It was a magnificent meeting, however, Wolsey acting as costumer, and was called “The Field of the Cloth of Gold.”  Large, portly men with whiskers wore purple velvet opera-cloaks trimmed with fur, and Gainsborough hats with ostrich feathers worth four pounds apiece (sterling).  These corpulent warriors, who at Calais shortly before had run till overtaken by nervous prostration and general debility, now wore more millinery and breastpins and slashed velvet and satin facings and tinsel than the most successful and highly painted and decorated courtesans of that period.

The treaty here made with so much pyrotechnical display and eclat and hand-embroidery was soon broken, Charles having caught the ear of Wolsey with a promise of the papal throne upon the death of Leo X., which event he joyfully anticipated.

Henry, in 1521, scored a triumph and earned the title of Defender of the Faith by writing a defence of Catholicism in answer to an article written by Martin Luther attacking it.  Leo died soon after, and, much to the chagrin of Wolsey, was succeeded by Adrian VI.

[Illustration:  HENRY WRITES A TREATISE IN DEFENCE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.]

War was now waged with France by the new alliance of Spain and England; but success waited not upon the English arms, while, worse than all, the king was greatly embarrassed for want of more scudii.  Nothing can be more pitiful, perhaps, than a shabby king waiting till all his retainers have gone away before he dare leave the throne, fearing that his threadbare retreat may not be protected.  Henry tried to wring something from Parliament, but without success, even aided by that practical apostle of external piety and internal intrigue, Wolsey.  The latter, too, had a second bitter disappointment in the election of Clement VII. to succeed Adrian, and as this was easily traced to the chicanery of the emperor, who had twice promised the portfolio of pontiff to Wolsey, the latter determined to work up another union between Henry and France in 1523.

War, however, continued for some time with Francis, till, in 1525, he was defeated and taken prisoner.  This gave Henry a chance to figure with the queen regent, the mother of Francis, and a pleasant treaty was made in 1526.  The Pope, too, having been captured by the emperor, Henry and Francis agreed to release and restore him or perish on the spot.  Quite a well-written and beguiling account of this alliance, together with the Anne Boleyn affair, will be found in the succeeding chapter.

[Illustration:  CHARLES II.  CONCEALED IN THE “ROYAL OAK,” WHILE HIS PURSUERS PASSED UNDER HIM (1651).]

[Illustration:  OLIVER CROMWELL IN DISSOLVING PARLIAMENT SEIZED THE MACE, EXCLAIMING, “TAKE AWAY THIS BAUBLE!” (1653).]

[Illustration:  A BOOK ENTITLED “KILLING NO MURDER”, BOLDLY ADVISING THE REMOVAL OF THE USURPER, CAUSED CROMWELL CEASELESS ANXIETY (1658).]

[Illustration:  HENRY VIII.  PLUNDERING THE CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF THEIR POSSESSIONS.]