What is the hooped whalebone framework for a petticoat, a fashion brought to England by Catherine of Aragon from Spain on her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501, and worn in England until the 17th century?
1550–1600 in Western European fashion whalebone. Skirts were held in the proper shape by a farthingale or hoop skirt. In Spain, the cone-shaped "Spanish farthingale" remained in fashion into the early 17th century. It was only briefly fashionable in France, where a padded roll or "French farthingale" (called in England a "bum roll") held the skirts out in a rounded shape at the waist, falling in soft folds to the floor. In England, the Spanish farthingale was worn through the 1570s, and was gradually replaced by the French farthingale. By the 1590s, skirts were pinned to wide wheel farthingales to achieve a drum shape. A
Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England from June 1509 until May 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII; she was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry's elder brother Arthur. The daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the English throne. They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. She held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese Crown to England