espousals of Philologia.

Judith of Bavaria, mother of Charles the Bald, was also an excellent embroideress. When Henold, King of Denmark, came in 826 to be baptised with all his family at Ingelheim, the Empress Judith, who stood sponsor for the queen, presented her with a robe ornamented by herself in gold and precious stones.

In the tenth century Queen Adhelais, wife of Hugh Capet, presented to the church of St. Martin at Tours, a chasuble, on which she had represented in gold, between the shoulders, the Deity surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim in adoration, and on the breast, the Lamb of God with the Evangelistic symbols, disposed in the four corners. The same princess offered to the Abbey of St. Denis a chasuble of wonderful workmanship together with an ornament woven by herself and known by the name of Orbis terrarum.

Going back a few centuries and crossing the channel we find the English ladies, who, as M. Francisque Michel tells us, long before the conquest, were much occupied both with the loom and the needle, showing themselves as skilled in this branch of the arts as the men did in all the others. In the seventh century St. Ethelreda, virgin and queen, and first abbess of Ely, presented to St. Cuthbert a stole and a maniple which she had marvellously embroidered and embellished with gold and precious stones.

The four daughters of Edward the Elder are all praised for their skill in spinning and working at the loom as well as at the needle. In the tenth century AElfleda, widow of Brithnoth, Earl of Northumberland, presented to the church of Ely a curtain upon which were depicted the valiant deeds of her husband. Eater on, Queen Algiva or Emma, wife of Canute, enriched the same church with costly stuffs, of which one at least had been embroidered all over with orphrays by the queen herself, embellished in certain places with gold and gems disposed as if in pictures, with such art and profusion as could not be matched at that time in all England.

After mentioning these wonderful specimens of the "opus Anglicum," as it was then called, together with the artists whose patrician hands had enhanced its splendour, M. Francisque Michel would also have wished to refer to the more humble workwomen who laboured for all, and even instructed the great ladies, whose names have been preserved in history. But in the eleventh century he is able to cite by name two embroideresses only. One of these is Alwid, who possessed two hides of land at Ashley in Buckinghamshire, besides half a hide of the domain of King Edward the Confessor himself, granted to her by Earl Godric, for all the time that he remained an earl, on the condition of her teaching his daughter to embroider. The other is Leuide, mentioned further on in Doomsday Book as having made and still making the embroideries of the King and the Queen.