When Henry VIII and Francis I met in northern France in June 1520, the emphasis was on entertainment rather than politics, yet the sheer extravagance of the event was a statement of power. Amy Licence offers a fresh perspective on that fortnight of fabulous costumes, golden tents, jousting and dancing, looking at political aims and results but also at the astonishing logistics of the operation and how ‘The ideal of perfect chivalry and friendship, as unsustainable as the summer, had been realised’.