Abstract :
The Bayeux Tapestry depicts three curious chequered garments. These garments are usually identified
as gambesons, or some form of scaled armour. Several scholars have observed similar garments in the
early twelfth-century Bible of Cıˆteaux. The Cıˆteaux garments are depicted in a pattern later used to
represent fur (called ‘vair’) in heraldic art. This identification is confirmed by the pattern’s usage in
cloak linings, but its simultaneous appearance as tunic material is unfamiliar in later art. The Cıˆteaux
tunics suggest the possibility that the Bayeux garments may also have been intended to represent fur
tunics. Reasons for that identification, as well as problems with the identification, are considered.
