1518—Paris, France

The betrothal of Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, to François, eldest son of François I, King of France, takes place in Greenwich, England, with a repeat performance in Paris. The festivities in France include a dance performed by a wind band that probably consists of 3 shawms and 2 trombones (“two brass which were bent back”). Specifically, the wind band “played a pavan in the Milanese manner, to whose rhythms, the King, together with a number of the nobles, danced twice, most elegantly.” Then, later, according to the same record, “The wind players again played a pavan in the Milanese style, with forty couples dancing continually. Nor was anyone allowed to dance unless they were masked” (Shaw). Frenchman Thoinot Arbeau mentions a similar dance, a pavan danced by nobility and accompanied by shawms and trombones, in his dance treatise of 1588 (see below).