ABSTRACT
English Queen Consorts were expected to pay for their own clothes. This enabled them to select their own clothes and order items that brought out their individuality, birth and status. The queen's jewels passed from queen to queen with some subtractions and some additions. By Henry VIII's death in 1547 they were kept in a coffer 'hauing written vpon it the Quenes jewelles'. The evidence for the clothes owned by Henry's wives is uneven and fragmentary — possibly because a queen's household lacked the permanency of the main royal household. On occasion Henry also made provision for his sisters. The evidence of Catherine of Aragon's wardrobe once she was queen comes from the occasional references to the clothes ordered by Henry for her on his own warrants. Henry's English brides dressed in a more pronounced English way, although Anne Boleyn's upbringing at the French court ensured her preference for and promotion of the French.
