Catherine of Aragon was a talented embroiderer and continued to make shirts for her husband, Henry VIII, during his divorce proceedings against her. Here Catherine’s white linen shift is decorated with blackwork, a style of embroidery believed to have its origins in the geometric Moorish designs found in Spain. The popularisation of both blackwork in England and the so-called Spanish farthingale, a stiffened cone-shaped underskirt, are often credited to the arrival of the Spanish queen and her entourage.