…he [Bernard] would not allow his monks to see even their own mothers or sisters, so fearful was he of feminine charms. In a letter intended for the nuns of his order he referred to the devilish vanity of court ladies in their rich dresses made from ‘the toil of worms’ (i.e. silk), and deplored the painted faces that they removed at night. He had obviously observed these ladies at close hand with shocked fascination: ‘Their arms are weighted down with bracelets, and from their ears dangle pendants containing precious stones. For headdresses they wear kerchiefs of fine linen that they drape around their neck and shoulders, a corner falling over the left arm. This is their wimple, usually fastened to their foreheads by a wreath, band or circlet of carved gold.’ He must have unsettled his nuns still further by his description of the ladies waiting ‘with mincing steps, busts thrust forward, garnished and decorated in a fashion more fitting for temples, pulling trains of rich materials after them to raise clouds of dust’.
Source:
Seward, Desmond. “Queen of France.” Eleanor of Aquitaine. New York: Times , 1979. 34, 35. Print.
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