Back in the 7th century, Etheldreda, the queen of Northumbria, renounced her royal life (and her husband) and retreated to a monastery on the Isle of Ely. She was soon named abbess and praised for her saintliness. Her death in 679 was attributed to a swelling on her neck, which the dying woman took as a judgment upon her for her past secular habit of wearing costly necklaces.

The shrine of Saint Audrey, as she was known, became one of the principal pilgrimages sites in England, and an annual fair was held there each October in her honor. All sorts of cheap knickknacks and jewelry were sold there, including a type of lace necklace or ribbon known as St. Audrey's lace. By the 17th century, St. Audrey's lace had become tawdry lace; the adjective tawdry came to be applied to other cheap goods sold at these fairs, and from there to other things "tastelessly showy" or "cheap and gaudy in appearance."