Anne of Cleves

Born 22 September 1515
Died 16 July 1557 (aged 41)

She was protestant, which means that when she came to England she was viewed with suspicion. This would underlie all her dealings with Henry VIII.

She was the daughter of the late Duke of Cleves and the union was advantageous to foreign policy particularly due to the tensions between England and the Roman Catholic countries of France and Spain.

Henry, three years after Jane Seymour's death, commissioned the portrait painter Hahs Holbein to paint eligible young ladies of Europe.

Anne was married to Henry in January 1540 in the Palace de Placentia in Greenwich. However Henry had never been taken with Anne and viewed her portrait not to be representative of her actual appearance. In June of the same year she was banished from court and in July Henry made it known that he did not wish to remain married to her.

Anne was forced to admit that she had a standing prior engagement which invalidated her marriage to Henry to spare her life.
In return for this the King kept her as a pseudo - sister, letting her live in lands taken from the Boleyn's. Although she incurred the King's increasing distrust, she remained safe in England for the rest of her life.