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The Hampton Court Painting of the Field of Cloth of Gold Considered as an Historical Document
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011
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On 29th March 1770, Sir Joseph Ayloffe, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, read a learned paper to his colleagues on a painting, then at Windsor Castle and now preserved at Hampton Court, depicting the interview of June 1520 between Henry VIII and Francis I at the Field of Cloth of Gold. Ayloffe presented a long and minutely circumstantial account of the painting, which, in view of the considerable deterioration of the canvas over the last 200 years, is of inestimable value for details concerning colour and design. He also compared the painting with such documentary evidence as was available at the time, and concluded that it was an accurate representation of major features of the Anglo-French interview. Since Ayloffe's time a mass of contemporary descriptive source material has come to light, and it has even been thought that the profusion of seemingly inconsistent details relating to the Field of Cloth of Gold renders impossible any attempt to reconcile the documentary records either one with another or with the pictorial representation. However, a close examination of the sources reveals several fundamental consistencies which enable us to reconstruct, with reasonable certitude, both the scene and the events at the Field of Cloth of Gold: and this synthesis may be used to check the value and authenticity of the Hampton Court painting as an historical document.
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References
page 287 note 1 SirAyloffe, Joseph, ‘An Historical Description of an ancient Painting in Windsor Castle’, Archaeologia, iii (1786), 185–229.Google Scholar An engraving of the painting by Basire, after a water-colour copy by Edwards, was published by the Society of Antiquaries in 1774. See, for the history and literature of this painting, Millar, O., The Tudor, Stuart, and Early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (London, 1963), no. 25Google Scholar.
page 287 note 2 Particularly valuable have been the publication of the Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, ed. Brown, Rawdon; I Diarii di Marino Sanuto, ed. Stefani, F.; Calendar of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer, J. S.; Chronicle of Calais, ed. Nichols, J. G. (Camden Society, 1846)Google Scholar; and The Rutland Papers, ed. Jerdan, W. (Camden Society, 1842)Google Scholar.
page 287 note 3 For a general account of this international court festival see my article, ‘Le camp du drap d'or et les entrevues d'Henri VIII et de Charles Quint’, Fêtes et céréonies au temps de Charles Quint, ed. Jacquot, J. (Paris, 1960), pp. 113–32Google Scholar.
page 288 note 1 The personal interview between the kings, though depicted within a pavilion, as it should be, is very much an idealized conception and does not admit of any worth-while comparison with the documentary sources—these are, themselves, very imprecise on this particular matter. The following sources all mention the actual meeting, the heartless embracing, and the discussion which took place: La Description et Ordre du Camp Festins et Joustes (Paris, 1520)Google Scholar; Lordonnance et Ordre du Tournoy Ioustes et Combat à Pied et a Cheval (Paris, 1520)Google Scholar; Cat. S.P. Fen. iii, 50, 60, 67–71, 89; Les Mémoires de Fleuranges, ed. Michaud, and Poujoulat, in the Nouvelle Collection des Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de France, v (Paris, 1838), p. 70Google Scholar; du Bellay, Martin, Mímoires, ed. Michaud, and Poujoulat, , ibid., p. 131Google Scholar; Hall, Edward, Chronicles, ed. Ellis, H. (London, 1809), p. 610Google Scholar; Gonzaga Archives, Mantua, Busta 85.B.XXXIII. 10, fols. 195–8b. Most sources describe the pavilion as of cloth of gold, though one Italian says that it was ‘una paviglione d'oro in cremexin’ (Sanuto, xxix, col. 20); and another has it ‘di brochato in campo de cremesi’ (Archives, Gonzaga, torn, cit., fol. 195).Google Scholar See my ‘Le camp du drap d'or etc.’, p. 120, and plate viii, reproducing B.M. Cotton. MS. Augustus III, no. 18.
page 288 note 2 See B.M. Cotton. MS. Augustus I, ii, nos. 12, 23, 52, 57B, 71.
page 289 note 1 Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 88.
page 289 note 2 Fleuranges, , p. 69; Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 60, 69.Google Scholar Joachino, it must be noted, writes that the palace was in the midst of a large square, surrounded by a moat—he is the only observer to mention this.
page 290 note 1 Lordonnance, Hall, , p. 605.Google Scholar
page 290 note 2 Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 60. Joachino's dimensions are very confusing since they suggest an oblong ground-plan, not a square. He says that, of the four connected ranges of buildings, two were 160 paces in length opposite each other, and two were of 80 paces; each range measuring 30 paces in depth.
page 290 note 3 Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 88, 83.
page 290 note 4 Chron. of Calais, pp. 79–85,Google Scholar for the text of the Commissioners' letters of 26th March, 10th April, 18th May. Another letter dated 21st May is in the Public Record Office, S.P. 1/20, fol. 77 (L.P. iii. i, 825, where this letter is said, wrongly, to be printed in Chron. of Calais).
page 290 note 5 Chron. of Calais, p. 82Google Scholar: ‘There ys set up at Guysnes in bryke warke viij. fote above the grownde, the kinges lodging, the quenes lodging, and bothe your lodging [i.e. Wolsey's] and the Frenche qwenes dowagers’. For the dimensions of the various apartments see the Commissioners' letter of 26th March, Chron. of Calais, pp. 79–80.Google Scholar The various eyewitness estimates of the height of the brick foundation wall are as follows: Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, no. 50 gives 4 feet; no. 60 gives 15 feet; no. 69 gives about 3 paces; no. 83 gives 18 feet; no. 88 gives about 12 feet.
page 290 note 6 Lordonnance tells us that the brick walls were built upon a stone foundation: ‘Les fondemens sont de pierre, et les murailles de brique’. It is impossible to reconstruct the exact disposition of the apartments and halls in this building, but the following account, based on the Commissioners' letters and eyewitness evidence, reconciles most of the divergencies, and indicates the general arrangement. On the left of the principal entry were three chambers for Wolsey, adjoined by three larger apartments for the king; and on the right were three apartments for Henry's sister, Mary, together with three for Queen Katharine. These constituted two ranges of buildings, which flanked a central section consisting of the main gatehouse and connected structures. This gateway gave on to an entrance hall running along the ground floor, and, directly facing the gateway, a shallow stairway leading to an upper entrance hall. The central section included the square ‘hault plase’ mentioned by the Commissioners as ‘sett betwene the kinges lodging and the queenes’. All these chambers, except for the gatehouse and lower entrance hall, were built upon the main floor, resting on the brick walls which enclosed the ground floor of the palace. Within these walls, running beneath the level of the main apartments, was a special gallery from the king's chambers to the queen's—made ‘undre the for lake of stuffe’ (Chron. of Calais, p. 80). The Commissioners intended to cast the whole palace ‘after a square courte’, with the exception of a chapel and one gallery—suggesting that this chapel, overlooked by two oratories, projected into the interior court, and was approached by a small gallery from the ‘hault plase’. This view is corroborated in a letter from Soardino (Gonzaga Archives, torn, cit., fols. 183–7b, calendared briefly in Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 94). The central section and its appendages must have constituted the third range of buildings. The fourth range can only have been the large banqueting hall which all witnesses regard as part of the main palace—despite the confusing evidence of the Commissioners who write as though this hall was separate from the rest (Chron. of Calais, pp. 79–80Google Scholar).
page 291 note 1 Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 60. Cf. the more practical reactions of a Welsh chronicler, present at the royal interviews, who reckoned that despite its fine appearance the English palace must have been chilly and uncomfortable: see Thomas Jones, ‘Disgrifiad Elis Gruffudd o'r Cynadleddau a fu rhwng Harri VIII a'r Ymherodr Siarl V a rhyngddo a Ffranses I, Ffrainc, Brenin, yn 1520', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, xviii (1958–1960), p. 322Google Scholar.
page 291 note 2 Archives, Gonzaga, torn, cit., fol. 183b,Google Scholar where Soardino writes that the windows gave ‘vna claritade, come se fusse al discoperto’. Cf. Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 60,Google Scholar where Joachino says that the windows gave so much light that it was like being in the open.
page 291 note 3 Fleuranges, p. 69.
page 291 note 4 Soardino, in Archives, Gonzaga, torn, cit., fol. 183b,Google Scholar writes of ‘un cornisone molto bello dorato: et fac 'a à fogliami intorno’. Lordonnance, more generally, mentions ‘la couuerture paincte a lantique’.
page 291 note 5 Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 60, 83; Archives, Gonzaga, torn, cit., fol. 183b (this section calendered in Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 94)Google Scholar.
page 291 note 6 Hall, p. 605.
page 292 note 1 Hall, p. 605. Another feature worthy of note is that the painting depicts, on either side of the gateway, two sets of double transome windows each separated from the other by a square, plain stone (as contrasted with brick) tower. These towers, like the round ones, are continued above the ordinary wall battle ments, but unlike the round towers, terminate in a projecting, moulded cornice. Each of these square towers contains two figures poised in the act of casting down stones. The square towers are not mentioned in any surviving source.
page 293 note 1 Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 60. No other observer mentions this feature, though Soardino does mention the offices, and, in particular, praises the wines stored therein.
page 293 note 2 Ayloffe, , Archaeologia, iii, 203.Google Scholar
page 293 note 3 For Francis I's pavilion see La Description; Lordonnance; Fleuranges, p. 69Google Scholar; Du Bellay, p. 132; Hall, p. 607; Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 60, 69, 80, 83; Soardino in Gonzaga Archives, torn, cit., fol. 186 (this section is very inadequately calendared).Google Scholar
page 294 note 1 In any case there seems to be no emblematic tradition associating such a figure of Religion with a dragon. The principal animal associated with Religion was the elephant which, being deemed the most religious of creatures, and a pachyderm to boot, would certainly not have been transfixed with a cross.
page 294 note 2 L.P. in. i, 750. Cf. the transcript in Chron. of Calais, p. 84.
page 294 note 3 Archives, Gonzaga, torn, cit., fol. 183b.Google Scholar
page 294 note 4 Hall, p. 605. Hall doesn't make it clear that the Cupid pillar was a fountain: but this is apparent from other witnesses. Cf. La Description; Lordonnance; Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 50, 60, 83; Archives, Gonzaga, torn, cit., fol. 185bGoogle Scholar.
page 295 note 1 Hall, p. 606. Cf. Chron. of Calais, p. 80, where the Commissioners write of ‘an other galerye made owte of the queenes loging to bring the kynge, the queene, and you [Wolsey] to the brige of the castell’.
page 296 note 1 Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 50, 60; Lordonnance.
page 296 note 2 The arrangement adopted by the English seems to have been for the central part of the procession, i.e. Henry, Wolsey, and other dignitaries, to set out together from Guisnes and to proceed for a short distance to a field before the castle where they were joined by the main force of infantry and other troops. This force consisted of the retinues of the English lords as well as the king's own guard, and Hall's statement, that the array was composed of the ‘people and servauntes’ of the English nobles, is supported by several Venetians who say that the infantry were dressed in various liveries. See Hall, p. 608; Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 67, 69. Near the head of the procession were some foot-soldiers, drawn up in one battalion, the numbers of which vary in different reports: e.g. Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 68, gives 2,000 troops; no. 50 gives 4,000; no. 69 gives between 3,000 and 4,000; no. 73 gives some 3,500; Bodleian Library, Ashmol. MS., 1116, fol. 100b gives 3,000. These soldiers were armed only with swords, but at their head marched a company of the king's guard, armed with halberds, and dressed in the royal colours of white and green, their breasts embroidered with the royal rose. See Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 50. Ibid., nos. 67, 73, give the number of halberdiers as only 100.
page 297 note 1 Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 67, 69.
page 297 note 2 Cal. S.P. Ven, iii, 68.
page 297 note 3 Hall, p. 609; Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 68, is in error when describing the sword as drawn before the kings reached the place of interview. Cf. Ibid. no. 50.
page 298 note 1 Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 50, 60, 67, 68, 69, 73; Lordonnance.
page 298 note 2 Lordonnance describes Henry as ‘emplume de plumes blanches’. All other witnesses assert that both hat and plume were black.
page 298 note 3 Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 67, 73.
page 298 note 4 Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 60, 67, 68, 69, 73.
page 298 note 5 Hall, p. 609; Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 73.
page 298 note 6 It is interesting to compare Hall's description, and the Hampton Court painting, with some near contemporary designs for horse harness, preserved at the British Museum, Cotton. MS. Aug. Ill, nos. 28,35. See my'Le camp du drap d'or etc.', p. 120, and plate ix.
page 298 note 7 Hall, p. 609; Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 67, 69. On the king's henchmen see my forthcoming book, The Great Tournament Roll of Westminster, pp. 92–94,Google Scholar and plates for membranes 15–21 of the manuscript.
page 298 note 8 Chron. of Calais, p. 89Google Scholar; Rutland Papers, p. 30.Google Scholar
page 299 note 1 Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 50. Nos. 67, 69, however, put the ambassadors in an earlier section of the procession.
page 299 note 2 None of the sources gives details concerning the latter part of the English procession.
page 300 note 1 Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 67, 69.
page 300 note 2 Chron. of Calais, pp. 86–88,Google Scholarfor a letter from the earl of Worcester to Henry VIII, recounting his argument with the French Marshal Chatillon.
page 300 note 3 Hall, p. 611. Cf. Joachino, in Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 60, who says that the field was 400 paces by 200 paces.
page 300 note 4 College of Arms MS. 1st M. 6, fol. 9; La Description; Chron. of Calais, p. 86.Google Scholar The earl of Worcester and the French Marshal Chatillon did not, at first, want the ditch around the lists: Worcester wrote that they thought that the ‘lytelle diche’, shown in Wolsey's plan, would ‘rather doo hurte than gode, for I assure your grace if it rain yt wolle hurte the fowndacion of the scaffoldes on both sides, and cause the grounde to falle in yt. Also it wolbe a great cherge to cary the yerthe out of the campe, and a long seasson to do yt; and also the yerthe may not be carried over the campe, for it woll marr all the gronde, that none shalle galop nor renne surely upon yt. It is thought that a rayle made of viij foot from the said scaffold to keep the people that they shalle not come nygh the same, will serve as well, for a diche of iiij fote depe and viij fote wide is noo strenght yt eville disposed personnes wille enterprise any evill mater, as I trust to God there shall be noon soche.’ (Chron. of Calais, pp. 86–87).Google Scholar However, Wolsey finally had his way, and most observers report that the lists were surrounded both by a railed area, and by ditches—‘tout auironne de grans fossez tout alentour comme vne ville’ (Lordonnance). The problem, discussed by Worcester, concerning the excavated earth, was solved by using it to build the bulwark mentioned by two Italian observers (Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 50, 60).
page 301 note 1 Lordonnance. College of Arms MS. 1st M. 6, fol. 9b, describes the galleries thus: ‘and also within the said Camp ys a grete galary ordeyned for the said kinges and quenes and lordes with many Conveyaunces therto belongyng, and the said galary is in lenght of paces xj score and x, and it is on the right hond of the said tilt at the comyng in, and ther is lykewyse on the lefte hand iij galaryes made in lenght xxx paces’. This suggests both that the ordinary spectators' gallery was in three tiers, and that it did not run the entire length of the lists.
page 301 note 2 Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 50, 81, 84.
page 301 note 3 Hall, p. 611. On the arming chambers see Hall, loc. cit.: Cal. S.P. Ven. iii, 50; College of Arms MS. 1st M. 6, fol. 9.
page 301 note 4 College of Arms MS. 1st M. 6, fol. 9b: ‘Item betwene bothe the kinges lodgyngs at the said camp ys set vp a tre of hawthorn and quyk beame [sic].’ Other sources tell us only that the tree was near the head of the lists, or towards the arming chambers.
page 302 note 1 P.R.O., E. 36/217, fols. 279–88 (L.P. in. ii, 1553). Cf. Hall, pp. 610–11; Lordonnance; Chron. of Calais, pp. 88–89; Cal. S.P. Fen. iii, 50.
page 304 note 1 See above, pp. 290–2.
page 304 note 2 Hall, despite his flamboyance and mass of description, is curiously imprecise; and where he does give specific detail, as in the gateway to the English palace, he differs from the painting. La Description has a very brief mention of the palace, and describes only the French procession of 7th June. Its account of the lists is also very short, but does mention two triumphal arches.
page 304 note 3 On the dragon firework see my ‘Le camp du drap d'or etc.’, p. 126.
page 304 note 4 Lordonnance, for example, does not describe the simulated slate roof, or the chimney stacks.
page 304 note 5 These paintings are nos. 22–24 in Millar, op.cit. The Embarkation was described, in the seventeenth century, once as ‘the ships goeing to Bulloigne’, and once as ‘Henry 8 going to Bullen with his fleete’(Millar, no. 24). This raises the possibility that the picture represents Henry's departure for his second interview with Francis I in 1532, which did take place at Boulogne—and does not represent his departure for the first interview which did not take place at Boulogne. On the other hand, the Field of Cloth of Gold painting, which unequivocally refers to the 1520 interview, was similarly described in the seventeenth century, as ‘a larg pis opan klaht ramufft aut auff Wijthal bin king hnri da 8 entrin tu bolonia’; as a ‘Picture of the Seidge of Bulloigne’; and as ‘Henry 8 going into the Towne of Bullen’ (Millar, no. 25). All of which suggests that those responsible for the seventeenth century inventories did not know much about the sixteenth century.
page 305 note 1 See Millar, op. cit.
page 305 note 2 For the argument in favour of Anthonisz, see Beets, N., ‘Cornelis Anthonisz, I’, Oud-Holland, lvi (1939), pp. 160–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also the note by Callender, G., Mariner's Mirror, xxv (1939), pp. 442–4,Google Scholar alluding to the coincidence that Cornelis's brother was Anthony Anthony, author and artist responsible for the magnificent illustrated rolls entitled, A Declaration of the Royal Navy of England.
page 305 note 3 For the history of Cowdray, and for a summarv of most of the avaîlable evidence concerning the paintings there, see Hope, W. H. St. John, Cowdray and Easebourne Priory in the County of Sussex (London, 1919)Google Scholar.
page 305 note 4 The Encampment of King Henry Fill at Portsmouth was published in 1778; The Riding of King Edward VI from the Tower of London in 1787; The Meeting of King Henry VIII by Sir Anthony Browne on the hill near Marquison in 1788; The Enaimprient of King Henry VIII at Marquison in 1788; The Siege of Boulogne in 1788 See St. John Hope, pp. 48–65.
page 305 note 5 See St. John Hope, pp. 36–48.
page 306 note 1 These are as follows: Catalogue, no. 56, ‘Represents the Victories, Sieges, and Taking of Terouenne and Tournay, by King Henry VIII’; no. 67, ‘Conducting the Emperor to Dover, by the earl of Southampton, Admiral’; no. 72, ‘Represents Francis I, on his Throne, with his Courtiers, giving Audience to the duke of Suffolk, and earl of Southampton, sent Ambassadors from England, on a secret Embassy’; no. 75, ‘Driving the French to Treport’. There was also a portrait, by Holbein, of FitzWilliam, which survived the fire, and is now preserved in the FitzWilliam Museum, Cambridge.
page 306 note 2 Catalogue, no. 56. It is unfortunate that Gough, in his notes on these pictures, gives no description of this particular work.
page 306 note 3 P.R.O., E. 36/227, fol. 11; Hall, p. 722. On this festival see my article, ‘La salle de banquet et le théâtre construits à Greenwich pour les fêtes Franco-Anglaises de 1527’, Le Lieu théâtral à la Renaissance, ed. Jacquot, J. (Paris, 1964), pp. 273–88Google Scholar.
page 306 note 4 See Nichols, F. M., Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Second Series, xvii (1897–99), 132 ff.Google Scholar; ‘La salle de banquet etc.’, pp. 277–81.
page 306 note 5 See St. John Hope, p. 21.
page 370 note 1 Wriothesley, Charles, A Chronicle of England during the Reigns of the Tudors from 1485 to 1559, ed. Hamilton, W. D. (Camden Society, 1875, 1877), i, 173Google Scholar; Hall, p. 867. Both these mention the new halls built for the revels—but give no description worth mentioning. Amongst the Loseley MSS., now at the Folger Library, there is preserved a book of payments relating to these buildings, but, as far as I can judge from the extracts I have on film, these refer mainly to artificers. An other possibility which has occurred to me, concerning the Cowdray paintings, is that the other two Greenwich canvases may have made their way into FitzWilliam's collection. One or two of the subjects listed in the Catalogue would have been very appropriate to the Anglo-French entente of 1527.
page 307 note 2 Catalogue, nos. 56, 100, 101.
page 307 note 3 Catalogue, nos. 74, 58, 67.
page 307 note 4 Catalogue, nos. 73, 75, 72. One other historical picture, also representing important matters on the Continent—though this time rather less directly involving English dignitaries—was Catalogue, no. 108, ‘Battle of Pavia, in which the Emperor Charles V, and the Allies, took Francis I, King of France, Prisoner.’ This, inevitably, was also attributed to Holbein.
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