ABSTRACT

Characterizing the transmission of artistic and musical styles between England and the Continent during the early Tudor period in general is an act that must rely on a broad reading of scattered material and documentary evidence. Consideration of the numerous major events at which English and foreign retinues came into contact with each other is a matter in which most evidence is colored strongly by specific programs in the descriptive sources. The international affairs of Henry VII and Henry VIII were bound up inextricably with the artistic cultures of their courts; no artificial separation of politics and music can do justice to the vital roles of spectacle and image-making at the Tudor court. France and England exchanged embassies in the autumn to declare a "Universal and Perpetual Peace" in Christendom, and each enjoyed a lavish reception. Political negotiations, however, were not the real purpose of the 1520 Anglo-French conference.