Fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England Born 22 September 1515 in Dusseldorf, Anne of Cleves is distinguished from the English monarch’s other wives by the brevity of her marriage, which lasted a mere six months. Soon after their wedding on 6 January 1540, Henry sought an annulment and thereafter treated Anne as an honorary sister. Their marriage was officially annulled by an act of parliament on 12 July 1540.Anne received a considerable divorce settlement of ?4,000 per
Anne of Cleves (1515—1557), the fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England. Portrait by anonymous artist. (Library of Congress)
Annum, as well as significant properties, such as Bletchingley Manor, Richmond Palace, and Hever Castle, on condition that she remain in England. During her seventeen years as a foreigner in England, Anne of Cleves enjoyed a privileged position at court as the first lady of England, after the queen and Henry’s daughters. When Henry died in 1547, the Privy Council confiscated Bletchingley Manor and Richmond Palace. As compensation, Anne was granted two Kentish estates, Penshurst Place and Dartford Priory. After a lingering illness, she died on 16 July 1557 at Chelsea Manor at the age of forty-one.
Daughter of John III of Cleves and Maria of Julich-Berg-Ravensberg, Anne was born into a politically powerful Protestant family, which ruled territories known as the Duchy of Julich-Cleves. Anne had two sisters, SybiUa and Amelia, and a brother, William, who became duke of Cleves in 1539. Sybilla married the zealous Lutheran Johann Frederick, elector of Saxony, who became the head of the Schmal-kaldic League of Protestant princes and cities. Anne’s lineage can be traced back to Edward I of England and John II of France. In 1527, when Ann was twelve, her father arranged a precontract for her marriage to Francis of Lorraine. After her father died, the precontract apparently became void. Anne spent most of her early years at the ducal court in Dusseldorf and left her homeland for England at the age of twenty-four.
Anne of Cleves’ marriage to Henry VIII was the result of a calculated diplomatic effort. Henry’s Privy Councillor Thomas Cromwell orchestrated the courtship, intending to secure England’s alliance with Cleves and by extension a host of Protestant states. The political spur to the marriage was the peace alliance signed in 1539 by two Catholic powers, Francis I of Spain and Charles V of France. Cromwell sought to protect English interests by urging Henry VIII to ally himself with a Protestant enemy of France. Ironically, soon after Henry and Anne’s marriage took place, relations between Francis I and Charles V became hostile, and Henry forged an amicable agreement with Spain.
A remarkable aspect of Henry VIII’s courtship negotiations involved a portrait of Anne of Cleves. Wishing to gauge the appearance and character of his prospective bride, Henry VIII sent his court painter, Hans Holbein, abroad to capture Anne’s image. Two betrothal portraits of Anne of Cleves are extant: one is an exquisite miniature, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the other is a full-size picture, now in the Louvre. Both offer realistic depictions of her as a solemn young woman in Flemish dress, attractive with fair skin and a modest demeanor. The miniature was set in an ivory case carved in the form of a Tudor rose. Two portraits of Anne from the workshop of Barthel Bruyn the Elder in Cologne reveal a more angular face and sober character. Although no record of Henry’s reaction to Holbein’s pictures exists, we can assume he found them pleasing since he did not halt the marriage negotiations. Nicholas Wot-ton, a member of Henry’s privy chamber, offered a believable counterpart to Holbein’s portrait, which he verified as lifelike, when he described Anne as a virtuous daughter attached to her mother, strictly brought up, and skilled with the needle. According to Wotton’s report, Anne could read and write in High Dutch but was not literate in other languages. She could not sing or play an instrument, because these activities were considered too “light” for a woman of her class. She was intelligent and temperate, especially regarding overindulgence in food and drink.
The marriage treaty was concluded on 4 October 1539; Anne arrived in England in late December of that year. On New Year’s Day, Henry VIII staged his first meeting with his future wife, which proved mortifying and predictive of the failed relationship to come. Disguised as messengers, he and his gentlemen of the privy chamber surprised Anne in Rochester. They entered her room, disturbing her while she was watching bear baiting from a window. She could not communicate in English and would not have known the identity of the king. Her reaction, therefore, left much to be desired. Henry left the room in disappointment and then returned as the king of England; Anne humbled herself in his presence, but their interview did not go well. The king conveyed to Cromwell how little he liked her ITom their first meeting. Their marriage was apparently never consummated. Anne revealed ignorance about sexual matters when questioned, and Henry claimed to have been too repulsed by Anne to carry through with his marital obligation. The grounds for divorce were threefold:Anne’s prior marriage contract with Francis of Lorraine, Henry’s unwillingness to enter into the marriage, and its nonconsummation. Having no better option, Anne agreed to a divorce. In political terms, Henry recognized that he must keep peace with the duke of Cleves; he therefore offered Anne financial independence. He required her to stay in England, however, so that he could ensure that her correspondence to her family did not compromise the delicate political alliance between states.
Anne resided primarily at Hever Castle in Kent. She never remarried, essentially enjoying the authority and freedom of a widow. She established good relations with Mary Tudor, with whom she shared Catholic affinities, and took an interest in Elizabeth Tudor, both future queens of England. Her wedding ring motto, “God send me wel to kepe,” ironically describes her circumstances in England; she was well kept indeed, but at the price of her rightful social position as queen, her family’s honor, and an heir to the English throne. Anne of Cleves is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Marguerite Tassi
See also Boleyn, Anne; Catherine of Aragon; Howard, Catherine; Howard, Frances; Parr, Katherine; Power, Politics and Women; Religious Reform and Women.
Bibliography
Fraser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII. New York:Vintage Books, 1994.
Lindsey, Karen. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII. Reading, MA:Addison-Wesley, 1995.
Plowden, Alison. Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners. New York: Atheneum, 1979.
Saaler, Mary. Anne of Cleves: Fourth Wife of Henry VIII. London: Rubicon Press, 1995.
Warnicke, Retha M. The Marrying of Anne of Cleves: Royal Protocol in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1992.
World History
