The Christmas and New Year period in 1525/26 was quiet. Henry VIII had separated himself from court because of an outbreak of the sweating sickness and so did not host the usual festive revelry. Perhaps this slightly more reserved and unhappy Christmas period was the reason Henry chose to spend more time on progress during 1526 than during any other period of his reign.

Progresses were almost summer holidays for the court – they were an opportunity for pleasure, pomp, and pageantry. The grand entertainments, extravagant spending and behind the scenes politics created a decadent and dangerous atmosphere.

These events were an opportunity for Henry to demonstrate his power and wealth. The best demonstration of this can be found somewhere slightly unexpected – Henry’s tent. Tudor tents were no ordinary camping apparel; they were luxurious temporary palaces made of the finest materials. The Field of Cloth of Goldprovides an amazing visual record of a Tudor progress to France in 1520, featuring a wealth of extraordinary tents.

Edward Hall, a contemporary source, offers useful and fantastically detailed descriptions of these portable palaces. He explains that Henry’s tent was ‘sette on stages by great connynge and sumpteous woorke’ with a worked stone gatehouse. In the well-proportioned rooms ‘hanged riche and marveilous clothes of Arras wrought of golde and silke, compassed of many auncient stories…so richely covered, that is passed all other sightes before seen.’ Hall stimulates our imaginations and gives us an idea of how incredible these tents were.

We can also get an idea of the scale of these structures when comparing written sources to official transcriptions regarding the cost. The Office of Tents, for they deserved their own royal department, focused on the royal tents needed for war and pleasure. They funded the design and making of the tents, the crew needed for erecting them, and their storage. Their account books describe the sheer amount of fabric required (167m of cloth of gold!) and the immense amount of money spent on them – in 1514, they had a budget of nearly one thousand pounds. Considering a labourer earned four pence a day the cost for these ephemeral structures was huge.

Henry showed his magnificence in any way he could and tents afforded him a golden opportunity to show everyone that he was the richest, most fashionable and powerful man in the country, if not the world.

Join Henry VIII and his travelling court at Tatton Park this Bank Holiday weekend for Tudors on Tour.

Charlotte Barker, Curatorial Research Assistant

Curatorial Research Assistant