On this day in history, 3rd October 1518, Cardinal Wolsey sang a mass to Henry VIII and the French ambassadors at St Paul's Cathedral in celebration of the treaty agreed between the two countries the previous day, the Treaty of London or Treaty of Universal Peace. The King and ambassadors also took oaths to the treaty.
In the evening, there was a sumptuous banquet followed by a mummery featuring the King and his sister, Mary. Jousting and pageants were also part of the celebrations of this treaty.
Chronicler Edward Hall records the celebrations in his chronicle (I have modernised the spelling):
"When all things were concluded and sealed, the king & all the Ambassadors richly apparelled & the. ii. legates, rode solemnly to the church of St Paul from the Bishop of Durham's place: & there was made from the West door to the quire door of the church equal with the highest step a hautepace of timber of. xii. foot broad, that the king & the Ambassadors might be seen. And there the Cardinal of York sang high mass, & had his cloth of estate of Tissue: his Cupboard set with basins all gilt covered: his place was. v. steps high. At the first lauatory [? laudatory?]. iii. Earls served him, & at the second. ii. dukes & a Marquis, & with the say taken, they gave him wine, & after water. And when mass was done, the Cardinal Campeius & he gave to the people (as they said) clean remission. And after that done Doctor Pace, the King's secretary, a man very eloquent, made a goodly Oration in praise of peace: and that done, the king & all his nobles and Ambassadors went to the Bishops palace to dinner, where they were highly feasted. And after dinner the king rode again to the Bishop of Durham's place.
That night the Cardinal of York made to the Ambassadors a solemn banquet, & them accompanied many lords & ladies of England. And when the banquet was done, in came, vi. minstrels, richly disguised, & after them followed. iii. gentlemen in wide & long gowns of Crimson satin, every one having a cup of gold in their hands, the first cup was full of Angels & royals, the second had diverse bales of dice, & the. iii. had certain pairs of Cards. These gentlemen offered to play at monchance, & when they had played the length of the first board, then the minstrels blew up, & then entered into the chamber. xii. ladies disguised, the first was the king himself & the French queen, the second the duke of Suffolk, the lady Daubeney, the lord Admiral & the lady Guildford sir Edward Neville, and the lady St Leger, sir Henry Guildford, and mistress Walden, Captain Emery, and mistress Anne Carew, sir Giles Capell, & lady Elizabeth Carew, Nicholas Carew, & Anne Brown, Francis Bryan and Elizabeth Blount, Henry Norris & Anne Wotton, Francis Poyntz and Mary Fiennes, Arthur Poole & Margaret Bruges. On this company attended, xii. knights disguised, bearing torches all these, xxxvi. persons disguised were in one suit of fine green satin all overcovered with cloth of gold, under tied together with laces of Gold, & masking hoods on their heads: the ladies had tyers made of Braids of damask gold with long hairs of white gold. All these maskers danced at one time, & after they had danced, they put off their viziers, & then they were all known. The Admiral & lords of France heartily thanked the king, that it pleased him to visit the with such disport and then the king & his company were banqueted, & had high cheer, & then they departed every man to his lodging."
You can read about the terms of the Treaty of London in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 2, 1515-1518, 4468 and 4469 - click here.
Notes and Sources
- Hall, Edward (1809) "Hall's chronicle : containing the history of England, during the reign of Henry the Fourth, and the succeeding monarchs, to the end of the reign of Henry the Eighth, in which are particularly described the manners and customs of those periods. Carefully collated with the editions of 1548 and 1550, p. 594-5. See https://archive.org/stream/hallschronicleco00halluoft#page/594/mode/2up
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