ABSTRACT
It seems highly appropriate on the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s birth and at a time when England’s sea-girt isolation from France has been breached to consider the Field of Cloth of Gold, an event of unique magnificence, which brought the two courts of England and France closer together than they ever had been in the past or ever would be again. Not without good reason did contemporaries acclaim it as the eighth wonder of the world. For all the documentation that is available, the Field of Cloth of Gold remains a controversial diplomatic exercise. In February 1517 Erasmus wrote a famous letter in which he noted with satisfaction that the rulers of Christendom were reducing their armaments. He looked forward to a Golden Age in which moral virtues, Christian piety, and true learning would come into their own. In the end Charles was elected, thereby becoming the most powerful ruler in Christendom.
