In March 1539, negotiations for Anne's marriage to Henry began. Henry believed he needed to form a political alliance with her brother,William, a leader of the Protestants of Western Germany, to strengthen his position against potential attacks from CatholicFrance and theHoly Roman Empire.[3] Anne arrived in England in December 1539 and married Henry a week later, but the marriage was declaredunconsummated after six months and Anne was not crownedqueen consort.[4][5]
Following theannulment, Henry gave her a generous settlement and Anne was thereafter known asthe King's Beloved Sister. Remaining in England, she lived to see the reigns of Henry's children,Edward VI andMary I, and attendedMary's coronation in 1553. Anne outlived the rest of Henry's wives.[4][6]
In 1527, at the age of 11, Anne was betrothed toFrancis, the 9-year-old son and heir ofAntoine, Duke of Lorraine[9] but because Francis was under the age of consent (10 years old) at the time of the arrangement, the betrothal was considered unofficial and was cancelled in 1535.[10] Her brother William was aLutheran but the family was unaligned religiously, with her mother, the Duchess Maria, described as a "strict Catholic".[11] Her father's ongoing dispute over theDuchy of Guelders with Charles V made the family suitable allies for England's King Henry VIII in the wake of theTruce of Nice. The match with Anne was urged on the King by his chief minister,Thomas Cromwell.
Negotiations to arrange the marriage were in full swing by March 1539.Thomas Cromwell oversaw the talks and a marriage treaty was signed on 4 October of that year.
Henry valued education and cultural sophistication in women (e.g., Anne Boleyn), but Anne lacked these traits. She had received no formal education but was skilled in needlework and liked playing card games. She could read and write, but only in German.[16] Nevertheless, Anne was considered gentle, virtuous and docile, which is why she was recommended as a suitable candidate for Henry.
Anne was described by French ambassadorCharles de Marillac as tall and slim, "of medium beauty, and of very assured and resolute countenance."[17] She was fair-haired and was said to have had a lovely face. In the words of the chroniclerEdward Hall, "Her hair hanging down, which was fair, yellow and long ... she was apparelled after the English fashion, with aFrench hood, which so set forth her beauty and good visage, that every creature rejoiced to behold her."[18] She appeared rather solemn by English standards, and looked old for her age. Holbein painted her with a high forehead, heavy-lidded eyes and a pointed chin.
Anne was initially to travel to England alone with her cortège – the death of her father prevented her brother and mother from travelling – but there were concerns about a beautiful, sheltered young woman who had never travelled by sea making such a journey, especially during the winter. She travelled from Düsseldorf to Cleves, and then to Antwerp where she was received by fifty English merchants.[19]
Henry met her privately on New Year's Day 1540 at Rochester Abbey inRochester on her journey fromDover.[20] Henry and some of his courtiers, following acourtly-love tradition, went disguised into the room where Anne was staying.[20] The chroniclerCharles Wriothesley reported:
[The King] so went up into the chamber where the said Lady Anne was looking out of a window to see the bull-baiting which was going on in the courtyard, and suddenly he embraced and kissed her, and showed her a token which the king had sent her forNew Year's gift, and she being abashed and not knowing who it was thanked him, and so he spoke with her. But she regarded him little, but always looked out the window .... and when the king saw that she took so little notice of his coming he went into another chamber and took off his cloak and came in again in a coat of purple velvet. And when the lords and knights saw his grace they did him reverence.[21]
According to the testimony of Henry's companions, he was disappointed with Anne, feeling that she was not as described. Although Anne "regarded him little", it is unknown whether she knew this was the King.[22] Henry then revealed his true identity to Anne, and although he is said to have been put off, the marriage preparations proceeded. Henry and Anne then met officially on 3 January onBlackheath outside the gates ofGreenwich Park, where a grand reception was laid out.[23]
Most historians believe that Henry's misgivings about the marriage derived from his assessment that Anne's appearance was unsatisfactory and failure to inspire him to consummate the marriage. He felt that he had been misled by his advisors' praise: "She is nothing so fair as she hath been reported", he complained.[24] He told others in his court that if "it were not that she had come so far into my realm, and the great preparations and state that my people have made for her, and for fear of making a ruffle in the world and of drivingher brother into the arms of the Emperor and the French King, I would not now marry her. But now it is too far gone, wherefore I am sorry."[25][b]
Cromwell received some blame for the Holbein portrait, which Henry believed not an accurate representation of Anne, and for some of the exaggerated reports of her beauty.[27] Henry urged Cromwell to find a legal way to avoid the marriage but, by this point, doing so was impossible without endangering the vital alliance with the Germans. In his anger and frustration, the King turned on Cromwell, to his subsequent regret.[28]
Despite Henry's very vocal misgivings, the two were married on 6 January 1540 at the royalPalace of Placentia inGreenwich, London, byArchbishopThomas Cranmer. The phrase "God send me well to keep" was engraved around Anne's wedding ring.[29] According toEdward Hall, she wore a "gowne of ryche cloth of gold set full of large flowers of great and Orient pearl, made after the Duche fassion rownde".[30] A round gown had no train.[31] On the Sunday after the wedding there werejousts, Anne dressed in the English fashion, with aFrench hood.[32]
Immediately after arriving in England, Anne conformed to the Catholic form of worship which Henry had retained after his break with Rome.[33] The couple's first night as husband and wife was not a successful one. Henry confided to Cromwell that he had not consummated the marriage, saying, "I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse".[34]
In February 1540, speaking to theCountess of Rutland, Anne praised the King as a kind husband, saying: "When he comes to bed he kisseth me, and he taketh me by the hand, and biddeth me 'Good night, sweetheart'; and in the morning kisseth me and biddeth 'Farewell, darling.'" Lady Rutland responded: "Madam, there must be more than this, or it will be long ere we have a duke of York, which all this realm most desireth."[35]
Anne was commanded to leave the Court on 24 June, and on 6 July she was informed of her husband's decision to reconsider the marriage. Witness statements were taken from a number of courtiers and two physicians which register the King's disappointment at her appearance. Henry had also commented toThomas Heneage and Anthony Denny that he could not believe she was a virgin.[36]
Shortly afterwards, Anne was asked for her consent to an annulment, to which she agreed. Cromwell, the moving force behind the marriage, wasattainted fortreason. The marriage was annulled on 12 July 1540, on the grounds of non-consummation and her pre-contract to Francis of Lorraine. Henry VIII's physician stated that, after the wedding night, Henry said he was not impotent because he experienced "duas pollutiones nocturnas in somno" (twonocturnal pollutions while in sleep).[37][38]
Anne had been given dower lands in January 1540 to fund her household, including manors in Hampshire formerly owned byBreamore Priory andSouthwick Priory.[40] Following the annulment she received a generoussettlement, includingRichmond Palace, andHever Castle, home of Henry's former in-laws, theBoleyns.Anne of Cleves House, inLewes,East Sussex, is just one of many properties she owned, though she never lived there. Henry and Anne became friendly—she was an honorary member of the King's family and was referred to as "the King's Beloved Sister". She was invited to court often and, out of gratitude for not contesting the annulment, Henry decreed that she would be given precedence over all women in England save his own wife and daughters.[41]
AfterCatherine Howard was beheaded in 1542, Anne and her brother William pressed the King to remarry Anne. Henry quickly refused to do so.[42] Anne seems to have dislikedCatherine Parr and reportedly reacted to the news of Henry's sixth marriage in 1543 with the remark "Madam Parr is taking a great burden on herself."[43]
In March 1547,Edward VI'sPrivy Council asked her to move out ofBletchingley Palace, her usual residence, toPenshurst Place to make way forThomas Cawarden,Master of Revels. They pointed out that Penshurst was nearer to Hever and the move had been Henry VIII's will.[44][45]On 4 August 1553, Anne wrote toMary I to congratulate her on her marriage toPhilip of Spain.[46] On 28 September 1553, when Mary leftSt James's Palace forWhitehall, she was accompanied by her sisterElizabeth and Anne of Cleves.[47] Anne also took part in Mary I's coronation procession,[48][49] and may have been present at her coronation atWestminster Abbey.[c] These seem to have been her last public appearances,[51][52] although there is an account of Anne at Westminster Abbey in August 1554 after thewedding of Mary and Philip.[53] As the new queen was a strict Catholic, Anne yet again changed religion, then becoming a Roman Catholic.[54][55]
After a brief return to prominence, she lost royal favour in 1554, followingWyatt's rebellion. According toSimon Renard, the Imperial ambassador, Anne's close association with Elizabeth had convinced the Queen that "the Lady [Anne] of Cleves was of the plot and intrigued with the Duke of Cleves to obtain help for Elizabeth: matters in which the king of France was the prime mover".[56] There is no evidence that Anne was invited back to court after 1554.[57] She was compelled to live a quiet and obscure life on her estates.[58] After her arrival as the King's bride, Anne never left England. Despite occasional feelings of homesickness, Anne was generally content in England and was described byRaphael Holinshed as "a ladie of right commendable regards, courteous, gentle, a good housekeeper and verie bountifull to her servants."[59]
In the summer of 1556, Anne's brother William complained about some of her servants. He had heard that Otto Wylick, Jasper Brockhausen, and his wife, Gertrude, made difficulties in Anne's household. Gertrude was said to have beguiled Anne with impostures and incantations. The matter came before Queen Mary and the English council of Philip II, and in September Brockhausen and Wylick were expelled.[60]
When Anne's health began to fail, Mary allowed her to live atChelsea Old Manor, where Henry's last wife,Catherine Parr, had lived after her remarriage.[61] Here, in the middle of July 1557, Anne dictated her last will. In it, she mentions her brother, sister, and sister-in-law, as well as the future Queen Elizabeth, theDuchess of Suffolk, and theCountess of Arundel.[62] She left some money to her servants and asked Mary and Elizabeth to employ them in their households.[6] She was remembered by everyone who served her as a particularly generous and easy-going mistress.[59]
Anne died at Chelsea Old Manor on 16 July 1557, aged 41 or 42. The most likely cause of her death wascancer.[61] She was buried inWestminster Abbey on 3 August[63] in what has been described as a "somewhat hard-to-find tomb" on the opposite side ofEdward the Confessor's shrine and slightly above eye level for a person of average height.
Anne'sepitaph in Westminster Abbey, reads simply:[64]
ANNE OF CLEVES
QUEEN OF ENGLAND
BORN 1515 • DIED 1557
She was the last of Henry VIII's wives to die.[65]
^Heather Darsie quotes from a contemporary record: "This year [sc 1515] the day before St Peter and St Paul a second daughter was born[…]." The martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul is celebrated on 29 June. Darsie attributes the incorrect date of 22 September toMaur-François Dantine in hisL'Art de vérifier les dates [fr] of 1750.[8]
^ Henry's reported response, likening Anne to a "Flanders mare", has no contemporary source but originates from a "misogynist" coining only in 1679, byWhig historianGilbert Burnet.[26]
^Darsie 2019, Chapter 5: "Wilhelm sent portraits of Anna and Amalia to England. These were the portraits painted byBarthel Bruyn the Elder in late 1538. The painting of Anna is now in the possession of theRosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia […]"
^Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer, 'The Select Council of Philip I: A Spanish Institution in Tudor England, 1555–1558',The English Historical Review, 139:597 (April 2024), pp. 326–359.doi:10.1093/ehr/cead216
Strype, John (1822)."XCIII".Ecclesiastical Memorials, Relating Chiefly to Religion and the Reformation of it, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII, King Edward VI and Queen Mary I. Vol. 1, Part 2, Appendix, Henry VIII. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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