Just over a
thousand years ago, a monk in Canterbury produced a psalter, a book of Psalms, illustrated
with an Anglo-Saxon version of King David approaching a temple escorted by a humble menial
holding an honorific umbrella over him. The
psalter was copied from a more-lofty medieval version in Utrecht, in which David was
dressed in ceremonial attire and his umbrella-holding escort was an angel.
There are no
pictures of David when he ruled, around 1000BC, but quite possibly the umbrella actually
featured in Judah and Israel during his time. It was certainly known in many other
parts of the East and especially in Egypt and Assyria, whose rulers are depicted in
sculptures with umbrellas positioned over them. These not only protected them from the
elements but denoted their godlike status, the canopy depicting the heavens —
a
piece of symbolism that endures to this day in various religions, including Buddhism.
With the
heavens providing the rain that was crucial to good harvests, it is hardly surprising that
the umbrella should develop this celestial link.
It became identified with fertility and harvest gods in many cultures. Before the Christian era, it was also a costume
accessory in Greece and Rome, retaining its honorific symbolism when used by important
people, such as Roman emperors.
At some time
the Pope introduced the umbrella to his regalia, perhaps adopting the idea from other
potentates. A mosaic in
a church in Rome suggests that the Roman emperor Constantine presented a ceremonial
umbrella to Pope Sylvester I in the fourth century. Four hundred years later, Pope Paul I
bestowed on a German ruler a bejewelled model, probably around the time that the original
Utrecht psalter was compiled, depicting David with an umbrella.
The Canterbury
monk’s copy failed to start any fashion at all in England, though the costume
umbrella enjoyed some use in mediterranean Europe and there are references to it in French
literature of the 16th century. In the 1570s Sir Henry Union. an English diplomat,
apparently used a sunshade as he rode through the Alps —
a
painting in the National Portrait Gallery shows him thus.
The following
century saw many references in England to the umbrella in its sunshade mode (though one
should bear in mind that the word “umbrella”, now more linked to rain, derives
from umbra,
the Latin for
shade). ‘Umbrella’ appears in dictionaries or
descriptions of journeys overseas, with several poets (John Donne being the first in 1609)
using the word metaphorically to denote protection.
One or two
models did find their way to Britain. Mary, Queen of Scots, is thought to have had a
costume parasol, and others were brought from abroad by English travellers. By the early
18th century, oiled umbrellas were used in London, but apparently only by women. A young
man who borrowed one from a coffee house in a downpour in 1709 was excoriated as
effeminate in a newspaper. It would have been a cumbersome model, ill-suited to being
carried around. Similar heavy umbrellas were kept in churches to protect the parson during
burial services.
Everyday use
was rare. James Wolfe (later to die famously at Quebec) noted Parisians using umbrellas
against the sun and rain in 1752 and wondered why English people did not follow suit,
A few years
later Jonas Hanway, having noted the custom in Portugal, started to carry an umbrella
regularly in London, causing derision from street urchins and chagrin to coachmen, who
recognised a threat to their livelihood. Another brave pioneer was John MacDonald, who
from 1778 used a silk umbrella in London when it rained, again to the amusement of
passers-by, to the extent that his sister did not care to be seen walking with him. By
1790, MacDonald claimed, umbrellas were so popular in London that there was a great trade
in making them.
By then, other
brave pioneers had introduced umbrellas to many other parts of the country. A sighting was
reported in Edinburgh in 1779, another in Glasgow three years later, At the century’s
end it was commonplace in most towns.
Today’s
umbrella may be an utilitarian object, but its religious and royal symbolism is still with
us. A heraldic umbrella appears on coins and stamps produced during the Sede Vacante
—
the
period between the death of a pope and the election of his successor. And royal umbrellas
continue to feature in the regalia of West African chiefs, the Thai monarchy and Indian
princes, and are held close to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth when she visits these
rulers. Religious umbrellas featured in the
rites following the death of Nepal’s king in June 2001.
One might
accurately conclude that the umbrella is not only a symbol of rain but also of
“reign”!
