“And vpon monday whiche was the. xxix. day of October at Caleys our kyng made the great mayster of Fraunce and the admyrall of Fraunce knyghtes of the garter. And that daye there was a greate wrastelynge betwene englysshe men and frensshe men before bothe the kynges the frensshe kynge had none but preestes that wrasteled which were bygge men and stronge they were bretherne but they had moost falles.”
If you didn’t quite understand that, it tells us that there was a chapter of the Order of the Garter, where Henry VIII made Anne, duc de Montmorency and Grand Master of France, and Philippe de Chabot, Admiral of France, Knights of the Garter, and the entertainment that day included a wrestling match which saw the French having “the most falls”. The English Cornish wrestlers provided by Sir William Godolphin beat the French side and this time Henry VIII refrained from challenging Francis to a wrestling match, something he had done at the 1520 Field of Cloth of Gold when the French King had beaten him.
Notes and Sources
- LP v. 1093, 1168 – Letters from William Godolphin to Cromwell
- Hall’s Chronicle, Edward Hall, p794
- The Maner of the tryumphe of Caleys and Bulleyn and The noble tryumphaunt coronacyon of Quene Anne, wyfe unto the most noble kynge Henry VIII, Wynkyn de Worde, p15
- Francis I, R. J. Knecht, p226
