A farthingale is one of several structures used under Western European women's clothing - especially in the 16th and 17th centuries - to support the skirts in the desired shape and to enlarge the lower half of the body. The fashion originated in Spain in the fifteenth century. Farthingales served important social and cultural functions for women in Renaissance Europe as they expressed, primarily when worn by court women, high social position and wealth.
Spanish farthingale The Spanish verdugado, from which "farthingale" derives, was a hoop skirt originally stiffened with esparto grass; later designs in the temperate climate zone were stiffened with osiers (willow withies), rope, or (from about 1580) whalebone. The name verdugado comes from the Spanish verdugo ("green wood", or the more modern meaning of "executioner").Ruth Matilda Anderson, Hispanic Costume, 1480–1530 (New York, 1979), 208.
The earliest sources indicate that Joan of Portugal started to use verdugados with hoops in Spain. Joan had provoked much criticism as she allegedly wore dresses that displayed too much décolletage, and her wanton behaviour was considered scandalous. When she started to use farthingales, court fashion followed suit. As Joan had two illegitimate children by Pedro de Castilla y Fonseca, rumors abounded that she used the farthingale to cover up a pregnancy.Ruth Matilda Anderson, Hispanic Costume, 1480–1530 (New York, 1979), 208.
The earliest images of Spanish farthingales show hoops prominently displayed on the outer surfaces of skirts, although later they merely provided shape to the overskirt. Catherine of Aragon is said to have brought the fashion into England on her marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales, in 1501. She and her ladies were observed to wear "beneath their waist certain round hoops, bearing out their gowns from their bodies, after their country manner".Ruth Matilda Anderson, Hispanic Costume, 1480–1530 (New York, 1979), 209: Thomas Astle & Francis Grose, Antiquarian Reportary, 2 (London, 1807), 288 However, there is little evidence to show that she continued to wear this fashion as she adopted English styles of dress. In March 1519 at a masque at Greenwich Palace female dancers in fanciful "Egyptian" costumes wore black velvet gowns "with hoops from the waist downwards", which may have been farthingales.Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), p. 162.
Farthingales remained a fixture of conservative Spanish court fashion into the early 17th century (as exemplified by Margaret of Austria), before evolving into the guardainfante of 17th-century Spanish dress.
Farthingales in England and Scotland One of the first references to a farthingale in England comes from the accounts of Princess Elizabeth in 1545 that describe a farthingale made of crimson Bruges satin.Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), p. 162. The courtier Elizabeth Holland owned two red Bruges satin farthingales in 1547.George Nott, Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, vol. 1 (London, 1815), pp. cxvi–cxvii. Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset asked for her clothes, including a farthingale to be sent to her in the Tower of London in 1551.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd series, vol. 2 (London, 1827), p. 215.
Nicholas Udall mentioned "trick ferdegews and billements of gold" in his comedy Ralph Roister Doister written around 1552.John Farmer, Dramatic Writings of Nicholas Udall (London, 1873), p. 40. In 1560, Edward More published a poem in which he argued that "verdyngalles" did not contribute to unseemly pride as the materials used, fustian, buckram, and red cloth, were inexpensive.Edward Vernon Utterson, Select pieces of early popular poetry, 2 (London, 1825), p. 135: Edward More, A Lytle treatyse, called the defence of women (London: John Kynge, 1560). A chest of costume for drama at King's College, Cambridge, in 1554 contained some items fashioned from disused vestments, including two pieces of blue silk which were "tranposyd to wardyngalis" with a pair of sleeves.T. H. Vail Motter, The school drama in England (Port Washington, 1968), p. 260.
Spanish farthingales were bought by Mary I of England and became an essential element of Tudor fashion in England.Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), p. 162. Mary's chamberer Jane Russell was given a farthingale made from fustian.E. Estcourt, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, vol. 3 (London, 1864), p. 105. At a dinner for French diplomats in May 1559, the farthingales of Elizabeth I and her ladies took up so much space that some women of her privy chamber had to sit on the rush-covered floor.William Streitberger, The Masters of the Revels and Elizabeth I's Court Theatre (Oxford, 2016), p. 56: Calendar State Papers Venice, 1558-1560 (London, 1890), p. 93 no. 77. Queen Elizabeth was able to adapt the fashion to her statecraft. In 1579, the Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza reported to Philip II that during an audience Elizabeth lifted her farthingale to allow him sit close to her and talk privately about international politics.Martin Hume, Calendar State Papers Spain, Simancas, 2 (London: HMSO, 1894), p. 634 no. 546.
Farthingales were bought for children, including Ann Cavendish, the nine year old stepdaughter of Bess of Hardwick in 1548.Alison Wiggins, "Money, marriage and remembrance", Lisa Hopkins, Bess of Hardwick: New Pespectives (Manchester, 2019), pp. 50, 55, 72: Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), p. 162. Margaret Willoughby had farthingales made of buckram covered with red cloth and "red russell" in September 1550.HMC Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton (London, 1911), pp. 401, 404. Margaret and Mary Kitson were bought "verdingalles" in December 1573.John Gage, The History and Antiquities of Hengrave, in Suffolk (London, 1822), p. 204. Mary, as Countess Rivers, made bequests of clothing in 1641 including a carnation and black taffeta farthingales and rolls.John Watney, Some account of St. Osyth's priory, Essex, and its inhabitants (London, 1871), p. 110.
The French educated Mary, Queen of Scots had a black taffeta "verdugalle" in 1550,Marguerite Wood, Foreign Correspondence with Marie of Lorraine: Balcarres Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1925), p. xxvii. and another of violet taffeta,Alphonse de Ruble, La première jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891), p. 289 and a set of fashion dolls with 15 farthingales.Michael Pearce, Dolls of Mary Queen of Scots: Edinburgh Castle Research (Edinburgh, 2018), p. 18 Whale bone was bought to shape her farthingales in 1562.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 204. The contemporary French physician Ambroise Paré noted the use of baleen from the mouths of whales for women's "vertugalles" and "busques".Ambroise Paré, Les Oeuvres d'Ambroise Paré (Paris, 1628) p. 1056
French farthingale roll French farthingales originated in court circles in France. Jeanne d'Albret had a farthingale stiffened with rushes, jonc, in 1571.Paul Raymond, "Notes Extraites des Comptes de Jeanne D'Albret", Revue d'Aquitaine et des Pyrénées, 11 (1867), p. 130 They first appeared in England during the 1570s. On 17 March 1577 the English ambassador to Paris, Amyas Paulet, sent a new type of farthingale to Queen Elizabeth I stating that it was "such as is now used by the French Queen and the Queen of Navarre." Janet Arnold has stated that this new style was probably a roll that sat on top of the cone-shaped Spanish farthingale.
Randle Cotgrave, in his Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (1611), defined the French farthingale as "the kind of roll used by such women as weare no Vardingales." Several wardrobe accounts and tailors' bills of the late 16th century give us an idea of what these rolls were made of: they were stuffed with cotton and rags, and stiffened with hoops of whalebone, wire, or ropes made of bent reeds. Buckram (stiff canvas) is the most commonly mentioned material. Other references describe the rolls being starched.Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Accounts, MS Egerton 2806, lists the materials used for rolls made by the royal farthingale maker, see new website Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Uploaded
Here are a couple of sample references to rolls from Queen Elizabeth I's Wardrobe Accounts (MS Egerton 2806):
(1585) (1586)
There are no extant examples of this style of undergarment, and only one illustration, a satirical Dutch engraving of c. 1600, that shows the bum-roll being affixed by a tiring-woman.Illustration, from Harold Koda, Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed, exhibition catalog (Metropolitan Museum of Art), 2001. From contemporary references, and the visual cues provided by the engraving, it appears to have consisted of a bolster-like roll either stuffed or held out with reeds which, being fastened around the hips, served the purpose of widening the skirts at the hip area, creating drapes.
Some modern costumers conjecture that the French farthingale and the "great farthingale" were one and the same garment, the difference in shape and construction being due to changes in fashion from the 1580s to the 1590s.
French wheel farthingale or great farthingale
A second style of French farthingale, also known as the wheel, great, drum or cartwheel farthingale, became fashionable in England during the 1590s. It seems to have consisted of several hoops made from whalebone that graduated outwards from the level of the waistline in a wheel shape. This structure was often supported by a padded roll underneath, and was distinct in appearance from the other French farthingale roll, as it had a hard edge from which the skirts dramatically fell.
Although there are also no surviving examples of this type of garment, there are a number of references to a "Great Farthingale" in Queen Elizabeth I's wardrobe accounts during the time when this style was in vogue. "Great" in this context referred to the large circumference of the farthingale, which was required in order to achieve the fashionable silhouette. Changes in the shape of the farthingale impacted the construction of other garments including the "forepart", the exposed front or apron of the skirt or kirtle made from richer fabrics. Later forms of the forepart were larger and wider and some surviving examples seem to have been extended to accommodate the new shape.Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), p. 165.
The great farthingale appears to have been worn at an angle ("low before and high behind") which visually elongated the wearer's torso while shortening her legs. The angle was likely created by the use of bodies (corsets) or boned bodices with long centre fronts that pushed down on the farthingale, tilting it. Such an effect has been shown in many reconstructions of the garment.
Some historians have raised doubts about the size of these garments, which some contemporaries claimed could be as wide as 1.4 metres. Instead they claim that the seemingly enormous size of these garments was an optical illusion created by wearing it with a pair of bodies (corset) that elongated and streamlined the torso. Criticisms of farthingales are also indicative of spatial anxieties relating to fears about these garments creating intimate personal spaces around the female body, masking the appropriation of social status, and physically displacing men. These fears continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth century, where tropes about the size of hoop petticoats (panniers) and crinolines continued.
Anne of Denmark and the fashion of farthingales