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Dr. Jane Malcoim-Davies, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen writes the following:

“The codpiece was a curious but common feature of men’s dress in the 16th century, placed provocatively at the groin yet rarely attracting comments in contemporary sources. 

The word ‘codd’ had for centuries meant a purse, a pouch or padding. But it was also used for the testicles or scrotum, with parallels in other northern European languages – the Old Norse koddi, for example. A piece of advice issued to young men in the late 15th century said: “Put not your hands in your hosen, your codware for to clawe.” 

The leg coverings called hose originally consisted of two long, separate legs tied to a doublet. The gap between the hose was covered by a flat flap of fabric tied in place. That evolved into the codpiece, fastened at the waist for ease of dressing and undressing as well as providing access for bodily functions. It was tied with short points – laces with metal tags at each end – through eyelets reinforced with thread. 

Ubiquitous portraits of Henry VIII and other rulers wearing codpieces, along with surviving metal armours featuring such protuberances, might suggest that this item was a peculiarity of powerful European men. But the codpiece was not confined to elite clothing. Braguette, the French equivalent of the word codpiece, suggests its symbolic purpose, but for most men it was simply a functional part of legwear. 

A mid-16th-century source refers to “a kodpese like a pokett” – modest wool Tudor examples at the Museum of London are padded pouches. They were not, however, ‘penis sheaths’, despite a 1555 reference to men in the New World who “enclose their privy members in a gourd, cut after the fashion of a codpiece”. 

A misunderstanding of how codpieces functioned has led to speculation that they evolved to enable medicinal treatments for syphilis. This erroneous theory rests on the mistaken notion that a codpiece formed a roomy box inside which the genitals could lie, having been slathered with greasy salves and bandaged in place. Yet the penis did not in fact go into the codpiece but lay inside the hose; the codpiece was an appendage on the outside of the garment.

Codpieces became less common towards the end of the 16th century, as tailored, close-fitting, full-length hose gave way to shorter and looser styles such as venetians, which were knee-length breeches worn with knitted stockings. Shakespeare’s words in King Lear are telling: “Marry, here’s grace and a codpiece; that’s a wise man and a fool.” By the early 17th century, when he wrote his great tragedy, codpieces were no longer conventional wear and were likely seen as the fashion of fools.”

Apparently the codpiece has made a comeback, and now includes six wheels.

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