FIELD DAY

It was a dazzling, 18-day spectacle of jousts, masquerades and feasting amid a sea of specially built tents, banqueting houses and ‘portable palaces’. For King Henry VIII, François I of France and their courtiers it was also the party of a lifetime. Some 12,000 people attended and Henry’s contingent alone had brought food supplies of more than 2,000 sheep, 98,000 eggs, 13 swans and three porpoises, with nearly 200,000 litres of wine and 66,000 litres of beer to wash it all down.

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the extraordinary Field of Cloth of Gold, so named for its extravagant splendour. Historic Royal Palaces is celebrating with an exhibition, , bringing together rare and priceless artefacts for the first time to explore the