Textiles and Dress

Field of the Cloth of Gold

The Field of the Cloth of Gold (French: Camp du Drap d'Or, pronounced [kɑ̃ dy dʁa d‿ɔʁ]) was a summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France from 7 to 24 June 1520. Held at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English Pale of Calais, it was an opulent display of wealth by both kings. The summit was arranged to increase the bond of friendship between the two kings following the Anglo-French treaty of 1514. The two monarchs would meet again in 1532 to arrange Francis's assistance in pressuring Pope Clement VII to pronounce Henry's first marriage as illegitimate. Under the guidance of English Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, these European states sought to outlaw war forever among Christian peoples. The Pale of Calais, home to the meeting in Balinghem, was the final English possession in France. This territorial leftover from the Hundred Years' War caused some tensions between the English and French, as the latter preferred a location closer to the border, but topographical considerations proved the decisive factor.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Hmong people
• ▸Ken Filiano
• ▸Brazil–South Korea relations

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.