Part 20 (1/2)
Surely her lot was hard; and well might she weepingly exclaim, ”Where is now my hope?” Little could she suppose (for Louis, though infirm, was not aged) that three or four short months would see her not only at liberty from her enforced vows, but united to the man of her heart.
Must there not, while watching the tilting of her graceful and gallant husband, must there not have been melancholy in her mirth?--must there not, in the keen encounter of wits during the banquet or the ball--must there not have mingled method with her madness?
Who shall record, or even refer to the hopes, and feelings, and wishes, and thoughts, and reflections of the thousands congregated thither; each one with feelings as intense, with hopes as individually important as those which influenced the royal King of France, or the majestic monarch of England! The loftiest of Christendom's knights, the loveliest of Christendom's daughters were a.s.sembled here; and the courteous Bayard, the n.o.ble Tremouille, the lofty Bourbon, felt inspired more gallantly, if possible, than was even their wont, when contending in all love and amity with the proudest of England's champions, in presence of the fairest of her blue-eyed maidens,--the n.o.blest of her courtly dames.
Nor were the lofty and n.o.ble alone there congregated. After the magnificent structure for the king and court, after every thing in the shape of a tenement in, out, or about the little town of Guisnes, and the neighbouring hamlets, were occupied, two thousand eight hundred tents were set up on the side of the English alone. No n.o.ble or baron would be absent; but likewise knights, and squires, and yeomen flocked to the scene: citizens and city wives disported their richest silks and their heaviest chains; jews went for gain, pedlars for knavery, tradespeople for their craft, rogues for mischief. Then there were ”vagaboundes, plowmen, laborers, wagoners, and beggers, that for drunkennes lay in routes and heapes, so great resorte thether came, that bothe knightes and ladies that wer come to see the n.o.blenes, were faine to lye in haye and strawe, and hold theim thereof highly pleased.”
The accommodations provided for the king and privileged members of his court on this occasion were more than magnificent; a vast and splendid edifice that seemed to be endued with the magnificence, and to rise almost with the celerity of that prepared by the slaves of the lamp, where the richest tapestry and silk embroidery--the costliest produce of the most accomplished artisans, were almost unnoticed amid the gold and jewellery by which they were surrounded--where all that art could produce, or riches devise had been lavished--all this has been often described. And the tent itself, the nucleus of the show, the point where the ”brother” kings were to confer, was hung round with cloth of gold: the posts, the cones, the cords, the tents, were all of the same precious metal, which glittered here in such excessive profusion as to give that t.i.tle to the meeting which has superseded all others--”The Field of the Cloth of Gold.”
This gaudy pageant was the prelude to an era of great interest, for while dwelling on the ”galanty shew” we cannot forget that now reigned Solyman the magnificent, and that this was the age of Leo the Tenth; that Charles the Fifth was now beginning his influential course; that a Sir Thomas More graced England; and that in Germany there was ”one Martin Luther,” who ”belonged to an order of strolling friars.” Under Leo's munificent encouragement, Rafaello produced those magnificent creations which have been the inspiration of subsequent ages; and at home, under Wolsey's enlightened patronage, colleges were founded, learning was encouraged, and the College of Physicians first inst.i.tuted in 1518, found in him one of its warmest advocates and firmest supporters.
A modern writer gives the following amusing picture of part of the bustle attendant on the event we are considering. ”The palace (of Westminster) and all its precincts became the elysium of tailors, embroiderers, and sempstresses. There might you see many a shady form gliding about from apartment to apartment, with smiling looks and extended shears, or armed with ell-wands more potent than Mercury's rod, driving many a poor soul to perdition, and transforming his goodly acres into velvet suits, with tags of cloth of gold. So continual were the demands upon every kind of artisan, that the impossibility of executing them threw several into despair. One tailor who is reported to have undertaken to furnish fifty embroidered suits in three days, on beholding the mountain of gold and velvet that c.u.mbered his shop-board, saw, like Brutus, the impossibility of victory, and, with Roman fort.i.tude, fell on his own shears. Three armourers are said to have been completely melted with the heat of their furnaces; and an unfortunate goldsmith swallowed molten silver to escape the persecutions of the day.
”The road from London to Canterbury was covered during one whole week with carts and waggons, mules, horses, and soldiers; and so great was the confusion, that marshals were at length stationed to keep the whole in order, which of course increased the said confusion a hundred fold. So many were the s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sing between Dover and Calais, that the historians affirm they jostled each other on the road like a herd of great black porkers.
”The King went from station to station like a shepherd, driving all the better cla.s.ses of the country before him, and leaving not a single straggler behind.”
Though we do not implicitly credit every point of this humorous statement, we think a small portion of description from the old chronicler Hall (we will really inflict _only_ a small portion on our readers) will justify a good deal of it; but more especially it will enlighten us as to some of the elaborate conceits of the day, in which, it seems, the needle was as fully occupied as the pen.
Indeed, what would the ”Field of the Cloth of Gold” have been without the skill of the needlewoman? _Would it have been at all?_
”The Frenche kyng sette hymself on a courser barded, covered with purple sattin, broched with golde, and embraudered with corbyns fethers round and buckeled; the fether was blacke and hached with gold. Corbyn is a rauen, and the firste silable of corbyn is _Cor_, whiche is a harte, a penne in English, is a fether in Frenche, and signifieth pain, and so it stode; this fether round was endles, the buckels wherwith the fethers wer fastened, betokeneth sothfastnes, thus was the devise, _harte fastened in pain endles, or pain in harte fastened endles_.
”Wednesdaie the 13 daie of June, the twoo hardie kynges armed at all peces, entered into the feld right n.o.bly appareled, the Frenche kyng and all his parteners of chalenge were arraied in purple sattin, broched with golde and purple velvet, embrodered with litle rolles of white sattin wherein was written _quando_, all bardes and garmentes wer set full of the same, and all the residue where was no rolles, were poudered and set with the letter ell as thus, L, whiche in Frenche is she, which was interpreted to be _quando elle_, when she, and ensuyng the devise of the first daie it signifieth together, _harte fastened in pain endles, when she_.
”The Frenche kyng likewise armed at al pointes mounted on a courser royal, all his apparel as wel bardes as garmentes were purple velvet, entred the one with the other, embrodred ful of litle bookes of white satten, and in the bokes were written _a me_; aboute the borders of the bardes and the borders of the garmentes, a chaine of blewe like iron, resemblyng the chayne of a well or prison chaine, whiche was enterpreted to be _liber_, a booke; within this boke was written as is sayed, _a me_, put these two together, and it maketh _libera me_; the chayne betokeneth prison or bondes, and so maketh together in Englishe, _deliver me of {bondes}_; put to {the} reason, the fyrst day, second day, and third day of chaunge, for he chaunged but the second day, and it is _hart fastened in paine endles, when she deliuereth me not of bondes_; thus was thinterpretation made, but whether it were so in all thinges or not I may not say.”
The following animated picture from an author already quoted, has been drawn of this spirit-stirring scene:--
”Upon a large open green, that extended on the outside of the walls, was to be seen a mult.i.tude of tents of all kinds and colours, with a mult.i.tude of busy human beings, employed in raising fresh pavilions on every open s.p.a.ce, or in decorating those already spread with streamers, pennons, and banners of all the bright hues under the sun.
Long lines of horses and mules, loaded with armour or baggage, and ornamented with gay ribbons to put them in harmony with the scene, were winding about all over the plain, some proceeding towards the town, some seeking the tents of their several lords, while mingled amongst them, appeared various bands of soldiers, on horseback and on foot, with the rays of the declining sun catching upon the heads of their bills and lances; and together with the white ca.s.sock and broad red cross, marking them out from all the other objects. Here and there, too, might be seen a party of knights and gentlemen cantering over the plain, and enjoying the bustle of the scene, or standing in separate groups, issuing their orders for the erection and garnis.h.i.+ng of their tents; while couriers, and poursuivants, and heralds, in all their gay dresses, mingled with mule drivers, lacqueys, and peasants, armourers, pages, and tent stretchers, made up the living part of the landscape.
”The sounding of the trumpets to horse, the shouts of the various leaders, the loud cries of the marshals and heralds, and the roaring of artillery from the castle, as the king put his foot in the stirrup, all combined to make one general outcry rarely equalled. Gradually the tumult subsided, gradually also the confused a.s.semblage a.s.sumed a regular form. Flags, and pennons, and banderols, embroidered banners, and scutcheons; silver pillars, and crosses, and crooks, ranged themselves in long line; and the bright procession, an interminable stream of living gold, began to wind across the plain. First came about five hundred of the gayest and wealthiest gentlemen of England, below the rank of baron; squires, knights, and bannerets, rivalling each other in the richness of their apparel and the beauty of their horses; while the pennons of the knights fluttered above their heads, marking the place of the English chivalry. Next appeared the proud barons of the realm, each with his banner borne before him, and followed by a custrel with the s.h.i.+eld of his arms. To these again succeeded the bishops, not in the simple robes of the Protestant clergy, but in the more gorgeous habits of the Church of Rome; while close upon their steps rode the higher n.o.bility, surrounding the immediate person of the king, and offering the most splendid ma.s.s of gold and jewels that the summer sun ever shone upon.
”Slowly the procession moved forward to allow the line of those on foot to keep an equal pace. Nor did this band offer a less gay and pleasing sight than the cavalcade, for here might be seen the athletic forms of the st.u.r.dy English yeomanry, clothed in the various splendid liveries of their several lords, with the family cognisance embroidered on the bosom and arm, and the banners and banderols of their particular houses carried in the front of each company. Here also was to be seen the picked guard of the King of England, magnificently dressed for the occasion, with the royal banner carried in their centre by the deputy standard bearer, and the banner of their company by their own ancient. In the rear of all, marshalled by officers appointed for the purpose, came the band of those whose rank did not ent.i.tle them to take place in the cavalcade, but who had sufficient interest at court to be admitted to the meeting. Though of an inferior cla.s.s, this company was not the least splendid in the field; for here were all the wealthy tradesmen of the court, habited in many a rich garment, furnished by the extravagance of those that rode before; and many a gold chain hung round their necks, that not long ago had lain in the purse of some prodigal customer.”
But we cease, being fully of opinion with the old chronicler that ”to tell the apparel of the ladies, their riche attyres, their sumptuous juelles, their diversities of beauties, and their goodly behaviour from day to day sithe the fyrst metyng, I a.s.sure you ten mennes wittes can scarce declare it.”
And in a few days, a few short days, all was at an end; and the pomp and the pageantry, the mirth and the revelry, was but as a dream--a most bitter, indeed, and painful dream to hundreds who had bartered away their substance for the sake of a transient glitter:
”We seken fast after felicite But we go wrong ful often trewely, Thus may we sayen alle.”
Homely indeed, after the paraphernalia of the ”Field of the Cloth of Gold,” would appear the homes of England on the return of their masters. For though the n.o.bles had begun to remove the martial fronts of their castles, and endeavoured to render them more commodious, yet in architecture the nation partic.i.p.ated neither the spirit nor the taste of its sovereign. The mansions of the gentlemen were, we are told, still sordid; the huts of the peasantry poor and wretched. The former were generally thatched buildings composed of timber, or, where wood was scarce, of large posts inserted in the earth, filled up in the interstices with rubbish, plastered within, and covered on the outside with coa.r.s.e clay. The latter were light frames, prepared in the forest at small expense, and when erected, probably covered with mud. In cities the houses were constructed mostly of the same materials, for bricks were still too costly for general use; and the stories seem to have projected forward as they rose in height, intercepting suns.h.i.+ne and air from the streets beneath. The apartments were stifling, lighted by lattices, so contrived as to prohibit the occasional and salutary admission of external air. The floors were of clay, strewed with rushes, which often remained for years a receptacle of every pollution.[112]
In an inventory of the goods and chattels of Sir Andrew Foskewe, Knight, dated in the 30th year of King Henry the Eighth, are the following furnitures. We select the hall and the best parlour, in which he entertained company, first premising that he possessed a large and n.o.ble service of rich plate worth an amazing sum, and so much land as proved him to be a wealthy man:--
”The hall.--A hangin of greine say, bordered with darneng (or needlework); item a grete side table, with standinge tressels; item a small joyned cuberde, of waynscott, and a short piece of counterfett carpett upon it; item a square cuberde, and a large piece of counterfett wyndowe, and five formes, &c.