A capotain, capatain or copotain is a tall-crowned, narrow-brimmed, slightly

conical A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

"sugarloaf" hat, usually black, worn by men and women from the 1590s into the mid-seventeenth century in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and northwestern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. Earlier capotains had rounded crowns; later, the crown was flat at the top. The capotain is especially associated with

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. P ...

costume in England in the years leading up to the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...

and during the years of the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with " republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from th ...

. It is also commonly called a flat topped hat and a Pilgrim hat, the latter for its association with the Pilgrims who settled

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the ...

in the 1620s. Contrary to popular myth, capotains never included buckles on the front of them; this image was created in the 19th century. It has been theorised that the capotain inspired the

top hat A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...

. __NOTOC__ Image:Unknown Lady Robert Peake c1592.jpg, England, 1592
(''Portrait of an Unknown Lady'', attributed to Robert Peake the Elder) Image:Gunpowder Plot conspirators.jpg, England, 1600s
(Detail from a contemporary engraving of the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought ...

ters) Image:Willem_Pietersz._Buytewech_003.jpg, Holland, 1615 (''Elegant Couples Courting'' by

Willem Pieterszoon Buytewech Willem Pieterszoon Buytewech (1591/92 – September 23, 1624) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, draughtsman and etcher. He is one of the early specialists in the merry company type of subject in Dutch genre painting. His contemporaries named hi ...

) Image:Adriaen Brouwer - Head of a man with a pointed hat.jpg, Flanders, 1630s
(''Man with a Hat'' painting by

Adriaen Brouwer Adriaen Brouwer (, in Oudenaarde – January 1638, in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the first half of the 17th century.

) Image:Ester Tradescant and son detail.jpg, England, 1640s,
''Ester Tradescant and Son'' (attributed to

Thomas de Critz Thomas De Critz or Decritz (1 July 1607 – 22 October 1653) was an English painter. He was born in London, the son of the Flemish-born painter John de Critz. He worked for the English court and was entrusted with the restoration and cleanin ...

) File:ThePuritan Cropped comparison.jpg, A spurious buckled capotain, as carved by

Augustus St. Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he trave ...

on ''The Puritan'' and ''The Pilgrim'', 1887

References

External links

* {{Historical clothing 16th-century fashion 17th-century fashion Capotain English clothing History of clothing (Western fashion) Plymouth Colony English Civil War

See also

References

Further reading

External links