September 7, 2022 • 42 mins
The Field of Cloth of Gold was a summit and celebration that was held to start what was hoped to be a long-term alliance between France and England. And it required a lot of fancy footwork to keep two monarchs appeased.
Research:
- Richardson, Glenn. “The Field of Cloth of Gold.” Yale University Press. 2020.
- “Henry VIII’s foot combat armour.” Royal Armouries. https://royalarmouries.org/stories/object-of-the-month/object-of-the-month-for-april-henry-viiis-foot-combat-armour/
- Solly, Meilan. “When Henry VIII and Francis I Spent $19 Million on an 18-Day Party.” Smithsonian. June 23, 2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/five-hundred-years-ago-henry-viii-and-francis-i-spent-19-million-18-day-party-180975116/
- “The Field of Cloth of Gold.” Historic Royal Palaces. https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/the-field-of-cloth-of-gold/#gs.9xj1t7
- Lay, Paul. “Wolsey’s Own Accord.” History Today. Volume 68, Issue 10. October 2018. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/editor/wolsey%E2%80%99s-own-accord
- Watts, Karen. “Tournaments at the Court of King Henry VIII.” From “Henry VIII in Twenty-First Century Popular Culture.” Lexington Books. 2017.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class A production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy D. Wilson. If you
have read or seen a production of Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth,
the Field of Cloth of Gold is a plot point
(00:23):
in it. The author did take some liberties with the
historical record. There are people at his version that we're
not there. Um. In addition to some other stuff, the
Field of cloth of Gold is kind of a mouthful
of a name for an event. It was a summit
and a celebration that was held to start what was
hoped to be a long term alliance between France and England. Uh.
(00:45):
It's not exactly an unknown piece of history. It comes
up sometimes in classes. I feel like I never got
a really big discussion of it. I could have maybe
not been paying attention that day that happen and sometimes. Um,
but some of the details about it are really really fascinating,
So it seems worthy of a discussion about it, even
(01:07):
if you have heard of it. In part too, because
some of the most recent scholarship frames things a little
a little bit differently than it's been discussed for years.
This is a tricky one because it is a moment
in time that represents so many moving parts and nuances
of relationships that we're kind of having to do like
(01:30):
the quick and dirty version on some of that. So
just know, we try to cover some of those influences
going in. But of course anything like this that happens,
the web that branches out from it historically to touch
other things is very intricate. Um, we're going to jump
right into it. And first we are going to start
with the very briefest of recaps of each of the
(01:52):
two monarchs involved to set up how they found themselves
at this giant festival slash party, slash turn and in
a temporary city in northern France. And we're going to
start with Henry the Eighth. Yes, So, Henry the Eighth
took the throne at the age of seventeen, That was
on April one, fifteen o nine, when his father, Henry
the Seventh died. Henry the Seventh hadn't exactly been beloved,
(02:17):
but he had kept England fairly peaceful after the Wars
of the Roses, and then when he died, Henry the
Eighth inherited what was a pretty ideal situation, although he
did rebel against having a similar identity to that of
his father. Henry the eighth was tall at six ft
two and also athletic. He loved a good party, and
(02:39):
he had very keen designs on France. By the time
the Field of Cloth of Gold events took place, Henry
had already been recognized by Pope Julius the Second as
King of France. That happened in fifteen twelve after the
French King Louis the twelfth had been excommunicated. But after
a series of mixed results battles and the rise of
(03:02):
Pope Leo the Tenth, Louis the twelfth was back in
the papacy's good graces and Henry no longer had the
support of the Holy See as the King of France.
Henry himself, though, continued to see himself as just that,
and he thought he deserved some tribute payments from France. Yeah,
(03:24):
there's a fun thing that didn't make it into the
episode that I will talk about him and behind the scenes.
But like Henry the eight, Francis the First, who was
the actual King of France, was considered handsome and charming,
and per accounts of the day, having quote an air
of greatness about him, accompanied with a certain gracious humanity.
(03:48):
Francis became king when Louis the twelfth died. He was
Louis the twelfth son in law, and he married the
predecessor king's daughter, Claude, and just as Henry the eighth,
he was a young man when this happened, although he
was not a teenager. Francis became King of France in
fifteen fifteen at the age of twenty, and he had
fought in several battles against the English before he took
(04:09):
the throne, and again, like Henry, he had inherited a
pretty stable kingdom, skirmishes with the papacy aside, and he
was also ambitious like his English counterpart, although he had
designs on gaining land and power, primarily from Italy although
other places. Unlike Henry, he moved on this a little faster.
(04:29):
He started to achieve his goals pretty quickly. For two
men who were in some ways so similar, both leading
countries and jockeying for power, it kind of seems like
a rivalry was inevitable, and it's often written that the
two of them actually kind of admired each other personally,
but they would never have admitted as much publicly. So
(04:49):
please keep in mind this is just the broadest discussion
of these two monarchs, or trying to hit the points
that are most salient in regard to the field of
lot of gold. There were a lot of additional events
that took place and colored the way these two men
saw each other, and a lot of other nuance to
have a lot of these events also shaped Europe's political
(05:12):
climate in the early sixteenth century. In fifteen twenty, Francis
the First of France and Henry the eighth of England
through an incredibly lavish party together. You will also see
this listed as a summit, as a tournament, etcetera. It
was so big and so lavish that it is a
noted historical event, and with good reason. This thing lasted
(05:35):
two and a half weeks. So for these two people
that had a rivalry, how did such a thing happen
To even try to get to a point that England
and France would be friends instead of rivals. That seems
like it would have taken an immense leap of faith
and imagination. The Hundred Years War had lasted from thirteen
(05:57):
thirty seven to fourteen fifty three. That was followed immediately
by England's internal conflict, the Wars of the Roses, starting
in fourteen fifty five. The Wars of the Roses lasted
thirty two years, and then France had its own domestic problems.
The War of the Public Wheel was a conflict between
King Louis the eleventh of France and the country's feudal
(06:21):
nobles that took place in fourteen sixty five and ended
with the crown making concessions to the nobility. A similar
struggle for power between the feudal lords and the throne
of France took place in fourteen eighty five, and this
time it was complicated by the fact that the King
of France at the time was Charles the Eighth, who
(06:41):
was still a teenager his sister and de Bougeux was
acting as regent. England and other countries supported this uprising
of the nobility. Beyond these wars, there were additional conflicts
with other nations and groups all throughout Europe and beyond.
So in short, the were two countries that had lived
(07:02):
in conflict more or less continuously for as long as
anybody and who was alive in the early fift hundreds.
Could remember many years ago we made a joke on
the show about how there should be a website that
was just was England at war with France and tell
you yes or no, and then listeners made it. Two
(07:22):
different listeners made such websites because these are two nations
that have often been not in harmony. Being in close
proximity made them kind of want things from each other
and to have power over one another. And it just
as we the list that we read is by no
means conference right. There was a lot, a lot, a
(07:44):
lot of ongoing conflict, but there were actually a lot
of people starting the campaign for peace in the early
sixteenth century. Humanists and philosophers of both countries as well
as others, wrote pamphlets and papers on the matter. But
this particular moment of peace was achieved in part because
a pope had wanted war with non Christians. Pope Leo
(08:07):
the Tenth, who was a Medici by birth, had become
increasingly dismayed with the successful military efforts of the Ottoman Empire,
and in fifteen seventeen he called on Europe's Christian nations
to unite against that perceived religious threat and That meant
that the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Portugal, France, and England
all had to stop fighting one another so they could
(08:30):
carry out the Pope's plan. The Pope absolutely knew that
there had to be clear guidelines for such a union
and started creating Truth's Plans and early fifteen eighteen. This
involved a five year time frame in which the Pope
would help the included nations work through all their disputes
and rule on any of them as needed. Right up
(08:53):
to this point, alliances and treaties were being signed and
broken as various leaders sought to shift their positions and
gain the most power. You know, five year thing was
kind of like listen, I know, like you're not going
to be friends forever, but could we for five years
agree that we're going to fight people who aren't Christians?
Could we all just table this conflict for five seconds.
(09:18):
In late fifteen eighteen, Cardinal Thomas Woolsey successfully managed to
get Europe's Christian superpowers of the time to sign the
Treaty of Universal Peace. Woolsey was English and had finagled
a great deal of power as an acting representative of
the Pope, and he used that power to shift some
of the conditions of the treaty that the Pope had
(09:40):
laid out, with an aim to create a permanent piece
rather than the five year term that Pope Leo had
set out. That sounds lovely, but listen, there's always a
shady enterprise going on. He was also angling throughout this
whole thing to ensure that England came out with more
power than anyone else, including naming Henry the Eighth as
(10:01):
the arbiter of dispute rather than the Pope, which people
actually agreed to. By the time Wolsey was done, there
were additional treaties branching off of that main treaty. Those
subtreaties established more specific agreements between nations, particularly between England
and France, and one part of the agreement was that
(10:23):
the Kings of England and France would have an in
person meeting to seal the deal and assure one another
that they were both all in on the Piece plan.
Wolsey saw this as a way to make both men
leaders to all the Christian nations of Europe, as they
showed strength through cooperation and established kind of a behavioral
(10:43):
model of reconciliation. That meant that this meeting had to
be spectacular. Yeah, he does seem to have thought like,
if I can show these two guys being cool with
one another, other people will want to be cool. That's
a bless his heart moment for me. One of the
(11:04):
reasons that the in person meeting between England and France
was arranged was to show very visibly and physically that
Francis and Henry were going to be allies to the
exclusion of another young and charismatic ruler of the day,
that being Charles the Fifth, who had become ruler of
the Holy Roman Empire in fifteen nineteen and was incidentally
(11:25):
Catherine of Arragon's nephew, so kind of related to Henry
the eighth. There was both statesmanship and ego in the mix.
Henry had been jealous of an earlier agreement, before the
Treaty of Universal Peace, in which Francis had allied with
the Holy Roman Empire that was before Charles five, and
that had left Henry feeling a little bit isolated and
(11:47):
left out. Meanwhile, Francis the First had started to feel
threatened by the military power that Charles the fifth commanded,
so they both thought it would be good for them
to be allies and leave Charles out. It was due
to the transition from Maximilian to Charles the Fifth that
the meeting of Henry and Francis did not happen for
(12:07):
almost two years. They were supposed to have their summit
in fifteen nineteen, after the return of the city of
Tornaive to France by England. This had happened after a
great deal of negotiation, but when Maximilian died, the office
of Holy Roman Emperor was filled by election. In addition
to Charles the Fifth, who was Maximilian's grandson, Francis the
(12:29):
First and Henry the Eighth were also candidates, there were
seven prince electors from the empire who determined who this
successor would be, and this very active rivalry, of course,
delayed the meeting of Henry and Francis has agreed to
in the terms of the Universal Peace Treaty. Once Charles
the Fifth was finally selected as successor, things once again
(12:52):
started moving forward. Yeah, of Henry the Eighth of Francis
the First, Francis was the only one that really had
any kind of like possible um vote getting ability. Henry
the eighth kind of was like me to um yourself
in as a candidate to run the Holy Roman Empire.
(13:12):
We will talk about the preparations involved in readying the
chosen locations for royals and their retinues once this whole
thing started actually happening, and we're going to do that
after we pause for a sponsor break. If you are
(13:34):
familiar with your tutor history, you know that Cardinal Woolsey,
of course famously fell out of favor with the English
king when he was unable to get Henry the eighth
and the nullment in nine, But at the point in
time we're discussing here, he was still a trusted ally
of the young monarch. He also kind of became the
de facto party planner for the field of cloth of gold.
(13:56):
In addition to all of the festivities, he had to
negotiate and carefully planned things so that neither ruler felt
slighted or bested, and that there weren't any ways that
either of these two men might suffer public embarrassment. Under Wolsey,
each side had their own head of preparations. For France,
this was Gaspar de Colonnie that was a military commander
(14:19):
of high rank and esteem. And then on the English
side there was Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester, who was
also a decorated war hero. The location for this party,
which was billed as a tournament, was carefully chosen through
negotiations between these men. This was between the towns of
Green and ard. The reason it was a tournament was
(14:41):
so the two monarchs could show cooperation and might. The
tournament aspect was not so that these two men could
compete against each other, though the rules were that they
always competed on the same side. There had also been
a plan laid out to ensure goodwill. During the feasts,
each king would sit in the other king's court, although
(15:03):
the queens each remained with their respective group. Yeah, there's
some so much that went on just to pick the location,
and we'll talk about all of it for clarity. You know,
Guien was still held by England and there was sort
of an English area called the Pale there, and then
(15:24):
Arder was in French territory and the middle. What made
the middle was a big deal because nobody the actual
equidistance center still sat on English territory and it became
a whole thing. Uh. This summit event took place from
June seven to June. Each king brought six thousand people.
(15:49):
That was a number agreed to by both sides, so
that neither had more than the other. This feels like
when you see kids and they get like fast food
with their parents and you watch them portioning out by
counting how many French fries each child has, so nobody
gets jealous. That's very much what this feels like. But
(16:10):
six thousand per person meant that there were more than
twelve thousand people in attendance for eighteen days at this
party slash tournament slash summit, and that, as you can imagine,
meant a lot of logistics and temporary infrastructure. All of
those people needed to be housed and fed. There needed
to be space for all of the various planned events,
(16:31):
and this had become so high profile that all of
Europe was watching. That six thousand people per country number
is also pretty interesting when you consider the population of
each country and the extent of the nobility for each
of them. The population of France was about fifteen million,
England was about two point five million. The sizes of
(16:54):
their respective nobilities were similarly proportioned, and so that meant
that with six thousand people, Henry's entourage could include a
lot more of England's nobility, whereas France had to exclude
a lot of There's. One result was that there were
a lot of very high ranking people in France who
found themselves socializing with English attendees who were really pretty
(17:16):
far below them in the hierarchy of nobility. Yeah, I
read a stat that I didn't. It's kind of impossible
to verify that France had about twenty five thousand noble
households at this point, so a lot of them were
left out. But this was kind of most of England's nobility,
so it was a very interesting disparity in that regard.
(17:39):
In February, more than five months before the meeting things
really got under way, there had been a new treaty
for each monarch to sign that laid out the specific
plans in terms of who was financially responsible for what
preparations and what activities would be involved, etcetera. Henry the
Eighth was to set up his court at Guien, which
(18:00):
had been taken by England and the thirt hundreds at
this point, as I said, still under English control. Henry
wanted buildings to be constructed around the existing castle at
Green that would be available and appropriate for royal visitors,
and this ended up being a rather lavish castle. Like
They built a whole new little palace, which was described
(18:21):
in a contemporary account as quote brilliant with kingly pomp.
One of the design elements of this palace was a
secret passage under the floor that connected the king's chambers
with the queen's chambers, so that Henry could visit Catherine
without anybody knowing their business. I love that little detail.
There were also tents constructed around the castle, and that
(18:44):
was where the nobility would stay. The French were headquartered
at ard The two towns are near the northern coast
of France and Patti calais close to the English Channel,
and the meeting point was to be in between the
two of them, the two or less than nine kilometers aparts,
and this is at the village of bowing Him. The
(19:04):
camp for the King of France at Ardre required a
whole lot of work. Ardre had been damaged over the
years in military battles kind of leading right up to
when this meeting happened, and the castle needed a lot
of repair. Additionally, tents were brought in to help house Frances.
The first retinue. Military fortifications were also made to the
castle and surrounding area. Even though this was ostensibly to
(19:28):
be a peaceful meeting, more than three hundred tents were
made just for this meeting on the French side, and
they were lavish enough that the King of France could
stay in them in both style and comfort. So this
is not like the tent you would take out for
a camping trip. It was a temporary but very beautiful building. Additionally,
four houses and the town abbey were commandeered for the king.
(19:51):
There's actually some debate over whether a house had actually
been built from scratch for the proceedings. It's also unclear
exactly where King France is the first staid. But the
main tent for the French group was really spectacular. It
was a hundred and twenty feet tall that's thirty six
point five meters, and it was decorated with this exquisite
blue velvet and cloth of gold. As a quick explainer
(20:15):
in case anyone is wondering what cloth of gold is,
it's not a thing I realized was a specific thing
for reading over this. It is a woven fabric in
which the threads that make up the weft of the fabric.
There's are the ones that go side to side on
the loom. Those are actually wrapped in gold. This events
(20:40):
had a lot of it's just why it has the
name that it does. Yes. Yeah, you can incidentally still
buy cloth of gold. It's very hard to get and
there's a lot of imitation cloth of gold. Some people
in textiles will kind of make the direct line of
like this is why we have LeMay. It's because people
were trying to egg very cheap cloth of gold. Representatives, Listen,
(21:04):
it works for stage. Uh. This entire enterprise for both
countries of building these encampments was a huge economic driver
for the months that it took to complete the set up.
Each of them undertook the setup of the encampments separately,
so that meant they each paid for their own stuff
and they bolstered the industries of their own countries. And remember,
(21:26):
in addition to just the housing that we've been talking about,
they had to furnish all of those spaces. They had
to provide bedding and dishware, and for the royal household,
entire wardrobes had to be planned and constructed and then
transported to the site. We'll talk a little bit about those,
but these two kings were very into their clothes and
both of them had a lot of direct say in
what they wore. For this, there were feasts planned, which
(21:49):
meant that not only did ovens have to be built
on site, but all of the furniture, the linens, and
other accouterment needed for banquets had to be ready. The
two countries shared the expense of the millions and other
facilities that were used for the tournament activities. In addition
to all of the structures, there were food and drink logistics.
There needed to be enough beer and wine for everyone
(22:11):
to drink, as well as grain, meat, and cooking necessities
like seasonings and spices. Every camp managed their own meat
supply by traveling with livestock that would be killed and
prepared as needed throughout the event, but also meant that
there needed to be places for the animals to basically
live to be stored before they were killed. Deer, sheep, poultry,
(22:35):
and other livestock traveled across the English Channel or overland
through France to get to the summit. These two countries
built entire temporary towns just for this. Two and a
half weeks of the tournament and festival, and because of
the importance of this moment, no expense was spared. There
are very few surviving plans or sketches of the layout
(22:58):
of either of the camps. The majority of the information
that we have about them is from descriptions. There is
also a painting of the English camp, but that painting
was commissioned by King Henry the Eighth, it's believed uh,
and that didn't happen until twenty five years later in
five It is not an accurate representation, although some of
the details of it do definitely align with written accounts,
(23:20):
including the lavish Golden Palace that the King of England
had built, and throughout all of this construction it actually
was being done over This entire foundation of risk cannot
in terms of building structure, but because there was so
much back and forth and renegotiation of terms and people
(23:42):
disagreeing about how all of this was going to play out,
that it was always possible at any moment that one
of these kings was going to withdraw and refuse the
entire meeting and the last days leading up to the
summit there was ongoing negotiating. As Cardinal Wolseley traveled back
and forth between the two kings, working out last minute
(24:03):
disputes both about the event and about other issues, and
just disagreements between the men. A betrothal between the countries
was agreed upon, one that had previously been discussed but
still needed confirmation. Henry's daughter, Princess Mary, was just four
years old at the time and was affirmed as the
(24:24):
future wife of Francis, the first son Daupha Francis. That
arrangement would later be retracted, but in the final days
of tension before the meeting, it was considered a settled matter,
and the days before the official event kicked off, attendees
arrived and they settled into their accommodations the encampments, and
both spontaneous and very official meetings and introductions were conducted
(24:50):
among all of these attending nobles. So make no mistake,
even though there had been endless discussions about how this
entire event was going to play out, to ensure equal
city between Henry and Francis. As an assign I went
with Francis for writing this instead of Francois because most
history books that we have access to list him that way,
just in case you're wondering um. But even though all
(25:12):
of this discussion had gone on to make sure they
appeared to be equal. Those two men did want to
outdo one another in any way they could, and that
carried through to their choice of clothing. Henry the Eighth,
who at this point was twenty eight, he was kind
of we we see paintings of him when he was
later in life. Usually at this point he was kind
of like in his young, hot prime. He was married
(25:34):
to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, when this festival
was mounted, and he began the festivals. In an article
of clothing quote ribbed with cloth of gold of such
shape and making that it was marvelous to behold. Later
in the festivities, he is said to have worn a
suit of armor that was trimmed with eleven pearls and
an estimated two thousand ounces of gold. And according to
(25:58):
an account written by a witness, because he had heard
that Francis the First had a beard, Henry allowed his
own beard to grow out. Because his beard was naturally read.
It went with his gold everything else. There's more nuance
to that story. He had actually promised the French king
he would not shave his beard until the two men met.
But that's like one of the tales that got told
(26:18):
in real time about how this whole thing was going.
For his part, Francis the First started the proceedings in
a garment with swaths of golden embellishment and jewels kind
of dripping off him, as well as these white, ostrich plumes.
We will talk about how the field of cloth of
gold began, including some trepidation on both sides, after we
(26:40):
get back from a quick sponsor break. So to begin
the festivities, the two kings road toward one another on horseback.
This happened sometime between five pm and six pm on
June seven. You'll see different times of day listed. As
(27:02):
each of them set out from their encampment, three cannons
were fired, so everyone was aware that they had started.
If an onlooker didn't understand the context of this situation,
it might very well have appeared that they were charging
one another in anticipation of battle. Each of them had
a whole procession with them, including infantry and mounted archers,
and the exact arrangements of these attendants, like how they
(27:24):
were positioned around their monarchs, has been debated for literal centuries.
We don't really know, But of course, instead of fighting.
As they approached one another, they doffed their caps, dismounted, embraced,
and then entered into a gold draped pavilion built expressly
for this opening ceremony meeting. The two kings proclaimed their
(27:45):
willingness to adhere to the plan of brotherhood. Exact accounts
of what was said in that tent differ. That is
one of the things I want to talk about behind
the scenes. But the result of all of this, even
though accounts vary, is what matth nerd. The summit had
officially started. The whole thing almost didn't happen, though, because
(28:06):
of a bit of confusion as things began. As the
processions came into sight of one another, both men were
surprised by the size of the other countries group. Both
processions stopped briefly wondering if they had been duped or
lured into some kind of an attack. Each king needed
to be reassured by an advisor that everything was fine,
(28:28):
that it was all proceeding as agreed. No, No, that's
the same size as your group, I promise, honey, let's go.
The tournament aspect of this meeting was very much kind
of like military training. Like we said, the two kings
were going to be on the same side, so it
wasn't serious combat, even though everyone is said to have
(28:51):
done their best. Uh. There was a jousting competition, there
was a mounted combat tourney, and then there was a
competition of combat on foot. So the two kings headed
up a team that would take on challengers, and no
challenger was turned away. Although the number of times each
competition could run was limited to eight, that only happened
that limit number after a lot of negotiating, because initially
(29:14):
the plan was will just keep going until everyone has
gotten to fight that wants to, but that was not
really a tenable plan. Competitions took place throughout the entire
run of the summit, although they did not take place
on holy days or feast days. The jousting on June sixteenth,
for example, was based on record extremely vigorous. Each king
broke more than a dozen lances. Francis the first, actually
(29:37):
received a minor head wound at his temple. The kings
had taken more than eight challenges that day because so
many men wanted to participate and they both were game
to keep going. At the end of the day, Henry
and Francis had scored a win. Their numbers were the highest.
Henry the Eighth had a special suit of armor made
for the competition that covered his entire body, but was
(29:58):
made of narrow plates of steel that were affixed to
leather strips. This results to a high degree of articulation
over a normal suit of armor, and the way that
it balanced weight made it more comfortable for the wearer
as well. That suit of armor is now part of
the collection of the Royal Armories Museum in Leeds. You
can see photos of it online. It's clear just how
(30:22):
intricate its construction is even in the pictures. Yeah, they
have actually done over the years. I didn't find one
for this, but I'm sure there's still some online videos
of a person wearing that armor and moving to show
you just how much freedom of motion is available, which
is not normally the case at all with a suit
(30:42):
of armor. Uh. There were also entertainments and social events.
Musicians played, There were masquerade parties. Apparently Henry the Eighth
kept trying to fool people, but he was so obviously
who he was, even in a costume that had never worked,
and performers would enter aane attendees with dance and poetry, recitation,
(31:02):
and other kinds of entertainment, and the clothes became their
own entertainment. So we've been talking about them a few times,
but each monarch seemed to wear one heavily embroidered and
embellished outfit after another. Henry's are generally written about as
though they were the more flamboyant, but Francis had his
own unique style that I think it's kind of cool.
(31:25):
Over the course, for example, of the jousting competitions, the
clothes that he had had made for those competitions were
embroidered with words, and each costumes words built on the
previous one until he had assembled through wearing them the
poetic line heart fastened in pain endless when she delivereth
me not of bonds. During the course of the celebration,
(31:47):
Henry the Eighth broke the rules about the monarch's not
competing with each other when he challenged Francis to a
wrestling match. Henry was intoxicated when he did this and
kind of got his tail hand it to him. Francis,
who Henry had not known was an expert in wrestling,
had won the match quickly with a hip throw. This
(32:09):
incident showed up in a lot of French accounts characterizing
Henry the Eighth as an oath, and English accounts generally
avoid all mention of it. This is an interesting one
because it would have been incredibly embarrassing, But even most
French accounts are pretty gracious about saying, oh, he handled
(32:30):
the defeat graciously. He got up and went. You know,
he allegedly challenged Frances again and Frances was like, no, dude. Um.
We don't really know if he had hurt feelings about it.
That is not recorded. The second to last day of
the summit, during a mass that was given by Wolsey,
a massive kite appeared in the sky, and this was
(32:51):
a giant hoop kite, so uh fabric stretched around big hoops,
and it was made to look like a beast. Does
a matter of some debate, it was long and dragon
like by many accounts. This has been stated by some
to have been a Welsh dragon, which would have been
a nod to Henry the eight ancestry, but it has
also been recorded as a salamander, which was Francis. The
(33:15):
first symbol in that painting that we mentioned earlier, commissioned
by Henry the Eighth, it is very much a dragon,
But as for who knows what it was in the day,
no one uh all agreed that it was incredibly impressive,
and some accounts even say that it breathed fire that
would lead it over to the Welsh dragon side. If
those accounts are accurate, the mythical salamander also has fire
(33:39):
associated with it. June this was the final day of
the gathering, and it was a Sunday. All the competition
was complete. That last day included only dining and parties.
Awards were given out to tournament prize winners. Henry and
Francis had one last private meeting where they said good
(34:00):
by to one another, and then the summit was considered
a great success. You're probably wondering what all of this
Shenanigan's costs. Estimates in recent years regarding what field of
cloth of gold celebration would cost in modern currency landed
at about nineteen million dollars. Currency conversion three time is
very inexact. We always say that, so take that number
(34:22):
with a grain of salt, but there is no denying
that it was incredibly excessive and expensive. We do have
some other statistics that do not need to be converted.
Over the course of the event, twenty nine thousand fish,
thousand eggs, six thousand, four hundred seventy five birds, two thousand,
two hundred sheep, and two hundred sixteen thousand gallons of
(34:44):
wine were served. Seventeen hundred swords were purchased for the
various competitions, as well as armor of both metal and
leather for all of the participants, and there had been
four forges built near the field of the tournament so
that weapons could be served ist is needed Throughout. This
extravagant event is often described as being ultimately kind of
(35:07):
a lot of fuss with no real benefit. It was
not the harbinger of an extended period of peace between
the two nations as it was built. Henry, for example,
had been having meetings with Charles the fifth of the
Holy Roman Empire right before the Field of Cloth of Gold,
and the intent always was jockey for the best possible
(35:28):
outcome for himself and England, and even the gestures Francis
and Henry showed one another in the weeks leading up
to the party kind of seemed like dares to the
other to do something equivalent. So, for example, when Henry
the Eighth sent one of his favorite and most trusted confidant,
Sir Richard Wingfield to France as an ambassador. Francis the
(35:50):
First gave the man the same access to himself and
the royal apartments as he had had in England, which
was unprecedented, and then in response, Henry gave a number
of French nobles who were considered hostages in England similar treatment.
They became as much a part of hunting parties and
banquets as any member of the English court. It's like, oh,
(36:12):
you are gracious to my people, while I am super gracious.
Two years uh, it's the gracious off. Within a month
of the Field of Cloth of Gold concluding, Henry had
started an alliance with Charles the Fifth, which undermined the
whole purpose of the Field of Cloth of Gold. The
following year, France was at war with the Holy Roman Empire,
(36:34):
and when England was officially drawn into the conflict in
fifty two, it was in support of Charles the Fifth,
pitting England and France against each other just like old time.
So so much for all the brotherhood that they talked
about in this event. After the summit, Henry and Frances
did not see each other again for more than twelve years.
(36:56):
In fifty two, Henry the Eight fled to France with
a Lynn, asking Frances to intercede with the pope on
their behalf so that Henry could have his marriage to
Catherine Annuld. Historian Glenn Richardson makes the case in his
book about the event that it had significance despite the
way things played out in the aftermath of it, writing
(37:16):
quote that medieval and Renaissance elites valued theatrical extravagance is
beyond doubt. But this was a very different thing from
pointless frivolity. By Richardson's reckoning, it was really more than
the start of a truce. It offered Europe a moment
of hope during a period of crisis, and hope that
even long established rivalries might be put aside. Yeah, if
(37:40):
you look at it that way, it kind of fulfills
Woolsey's hopes that like no, I'm I'm showing you guys
that we can be friends. People can be friends if
they choose to. Warring countries can find a path through.
There is also, if you look at the way that
negotiations played out, each of these men walked into this
thinking that they had gotten the upper hand, which is
(38:00):
pretty interesting. Uh. Today the area where the tournament field
was located remains undeveloped open land. There's actually a granite
marker for it roughly a mile outside of Ardre, so
you can go visit. Some of the exact locations of
things are difficult to pin down because as we said,
we we don't have plans surviving for most of it,
(38:21):
and its surveying would have been very different than anyway
to what we understand now. But uh, I just can't
help but laugh. My dudes, Uh, do you want to
hear some listener mail? That's very cute. This is some
(38:41):
of the tail end of the stuff that I physically
got from the office. So and this is when that
I don't know if we have ever read any of
brandy stuff before. She has sent us many things over
the years which she talks about ah shrides. Dear Holly
and Tracy, I would like to start off by wishing
you both a magical Christmas reason and by thank hey
you for all the knowledge that you passed into the
(39:03):
world of podcasting for us listeners to enjoy. We sure
did miss a lot in history class. Now I send you,
ladies a Christmas card. Every year, each featuring one of
our many pets. This year's highlights Vegas, my nine year
old great Dane. I want to kiss that dog so bad.
It's such a cutie pie. I love a great Dane.
This photo was taken just one week before he had
(39:23):
a tennis ball sized tumor removed from his chest. We
did the photo shoot back in February because we were
not sure whether or not he would survive surgery. We
have lost a great dame to annesthesia in the past,
or if he would be with us for pictures come
the appropriate time of year. I'm ecstatic and grateful to
say that our Vegas is still with us, as funky
as ever, and still does not act as though he
is actually a senior. Speaking of seniors, this brings me
(39:46):
to the wallet sized photo that I have additionally included.
Although we are strangers, I have heard both of your
lovely voices every week for ten years, and I feel
as though we are friends. I also knew that you
ladies would appreciate just how cute this picture is. This
is one of our engagement photos from back in May
of this year. She wrote this in It's last year.
My fiancee's dog Sibby, who was one of the two
(40:08):
dogs that you featured on last year's Christmas card, is
ten years old and she is actually the reason that
we met. She accompanied us on our first date, so
we found it quite fitting to have her with us
for our engagement photo shoot, which was held at the
same location as our first date. I just wanted to
share these warm fuzzies with two of my favorite people.
She also included some cat related gifts. I need to
(40:28):
forward some of that parcel to you, Tracy. UM and
she says, may every moment of your holidays be decorated
with love and joy. Brandy, Brandy. I I don't know
that I've ever mentioned on the show before, but I
have always loved your Christmas cards because they are so sweet.
There's always a sweet animal in them, and they're just
darling pictures that look so joyous and beautiful. UM, so
thank you, thank you. I love that from you. Your
(40:50):
dog is as much a part of your relationship and
her engagement as any as either of you. And congratulations.
I don't know if their engagement has culminated in a
wedding yet, but um, whenever that happens or has happened,
I hope it was abundant joy. This is so sweet
and they love these and they do make me feel
a warm and fuzzy anything great, really cute. Um, if
(41:15):
you would like to write to us, Unfortunately, as we've said,
we don't have a physical office right now. Um, there's
a little madness going on, but so email is the
safe bet. You could do that at History podcast at
iHeart radio dot com. You can also find us on
social media as missed in History And if you have
not subscribed to the show yet and you would like to,
(41:36):
so easy you can do that on the I heart
Radio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
I heart Radio. For more podcasts from i heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class A production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy D. Wilson. If you
have read or seen a production of Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth,
the Field of Cloth of Gold is a plot point
(00:23):
in it. The author did take some liberties with the
historical record. There are people at his version that we're
not there. Um. In addition to some other stuff, the
Field of cloth of Gold is kind of a mouthful
of a name for an event. It was a summit
and a celebration that was held to start what was
hoped to be a long term alliance between France and England. Uh.
(00:45):
It's not exactly an unknown piece of history. It comes
up sometimes in classes. I feel like I never got
a really big discussion of it. I could have maybe
not been paying attention that day that happen and sometimes. Um,
but some of the details about it are really really fascinating,
So it seems worthy of a discussion about it, even
(01:07):
if you have heard of it. In part too, because
some of the most recent scholarship frames things a little
a little bit differently than it's been discussed for years.
This is a tricky one because it is a moment
in time that represents so many moving parts and nuances
of relationships that we're kind of having to do like
(01:30):
the quick and dirty version on some of that. So
just know, we try to cover some of those influences
going in. But of course anything like this that happens,
the web that branches out from it historically to touch
other things is very intricate. Um, we're going to jump
right into it. And first we are going to start
with the very briefest of recaps of each of the
(01:52):
two monarchs involved to set up how they found themselves
at this giant festival slash party, slash turn and in
a temporary city in northern France. And we're going to
start with Henry the Eighth. Yes, So, Henry the Eighth
took the throne at the age of seventeen, That was
on April one, fifteen o nine, when his father, Henry
the Seventh died. Henry the Seventh hadn't exactly been beloved,
(02:17):
but he had kept England fairly peaceful after the Wars
of the Roses, and then when he died, Henry the
Eighth inherited what was a pretty ideal situation, although he
did rebel against having a similar identity to that of
his father. Henry the eighth was tall at six ft
two and also athletic. He loved a good party, and
(02:39):
he had very keen designs on France. By the time
the Field of Cloth of Gold events took place, Henry
had already been recognized by Pope Julius the Second as
King of France. That happened in fifteen twelve after the
French King Louis the twelfth had been excommunicated. But after
a series of mixed results battles and the rise of
(03:02):
Pope Leo the Tenth, Louis the twelfth was back in
the papacy's good graces and Henry no longer had the
support of the Holy See as the King of France.
Henry himself, though, continued to see himself as just that,
and he thought he deserved some tribute payments from France. Yeah,
(03:24):
there's a fun thing that didn't make it into the
episode that I will talk about him and behind the scenes.
But like Henry the eight, Francis the First, who was
the actual King of France, was considered handsome and charming,
and per accounts of the day, having quote an air
of greatness about him, accompanied with a certain gracious humanity.
(03:48):
Francis became king when Louis the twelfth died. He was
Louis the twelfth son in law, and he married the
predecessor king's daughter, Claude, and just as Henry the eighth,
he was a young man when this happened, although he
was not a teenager. Francis became King of France in
fifteen fifteen at the age of twenty, and he had
fought in several battles against the English before he took
(04:09):
the throne, and again, like Henry, he had inherited a
pretty stable kingdom, skirmishes with the papacy aside, and he
was also ambitious like his English counterpart, although he had
designs on gaining land and power, primarily from Italy although
other places. Unlike Henry, he moved on this a little faster.
(04:29):
He started to achieve his goals pretty quickly. For two
men who were in some ways so similar, both leading
countries and jockeying for power, it kind of seems like
a rivalry was inevitable, and it's often written that the
two of them actually kind of admired each other personally,
but they would never have admitted as much publicly. So
(04:49):
please keep in mind this is just the broadest discussion
of these two monarchs, or trying to hit the points
that are most salient in regard to the field of
lot of gold. There were a lot of additional events
that took place and colored the way these two men
saw each other, and a lot of other nuance to
have a lot of these events also shaped Europe's political
(05:12):
climate in the early sixteenth century. In fifteen twenty, Francis
the First of France and Henry the eighth of England
through an incredibly lavish party together. You will also see
this listed as a summit, as a tournament, etcetera. It
was so big and so lavish that it is a
noted historical event, and with good reason. This thing lasted
(05:35):
two and a half weeks. So for these two people
that had a rivalry, how did such a thing happen
To even try to get to a point that England
and France would be friends instead of rivals. That seems
like it would have taken an immense leap of faith
and imagination. The Hundred Years War had lasted from thirteen
(05:57):
thirty seven to fourteen fifty three. That was followed immediately
by England's internal conflict, the Wars of the Roses, starting
in fourteen fifty five. The Wars of the Roses lasted
thirty two years, and then France had its own domestic problems.
The War of the Public Wheel was a conflict between
King Louis the eleventh of France and the country's feudal
(06:21):
nobles that took place in fourteen sixty five and ended
with the crown making concessions to the nobility. A similar
struggle for power between the feudal lords and the throne
of France took place in fourteen eighty five, and this
time it was complicated by the fact that the King
of France at the time was Charles the Eighth, who
(06:41):
was still a teenager his sister and de Bougeux was
acting as regent. England and other countries supported this uprising
of the nobility. Beyond these wars, there were additional conflicts
with other nations and groups all throughout Europe and beyond.
So in short, the were two countries that had lived
(07:02):
in conflict more or less continuously for as long as
anybody and who was alive in the early fift hundreds.
Could remember many years ago we made a joke on
the show about how there should be a website that
was just was England at war with France and tell
you yes or no, and then listeners made it. Two
(07:22):
different listeners made such websites because these are two nations
that have often been not in harmony. Being in close
proximity made them kind of want things from each other
and to have power over one another. And it just
as we the list that we read is by no
means conference right. There was a lot, a lot, a
(07:44):
lot of ongoing conflict, but there were actually a lot
of people starting the campaign for peace in the early
sixteenth century. Humanists and philosophers of both countries as well
as others, wrote pamphlets and papers on the matter. But
this particular moment of peace was achieved in part because
a pope had wanted war with non Christians. Pope Leo
(08:07):
the Tenth, who was a Medici by birth, had become
increasingly dismayed with the successful military efforts of the Ottoman Empire,
and in fifteen seventeen he called on Europe's Christian nations
to unite against that perceived religious threat and That meant
that the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Portugal, France, and England
all had to stop fighting one another so they could
(08:30):
carry out the Pope's plan. The Pope absolutely knew that
there had to be clear guidelines for such a union
and started creating Truth's Plans and early fifteen eighteen. This
involved a five year time frame in which the Pope
would help the included nations work through all their disputes
and rule on any of them as needed. Right up
(08:53):
to this point, alliances and treaties were being signed and
broken as various leaders sought to shift their positions and
gain the most power. You know, five year thing was
kind of like listen, I know, like you're not going
to be friends forever, but could we for five years
agree that we're going to fight people who aren't Christians?
Could we all just table this conflict for five seconds.
(09:18):
In late fifteen eighteen, Cardinal Thomas Woolsey successfully managed to
get Europe's Christian superpowers of the time to sign the
Treaty of Universal Peace. Woolsey was English and had finagled
a great deal of power as an acting representative of
the Pope, and he used that power to shift some
of the conditions of the treaty that the Pope had
(09:40):
laid out, with an aim to create a permanent piece
rather than the five year term that Pope Leo had
set out. That sounds lovely, but listen, there's always a
shady enterprise going on. He was also angling throughout this
whole thing to ensure that England came out with more
power than anyone else, including naming Henry the Eighth as
(10:01):
the arbiter of dispute rather than the Pope, which people
actually agreed to. By the time Wolsey was done, there
were additional treaties branching off of that main treaty. Those
subtreaties established more specific agreements between nations, particularly between England
and France, and one part of the agreement was that
(10:23):
the Kings of England and France would have an in
person meeting to seal the deal and assure one another
that they were both all in on the Piece plan.
Wolsey saw this as a way to make both men
leaders to all the Christian nations of Europe, as they
showed strength through cooperation and established kind of a behavioral
(10:43):
model of reconciliation. That meant that this meeting had to
be spectacular. Yeah, he does seem to have thought like,
if I can show these two guys being cool with
one another, other people will want to be cool. That's
a bless his heart moment for me. One of the
(11:04):
reasons that the in person meeting between England and France
was arranged was to show very visibly and physically that
Francis and Henry were going to be allies to the
exclusion of another young and charismatic ruler of the day,
that being Charles the Fifth, who had become ruler of
the Holy Roman Empire in fifteen nineteen and was incidentally
(11:25):
Catherine of Arragon's nephew, so kind of related to Henry
the eighth. There was both statesmanship and ego in the mix.
Henry had been jealous of an earlier agreement, before the
Treaty of Universal Peace, in which Francis had allied with
the Holy Roman Empire that was before Charles five, and
that had left Henry feeling a little bit isolated and
(11:47):
left out. Meanwhile, Francis the First had started to feel
threatened by the military power that Charles the fifth commanded,
so they both thought it would be good for them
to be allies and leave Charles out. It was due
to the transition from Maximilian to Charles the Fifth that
the meeting of Henry and Francis did not happen for
(12:07):
almost two years. They were supposed to have their summit
in fifteen nineteen, after the return of the city of
Tornaive to France by England. This had happened after a
great deal of negotiation, but when Maximilian died, the office
of Holy Roman Emperor was filled by election. In addition
to Charles the Fifth, who was Maximilian's grandson, Francis the
(12:29):
First and Henry the Eighth were also candidates, there were
seven prince electors from the empire who determined who this
successor would be, and this very active rivalry, of course,
delayed the meeting of Henry and Francis has agreed to
in the terms of the Universal Peace Treaty. Once Charles
the Fifth was finally selected as successor, things once again
(12:52):
started moving forward. Yeah, of Henry the Eighth of Francis
the First, Francis was the only one that really had
any kind of like possible um vote getting ability. Henry
the eighth kind of was like me to um yourself
in as a candidate to run the Holy Roman Empire.
(13:12):
We will talk about the preparations involved in readying the
chosen locations for royals and their retinues once this whole
thing started actually happening, and we're going to do that
after we pause for a sponsor break. If you are
(13:34):
familiar with your tutor history, you know that Cardinal Woolsey,
of course famously fell out of favor with the English
king when he was unable to get Henry the eighth
and the nullment in nine, But at the point in
time we're discussing here, he was still a trusted ally
of the young monarch. He also kind of became the
de facto party planner for the field of cloth of gold.
(13:56):
In addition to all of the festivities, he had to
negotiate and carefully planned things so that neither ruler felt
slighted or bested, and that there weren't any ways that
either of these two men might suffer public embarrassment. Under Wolsey,
each side had their own head of preparations. For France,
this was Gaspar de Colonnie that was a military commander
(14:19):
of high rank and esteem. And then on the English
side there was Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester, who was
also a decorated war hero. The location for this party,
which was billed as a tournament, was carefully chosen through
negotiations between these men. This was between the towns of
Green and ard. The reason it was a tournament was
(14:41):
so the two monarchs could show cooperation and might. The
tournament aspect was not so that these two men could
compete against each other, though the rules were that they
always competed on the same side. There had also been
a plan laid out to ensure goodwill. During the feasts,
each king would sit in the other king's court, although
(15:03):
the queens each remained with their respective group. Yeah, there's
some so much that went on just to pick the location,
and we'll talk about all of it for clarity. You know,
Guien was still held by England and there was sort
of an English area called the Pale there, and then
(15:24):
Arder was in French territory and the middle. What made
the middle was a big deal because nobody the actual
equidistance center still sat on English territory and it became
a whole thing. Uh. This summit event took place from
June seven to June. Each king brought six thousand people.
(15:49):
That was a number agreed to by both sides, so
that neither had more than the other. This feels like
when you see kids and they get like fast food
with their parents and you watch them portioning out by
counting how many French fries each child has, so nobody
gets jealous. That's very much what this feels like. But
(16:10):
six thousand per person meant that there were more than
twelve thousand people in attendance for eighteen days at this
party slash tournament slash summit, and that, as you can imagine,
meant a lot of logistics and temporary infrastructure. All of
those people needed to be housed and fed. There needed
to be space for all of the various planned events,
(16:31):
and this had become so high profile that all of
Europe was watching. That six thousand people per country number
is also pretty interesting when you consider the population of
each country and the extent of the nobility for each
of them. The population of France was about fifteen million,
England was about two point five million. The sizes of
(16:54):
their respective nobilities were similarly proportioned, and so that meant
that with six thousand people, Henry's entourage could include a
lot more of England's nobility, whereas France had to exclude
a lot of There's. One result was that there were
a lot of very high ranking people in France who
found themselves socializing with English attendees who were really pretty
(17:16):
far below them in the hierarchy of nobility. Yeah, I
read a stat that I didn't. It's kind of impossible
to verify that France had about twenty five thousand noble
households at this point, so a lot of them were
left out. But this was kind of most of England's nobility,
so it was a very interesting disparity in that regard.
(17:39):
In February, more than five months before the meeting things
really got under way, there had been a new treaty
for each monarch to sign that laid out the specific
plans in terms of who was financially responsible for what
preparations and what activities would be involved, etcetera. Henry the
Eighth was to set up his court at Guien, which
(18:00):
had been taken by England and the thirt hundreds at
this point, as I said, still under English control. Henry
wanted buildings to be constructed around the existing castle at
Green that would be available and appropriate for royal visitors,
and this ended up being a rather lavish castle. Like
They built a whole new little palace, which was described
(18:21):
in a contemporary account as quote brilliant with kingly pomp.
One of the design elements of this palace was a
secret passage under the floor that connected the king's chambers
with the queen's chambers, so that Henry could visit Catherine
without anybody knowing their business. I love that little detail.
There were also tents constructed around the castle, and that
(18:44):
was where the nobility would stay. The French were headquartered
at ard The two towns are near the northern coast
of France and Patti calais close to the English Channel,
and the meeting point was to be in between the
two of them, the two or less than nine kilometers aparts,
and this is at the village of bowing Him. The
(19:04):
camp for the King of France at Ardre required a
whole lot of work. Ardre had been damaged over the
years in military battles kind of leading right up to
when this meeting happened, and the castle needed a lot
of repair. Additionally, tents were brought in to help house Frances.
The first retinue. Military fortifications were also made to the
castle and surrounding area. Even though this was ostensibly to
(19:28):
be a peaceful meeting, more than three hundred tents were
made just for this meeting on the French side, and
they were lavish enough that the King of France could
stay in them in both style and comfort. So this
is not like the tent you would take out for
a camping trip. It was a temporary but very beautiful building. Additionally,
four houses and the town abbey were commandeered for the king.
(19:51):
There's actually some debate over whether a house had actually
been built from scratch for the proceedings. It's also unclear
exactly where King France is the first staid. But the
main tent for the French group was really spectacular. It
was a hundred and twenty feet tall that's thirty six
point five meters, and it was decorated with this exquisite
blue velvet and cloth of gold. As a quick explainer
(20:15):
in case anyone is wondering what cloth of gold is,
it's not a thing I realized was a specific thing
for reading over this. It is a woven fabric in
which the threads that make up the weft of the fabric.
There's are the ones that go side to side on
the loom. Those are actually wrapped in gold. This events
(20:40):
had a lot of it's just why it has the
name that it does. Yes. Yeah, you can incidentally still
buy cloth of gold. It's very hard to get and
there's a lot of imitation cloth of gold. Some people
in textiles will kind of make the direct line of
like this is why we have LeMay. It's because people
were trying to egg very cheap cloth of gold. Representatives, Listen,
(21:04):
it works for stage. Uh. This entire enterprise for both
countries of building these encampments was a huge economic driver
for the months that it took to complete the set up.
Each of them undertook the setup of the encampments separately,
so that meant they each paid for their own stuff
and they bolstered the industries of their own countries. And remember,
(21:26):
in addition to just the housing that we've been talking about,
they had to furnish all of those spaces. They had
to provide bedding and dishware, and for the royal household,
entire wardrobes had to be planned and constructed and then
transported to the site. We'll talk a little bit about those,
but these two kings were very into their clothes and
both of them had a lot of direct say in
what they wore. For this, there were feasts planned, which
(21:49):
meant that not only did ovens have to be built
on site, but all of the furniture, the linens, and
other accouterment needed for banquets had to be ready. The
two countries shared the expense of the millions and other
facilities that were used for the tournament activities. In addition
to all of the structures, there were food and drink logistics.
There needed to be enough beer and wine for everyone
(22:11):
to drink, as well as grain, meat, and cooking necessities
like seasonings and spices. Every camp managed their own meat
supply by traveling with livestock that would be killed and
prepared as needed throughout the event, but also meant that
there needed to be places for the animals to basically
live to be stored before they were killed. Deer, sheep, poultry,
(22:35):
and other livestock traveled across the English Channel or overland
through France to get to the summit. These two countries
built entire temporary towns just for this. Two and a
half weeks of the tournament and festival, and because of
the importance of this moment, no expense was spared. There
are very few surviving plans or sketches of the layout
(22:58):
of either of the camps. The majority of the information
that we have about them is from descriptions. There is
also a painting of the English camp, but that painting
was commissioned by King Henry the Eighth, it's believed uh,
and that didn't happen until twenty five years later in
five It is not an accurate representation, although some of
the details of it do definitely align with written accounts,
(23:20):
including the lavish Golden Palace that the King of England
had built, and throughout all of this construction it actually
was being done over This entire foundation of risk cannot
in terms of building structure, but because there was so
much back and forth and renegotiation of terms and people
(23:42):
disagreeing about how all of this was going to play out,
that it was always possible at any moment that one
of these kings was going to withdraw and refuse the
entire meeting and the last days leading up to the
summit there was ongoing negotiating. As Cardinal Wolseley traveled back
and forth between the two kings, working out last minute
(24:03):
disputes both about the event and about other issues, and
just disagreements between the men. A betrothal between the countries
was agreed upon, one that had previously been discussed but
still needed confirmation. Henry's daughter, Princess Mary, was just four
years old at the time and was affirmed as the
(24:24):
future wife of Francis, the first son Daupha Francis. That
arrangement would later be retracted, but in the final days
of tension before the meeting, it was considered a settled matter,
and the days before the official event kicked off, attendees
arrived and they settled into their accommodations the encampments, and
both spontaneous and very official meetings and introductions were conducted
(24:50):
among all of these attending nobles. So make no mistake,
even though there had been endless discussions about how this
entire event was going to play out, to ensure equal
city between Henry and Francis. As an assign I went
with Francis for writing this instead of Francois because most
history books that we have access to list him that way,
just in case you're wondering um. But even though all
(25:12):
of this discussion had gone on to make sure they
appeared to be equal. Those two men did want to
outdo one another in any way they could, and that
carried through to their choice of clothing. Henry the Eighth,
who at this point was twenty eight, he was kind
of we we see paintings of him when he was
later in life. Usually at this point he was kind
of like in his young, hot prime. He was married
(25:34):
to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, when this festival
was mounted, and he began the festivals. In an article
of clothing quote ribbed with cloth of gold of such
shape and making that it was marvelous to behold. Later
in the festivities, he is said to have worn a
suit of armor that was trimmed with eleven pearls and
an estimated two thousand ounces of gold. And according to
(25:58):
an account written by a witness, because he had heard
that Francis the First had a beard, Henry allowed his
own beard to grow out. Because his beard was naturally read.
It went with his gold everything else. There's more nuance
to that story. He had actually promised the French king
he would not shave his beard until the two men met.
But that's like one of the tales that got told
(26:18):
in real time about how this whole thing was going.
For his part, Francis the First started the proceedings in
a garment with swaths of golden embellishment and jewels kind
of dripping off him, as well as these white, ostrich plumes.
We will talk about how the field of cloth of
gold began, including some trepidation on both sides, after we
(26:40):
get back from a quick sponsor break. So to begin
the festivities, the two kings road toward one another on horseback.
This happened sometime between five pm and six pm on
June seven. You'll see different times of day listed. As
(27:02):
each of them set out from their encampment, three cannons
were fired, so everyone was aware that they had started.
If an onlooker didn't understand the context of this situation,
it might very well have appeared that they were charging
one another in anticipation of battle. Each of them had
a whole procession with them, including infantry and mounted archers,
and the exact arrangements of these attendants, like how they
(27:24):
were positioned around their monarchs, has been debated for literal centuries.
We don't really know, But of course, instead of fighting.
As they approached one another, they doffed their caps, dismounted, embraced,
and then entered into a gold draped pavilion built expressly
for this opening ceremony meeting. The two kings proclaimed their
(27:45):
willingness to adhere to the plan of brotherhood. Exact accounts
of what was said in that tent differ. That is
one of the things I want to talk about behind
the scenes. But the result of all of this, even
though accounts vary, is what matth nerd. The summit had
officially started. The whole thing almost didn't happen, though, because
(28:06):
of a bit of confusion as things began. As the
processions came into sight of one another, both men were
surprised by the size of the other countries group. Both
processions stopped briefly wondering if they had been duped or
lured into some kind of an attack. Each king needed
to be reassured by an advisor that everything was fine,
(28:28):
that it was all proceeding as agreed. No, No, that's
the same size as your group, I promise, honey, let's go.
The tournament aspect of this meeting was very much kind
of like military training. Like we said, the two kings
were going to be on the same side, so it
wasn't serious combat, even though everyone is said to have
(28:51):
done their best. Uh. There was a jousting competition, there
was a mounted combat tourney, and then there was a
competition of combat on foot. So the two kings headed
up a team that would take on challengers, and no
challenger was turned away. Although the number of times each
competition could run was limited to eight, that only happened
that limit number after a lot of negotiating, because initially
(29:14):
the plan was will just keep going until everyone has
gotten to fight that wants to, but that was not
really a tenable plan. Competitions took place throughout the entire
run of the summit, although they did not take place
on holy days or feast days. The jousting on June sixteenth,
for example, was based on record extremely vigorous. Each king
broke more than a dozen lances. Francis the first, actually
(29:37):
received a minor head wound at his temple. The kings
had taken more than eight challenges that day because so
many men wanted to participate and they both were game
to keep going. At the end of the day, Henry
and Francis had scored a win. Their numbers were the highest.
Henry the Eighth had a special suit of armor made
for the competition that covered his entire body, but was
(29:58):
made of narrow plates of steel that were affixed to
leather strips. This results to a high degree of articulation
over a normal suit of armor, and the way that
it balanced weight made it more comfortable for the wearer
as well. That suit of armor is now part of
the collection of the Royal Armories Museum in Leeds. You
can see photos of it online. It's clear just how
(30:22):
intricate its construction is even in the pictures. Yeah, they
have actually done over the years. I didn't find one
for this, but I'm sure there's still some online videos
of a person wearing that armor and moving to show
you just how much freedom of motion is available, which
is not normally the case at all with a suit
(30:42):
of armor. Uh. There were also entertainments and social events.
Musicians played, There were masquerade parties. Apparently Henry the Eighth
kept trying to fool people, but he was so obviously
who he was, even in a costume that had never worked,
and performers would enter aane attendees with dance and poetry, recitation,
(31:02):
and other kinds of entertainment, and the clothes became their
own entertainment. So we've been talking about them a few times,
but each monarch seemed to wear one heavily embroidered and
embellished outfit after another. Henry's are generally written about as
though they were the more flamboyant, but Francis had his
own unique style that I think it's kind of cool.
(31:25):
Over the course, for example, of the jousting competitions, the
clothes that he had had made for those competitions were
embroidered with words, and each costumes words built on the
previous one until he had assembled through wearing them the
poetic line heart fastened in pain endless when she delivereth
me not of bonds. During the course of the celebration,
(31:47):
Henry the Eighth broke the rules about the monarch's not
competing with each other when he challenged Francis to a
wrestling match. Henry was intoxicated when he did this and
kind of got his tail hand it to him. Francis,
who Henry had not known was an expert in wrestling,
had won the match quickly with a hip throw. This
(32:09):
incident showed up in a lot of French accounts characterizing
Henry the Eighth as an oath, and English accounts generally
avoid all mention of it. This is an interesting one
because it would have been incredibly embarrassing, But even most
French accounts are pretty gracious about saying, oh, he handled
(32:30):
the defeat graciously. He got up and went. You know,
he allegedly challenged Frances again and Frances was like, no, dude. Um.
We don't really know if he had hurt feelings about it.
That is not recorded. The second to last day of
the summit, during a mass that was given by Wolsey,
a massive kite appeared in the sky, and this was
(32:51):
a giant hoop kite, so uh fabric stretched around big hoops,
and it was made to look like a beast. Does
a matter of some debate, it was long and dragon
like by many accounts. This has been stated by some
to have been a Welsh dragon, which would have been
a nod to Henry the eight ancestry, but it has
also been recorded as a salamander, which was Francis. The
(33:15):
first symbol in that painting that we mentioned earlier, commissioned
by Henry the Eighth, it is very much a dragon,
But as for who knows what it was in the day,
no one uh all agreed that it was incredibly impressive,
and some accounts even say that it breathed fire that
would lead it over to the Welsh dragon side. If
those accounts are accurate, the mythical salamander also has fire
(33:39):
associated with it. June this was the final day of
the gathering, and it was a Sunday. All the competition
was complete. That last day included only dining and parties.
Awards were given out to tournament prize winners. Henry and
Francis had one last private meeting where they said good
(34:00):
by to one another, and then the summit was considered
a great success. You're probably wondering what all of this
Shenanigan's costs. Estimates in recent years regarding what field of
cloth of gold celebration would cost in modern currency landed
at about nineteen million dollars. Currency conversion three time is
very inexact. We always say that, so take that number
(34:22):
with a grain of salt, but there is no denying
that it was incredibly excessive and expensive. We do have
some other statistics that do not need to be converted.
Over the course of the event, twenty nine thousand fish,
thousand eggs, six thousand, four hundred seventy five birds, two thousand,
two hundred sheep, and two hundred sixteen thousand gallons of
(34:44):
wine were served. Seventeen hundred swords were purchased for the
various competitions, as well as armor of both metal and
leather for all of the participants, and there had been
four forges built near the field of the tournament so
that weapons could be served ist is needed Throughout. This
extravagant event is often described as being ultimately kind of
(35:07):
a lot of fuss with no real benefit. It was
not the harbinger of an extended period of peace between
the two nations as it was built. Henry, for example,
had been having meetings with Charles the fifth of the
Holy Roman Empire right before the Field of Cloth of Gold,
and the intent always was jockey for the best possible
(35:28):
outcome for himself and England, and even the gestures Francis
and Henry showed one another in the weeks leading up
to the party kind of seemed like dares to the
other to do something equivalent. So, for example, when Henry
the Eighth sent one of his favorite and most trusted confidant,
Sir Richard Wingfield to France as an ambassador. Francis the
(35:50):
First gave the man the same access to himself and
the royal apartments as he had had in England, which
was unprecedented, and then in response, Henry gave a number
of French nobles who were considered hostages in England similar treatment.
They became as much a part of hunting parties and
banquets as any member of the English court. It's like, oh,
(36:12):
you are gracious to my people, while I am super gracious.
Two years uh, it's the gracious off. Within a month
of the Field of Cloth of Gold concluding, Henry had
started an alliance with Charles the Fifth, which undermined the
whole purpose of the Field of Cloth of Gold. The
following year, France was at war with the Holy Roman Empire,
(36:34):
and when England was officially drawn into the conflict in
fifty two, it was in support of Charles the Fifth,
pitting England and France against each other just like old time.
So so much for all the brotherhood that they talked
about in this event. After the summit, Henry and Frances
did not see each other again for more than twelve years.
(36:56):
In fifty two, Henry the Eight fled to France with
a Lynn, asking Frances to intercede with the pope on
their behalf so that Henry could have his marriage to
Catherine Annuld. Historian Glenn Richardson makes the case in his
book about the event that it had significance despite the
way things played out in the aftermath of it, writing
(37:16):
quote that medieval and Renaissance elites valued theatrical extravagance is
beyond doubt. But this was a very different thing from
pointless frivolity. By Richardson's reckoning, it was really more than
the start of a truce. It offered Europe a moment
of hope during a period of crisis, and hope that
even long established rivalries might be put aside. Yeah, if
(37:40):
you look at it that way, it kind of fulfills
Woolsey's hopes that like no, I'm I'm showing you guys
that we can be friends. People can be friends if
they choose to. Warring countries can find a path through.
There is also, if you look at the way that
negotiations played out, each of these men walked into this
thinking that they had gotten the upper hand, which is
(38:00):
pretty interesting. Uh. Today the area where the tournament field
was located remains undeveloped open land. There's actually a granite
marker for it roughly a mile outside of Ardre, so
you can go visit. Some of the exact locations of
things are difficult to pin down because as we said,
we we don't have plans surviving for most of it,
(38:21):
and its surveying would have been very different than anyway
to what we understand now. But uh, I just can't
help but laugh. My dudes, Uh, do you want to
hear some listener mail? That's very cute. This is some
(38:41):
of the tail end of the stuff that I physically
got from the office. So and this is when that
I don't know if we have ever read any of
brandy stuff before. She has sent us many things over
the years which she talks about ah shrides. Dear Holly
and Tracy, I would like to start off by wishing
you both a magical Christmas reason and by thank hey
you for all the knowledge that you passed into the
(39:03):
world of podcasting for us listeners to enjoy. We sure
did miss a lot in history class. Now I send you,
ladies a Christmas card. Every year, each featuring one of
our many pets. This year's highlights Vegas, my nine year
old great Dane. I want to kiss that dog so bad.
It's such a cutie pie. I love a great Dane.
This photo was taken just one week before he had
(39:23):
a tennis ball sized tumor removed from his chest. We
did the photo shoot back in February because we were
not sure whether or not he would survive surgery. We
have lost a great dame to annesthesia in the past,
or if he would be with us for pictures come
the appropriate time of year. I'm ecstatic and grateful to
say that our Vegas is still with us, as funky
as ever, and still does not act as though he
is actually a senior. Speaking of seniors, this brings me
(39:46):
to the wallet sized photo that I have additionally included.
Although we are strangers, I have heard both of your
lovely voices every week for ten years, and I feel
as though we are friends. I also knew that you
ladies would appreciate just how cute this picture is. This
is one of our engagement photos from back in May
of this year. She wrote this in It's last year.
My fiancee's dog Sibby, who was one of the two
(40:08):
dogs that you featured on last year's Christmas card, is
ten years old and she is actually the reason that
we met. She accompanied us on our first date, so
we found it quite fitting to have her with us
for our engagement photo shoot, which was held at the
same location as our first date. I just wanted to
share these warm fuzzies with two of my favorite people.
She also included some cat related gifts. I need to
(40:28):
forward some of that parcel to you, Tracy. UM and
she says, may every moment of your holidays be decorated
with love and joy. Brandy, Brandy. I I don't know
that I've ever mentioned on the show before, but I
have always loved your Christmas cards because they are so sweet.
There's always a sweet animal in them, and they're just
darling pictures that look so joyous and beautiful. UM, so
thank you, thank you. I love that from you. Your
(40:50):
dog is as much a part of your relationship and
her engagement as any as either of you. And congratulations.
I don't know if their engagement has culminated in a
wedding yet, but um, whenever that happens or has happened,
I hope it was abundant joy. This is so sweet
and they love these and they do make me feel
a warm and fuzzy anything great, really cute. Um, if
(41:15):
you would like to write to us, Unfortunately, as we've said,
we don't have a physical office right now. Um, there's
a little madness going on, but so email is the
safe bet. You could do that at History podcast at
iHeart radio dot com. You can also find us on
social media as missed in History And if you have
not subscribed to the show yet and you would like to,
(41:36):
so easy you can do that on the I heart
Radio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
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Tracy Wilson
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