It remained at Bayonne till October supporting Ferdinand II of Aragon's action in the Kingdom of Navarre, though undersupplied and in poor morale.

[3] In May 1513 English soldiers began to arrive in number at Calais to join an army commanded by George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Steward of the Household.

On 17 May Henry announced to the Cinque Ports and Edward Poynings, Constable of Dover Castle, that he would join the invasion in person, and had appointed commissioners to requisition all shipping.

In Henry's absence across the sea (ad partes transmarinas), Catherine of Aragon would rule England and Wales as Rector and Governor (Rectrix et Gubernatrix).

[7] The army was provided by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey as Almoner, and comprised several different types of martial forces including cavalry, artillery, infantry, and longbowmen using arrows with hardened steel heads, designed to penetrate armour more effectively.

Shrewsbury set up a battery and dug mines towards the town's walls, but made little progress against the defending garrison of French and German soldiers in July.

On the way to Thérouanne two English cannon called "John the Evangelist" and the "Red Gun" had been abandoned, and French skirmishing hampered their recovery with loss of life.

Edward Hall, the chronicle author, mentions the role of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex in this operation and the advice given by Rhys ap Thomas.

[9] An Imperial agent of Margaret of Savoy wrote that two "obstinate men" govern everything, these were Charles Brandon, Viscount Lisle who he called the "Grand Esquire" and the Almoner Wolsey.

[10] Henry camped to the east of Thérouanne at a heavily defended position, described by English chronicles as environed with artillery, such as "falcons, serpentines, cast hagbushes, tryde harowes, and spine trestles (bolt firing tarasnice)", with Henry's field accommodation consisting of a wooden cabin with an iron chimney, with large tents of blue water-work, yellow, and white fabric, topped by the King's beasts, the Lion, Dragon, Greyhound, Antelope, and Dun Cow.

In July a force of 800 Albanians commanded by Captain Fonterailles pushed through the besieger's lines and successfully delivered gunpowder and supplies including bacon to the gates of the town, leaving 80 soldiers as reinforcements.

Reports sent to Venice mentioned 300 English casualties or more, and Fonterailles' statement that the town could hold out till the feast day of the Nativity of the Virgin, on 8 September.

According to Sir Charles Oman, whose narrative is largely based on the mid-16th century English Chronicle of Edward Hall, La Palice made a mistake in staying in his exposed position too long, presumably he was doing so in order to allow the stradiots the greatest possibility of success.

The English heavy cavalry of the vanguard drew up opposite Palice's front, while the mounted archers dismounted and shot at the French from a flanking hedgerow.

[25] According to Reinhold Pauli and others, Maximilian recommended that parts of the troops should be sent to the flank and rear of the enemy and lighter cannons should be put on the ridge of the neighbouring hill.

Although reports mention the Emperor's decision for his troops to serve under Henry's standard,[36] Hall's account suggests friction between the English and Imperial forces, during the day and over prisoners taken by the Empire, who were "not brought to sight" and released.

Eight or nine hundred soldiers were set to work demolishing the walls of the town and three large bastions which were pushed into the deep defensive ditches.

That evening, Henry played on the lute, harp, lyre, flute, and horn,[42] and danced with "Madame the Bastard" till nearly dawn, "like a stag", according to the Milanese ambassador.

Before Tournai fell Catherine of Aragon sent John Glyn to Henry with the blood-stained coat and gauntlets of James IV of Scotland.

Charles Brandon captured one of the gatehouses and took away two of its statues as trophies, and the garrison negotiated with Henry and Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, on 20 September.

[46] The events within the town were misunderstood in English chronicles, Raphael Holinshed and Richard Grafton wrote that a disaffected "vaunt-parler" had set fire to the suburbs to hasten their surrender, while the Provost canvassed the townspeople's opinion.

The town presented Margaret of Austria with a set of tapestries woven with scenes from the Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan.

The surveyor of Berwick, Thomas Pawne, could not find a market for the unused building materials there, and sent stones by boat via Antwerp to Calais, some carved with English insignia, along with the machinery of two watermills.

The construction work at Tournai has been characterized as retrogressive, lacking the input of a professional military engineer, and an "essentially medieval" conception out of step with Italian innovations.

Ouch die Belägerung der stat Bornay (sic: Tournai) und ander seltzam geschichten, (1513), which can be translated as; Of the honourable and sumptuous reception and friendly courtesy shown by the King of England to the Emperor Maximilian in Picardy; and of the attack and defeat which took place there before Thérouanne.

[51] Maximilian also commissioned woodcut images of his meeting with Henry from Leonhard Beck, and from Albrecht Dürer who included a scene of the mounted rulers joining hands in the Triumphal Arch.

[52] Henry commissioned commemorative paintings of the meeting and of the battle which showed him involved in the centre of the action, though Hall pointed out he took advice to stay with the foot soldiers.

[55] Maximilian's tomb at the Hofkirche, Innsbruck, constructed in 1553 to designs by Florian Abel includes a marble relief of the meeting by Alexander Colyn following Dürer's woodcut.

Additionally, Maximilian wanted to destroy the city walls of Tournai (which usually served as a foothold for French intervention and threatened his grandson Charles's Burgundian territories).

[60][61][62][63] On the other hand, Henry VIII and his queen Catherine did feel genuine gratitude for Maximilian's assistance and later sent him the sizeable sum of 100,000 golden florin.