Details of Codpieces Over Time

Men's Garment Myths

Myth: Codpieces are large, and were worn throughout the Tudor era.

Codpieces, common during Henry's time, become smaller over the decades after, and are out of favor sometime during the late 1570s or early 1580s.

Henry VIII, by Hans Holbein the Younger, after 1537
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester by an unknown artist, c.1575
Sir Walter Raleigh, attributed to H., 1588