Southwest Rugs
Henry VIII had a few Turkish carpets. We know because they appea/ in the court paintings of Hans Holbein. Sometimes on tables, sometimes on the floor, these fabrics have a curious all-over arabesque pattern in yellow.
But in Henry's daughter Elizabeth's great hall, they still scattered hay, and when a carpet was laid there over "three layers of sweet rushes," it was noted as a memorable occasion.
Certainly the Crusaders must have brought a few souvenir rugs home with them from the Orient. And in 1255, when Eleanor of Castile became the bride of Edward I, she brought in her dowry the first Spanish rugs England had ever seen.
This ten-year-old princess arrived with a "great retinue but a scanty wardrobe," according to some malicious chronicler of the time who was shocked that her apartment in Westminster was hung with silks and tapestries "like a church, and carpeted in the Spanish manner."
The poor child seems to have caused so much gossip and envy that she was placed in retirement "to complete her education."
