Today in 1520 the first day of the Field of the Cloth of Gold took place. This was the long-anticipated meeting between Henry VIII and Francis of France where the two countries celebrated their treaty of peace, and held a lavish tournament.
There were so many times throughout the planning that it seemed as if the summit would never actually take place. For example, at one point the English thought that the French building plans weren’t coming along as quickly as they should, and they suspected the French weren’t planning on being there after all. There was haggling over where exactly the summit should take place considering England still held land in France – Calais. But it finally came together, thanks in large part to the work of Cardinal Wolsey, and for several weeks these amazing tents went up housing the court; replicas of palaces made of wood and canvas, holding furniture, and fountains flowing with red wine.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com where there is an episode on the Field of Cloth of Gold.
Suggested link:
Episode 072: Glenn Richardson on the Field of Cloth of Gold
From the shop:
Purple and Gold Tudor Roses Fabric Backpack
Ps. All products are made on-demand and can take a few weeks to ship.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.