Girdles and girdle-buckles are not found in early Celtic interments, nor are they frequent in Gallo-Roman graves. But in Frankish and Burgundian graves they are almost constantly present, often ornamented with plaques of bronze or silver, and the clasps and mountings chased or inlaid with various ornamental designs, occasionally including figures of the cross, and rude representations of Scripture subjects. In later times girdles are frequently represented on brasses and monumental effigies from the 12th to the 16th century. They were either of leather or of woven materials, often of silk and adorned with gold and gems. The mode in which they were worn is shown on the effigies; usually fastened by a buckle in front, the long free end of the girdle was passed up underneath and then down over the cincture, and through the loop thus formed the ornamented end hung down in front. Among the sumptuary regulations of Edward III. there were prohibitions against wearing girdles of gold and silver unless the wearer were of knightly rank or worth £200 a year. Similar regulations against extravagance in girdles are occasionally found to the 16th century. The brasses of the 15th century present many beautiful examples of ladies’ girdles, which were often worn like that of the knight with the ornamental end hanging down in front, sometimes with both ends depending from a large clasp or ornamental fastening in the centre. Allusions to the girdle are common in the poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries. The purse, the dagger, the rosary, the pen and inkhorn and the bunch of keys were carried suspended from it, and hence it was an ancient custom for bankrupts or insolvent persons to put off and surrender their girdles in open court. It is recorded that the widow of Philip I., duke of Burgundy, renounced her right of succession by putting off her girdle upon the duke’s tomb. The girdle, which was a very important element in the dress of the Levitical priesthood, does not appear as an ecclesiastical vestment in the Christian Church until the 8th century. Germanus, who died in 740, mentions the girdle worn by deacons; and Hrabanus Maurus in the succeeding century speaks of the girdle as one of the regular vestments, and refers to its symbolism. Some centuries later the church had to discountenance extravagance in this article of attire, and splendour in the decoration of girdles was denounced as secular and unbefitting the ecclesiastical character.

To loose the girdle and give it to another was, among the orientals, a token of great confidence and affection. Thus, to ratify the covenant which Jonathan made with David, and to express his cordial regard for his friend, among other things, he gave him his girdle. A girdle curiously and richly wrought was among the ancient Hebrews a mark of honour, and sometimes bestowed as a reward of merit; for this was the recompense which Joab declared he meant to bestow on the man who put Absalom to death: “Why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle,” 2 Samuel xviii, 11. The reward was certainly meant to correspond with the importance of the service which he expected him to perform, and the dignity of his own station as commander in chief: we may, therefore, suppose that the girdle promised was not a common one of leather, or plain worsted, but of costly materials and richly adorned; for people of rank and fashion in the east wear very broad girdles, all of silk, and superbly ornamented with gold and silver, and precious stones, of which they are extremely proud, regarding them as the tokens of their superior station and the proof of their riches. “To gird up the loins” is to bring the flowing robe within the girdle, and so to prepare for a journey, or for some vigorous exercise.