The Kings of England and the Kings of France had a history of rivalry, enmity and even being enemies of one another. There are often times when attempts at peace were made.
An early meeting between the kings of England and France when they’re trying to bring peace between the two realms occurred in 1396 rom October 27 to 30, 1396, when King Charles VI of France and King Richard II of England had meeting at Balinghem, Ardres near Calais to treat for peace during the Hundred Years’ War. The scale, splendour and pageantry were comparable to the later Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting held on the same site in 1520.
At this meeting a truce was agreed to, which was to last 28 years. As part of the truce, Richard agreed to marry Isabella of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France, when she came of age. There were some misgivings about the betrothal, in particular because the princess was then only six years old, and thus would not be able to produce an heir to the throne of England for many years.
By this time in European history two entities had started to emerge as great powers in Western Europe: France, under François I, and the Habsburg-dominated Holy Roman Empire, under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The Kingdom of England, still a lesser power, was being courted as an ally by the two major powers.
As much as there was enmity between England and France, there was hostility between France and the Empire. Much of the military activity of reign of King François I’s reign was focused on his sworn enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. François and Charles maintained an intensely personal rivalry. Charles, in fact, brashly challenged François to single combat multiple times. Since addition to the Holy Roman Empire, Charles personally ruled Spain, Austria, and a number of smaller possessions neighbouring France, he was thus a constant threat to François’ kingdom.
The 1518 Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact between major European powers to help resist the Ottoman Empire’s expansion into southeastern Europe, had just been signed uniting the three powers against a common enemy.
A month before the Field of Cloth of Gold King Henry VIII also held meetings with Emperor Charles V in the Netherlands and again afterwards at Calais, Henry’s only possession on the Continent.
In 1520 another attempt at peace between the two nations occurred from June 7 to 24, 1520. This summit is known to history as the Field of the Cloth of Gold and it was a meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King François I of France and was held also at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English Pale of Calais, it was a very expensive display of wealth by both kings.
With the Field of the Cloth of Gold each king tried to outshine the other, with dazzling tents and clothes, huge feasts, music, jousting and games. The tents and the costumes displayed so much cloth of gold, an expensive fabric woven with silk and gold thread, that the site of the meeting was named after it.
This meeting made a great impression on contemporaries, but its political results were very minor. While the carefully established rules of the tournament stated that the two kings would not compete against each other, Henry surprisingly challenged Francis in a wrestling match, but it turned sour for Henry when he quickly lost.
Relations between the two countries worsened soon after the event when Cardinal Wolsey arranged an alliance with Charles V, who declared war on France later that year commencing the Italian War of 1521–26.
Despite an attempted alliance between King Henry VIII and King François I of France, King Henry VIII had more in common with Emperor Charles V, whom he met once before and once after meeting King François I. Charles brought his realm into war with France in 1521; Henry VIII offered to mediate, but little was achieved and by the end of the year Henry VIII had aligned England with Emperor Charles V.
King Henry VIII still clung to his previous aim of restoring English lands in France but sought to secure an alliance with Burgundy, then a territorial possession of Emperor Charles V, and the continued support of the Emperor.
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King Carlos I of Spain, was also Duke Charles II of Burgundy. In 1477, the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by King Louis XI France. At the time of the annexation Mary of Burgundy was the Duchess Regnant.
Mary was the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, Mary inherited the Burgundian lands at the age of 19 upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on January 5, 1477. In order to counter the appetite of the French king Louis XI for her lands, she married Archduke Maximilian of Austria, with whom she had two children.
The marriage kept large parts of the Burgundian lands from disintegration, but also changed the dynasty from Valois to Habsburg. This was a turning point in European politics, leading to a French–Habsburg rivalry that would endure for centuries. Long after Mary’s death, her husband became Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and their son became King Felipe I of Castile, as well as Duke of Burgundy which he in turned passed the Spanish and Burgundian titles to his son and heir Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
It was this complex political rivalry between France and the Habsburg Empire that King Henry VIII of England wanted to use for his advantage.
A small English attack in the north of France made up little ground. Emperor Charles V defeated and captured King François at Pavia and could dictate peace, but he believed he owed Henry VII nothing. Sensing this, Henry VIII decided to take England out of the war before his ally, signing the Treaty of the More on August 30, 1525.
François made major concessions to Charles V in the Treaty of Madrid (1526), signed on 14 January 14, before he was freed on March 17. An ultimatum from Ottoman Sultan Suleiman to Charles V also played an important role in his release. François I surrendered any claims to Naples and Milan in Italy. Francis recognised the independence of the Duchy of Burgundy, which had been part of France since the death of Charles the Bold in 1477. And finally, Francis was betrothed to Charles’ sister Archduchess/Infanta Eleanor. François was allowed to return to France in exchange for his two sons, François and Henri
When he was released, however, François had the Parliament of Paris denounce the treaty because it had been signed under duress. France then joined the League of Cognac that Pope Clement VII had formed with Henry VIII and the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Milanese to resist imperial domination of Italy. In the ensuing war, Charles V’s sack of Rome (1527) and virtual imprisonment of Pope Clement VII in 1527 prevented the Pope from annulling the marriage of Henry VIII and Charles’s aunt Infanta Catherine of Aragon, so Henry eventually broke with Rome, thus leading to the English Reformation.
With Charles V distracted by the internal politics of his many kingdoms and external threats, and Henry and Francis on relatively good terms, on June 23, 1532, Henry VIII and François I sign the “Treaty of Closer Amity With France” (also known as the Pommeraye treaty), pledging mutual aid against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
This peace did not last. In 1542 Italian War of 1542–1546 was a conflict late in the Italian Wars, pitting François I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England. The course of the war saw extensive fighting in Italy, France, and the Low Countries, as well as attempted invasions of Spain and England. The conflict was inconclusive and ruinously expensive for the major participants.