Fine textiles were signs of wealth and status in the medieval period. The most valuable textiles were embroidered and the best embroidery was English. The monk Matthew Paris noted how, in AD 1246, Pope Innocent IV was so impressed by the beautiful vestments of visiting English bishops that he ordered gold-embroidered copes and chasubles from London merchants for himself.

Most of the textiles surviving from the 13th and 14th centuries are from churches where they have been carefully preserved, but royalty and the nobility spent enormous sums of money on embroidered garments and furnishings. Opus anglicanum (‘English work’) employed silk and gold thread and often included jewels. Robes made for Edward III (reigned 1327-77) and his queen were of red velvet ‘embroidered with clouds of silver and eagles of pearl and gold’.

English embroidery had been famous since the 11th century – the Bayeux tapestry (actually an embroidery) was probably made in England. At first embroidery was done in religious houses, but by the 13th century independent craftsmen and women were organised into large workshops and designs were provided by painters. The materials used were expensive and embroiderers sometimes worked for years to complete large projects.