Scarlet

From the Cambridge History of Western Textiles (D T Jenkins)

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"In all Western European languages the words for 'Scarlet' developed first as a noun for the textile itself and only later became to be applied as an adjective to describe the colour. Furthermore, even though many woolen scarlets did indeed have that rich red colour, perhaps most by the very end of the Middle Ages, many had instead been dyed in a wide variety of other colours - and some were even considered to be 'white'."

Scarlets were very fine and expensive woolen cloths. Common in Medieval England. Scarlet cloth could also be green, blue, brown or white. The most common was crimson or carmine red hence Scarlet now being chiefly a colour word.

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During the reign of Henry VIII, crimson/carmine red Scarlet was forbidden to servants. It was considered a very distinguished color. Some laws even forbade certain "classes" from wearing it.