Accusations of treason and, if the verdicts can be believed, treasonous plots abounded in Tudor England. Treason was and is for the most part a political or in some cases religious affair, but woven through one extraordinary case, another thread comes to light. Clothing, used for so many symbolic and practical purposes during this period, appeared as a surprisingly major player in the case of Gregory “Sweetlips” Botolf, a charismatic priest who was expert at talking people into things but inept at plotting treason.

In 1540, the city of Calais on the coast of France was the last piece of the Continent still in English hands. Botolf concocted a complicated plot to take Calais from the English, the details of which involved selling clothing to raise capital, bartering textiles for other assets, using clothing and textiles as incentives and bribes, buying clothing to assert or counterfeit social status, having a set of rings made to bind the conspirators symbolically into a small secret society, and using clothing as a means of covert communication.

This case highlights a wide range of ways in which clothing was extremely significant, including its use as financial capital, as a display of social status, and for communication of surprisingly complex ideas. More importantly, clothing in this instance became political action. Botolf used clothing as a multifaceted tool with which he intended to refashion the political situation. The mentions of clothing as proof of treason in the testimony regarding this case were not trivialities, but instead a central mechanism of the plot and strong evidence of the importance of clothing in Tudor society.

TREASON IN TUDOR ENGLAND

Treason in Tudor England encompassed a number of different actions and even thoughts, and that number increased dramatically during the reign of Henry VIII. The most basic forms of treason were imagining and compassing the death of the king or his heir; adhering to the king's enemies; and wishing or attempting bodily harm to the king, queen, or heir by malicious deeds, writings, or spoken words. Henry VIII added a number of other types, including several relating to the succession, the validity of his marriages, and his break with the Catholic Church. The punishments for treason included death (hanging, drawing, and quartering – sometimes commuted to beheading for nobles) and comprehensive forfeiture of everything one owned, but this did not deter Botolf and his co-conspirators.