About the Meeting of the Cloth of Gold

The meeting of the Cloth of the Gold was attended by both French and English and everyone was dressed to impress, adorned with jewels and gold and extravagent materials like velvet.

Hall described the procession to the Tower previous to the coronation of Henry VIII. The same chronicler, who was present at the famous meeting of the Cloth of Gold, has given a lively detail of the gorgeous scene, in which gold and silver dresses, velvets, and jewellery were in the greatest profusion. Such was the insane desire to outshine each other by the French and English nobility, that many of them mortgaged and sold their estates to gratify their vanity, and changed their extravagantly splendid dresses twice daily during the meeting.

"To-day the French

All clinquant all in gold, like heathen gods,

Shone down the English, and to-morrow they

Made Britain, India; every man that stood

Showed like a mine; their dwarfish pages were

As cherubims, all gilt."


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