7th June 1520: Henry VIII and Francis I meet at the Field of Cloth of Gold

In 1518 the English Cardinal Wolsey had negotiated the Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact that was signed by the twenty major European powers of the time. However, peace held for barely a year before two of the signatories went to war and Wolsey began to arrange meetings between Henry VIII and the other monarchs to salvage the agreement. Francis I of France was barely three years younger than Henry and, like his English counterpart, was keen to display the grandeur of his court. Conseque...