“Imperial” and “Saracen” Silk in English Hands: Evidence for and Usage of Byzantine and Islamic Textiles in 13th-Century England

It has long been recognized that imported Byzantine and Islamic silks were present in medieval England. Limited numbers of these textiles have been preserved as clothing and shrouds in English tombs, and as seal bags and relic wrappers in church treasuries. However, the larger role played by Byzantine and Islamic textiles in England, their specific roles in gifting, storage, and display, and indeed their potential impact on local English artistic production, has not been explored. I present additional, largely-overlooked written records that attest to a substantial body of Byzantine and medieval Islamic textiles held in English treasuries and displayed in English courtly interiors. I show that imported silks played central roles in ceremonies held to mark significant events in English history, including births, deaths, and marriages; dedications to much-loved saints; even celebrations of military victories. I in turn link the public display of these imported silks to local production in various media, including ceramic tiles and wall-painting, informed by imported silks. I suggest that imported Byzantine and Islamic silks, as well as the Byzantine traditions that formed their conceptual context in England, enabled the English to express their ambitions and desires in a broadly-understood, cosmopolitan vocabulary. Finally, as a result of public display, actual silks imported from the eastern Mediterranean and objects inspired by them were visually accessible to a large audience of medieval English viewers, and came to be associated with the articulation and expression of royal and ecclesiastical power in thirteenth-century England.