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Anne of Cleves
Queen Consort of England
Anne of Cleves, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger
Born	22 September 1515
	Düsseldorf, Cleves
Died	16 July 1557, aged 41
	London, England
Consort	January 6, 1540 - July 9, 1540
Consort to	Henry VIII
Father	John III, Duke of Cleves
Mother	Maria von Geldern

Anne of Cleves (22 September 1515 – 16 July 1557) was the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540.

Anne was born at Düsseldorf, 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." In the mid-1530s, she was briefly betrothed to Francis, son and heir of the Duke of Lorraine. While her brother William was a Catholic, 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. (Anne and Henry were seventh cousins twice removed.)

The artist Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to paint a portrait of Anne, and Henry was pleased with the result. As it was usual for court painters to be flattering in their portrayal of important people, it is likely that Holbein covered up the evidence of Anne's smallpox scars. 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.

Henry, impatient to finally see his future bride, journeyed to Rochester on New Year’s Day 1540 and walked in on Anne unannounced. The king took an immediate dislike to Anne, reporting back to Cromwell that she was nothing like the glowing reports he had received of her. Henry urged Cromwell to find a legal way to avoid the marriage. By this point, however, evading the marriage was impossible without offending the Germans.

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 misgivings. 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 a divorce, to which she agreed. The marriage was annulled on July 9, 1540, on the grounds that it had never been consummated -- Henry claimed that he had found his bride so unattractive that he could not bear to sleep with her. 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 "sister" by her former husband, Anne remained in England for the rest of her life.

There is evidence that during the reign of Henry's son, King Edward VI, Anne suffered some financial reverses due to Edward not paying her allowance. She gave up Richmond Castle and Hever and moved to a small country house at Dartford. Her lot improved with the accession of Henry's daughter Mary Tudor to the English throne, and for the short remainder of her life, Anne occupied an honoured place at court. She was the last of Henry's six wives to die, in London, on 16 July 1557, and was buried in Westminster Abbey after a royal funeral. By that time, she had converted to Roman Catholicism and remained on good terms with Queen Mary, her former stepdaughter.

Elsa Lanchester appeared as Queen Anne in the 1933 film The Private Life of Henry VIII opposite Charles Laughton as Henry VIII. In this fanciful comedy of manners, Anne deliberately portrays herself as unattractive and naïve in order to persuade Henry to divorce her, thus enabling her to find love elsewhere.

In 1970, as part of the series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, actress Elvi Hale played the title role in the 90-minute BBC television drama "Anne of Cleves" opposite Keith Michell's Henry VIII. Mollie Sugden played Anne's German lady-in-waiting. In this relatively accurate portrayal, Anne comes to England full of youthful naïveté and joyous hope, only to be horrified upon meeting her future husband (who was, by this time, morbidly obese). She quickly befriends her young stepdaughter, the Princess Elizabeth. Jenny Bos played Anne in the 1972 film Henry VIII and his Six Wives. Catherine Siggins portrayed Anne in David Starkey's documentrary on the wives in 2001. In 2003, Pia Girard played Anne of Cleves in the mini-series Henry VIII but appears only once in bed awaiting Henry, and once at the king's funeral seven years later.

It was Sir Horace Walpole, writing in the 18th century, who 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. Recent viewpoints suggest that it is more likely she found Henry to be the ugly one due to his obesity, and therefore purposely made 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 — and that they split on amicable terms. This theory is supported by the fact that she received a good settlement.

• 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 divorce
• A Google Earth biography tour of the Six Wives of Henry VIII on the Google Earth Community

Preceded by Jane Seymour

Queen Consort of England 6 January–9 July 1540

Succeeded by Catherine Howard

Persondata
NAME	Anne of Cleves
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Queen Consort of Henry VIII
DATE OF BIRTH	September 22, 1515
PLACE OF BIRTH	Düsseldorf, Duchy of Cleves (now Germany)
DATE OF DEATH	July 16, 1557
PLACE OF DEATH	London, England