“The arrangements for the transport of the Countess Mahaut [of Artois]’s household were in the accepted pattern. Since her usual retinue was only made up of some forty people it . . . probably only required some sixty horses . . . [with] many highly decorated saddles . . . worked in silk velvet with flowers of gold, others with pearls. Not surprisingly leather covers were provided for the safe transport of such precious objects. . . . [S]he made much use of a large four-wheeled chariot. . . . Not only was it provided when necessary with new wheels, well shod with iron, but there might also be a new cover of tan cloth, lined on the inside with samite. The interior was adorned with velvet curtains sprinkled with silver rosettes, striped hangings of perse (a fine, usually dark blue, woollen cloth), with the chains and rings to hang them, a carpet of seven and a half ells, and eighteen decorative silver knobs. . . . As Mahaut grew older she relied more and more on another litter. The one she used in 1321 was covered in scarlet, had a well-stuffed mattress with three cushions and two pillows covered with luxurious silk, striped with gold and silver, and filled with down. Its horses had saddle pads of velvet and housings of azure perse. For access there was a folding stool and a small ladder.”

—Margaret Wade Labarge, Medieval Travellers: The Rich and Restless, 1982.