Today, it has become ubiquitous to see people, mostly women, wearing a fox tail with a medieval or renaissance costume. Ask them why they are wearing it and you'll probably be regaled with a story that, in history, it signified marital status, or perhaps even signified a somewhat licentious nature. You might also be told that the item is a 'flea fur' used to attract fleas off of the wearer's body (we'll deal with the myth of the flea fur in a future post).

But, is the wearing of fox tails proper in historic re-enactments specific to the 16th to 18th century?

There is some evidence that fox tails were being worn as undergarments in the 14th century. In Chronica Johannis de Reading et Anonymi Cantuariensis, John of Reading complains, in an entry dated 1344, that women were wearing clothes so tight that they wore a fox tail hanging down inside their skirts at the back to "hide their arses." John of Reading equates this immodesty in dress with the sin of pride and complains that it will surely bring down future misfortune. (As quoted in The Black Death by Rosemary Horrox).

Coming to the 16th century, we do find surviving images of a fox tails being worn. Perhaps the most telling of these is The Cripples, painted by Peter Bruegel the Elder in 1568. Here we see disabled beggars adorned with fox tails covering their clothing.

Other 15th and 16th century engravings by Bosch and Durer depict fools wearing fox tails at their belts, and ears upon their hoods. The English poet, Stephen Hawes, dresses his fool in "a hood, a bell, a foxtayle and a bagge."

The French humanist Rabelais, in his work La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel, writes a character named Panurgi who mocks academics by sneaking upon them and hanging fox tails from their backs. This insult is effective because the fox tail is clearly associated in the 16th century mind with the fool.

By the 17th century, the first revolutionaries of Holland assumed the nickname of Les Gueux (The Ragamuffins) after the Count Berlaymont told the Duchess of Parma that they were "the scum and offscouring of the people." Once this insult had been made public, the party adopted the nickname in defiance of the old order and began to dress as beggars, adopting a fox tail upon their garments instead of feathers.

Thus, we must conclude that fox tails, while appropriate for wearing in historic re-enactment, are not a symbol of sexuality or availability, but rather a symbol of vagrants and fools. Anyone choosing to adopt a fox tail in their garments at a re-enactment should be willing to accept such a societal role for their character. The re-enactor should further be prepared to explain the symbol they wear in the correct historic context, leaving aside any modern 'renaissance faire' symbolism with which the fox tail has become imbued.

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