Overview

The Field of Cloth of Gold was one of the greatest courtly spectacles of the sixteenth century. A carefully-orchestrated meeting outside Calais between Henry VIII and Francis I, it encapsulated Henry’s imperial ambitions and confirmed the role of the tournament in international diplomacy. Here, Keith Dowen and Scot Hurst reveal the glamour and excitement of the Field of Cloth of Gold. Using surviving artefacts and important archival material, they illustrate how England began the transition from being a small nation on the edge of Europe to becoming a global empire with power and influence. The armour that was created for the event was made possible by Henry VIII’s new armoury at Greenwich and his existing armoury at the Tower of London. Tudor Power and Glory explains the skill of the armourers as they prepared for the tournament, the fighting that took place on horse and on foot, and the significance of the Field of Cloth of Gold as a political event as England and France, two emerging nations of old Europe, took their places on the world stage.

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9781913013004

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Keith Dowen is Assistant Curator at the Royal Armouries Museum, and author of Arms and Armour of the English Civil Wars (2019). He has presented and published widely on late medieval and early modern arms and armour, and on British military history. Scot Hurst is Assistant Curator at the Royal Armouries Museum. His research focuses on the subject of medieval and renaissance daggers recovered from the River Thames, and European diplomacy between 1514 and 1522.

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