Tartan, 1572

[Woodsheal]

I concede the point: some poor highlander first belted on a plaid in 1594, and a reporter from Eye Witness News was standing there, quill and parchment in hand, to record the hitherto unheard-of event....

[LANCER1562]

My acting guild often plays with another group "Highland Warriors-Kingdom of the Gael" and almost all of the men in that group, including their guild master, wear belted plaid small kilts. Like us, they re-create the time period of 1562 to 1565. So if kilts weren't in evidence until some 30 years later what did the highlanders wear? The movie "Braveheart" not withstanding.

[DWFII]

I concede the point: some poor highlander first belted on a plaid in 1594, and a reporter from Eye Witness News was standing there, quill and parchment in hand, to record the hitherto unheard-of event....

I'm am reasonably sure that the kilt pre-dates 1594. How much does it pre-date 1594?...to this point in time we simply don't know.

But for accuracy's sake and for historical verisimilitude, the kilt does not date any earlier than 1594. There's no evidence. Without evidence...hard, empirical evidence...we cannot say 1593, much less 1584. With evidence, it's known fact. Without evidence it's wishful thinking. That's the point, isn't it?

Maybe there will come a time when some manuscript or dig will extend that time frame earlier but...

All that said, if you think about it, it may well be that if the kilt was a startling departure not only from what went before but from what was in vogue at the time, some clark or proto-historian might very well have seen it as something to record almost at its first appearance.

just speculating...

[Woodsheal]

All that said, if you think about it, it may well be that if the kilt was a startling departure not only from what went before but from what was in vogue at the time, some clark or proto-historian might very well have seen it as something to record almost at its first appearance.

just speculating...

The 1594 quote re: belted plaids is from an observer describing highland mercenaries operating in Ireland. Is it logical to assume that occasion was the "first appearance" of such garb? Of course, I'm being speculative here, but given the lack of documentation from the period the historian must engage in a certain degree of speculation, no?

[DWFII]

The 1594 quote re: belted plaids is from an observer describing highland mercenaries operating in Ireland. Is it logical to assume that occasion was the "first appearance" of such garb? Of course, I'm being speculative here, but given the lack of documentation from the period the historian must engage in a certain degree of speculation, no?

So...we both have good, sound, reason to believe kilts pre-date 1594 but for me at least the point is that historians do not speculate. That's what makes them historians and not writers of gothic fiction.

My answer to your question...and it's not written in stone by any means, especially since I am a cordwainer, not an historian, but based on close acquaintance with historians...would have to be "no."

[DWFII]

BTW, I just thought I would make mention of the fact that no one enjoys speculation about history more than I do. I can't get enough of Harry Turtledove's books especially the whole series that began with Guns of the South. Gee, that was a terrific and thought-provoking read. Highly recommended.

[Woodsheal]

Historians certainly DO speculate - and theorize and hypothesize - then attempt to back up their theses and conclusions with primary and secondary evidence (not always successfully!), otherwise we'd have one simple history "textbook" for each period or episode. That would make the study of history pretty darned sterile!

Anyways, we are:

[Tony Miles]

Historians certainly DO speculate - and theorize and hypothesize

Archeologists do

[Morris at Heathfield]

My acting guild often plays with another group "Highland Warriors-Kingdom of the Gael" and almost all of the men in that group, including their guild master, wear belted plaid small kilts. Like us, they re-create the time period of 1562 to 1565. So if kilts weren't in evidence until some 30 years later what did the highlanders wear? The movie "Braveheart" not withstanding.

The short answer: unbelted plaids.

For a longer answer, you'd want to check the original sources from the era. Unfortunately, there aren't very many, but the history of Highland dress did not begin in 1594. I've found a couple of sites that seem to take the history of Highland dress seriously:

Descriptions and Depictions of Historical Scottish Clothing

The Early Belted Plaid

Now for some relevant quotes:

John Major, History of Greater Britain, 1521 (original in Latin):

"From the middle of the thigh to the foot they have no covering for the leg, clothing themselves with a mantle instead of an upper garment and a shirt dyed with safforn. ... In time of war they cover their whole body with a shirt of mail of iron rings, and fight in that. The common people of the Highland (lit. 'wild') Scots rush into battle having their body clothed with a linen garment manifoldly sewed and painted or daubed with pitch, with a covering of deerskin."

Jean de Beaugué, L'histoire de la guerre dEcosse, 1556, describing events in 1549 (original in French):

"They wear no clothes except their dyed shirts and a sort of light woollen rug of several colours."

Bishop John Leslie, De origine, moribus, ac rebus gestis Scotiae libri decem, 1578 (original in Latin):

"All, both nobles and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the nobles preferred those of several colours). These were long and flowing, but capable of being neatly gathered up at pleasure into folds."

Note that last bit about being gathered up into folds. Not necessarily a belted plaid, but it is suggestive. At any rate, it seems to indicate that the plaid was normally worn loose at that time.

Incidentally, I'm not sure what you mean by "belted plaid small kilts". I always thought the belted plaid and the "great kilt" were one and the same.

[Nick the DSM]

BTW, I just thought I would make mention of the fact that no one enjoys speculation about history more than I do. I can't get enough of Harry Turtledove's books especially the whole series that began with Guns of the South. Gee, that was a terrific and thought-provoking read. Highly recommended.

Great Author! I actually finished that book a couple of weeks ago.

Carry on.