Russet is a coarse cloth made of wool and dyed with

woad ''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...

and

madder ''Rubia'' is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains coffee. It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. The genus and its best-known spe ...

to give it a subdued grey or brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet or cheap blanket. Humble squires and priests, such as

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

s wore russet as a sign of

humility Humility is the quality of being humble. Dictionary definitions accentuate humility as a low self-regard and sense of unworthiness. In a religious context humility can mean a recognition of self in relation to a deity (i.e. God), and subsequent ...

but preferred a good quality russet such as that made in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, which was better than the cheapest cloth. The medieval poem ''

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un- rhymed, alliterativ ...

'' describes the virtuous Christian: The ballad ''Of

Patient Grissel ''Patient Grissel'' is a play by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton, first printed in 1603. It is mentioned in Henslowe's diary in the entry for December 1599. The plot is a variant of the medieval tale of Patient Griselda, as ...

and a Noble Marquess'' which was retold as '' Pamela'', has the heroine's aristocratic clothes of silk and velvet contrasted with her "country russet" which again signifies rustic virtue.

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

wrote "I had rather have a plain russet-coated Captain ...than that which you call a Gentleman and is nothing else."

References

{{reflist Textiles

See also

References