Guest Author, Blythe Gifford - Behind the Plaid: Scotland and the Tartan

I am very exctied to have guest author, Blythe Gifford back with History Undressed.  She previously visited us, with her extremely intriguing article, Cross Dressing in the Middle Ages.  Today, she is gifting us with another tantalizing bit of history, Behind the Plaid:  Scotland and the Tartan.

HIS BORDER BRIDE, a May release from the Harlequin Historical line, is my first book set north of the border in Scotland. When my editor and I were first discussing the cover, she asked “Do you mind if we put plaid on the cover?”

Mind? I want to attract readers who love Scotland. Why should I object to signaling that to the reader?

Well, the answer, as my editor knew, is that I tend to be a stickler for historical accuracy. And in the 14th century Scottish Borders, tartan plaids are an anachronism.

Let me explain.

Scotland is two different countries. To most readers, “Scotland,” means the highlands. Clans and warriors. Highland hunks. My book is set in the Lowlands, so 90% of what most people know (or think they know) does not apply to my story. A Lowlander, I’ve been informed, wouldn’t be caught dead in a plaid.

But even if I had set it in the Highlands, the beautiful tartan pattern would have been out of place in my century.

There is one reference to “plaide” in the 14th century. (Believe me. I found it!) But a plaide, which means ‘blanket’ in Gaelic, was technically the cloth made into a blanket or worn over the shoulder. To quote Wikipedia: “Tartan as we know it today, is not thought to have existed in Scotland before the 16th century.” And not until the 1700’s, hundreds of years after my story, were plaids and families tightly linked. Earlier than that, weavers of a certain areas in the Highlands used consistent patterns that became associated with the area, but a Highlander might have worn many different patterns together, not one that belonged to his or her family.

Plaid fabric became a Scottish badge of honor when it was outlawed by the Dress Act of 1746. This was England’s attempt to reign in the clans by trying to obliterate their Gaelic culture. The law was finally repealed in 1782.

Ironically, though, it was an English king and a Scottish novelist who cemented the place of tartan in the Scottish pantheon. King George IV visited Edinburgh in 1822, the first reigning monarch to enter Scotland in 171 years. Sir Walter Scott, novelist and founder of the Celtic Society of Edinburgh, helped create the festivities. He urged his fellow countrymen to come "all plaided and plumed in their tartan array,” wrote Magnus Magnusson in Scotland, the Story of a Nation. The final effect, Magnusson goes on to write, was not universally admired. One contemporary writer called it "Sir Walter's Celtified Pagentry."

But the result was the invention of the Scottish tartan industry and clan tartans. In a book called Vestiarium Scoticum, published in 1842, brothers John Sobieski and Charles Allen Hay (who styled themselves as Stuarts) claimed to set out patterns found in an ancient manuscript they never produced. Other pseudo-history followed. When Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought Balmoral Castle in the Highlands in 1848, they created their own Scots plaids, including the Balmoral, which is still used as a royal tartan today. Legend overwhelmed history. The tartan had developed a life of its own.

But I had modeled the kin of my 14th century heroine on a Border family that eventually became the Kerrs. Wanting to be cooperative while clinging to some sense of accuracy, I sent to my editor a picture of the Kerr tartan, thinking it would be ideal.

Nope. Even that idea was nixed. Why? Because, I learned, those lovely clan tartans are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission and, presumably royalties.

Somehow, I’m not sure the ancient weavers in the Highlands would have understood.

Would love to hear your comments on tartans. Love ‘em, hate ‘em, know what your families is? A copy of HIS BORDER BRIDE (complete with anachronistic, inaccurate plaid!) to a lucky commenter.

BLYTHE GIFFORD is the author of five medieval romances from Harlequin Historical. She specializes in characters born on the wrong side of the royal blanket. With HIS BORDER BRIDE, she crosses the border and sets a story in Scotland for the first time, where the rules of chivalry don’t always apply. Here’s a brief description:

Royal Rogue: He is the bastard son of an English prince and a Scotswoman. A rebel without a country, he has darkness in his soul.

Innocent Lady: Daughter of a Scottish border lord, she can recite the laws of chivalry, and knows this man has broken every one. But she’s gripped by desire for him—could he be the one to unleash the dangerous urges she’s hidden until now?

Her 2009 release, IN THE MASTER’S BED, has just finaled in the Readers Crown contest. Blythe loves to have visitors at www.blythegifford.com or www.facebook.com/BlytheGifford.

Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ®and T are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and/or its affiliated companies, used under license. Copyright 2010 ■ Author photo by Jennifer Girard