7-24 June 2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, a dazzling summit where the French and English kings Francis I and Henry VIII met to celebrate peace between the two countries. With both kings attempting to display more magnificence than the other, the meeting was a lavish affair, with feasting, jousting, music and wrestling taking place among a huge portable palace specially constructed to house the attendees.
Peer into the world of Tudor tournaments and the detailed preparations required to plan and stage such a spectacle.
This talk was delivered on 22 May 2020 by Sean Cunningham, Head of Medieval Records at The National Archives.