Cloak of the Perfect Courtier

Notes

In October 2023, I won my first tournament, the Tournament of the Perfect Courtier. For those unfamiliar, contestants compete across 5 disciplines, and whoever scores the highest average across all 5 is named the Perfect Courtier, for a courtier is not necessarily the best at any one thing, but one who succeeds at many things.

These disciplines, taken from Count Baldesar Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (1528), are:

1. “To play well at fense upon all kinds of weapons.”
   • A rapier tournament
2. “To be handesome and clenly in his (or her) apparaile.”
   • A judgement of the comliness and appropriateness of one’s fencing garb
3. “To be meanly seene in the play at Chestes (chess), and not over cunninge. To play for his pastime at Dice [and] not . . . fume and chafe in his losse.”
   • A dice chess tournament
4. “To be brought to showe his (or her) feates and qualities at the desire and request of others.”
   • A demonstration of some mode of entertainment (song, dance, storytelling, instrument, etc.)
5. “To be well spoken and faire languaged” and “To be no envious or malitious person.”
   • Speaking extemporaneously of another candidate, drawn at random.

This tournament is what I like to call a “Well-rounded gentleman competition”, or a “Jack-of-all-trades contest”. The 2023 tournament was my first introduction to the art of courtiership, which has been a significant interest and area of study of mine ever since. 2024 marked the 30th anniversary of the tournament, I wanted to contribute something as the previous Perfect Courtier. Master John Inchingham (the tournament’s creator) and I felt that it would be appropriate for there to be a travelling award introduced for the Perfect Courtier, as there was already one in existence for the runner-up (the Orange Cloak).

I felt this award should be wearable so the champion may proudly display their courtly perfection, and settled on another cloak.

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The cloak is double-sided and reversible, each side playing into a different aspect of courtiership.

On what I call the “formal side” or the “humble side”, I wanted to make something that was elegant and dignified on the shoulder of the Perfect Courtier, that would go with the garb (at least color-wise) of anyone who wore it. I ended up going with a simple black and gold brocaded fabric and a dark-backgrounded floral trim, both of which I had been looking for a use for some time.

This color choice also plays directly into the traits listed in Castiglione’s text, which states that when dressing, the Perfect Courtier shall:

Make his garmentes after the facion of the most, and those to be black, or of some darkish and sad colour, not garish.

That is to say, a Perfect Courtier dresses in the current popular fashion of the area, wearing primarily blacks or dark colors, not dressing in anything overly bright or garish.

This is especially funny considering that the iconic Orange Cloak (the travelling 2nd place prize for the “Not Quite Perfect Courtier”) is very intentionally bright, garish, and doesn’t go with anything!

The other side, what I call the “symbol side” or “showoff side”, is a much more direct representation of the courtier. An embroidered golden chess queen is appliquéd onto a black and white checkered background, both as a reference to the chess compoment of the tournament, and the golden chess piece given as a trophy to the winner each year.

Fun fact, the golden chess piece trophy used in the tournament comes from a period story of a noblewoman who gifted to one of her courtiers the queen from her solid gold chess set, who wore it as a pendant for the rest of his life. (I know there is more information to this story, including the names of those involved, but it has been difficul finding references to it in my research. This section will be updated once I can find it.)

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As much as I wanted the cloak to go home with me, this year the title of Perfect Courtier went to my good friend and former cadet-sister, Warder Maedhbh ny Mannen!