Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > 1520: The Field of the Cloth of Gold > Status Update

‘For three quarters of an hour, Henry and Francis were alone ‘and seemed unable to tear themselves away from each other’. Had the sun not already begun to set, ‘their loving conference would have lasted longer,’ but as darkness approached, they each invited the chief noblemen in their trains to pay their respects.‘

‘Designs for some of the most complex tents survive in the collection of the British Library. One of the largest comprises four interlocking rectangular sections in a straight line, like a series of rooms, with five small circular tents attached on each side, all under what appears to be red velvet embroidered with gold and topped with large heraldic beasts and ridgeboards with gold fleur de lys.’

‘Until almost the last minute, the Anglo-French meeting was a tenuous, fragile thing, a potentially beautiful dream of magnificence and unity, and European peace, but it was constantly undermined by practical and personal concerns, particularly by Henry, so that its fruition seemed uncertain.’

‘A future queen of England went unnoticed among the French retinue in 1520, too. Dark-haired, elegant and well educated, Anne Boleyn had been placed in the household of Margaret of Savoy at Malines at the age of twelve, thanks to the influence of her father. The change in England’s alliances had seen her move to France in late 1514 or early 1515‘