An imagined gathering
1520 · Calais, France
Francis I entertains Charles V, Erasmus, and More at the edge of the Field of Cloth of Gold, and the talk is all of empire and faith.
The Field of Cloth of Gold has drawn the kings of France and England together in a display of magnificence, and Francis has kept a table for the emperor and a few scholars amid the tents and tournaments. Charles V has come despite the rivalry between them; Erasmus and More are there as ornaments of the new learning.
Francis is a generous host and a restless one, and he steers the talk toward the art and building he means to leave behind. Charles answers with the weight of an empire that stretches from the Netherlands to Naples, and the two of them circle the question of Italy without ever quite naming it. Over pasta, roast partridge, a vegetable torte, and candied fruit, Erasmus and More exchange a look that says they have heard this argument before.
Host: Francis I of France
Charles V — The new emperor, whose lands surround France on every side.
Desiderius Erasmus — The scholar both courts would like to claim.
Thomas More — In the king's service, watching the diplomacy at close range.
First course
a period dish
Main
a period dish
Side
a period dish
Dessert
a period dish
Drink
a period dish
Francis I of France
The French court of Francis I, where Italian artists and French chivalry were fused into a new style.
Charles V
The patchwork of kingdoms Charles V inherited and the impossible task of ruling them as one.
Desiderius Erasmus
The humanist program of returning to original texts and languages, and the tools of editing and translation it produced.
Thomas More
More's refusal to place the king's authority above his own conscience, and the price he paid for it.
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.