The Embarkation

Roiling seas, snapping sails and cannons at the ready: this nautical scene carries you back 500 years to the coast of England. With flags flying high, Henry VIII leads a fleet from Dover aboard the Henry Grace à Dieu, the largest warship of its day, bound not for battle but for a peace summit with Francis I of France. The meeting, later known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold, had little lasting success, but its lavish display was immortalised in a pair of paintings for Whitehall Palace and recreated by artists ever since, here in Friedrich Bouterwek's rendering.