The Tudor Rose by Jennifer Kewley Draskau

Author:Jennifer Kewley Draskau [Draskau, Jennifer Kewley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: STA Books
Published: 2015-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

10 - Notes

1. CSP Ven vol ii 396-410

2. L&P ii 4134

3. CSP Ven vol ii 396-410

4. L&P ii pt 2 4479

5. CSP Ven vol ii 1085 letter 192

6. ibid

7. Cavendish, 100

8. L&P Hen VIII Preface no. 514

11 FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD

The Field of the Cloth of Gold, the legendary summit meeting between Francis I and Henry VIII, would go down in history as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Its celebrity reposes upon its extravagance as spectacle and display of opulence rather than upon its political significance. In the spring of 1520, the preparations for this massive event were snowballing rapidly. Wolsey, his power approaching its zenith, personally selected those who would accompany the King and Queen of England. But Mary Rose, Duchess of Suffolk, was not only the King’s sister, but the Dowager Queen of France. This was yet another headache for Wolsey: there was no precedent to dictate the number of a former Queen’s attendants.

In March 1520, Wolsey contacted Brandon. Brandon replied that Mary had again fallen ill. He apologised for his absence from recent Council sessions, explaining that Mary had sent for him from her sickbed. ‘The said French Queen hath had, and yet hath, divers physicians with her for her old disease in her side, and as yet cannot be perfectly restored to her health.’1

But at the prospect of another glorious occasion, Mary’s spirits rallied. As Dowager Queen of France, she was Henry’s trump card. During the spring she and her sister-in-law, Queen Katherine, threw themselves wholeheartedly into the preparations for their visit to France. Henry, resolved to dazzle the French, gave the two Queens carte blanche to order sensational finery. The meeting with Francis would cost Henry £15,000 altogether. As for the French, it would take them ten years to pay off their share of the expenses. Bishop John Fisher, scandalised by the extravagance, wrote: ‘Never was seen in England such excess of apparelment before’. Courtiers in both countries spent fortunes, bringing their families to the brink of ruin.

The historic meeting was to take place six miles from Calais at the Val d’Or, the Golden Valley, on a great plain near the English-held town of Guisnes, where Henry would stay, and the French town of Ardres, where Francis would be based. It was a logistical and political nightmare. Five thousand people would need to be transported across the Channel. Calais, England’s last remaining Continental possession, would be the storehouse and centre of operations. The English ambassador to Paris, Thomas Boleyn, would conduct the diplomatic negotiations. Both monarchs had entrusted the formidable operation to the capable hands of Wolsey, who also had to rule on matters of precedence and etiquette, and resolve the numerous arguments that arose. A lesser man would have quailed before the challenge.

Henry, determined to present a show of breathtaking magnificence, unprecedented, unparalleled, and unforgettable, dismissed Guisnes Castle as inadequate for his august purposes. So a temporary palace, the ‘palace of illusions’, was to be constructed from wood and canvas, designed

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