26 May – Henry VIII and Charles V meet

On this day in Tudor history, 26th May 1520, in the lead-up to King Henry VIII’s meeting with Francis I of France at the Field of Cloth of Gold, the English king met with his nephew Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, at Dover Castle on the south coast of England.

Find out more about this meeting and the rather lavish outfits worn by Henry VIII and his queen consort, Catherine of Aragon, in today's talk.

Also on this day in Tudor history, 26th May 1536, Henry VIII's daughter, Mary, sought the help of Thomas Cromwell, the king's right-hand man. Now that Anne Boleyn was dead and gone, Mary hoped for a reconciliation with her father the king. What happened and how was she treated? Find out in last year’s video:

Also on this day in history:

• 1537 – Executions of Adam Sedbergh, Cistercian monk and Abbot of Jervaulx, and William Wood, Prior of Bridlington, at Tyburn. They were condemned for treason following the Pilgrimage of Grace.
• 1538 – Death of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, Judge and legal writer. He was buried at Norbury, Derbyshire. He is one of the best-known English legal writers of the sixteenth century.
• 1583 – Death of Esmé Stuart, 1st Duke of Lennox, only child of John Stuart, fifth Seigneur d'Aubigny, and his wife, Anne de La Queulle.
• 1596 – Burial of Thomas Bickley, Bishop of Chichester, in Chichester Cathedral.
• 1604 – Death of Godfrey Goldsborough, Bishop of Gloucester. He was buried in the Cathedral.
• 1621 – Burial of Barbara Sidney (née Gamage), Countess of Leicester, at Penshurst.
• 1623 – Death of Francis Anthony, alchemist and physician. He was buried in the church of St Bartholomew-the-Great.

Transcript:

On this day in Tudor history, 26th May 1520, in the lead-up to King Henry VIII’s meeting with Francis I of France at the Field of Cloth of Gold, the English king met with his nephew Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, at Dover Castle on the south coast of England.

Henry VIII and his wife, Catherine of Aragon had left Greenwich on 21st May 1520, arriving at Canterbury on 25th, intending, as chronicler Edward Hall records, to celebrate Pentecost there. However, shortly after their arrival at Canterbury, they received news that Charles had been sighted off the coast of England, so the royal couple made their way to Dover in readiness for his arrival, as did Cardinal Wolsey.

Chronicler Edward Hall records that Charles arrived at the port of Hythe in Kent at noon on 26th May, “where he was hailed by the noble knight sir Willyam Fitzwillyam, vice admirall of Englande-, with sixe of the kynges shippes well furnished”. The calmness of the weather meant that they were able to land at Dover, where he was received “with such reverence” by Wolsey. Hall describes how Charles landed “under the clothe of his estate of the blacke Egle all splaied on riche clothe of golde” and that he was accompanied by a retinue of noblemen and “many fair ladies... whiche landed with hym in high and sumptuous maner and great riches in their apparell”. Hall also records how the English people greeted his arrival with great joy”.

Cardinal Wolsey then escorted the emperor to Dover Castle to the marvellous noise of the emperor’s fleet firing their guns. King Henry VIII met him there and they “embraced each other right lovingly” and communed with gladness in the king’s chamber. In “Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII”, Maria Hayward writes of how Henry VIII was dressed “in a cloth of silver with a raised pile, and wrought throughout with emblematic letters” and “a stiff brocade in the Hungarian fashion”. Then later, he wore “white damask in the Turkish fashion… all embroidered with roses, made of rubies and diamonds” along with long royal robes of “gold brocade lined with ermine”.

On Whitsunday, the king and emperor rose early and set off for Canterbury to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and to see Queen Catherine, who had remained there. Charles was greeted by the “noble personages of the realme of England and the quene with her beautiful trayne of ladies”. Catherine was recorded as wearing “a petticoat of silver lama, the gown of cloth of gold lined with violet velvet with raised pile, on which the roses of England were wrought in gold.” Charles, Henry and Catherine remained in Canterbury until the Thursday, when Charles took his leave, rode to Sandwich and sailed from there to Flanders.

Hall records that after the departure of the Emperor Henry VIII sailed from Dover to Calais “and with hym the quene and ladyes and many nobles of the realm” for his next meeting with a European ruler, Francis I.