Tabard

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A tabard is a type of short coat that was commonly worn by men during the

In modern

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. In this sense, the earliest citation recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from c. 1300.^[1]

By the second half of the 15th century, tabards, now open at the sides and so usually belted, were also being worn by knights in military contexts over their armour, and were usually emblazoned with their arms (though sometimes worn plain). The Oxford English Dictionary first records this use of the word in English in 1450.^[1] Tabards were apparently distinguished from surcoats by being open-sided, and by being shorter.^{[citation needed]} In its later form, a tabard normally comprised four textile panels – two large panels hanging down the wearer's front and back, and two smaller panels hanging over his arms as shoulder-pieces or open "sleeves" – each emblazoned with the same coat of arms. Tabards became an important means of battlefield identification with the development of plate armour as the use of shields declined. They are frequently represented on tomb effigies and monumental brasses of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

A very expensive, but plain, garment described as a tabard is worn by

A surviving garment similar to the medieval tabard is the monastic scapular. This is a wide strip of fabric worn front back of the body, with an opening for the head and no sleeves. It may have a hood, and may be worn under or over a belt.

British heraldry

By the end of the 16th century, the tabard was particularly associated with officers of arms. The shift in emphasis was reported by John Stow in 1598, when he described a tabard as:

a Jacquit, or sleevelesse coat, whole before, open on both sides, with a square collor, winged at the shoulders: a stately garment of olde time, commonly worne of Noble men and others, both at home and abroade in the Warres, but then (to witte in the warres) theyr Armes embrodered, or otherwise depicte uppon them, that every man by his Coate of Armes might bee knowne from others: but now these Tabardes are onely worne by the Heraults, and bee called their coates of Armes in service.^[4]

In the case of Royal officers of arms, the tabard is emblazoned with the coat of arms of the sovereign.

It was at one time the custom for English pursuivants to wear their tabards "athwart", that is to say with the smaller ("shoulder") panels at the front and back, and the larger panels over the arms; but this practice was ended during the reign of James II and VII.^[5][7]

The derisive Scots nickname of "Toom Tabard" for John Balliol (c. 1249 – 1314) may originate from either an alleged incident where his arms were stripped from his tabard in public,^[8] or a reference to the Balliol arms which are a plain shield with an orle, also known as an inescutcheon voided.^[9]

Canadian heraldry

In the

• 
  Gelre Herald to the

  Duke of Guelders

  , c. 1380
• 
  James I, King of Scotland 1406–1437, and his wife Joan Beaufort
• 
  Tabards displaying

  quartered coats of arms on front and sleeves: the Denys brass of 1505, Olveston

  , Gloucestershire
• 
  Heraldic tabards worn at the funeral of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, in Brussels in 1622
• 
  A pursuivant wearing his tabard "athwart". A drawing by Peter Lely from the 1660s.
• 
  St John the Baptist Wearing the Red Tabard of the Order of St John (1671) by Mattia Preti
• 
  Peter O'Donoghue, Bluemantle Pursuivant, photographed in 2006
• 
  A modern protective tabard worn by a bakery worker
• 
  Orange high-visibility tabards worn by competitive motorcyclists

Cultural allusions

A tabard was the inn sign of the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London, established in 1307 and remembered as the starting point for Geoffrey Chaucer's pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury in The Canterbury Tales, dating from about the 1380s.

In

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tabards.

Look up tabard in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Apron
• Heraldry
• Gilet
• Journade
• Surcoat
• Vest
• Scapular

References