Tabard - Middle Ages

Middle Ages

A tabard (from the French tabarde) was originally a humble outer garment of tunic form, generally without sleeves, worn by peasants, monks and foot-soldiers, including Chaucer's ploughman. In this sense, the first Oxford English Dictionary citation is 1300CE. The Tabard is the inn at which the principals meet in that same Prologue.

In the late Middle Ages tabards, now open at the sides and so usually belted, were worn by knights over their armour, and usually emblazoned with their arms (though sometimes worn plain). The Oxford English dictionary first records this use in English in 1450. In this meaning they were apparently distinguished from surcoats by being open at the sides, and by being shorter. These became an important means of battlefield identification with the development of plate armor as the use of shields declined.

A very expensive, but plain, garment described as a tabard is worn by Giovanni Arnolfini in the Arnolfini Portrait of 1434 (National Gallery, London). This may be made of silk and or velvet, and is trimmed and fully lined with fur, possibly sable.

Similarly at Queens College, Oxford, the scholars on the foundation were called tabarders, from the tabard, obviously not an emblazoned garment, which they wore.

It can also be the British English word for a cobbler apron.