Six Queens: Anne of Cleves

It’s the classic tale of catfishing. But in this case, Anne probably held the trump card and outlived not only the King himself, but also ALL of the other queens.

After doing my research a bit more into her history, I’ve found that she, alongside Katherine of Aragon are my favourite queens so far.

Anne of Cleves was an impressionable woman. She was well educated and was able to pick up English quickly during her short time in the Royal court. She was brought up in Germany to Dutch Renaissance scholar, Duke John. Despite her brother’s zeal for Protestantism, Anne was brought up by her Catholic mother and she herself had Catholic ideals. Yet she did convert to Anglicanism when she married. During her time under her parent’s wing, she was educated in the fine scholarly subjects and wasn’t encouraged to pick up the arts of the 16th century. This would later cause issues with Henry, who loved the arts.

It was suggested that Anne was betrothed to another before Henry’s marriage to Anne (possibly making the divorce a bit easier). At the time of their marriage, Anne was 24 and Henry was double that at 48.

But what is this picture all about?

Well, Anne and her sister Amelia were chosen by Henry for political reasons to become his next wife. Their relations with Germany provided vital alliances to his kingdom, so the two sisters were caught in a cross-fire. Henry ordered the famous Hans Holbein to paint the girls’ portraits as realistic as possible. It seems Henry’s advisor Thomas Cromwell took a shine to Anne as he encouraged the King to pick her out of the two. Simple, right? Not so.

When Anne first came to England, Henry disguised himself so he could see his future queen without the whole fanfare, and to possibly see if she would take a shine to him for his personality. But I’m guessing Henry was no smooth talker and probably tried to seduce her which she responded, like anyone, distastefully. This practically set her up to fail.

Throughout all official visits, it’s reported that Henry was disgusted by Anne’s appearance (cheap coming from him) and they barely had a good connection. The infamous line that Henry called Anne a ‘Flanders Mare’ is simply not true, she was given that nickname in the 17th Century.

Despite only being married for six months and not knowing exactly if they did consummate the marriage, Anne made a great impression on Henry’s children. She was well-liked by Edward, Mary and Elizabeth and openly supported Mary when she became queen. Strangely enough, Henry would also give Anne lots of gifts even after their divorce. One of Anne’s ‘second best’ jewels was even given to Elizabeth.

His wives knew how to end a marriage well. Once divorced, Anne returned his wedding ring instructing him to break it up into pieces as it was worth so little. Ohhh shady.

Anne settled into a lovely divorce, maybe that was a pull to want to be remarried after Catherine Howard’s beheading? We’ll never know. But she did seem a little jealous of Catherine Parr who was two years her senior and a widow.

What can I say? Once a queen, always a queen right?

– Henna