On the last day of May Charles took ship at Sandwich for Flanders.
Henry embarked at Dover for France. The painting at Hampton Court
depicting the scene has, like almost every other picture of Henry's
reign, been ascribed to Holbein; but six years were to pass before the
great artist visited England. The King himself is represented as being
on board the four-masted _Henry Grace a Dieu_, commonly called the
_Great Harry_, the finest ship afloat; though the vessel originally
fitted out for his passage was the _Katherine Pleasaunce_.[386] At
eleven o'clock he landed at Calais. On Monday, the 4th of June, Henry
and all his Court proceeded to Guisnes. There a temporary palace of
art had been erected, the splendour of which is inadequately set forth
in pages upon pages of contemporary descriptions. One Italian likened
it to the palaces described in Boiardo's _Orlando Innamorato_ and
Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_; another declared that it could not have
been better designed by Leonardo da Vinci himself.[387] Everything
was in harmony with this architectural pomp. Wolsey was (p. 141)
accompanied, it was said in Paris, by two hundred gentlemen clad in
crimson velvet, and had a body-guard of two hundred archers. He was
himself clothed in crimson satin from head to foot, his mule was
covered with crimson velvet, and her trappings were all of gold.
Henry, "the most goodliest prince that ever reigned over the realm of
England," appeared even to Frenchmen as a very handsome prince,
"honnete, hault et droit,"[388] in manner gentle and gracious, rather
fat, and--in spite of his Queen--with a red beard, large enough and
very becoming. Another eye-witness adds the curious remark that, while
Francis was the taller of the two, Henry had the handsomer and more
_feminine_ face![389] On the 7th of June the two Kings started
simultaneously from Guisnes and Ardres for their personal meeting in
the valley mid-way between the two towns, already known as the Val
Dore. The obscure but familiar phrase, Field of Cloth of Gold,[390] is
a mistranslation of the French Camp du Drap d'Or. As they came in
sight a temporary suspicion of French designs seized the English, but
it was overcome. Henry and Francis rode forward alone, embraced each
other first on horseback and then again on foot, and made show of
being the closest friends in Christendom. On Sunday the 10th Henry
dined with the French Queen, and Francis with Catherine of Aragon. The
following week was devoted to tourneys, which the two Kings opened by
holding the field against all comers. The official accounts are
naturally silent on the royal wrestling match, recorded in French (p. 142)
memoirs and histories.[391] On the 17th Francis, as a final effort to
win Henry's alliance, paid a surprise visit to him at breakfast with
only four attendants. The jousts were concluded with a solemn mass
said by Wolsey in a chapel built on the field. The Cardinal of Bourbon
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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