The Field of Cloth of Gold

The King, the Cardinal-Legate, and the Field of Cloth of Gold

“…32 While overseeing the intense diplomatic activity required to co-ordinate the meeting of the two courts, Wolsey also superintended the preparation of accommodation and provisioning for the English entourage in and around the town of Guînes in the Pale of Calais. 33 In April, as English preparations reached their pitch, Leo X sent Girolamo Ghinucci as his nuncio to England, and he kept the pope informed of plans for the Anglo-French meeting, in a way that Wolsey evidently did not. 34 With the attention to detail that Henry prized in him, Wolsey worked with a three-man commission liaising on the building of a magnificent temporary palace just outside Guînes to house the leading members of the royal family-and himself-when they entertained their French counterparts.…”