Anne of Cleves

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Anne of Cleves
Queen Consort of England
Anne of Cleves, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger
Born	22 September 1515(1515-09-22)
Birthplace	Düsseldorf, Cleves
Died	16 July 1557 (aged 41)
Place of death	London, England
Consort	January 6, 1540 - July 9, 1540
Consort to	Henry VIII of England
Father	John "the Peaceful," duke of Cleves
Mother	Maria von Jülich-und-Berg

Anne of Cleves (22 September 1515–16 July 1557) (German: Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg) was the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540.

[edit] Biography

Anne was born at Düsseldorf^[1], the daughter of John III, ruler of the Duchy of Cleves, who died in 1538. After John's death, her brother William became Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, bearing the promising epithet "The Rich." In 1526, her elder sister Sybille was married to John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, head of the Protestant Confederation of Germany and considered the "Champion of the Reformation." At the age of 12 (1527), she was betrothed to Francis, son and heir of the Duke of Lorraine while he was only 10, so the betrothal was considered 'unofficial.' While her brother William was a Lutheran, the family's politics made them suitable allies for England's King Henry VIII in the aftermath of the Reformation, and a match with Anne was urged on the king by his chancellor, Thomas Cromwell.

[edit] Wedding preparations

The artist Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to paint portraits of Anne and her sister, Amelia whom Henry was considering for the role of his fourth wife. While it was usual for court painters to be flattering in their portrayal of important people, the only truly important person here was the King: Henry hired the artist to be as accurate as possible, not to flatter these sisters. The portrait is currently displayed in The Louvre in Paris.

Negotiations with the Cleves Court were in full swing by March 1539. Cromwell oversaw the talks and a marriage treaty was signed on 4 October of the same year. While Henry valued education and cultural sophistication in women, Anne lacked these in her upbringing; she received no formal education as a child, and instead of being taught to sing or play an instrument, she was skilled in needlework. She had learned to read and write, but in German only. Nevertheless, Anne was considered gentle, virtuous, and docile, qualities that made her a realistic candidate for Henry.

Motivated by the flattering painting he had received, Henry was quite impatient to see his future bride. He went to meet her at the water's edge when she arrived by boat. Their first night as husband and wife was not a happy one; within a few hours he came from the room and announced: "I like her not." Henry urged Cromwell to find a legal way to avoid the marriage but, by this point, evading the marriage was impossible without offending the Germans.

[edit] A doomed marriage

The Six Wives of King Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr

The two were married on 6 January 1540 at the royal Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, despite Henry's very vocal misgivings. If his bride had objections, she kept them to herself. The phrase “God send me well to keep” was engraved around Anne’s wedding ring.

Anne was commanded to leave the Court on June 24 and on July 6 she was informed of her husband's decision to reconsider the marriage. In a short time, Anne was asked for her consent to an annulment, to which she agreed. The marriage was annulled on July 9, 1540, on the grounds both of non-consummation and of her pre-contract to Francis of Lorraine. She received a generous settlement, including Hever Castle, home of Henry's former in-laws, the Boleyns. Anne of Cleves House, in Lewes, Sussex, is just one of many properties she owned; she never lived there. Made a Princess of England and called "the King's Beloved Sister" by her former husband, Anne remained in England for the rest of her life.

[edit] Death

Anne died at Hever Castle on July 16, 1557. According to her wishes, she was buried in what is described as a "somewhat hard to find tomb in Westminster Abbey".

[edit] In fiction

Philippa Gregory's novel, The Boleyn Inheritance, is told from the viewpoint of three prominent women at the Tudor court of Henry VIII: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Jane Boleyn.

Margaret Campbell Barnes's My Lady of Cleves describes what Anne's life might have been like between the time her portrait was painted by Hans Holbein and when King Henry VIII died.

[edit] Historiography

Sir Horace Walpole, writing in the 18th century resurrected the myth which described Anne as "The Flanders Mare" — a monument to ugliness. This view persisted, and it is still a popular stereotype. Most modern historians, however, disagree with it, and the Holbein portrait certainly contradicts Walpole. Another point of view is that Anne found Henry repulsive because of his obesity, and set out to make him dislike her.

Another theory suggests that they agreed that they simply did not get along well with each other — Anne had been raised in the small provincial court at Düsseldorf and shared none of the musical and humanistic literary tastes of Henry's court. Another theory suggests that shifts in a threatened Catholic French-Spanish alliance removed any diplomatic motivations for their union. Henry and Anne split on amicable terms. This theory is supported by the fact that she received a good settlement.

Finally, there is the theory that the marriage was politically inconvenient because of the growing hostility between Henry and the Duke of Cleves ^[2].

[edit] Lineage

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• A quick overview of Anne's life, including a very good portrait gallery
• A more in-depth examination of Anne's political career
• More information on Anne's life after her annulment
• A Google Earth biography tour of the Six Wives of Henry VIII on the Google Earth Community
• A biography on her life