Anne of Cleves

Buried

Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of King Henry VIII; it was a very
brief marriage, to the astonishment of all observers but the relief of
both spouses. Henry infamously referred to his bride as a ‘Flanders
mare’ and told courtiers and ambassadors that he could not perform his
husbandly duties because of Anne’s appearance. Anne’s reaction to
Henry’s physical charms was not recorded, but she agreed to an annulment
 very quickly and remained in England for the rest of her life. Henry
was grateful for her cooperation and granted her a generous income and
several homes, including Hever Castle. Anne enjoyed an independent
lifestyle denied most women, often visiting Henry’s court as an honored
guest. Her fondness for English ale and gambling were her only vices.
Along with her successor as Henry’s wife, Catherine Howard, Anne remains
 a mysterious figure about whom too little is known. Had she and Henry
remained married and had children, the course of English history might
have changed dramatically. But the mysteries of physical attraction
denied Anne her place on the throne, ended the brilliant career of
Thomas Cromwell, and thrust the king into the arms of his ill-fated
fifth queen, Catherine Howard.

‘So she came to Greenwich that night, and was received as queen. And
the next day, being Sunday, the king’s grace kept a great court at
Greenwich, where his grace with the queen offered at mass, richly
dressed. And on Twelfth Night, which was Tuesday, the king’s majesty was
 married to the said queen Anne solemnly, in her closet at Greenwich,
and his grace and she went publicly in procession that day, she having a
 rich coronet of stone and pearls set with rosemary on her hair, and a
gown of rich cloth of silver, richly hung with stones and pearls, with
all her ladies and gentlewomen following her, which was a goodly sight
to behold.’ Anne of Cleves marries King Henry VIII, 1540

Anne of Cleves was Henry VIII’s fourth wife, though not his first
choice for the role by far. His ambassadors searched out all the
eligible heiresses of Europe and discovered their king had a very nasty
marital reputation. The beautiful Christina of Milan was told of the
king’s interest and wittily replied that if she had two heads she would
risk it, but she had only one; Marie de Guise, who would later wed his
nephew the King of Scots, replied much the same. The tragic tale of his
second queen, Anne Boleyn, had kept European gossips busy for three
years now.
The king’s poor and disrespectful treatment of his first wife (he was
rumored to have bullied Katharine of Aragon to an unhappy death) and the
 quick end of his third (in his desperation for a healthy male heir, the
 king was rumored to have ordered Jane Seymour cut open, mangled and
killed) only contributed to his low reputation.

One wouldn’t think a king would have too difficult a time finding a
wife, but Henry VIII – who defied his contemporaries in so many other
ways – did so in this respect as well.

In the end, it was religion which brought Anne of Cleves to England.

Henry had sought out Catholic princesses like Marie de Guise and his
fifth wife would be a Catholic as well. Despite the Henrician
‘reformation’, England and its monarch remained a Catholic nation,
albeit one in which supreme authority resided within the king rather
than the pope. But Henry’s influential advisor, Thomas Cromwell, wanted
England to ally herself with a Protestant nation that also rejected
papal authority. Cromwell recognized the inexorable Catholic decline
which was only just beginning to occur; the king’s assumption of supreme
 authority had merely been the first and most spectacular opening shot
in a new religious war. Raised to be a churchman until his brother’s
untimely death and deeply interested in theological debate, Henry VIII
didn’t appreciate the Pandora’s Box of change he had opened. Cromwell,
younger and more philosophically attuned to the attitudes of the rising
middle class, did appreciate it. And he approved of it. The marriage to
Anne of Cleves would openly ally England with a Protestant duchy, thus
making the ‘reformation’ even more settled.