or did she just invent the rocket bra?

Evidently some medieval ladies invented the bra itself many centuries before that though. I wonder how many period films have women wrongly wearing corsets in them?

Anything under their dresses. I 'm pretty sure they had to have worn something like panties at least part of the time.

Evidently undies were a sign of manhood:

sit on the straw. It's silly to think they didn't wear something at least sometimes.

My grandmother told me about making diapers to wear during menstrual periods, with a friend of hers. This was before they sold regular sanitary pads. They started selling them after WW I and they were made out of gauze. The nurses in WWI had gotten the idea.

My grandmother was born in 1898.

My grandmother said sort of the same thing.

She was born in 1905.

and my mother said she remembered being embarrassed on wash day when my grandmother hung her "rags" out on the clothesline.

I'm amazed by how modern they look, with the darts and straps. I'd love to see a reconstruction too!

(keeping them, erm, unsweaty in warm weather or under heavy clothing)

Good thinking!

Some days, I don't know if it's worse wearing it or not wearing it!

Mine keep the girls from breaking out in itchy rashes, or hitting me when I have to move fast. Those look rather comfortable, and they'd have to be linen, since cotton wasn't grown in Europe.

I have to wear scary things that look like a cross between Spanx and Darth Vader's breast plate.

for it.

I suspect that she may have been a woman with H cups and a sturdy loom.

Women weren't allowed to own property.

They couldn't even keep their name.

They were just Mrs. His Name.

During the Middle Ages, women had rights. They could own property, and, in fact, could reign as monarchs in most countries. They had access to safe ways to escape abuse. They were legally not chattel unless they were slaves, and there were few slaves in most western European countries of the Middle Ages. Women could, and did, get educations, and included some of the best scholars of Europe, though not as commonly as men.
Women did not have the same rights as men. They were always last in line to inherit property or titles, after any living brothers.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_were_women_treated_in_the_middle_ages#ixzz2166MPCqF

Interesting info.

Sometimes they have power and other times they have had none.

Cleopatra comes to mind. She was respected as a leader and teacher in the ancient world. Recreating the library at Alexandria was a major feat.

BTW: I notice when guys think of Cleopatra they tend to dwell on her,...how shall I put this,...comfortable in her own skin type of sexual gratification with anyone she wanted.

I remind them this was before women shaved their legs.

Reality bites.

a laugh.

From ancient Greece, even predating the Roman Empire:

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Looks more like a bandeau. I think the novelty in the new find is that most women of the Middle Ages were thought to wear corsets.

is women went from bras to corsets and then back to bras.

That's pretty significant.

However the concept of a covering like the bikini top goes back to the earliest times.

A support garment worn under the outwear which we now call a "bra" is now known to be much older than previously thought.

But I don't know much about the history of lingerie.

Follow it back to the original esquire.com article here:

http://www.esquire.com/women/bikini-history#slide-2

Note that the alt text for the photo says "fake bikini."

The free weights were the tip off for me.

I guess there really isn't anything new/

Das ich nicth Deutsches spreche sehr gut ich bin ein pferdkopf

Ich haben ein Imac mit magischem material Ja!

a 599 year old letter between 16 year old boys discussing how to unhook the linen bras.

Because they are necessary. Women have not changed in their physical attributes in hundreds of thousands of years.