One of my favorite things about writing this blog is the conversations I have with my readers about the subjects of my posts, or in fact about history in general.

This morning I got a sidebar to the life of Queen Margrethe I from textile maven Julie Holyoke, who is my cousin by marriage and by choice. I thought it was absolutely fascinating. And, as you know, when I find a fascinating historical tidbit, I like to share.*

As I learned from Kelcey Wilson-Lee’s Daughters of Chivalry, many of our historical sources for the lives of medieval royal women include descriptions of real-life “princess dresses.” But few of those gown survive. A major exception is a gold brocade gown traditionally believed to have belonged to Queen Margrethe I of Norway, Denmark and Sweden(1353-1412) .

The gown was long believed to be the gown Margrethe wore when she married King Haakon VI of Norway in 1363. It’s a romantic story for a gorgeous gown, but modern science has debunked it. Carbon-dating places the dress between 1400 and 1439. Some scholars suggest that it may have belonged to Phillipa of England (1394-1430), who was married by proxy to Margrethe’s adopted nephew and heir when she was eleven.**

Regardless of which Scandinavian queen wore the gown, it is fabulous. Made of gold brocade with a pomegranate pattern on a red silk background, it may well have cost more than Margrethe’s crown.

*Here’s the link to article that sent me down the rabbit hole: https://www.medieval.eu/royal-golden-dress-from-ca-1400-returns-to-denmark/ Julie tells me that a friend of hers created the museum reconstruction. Julie herself reconstucted materials for another of Margrethe’s gowns, now on permanent display in Copenhagen.

**Reminding you once again, that medieval princesses did not have much romance in their lives.