The New Murrey and Blue blog

I know that I have written before about the tall black hat that is worn by Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, future Henry IV, in the illustrations of the deposition, death and funeral of his murdered cousin, Richard II. The illustrations are from Creton’s La Prinse et Mort du roy Richart.  

The hat has always fascinated me because it is unlike any other illustration of English medieval headwear. And, to be frank, in the illustrations I think they make him look a little ridiculous. I have looked online, trying to find other examples of this style of hat, but no, although black turns up a lot, of course, tall hats like Henry’s do not. So where did it come from?

Then, last night I saw a clip from an old black-and-white film of Cossacks riding wildly over a grassy landscape. I know that the distinctive hats of the Cossacks come in all shapes, sizes and colours, but they are generally along basically similar lines. The thing that caught my eye from this film clip was the shape of these particular hats. They were exactly the same as Henry of Bolingbroke’s mourning hat, even to the top of the crown being wider than the base. (He was in mourning at the time of the Creton illustrations because of the recent death of his father, John of Gaunt.)

Making a possible connection between Henry’s hat and Cossacks may seem to be stretching things, but in 1390-1, and again in 1392-3, Henry, then Earl of Derby, went on “crusade” or reyse to Prussia and the Holy Land. He went all over Europe, from the Baltic to the Adriatic/Mediterranean, and in that time came across all manner of people/races. Did he encounter any Cossacks? Was he much taken with their headwear?

Now, I’ve mentioned above that I think he looks ridiculous in those old illustrations, but I am not saying the Cossacks look ridiculous. Far from it. But Henry is otherwise dressed in the style of an English nobleman. The hat just doesn’t look right on him.

Anyway, I have to wonder if his parrot wasn’t the only novelty he brought back with him…did he bring a black Cossack hat as well? Or did he have one made for him on his return? If he did, and if he stood out so remarkably on account of it, I imagine there was a good deal of suppressed sniggering among his fellow aristocrats.