There is clear evidence from the Battle of Sempach that in certain periods soldiers on campaign wore shoes with toes so long as to interfere with the wearer’s ability to run. Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms.5073, f.117v.

The Marriage of Renaud of Mantauban and Clarisse, 1460-7. Loyset Liedet (Netherlandish, born 1420). The author of the Eulogium Historiarum describes men of this period as wearing “points on their shoes as long as your finger that are called crakowes more suitable as claws… for demons than as ornaments for men.”Īlthough there is no archaeological or medieval iconographic evidence to support the idea that the toes were ever tied up to the leg, as noted earlier, there is direct literary evidence dating from 1394 which states that this was the practice at the time these shoes were introduced into England. However, there are indications they were worn as early as the 1360s. An anonymous ‘monk of Evesham’ recorded in 1394: “With this queen there came from Bohemia into England those accursed vices (English Cracowys or Pykys) half a yard in length, thus it was necessary for them to be tied to the shin with chains of silver before they could walk with them.” The arrival of this fashion in England is traditionally associated with the marriage of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia in 1382. Also called copped, piked, or peaked shoe. During the 14th and 15th cs., toes of shoes became so long that they were stuffed and fastened by gold and silver chains to bracelets below the knees. “long-toed shoe of soft material- either a separate shoe or cut in one piece with the hose- introduced from Poland during reign of Richard II in England. Charlotte Mankey Calasibetta and Phyllis Tortora define poulaines in the Dictionary of Fashion” (2013) as being a:

Poulaine shoes