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3 <meta name="page_topic" content="Anne of Cleves fourth wife of King Henry VIII">
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5 <meta name="author" content="Marilee Mongello">
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9 <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"><title>Anne of Cleves: Biography, Portraits, Primary Sources</title>
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15<table border="0" cellpadding="3" height="634" width="100%">
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18 <td height="1" width="25%"><br>
19 </td>
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22 </td>
23 </tr>
24 <tr>
25 <td height="3" width="25%"><br>
26 </td>
27 <td height="3" width="50%">
28 <p align="center"><font size="4">'My Lord, if it were not to
29satisfy the world, and My Realm, I would not do that I must do this day
30for none earthly thing.' </font> <br>
31 <i><font size="-1">Henry VIII to Cromwell on his wedding day to
32Anne of Cleves</font></i> <br>
33&nbsp; </p>
34 </td>
35 <td height="3" width="25%"><br>
36 </td>
37 </tr>
38 <tr>
39 <td height="610" width="25%"><br>
40 </td>
41 <td height="610" valign="top" width="50%">
42 <p align="center">&nbsp;</p>
43 <p align="center">
44 <img src="cleves_files/clevescardinal.gif" border="0" height="95" width="352"></p>
45 <p align="center">
46 <img src="cleves_files/clevesholbein2.jpg" alt="miniature portrait of Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein the Younger" border="0" height="325" width="331"></p>
47 <p align="center"><i><font size="2">miniature portrait of Anne of Cleves
48 by Hans Holbein the Younger</font></i></p>
49 <p align="left"> <b><br>Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of King
50Henry VIII; it was a very brief marriage, to the astonishment of all
51observers but the relief of both spouses.&nbsp; Henry infamously
52referred to his bride as a 'Flanders mare' and told courtiers and
53ambassadors that he could not perform his husbandly duties because of
54Anne's appearance.&nbsp; Anne's reaction to Henry's physical charms was
55not recorded, but she agreed to an annulment very quickly and remained
56in England for the rest of her life.&nbsp; Henry was grateful for her
57cooperation and granted her a generous income and several homes,
58including Hever Castle.&nbsp; Anne enjoyed an independent lifestyle
59denied most women, often visiting Henry's court as an honored
60guest.&nbsp; Her fondness for English ale and gambling were her only
61vices.&nbsp; Along with her successor as Henry's wife, Catherine
62Howard, Anne remains a mysterious figure about whom too little is
63known.&nbsp; Had she and Henry remained married and had children, the
64course of English history might have changed dramatically.&nbsp; But
65the mysteries of physical attraction denied Anne her place on the
66throne, ended the brilliant career of Thomas Cromwell, and thrust the
67king into the arms of his ill-fated fifth queen, Catherine Howard.</b> </p>
68 <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
69 <blockquote>
70 <p><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/cleves.html#Biography">
71 <font size="4">Read the biography of Anne of Cleves.</font></a></p>
72 <p><b><br>
73Primary Sources</b> <br>
74Read <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/letters.html">letters
75written by Anne</a>. <br>
76 <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/pricleve.html">Anne of
77Cleves meets Henry VIII for the first time</a>, 1540</p>
78 </blockquote>
79 <blockquote>
80 <p>Visit <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/images.html">Tudor
81England: Images</a> to view portraits of Anne. </p>
82 <p>Test your knowledge of Anne's life at <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/tudor1.html">Tudor Quizzes</a>.</p>
83 <p><br>
84 </p>
85 <p><font size="2"><b>Interact<br>
86 </b>Meet other Six Wives enthusiasts at <a href="http://ladiesallfanlist.cjb.net/">Ladies All: A Fanlisting for
87the Six Wives of Henry VIII</a>.<br>
88 <a href="http://tudorhistory.org/lists/list.html"> Tudor Talk </a>&nbsp;This
89email discussion list is sponsored by Tudorhistory.org.<br>
90 <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Reign_of_the_Tudors_rpg/">Reign
91of the Tudors</a>&nbsp; This is a role-playing game set in 16th century
92England.&nbsp; If you would like to 'play' Jane Grey or Anne Boleyn or
93other Tudors, click the link to join.</font></p>
94 </blockquote>
95 </td>
96 <td height="610" width="25%"><br>
97 </td>
98 </tr>
99 </tbody>
100</table>
101<blockquote>
102 <blockquote>
103 <blockquote>
104 <p><font size="4"><br>
105&nbsp;</font></p>
106 <p><a name="Biography"></a><font size="4">'So she came to
107Greenwich that night, and was received as queen.&nbsp; And the next
108day, being Sunday, the king's grace kept a great court at Greenwich,
109where his grace with the queen offered at mass, richly dressed.&nbsp;
110And on Twelfth Night, which was Tuesday, the king's majesty was married
111to the said queen Anne solemnly, in her closet at Greenwich, and his
112grace and she went publicly in procession that day, she having a rich
113coronet of stone and pearls set with rosemary on her hair, and a gown
114of rich cloth of silver, richly hung with stones and pearls, with all
115her ladies and gentlewomen following her, which was a goodly sight to
116behold.' </font>&nbsp;<i><font size="2"> Anne of Cleves marries King
117Henry VIII, 1540</font></i><br>
118&nbsp;</p>
119 </blockquote>
120 </blockquote>
121 <p>&nbsp;</p>
122 <p><b>Biography</b> <br>
123Anne of Cleves was Henry VIII's fourth wife, though not his first
124choice for the role by far.&nbsp; His ambassadors searched out all the
125eligible heiresses of Europe and discovered their king had a very nasty
126marital reputation.&nbsp; The beautiful Christina of Milan was told of
127the king's interest and wittily replied that if she had two heads she
128would risk it, but she had only one; Marie de Guise, who would later
129wed his nephew the King of Scots, replied much the same.&nbsp; The
130tragic tale of his second queen, Anne Boleyn, had kept European gossips
131busy for three years now.&nbsp; </p>
132 <p>The king's poor and disrespectful treatment of his first wife (he
133was rumored to have bullied Katharine of Aragon to an unhappy death)
134and the quick end of his third (in his desperation for a healthy male
135heir, the king was rumored to have ordered Jane Seymour cut open,
136mangled and killed) only contributed to his low reputation. </p>
137 <p>One wouldn't think a king would have too difficult a time finding
138a wife, but Henry VIII - who defied his contemporaries in so many other
139ways - did so in this respect as well. </p>
140 <p>In the end, it was religion which brought Anne of Cleves to
141England.&nbsp; </p>
142 <p>Henry had sought out Catholic princesses like Marie de Guise and
143his fifth wife would be a Catholic as well.&nbsp; Despite the Henrician
144'reformation', England and its monarch remained a Catholic nation,
145albeit one in which supreme authority resided within the king rather
146than the pope.&nbsp; But Henry's influential advisor, Thomas Cromwell,
147wanted England to ally herself with a Protestant nation that also
148rejected papal authority.&nbsp; Cromwell recognized the inexorable
149Catholic decline which was only just beginning to occur; the king's
150assumption of supreme authority had merely been the first and most
151spectacular opening shot in a new religious war.&nbsp; Raised to be a
152churchman until his brother's untimely death and deeply interested in
153theological debate, Henry VIII didn't appreciate the Pandora's Box of
154change he had opened.&nbsp; Cromwell, younger and more philosophically
155attuned to the attitudes of the rising middle class, did appreciate
156it.&nbsp; And he approved of it.&nbsp; The marriage to Anne of Cleves
157would openly ally England with a Protestant duchy, thus making the
158'reformation' even more settled. </p>
159 <p>Henry VIII's previous two marriages had been love matches; he had
160been quite independent in choosing women of his own court to
161marry.&nbsp; But this fourth marriage was necessarily a more diplomatic
162endeavor.&nbsp; In this, the king returned to the traditional role of
163kings searching for brides; he also understood that, since the Act of
164Supremacy in 1534, England stood dangerously isolated amongst the
165Catholic powers of Spain and France. </p>
166 <p>There was a gap of over two years between Jane Seymour's death in
167October 1537 and Anne of Cleves's arrival in England in late December
1681539.&nbsp; Romantics believe the king waited such a long while to
169marry again because he loved Jane so much.&nbsp; Whether he loved her
170or not is beside the point, though there is ample evidence that he
171did.&nbsp; Henry actually waited so long (and he did so quite
172impatiently) because marriage negotiations took an unexpectedly long
173time.&nbsp; He actually sent out instructions regarding the search for
174a new wife barely a month after Jane's death. </p>
175 <p>But the French princesses would not assemble for his perusal; they
176also made it clear they preferred other suitors.&nbsp;&nbsp; Likewise,
177other heiresses of Europe, some of which (like Christina of Milan) were
178related through tangled Hapsburg bloodlines to the king's first wife,
179Katharine of Aragon, avoided the English ambassadors.&nbsp; And always,
180busy with his paperwork and contacts throughout Europe, Cromwell sought
181to arrange a Protestant alliance. </p>
182 <p>During all of these negotiations, one must not forget the king's
183own views regarding his future wife.&nbsp; Henry was used to making his
184own decisions about the women in his life; he had high standards for
185female beauty and insisted his next wife be physically
186attractive.&nbsp; To that end, he told his ambassadors that no official
187overtures be made to certain ladies until he had approved of their
188looks.&nbsp; 'The thing touches me too near,' said the king, which was
189true enough but not the sort of thing kings were supposed to say.&nbsp;
190After all, he was not merely a man but a monarch; he was not supposed
191to marry for himself alone. </p>
192 <p>The ambassadors were often placed in embarrassing positions,
193commissioning portraits and sending back detailed descriptions of pock
194marks and hairstyles.&nbsp; Finally, the choices were narrowed down to
195four serious contenders - Marie de Guise, the widow of the duc de
196Longueville, was tall, beautiful and already proven in
197childbirth.&nbsp; As mentioned earlier, she chose the Scottish king
198James V.&nbsp; Henry then looked to her younger sister, but she also
199became otherwise engaged.&nbsp; Then there was the beautiful and
200intelligent Christina of Milan, just sixteen and one of the most
201sought-after heiresses of her generation.&nbsp; But the king of England
202was three times her age, fat and with a cruel reputation; she allowed
203herself to be painted by Holbein but did nothing to solve the problem
204of her being a great-niece of Katharine of Aragon.&nbsp; This
205impediment of affinity was a nice way to avoid the king of England. </p>
206 <p>The year of 1538 passed with no alliance.&nbsp; Henry had intended
207to use his fourth marriage as a balance between France and the Hapsburg
208empire.&nbsp; But it now seemed as if those two enemies might join
209forces against him in defense of the papal supremacy. </p>
210 <p>Suddenly Cromwell's moment had arrived.&nbsp; The fourth serious
211contender was the sister of the duke of Cleves.&nbsp; The duke was not
212a Protestant himself but was allied through marriage with Saxony and
213the league of Lutheran princes; he was also at odds with the Hapsburg
214emperor Charles V over the duchy of Gelderland.&nbsp; The duchy of
215Cleves might one day rival the Netherlands in terms of trade and
216strategic advantage.&nbsp; The king was persuaded to send his favorite
217court painter, Hans Holbein the Younger, to the German duchy.&nbsp;
218There he painted both Anne and her sister Amelia.&nbsp; Henry, who by
219this time was wearying of the endless rounds of negotiations (and whom
220Cromwell feared would soon turn to another English noblewoman), was
221interested in Anne.&nbsp; Negotiations began in earnest. </p>
222 <p>Anne was 24 years old, and had spent most of her life at the ducal
223court of Dusseldorf.&nbsp; She was well-educated in domestic skills but
224she was neither intellectual or flirtatious, both qualities the king
225admired.&nbsp; She had no musical skills, and music was one of Henry's
226passions, and no interest in books.&nbsp; On the trip to England, her
227escort (perhaps sensing disaster ahead) tried to teach her the king's
228favorite card games but Anne found them hopeless.&nbsp; It was not her
229fault, nor that of Henry VIII, but she was raised in a different
230country and, as things turned out, was not given time to acclimatize
231herself before the king rejected her.&nbsp; </p>
232 <p>
233 <img alt="Holbein's betrothal portrait of Anne of Cleves" src="cleves_files/cleves-bio1.jpg" align="left" border="2" height="280" width="190">The issue of the betrothal portrait is the most fascinating part
234of this story.&nbsp; Holbein was a man of vast talent; his best
235portraits are simply astounding, beautifully composed and possessing
236great psychological insight.&nbsp; Look at the infamous portrait of
237Anne of Cleves to the left; it is clear that Holbein was more
238fascinated with the embroidery of her gown than with Anne's
239personality.&nbsp; Her eyes are downcast and her features lost beneath the ornate
240trappings of her dress and hood. </p>
241 <p>There has long been a rumor that Henry was so enraged with the
242work, believing that Holbein had deliberately duped him with a false
243portrait, that he fired the painter.&nbsp; But that is not true.&nbsp;
244At the time, there were a few remarks that she did not look as well as
245the portrait asserted, but this was not unlikely - she had arrived in
246England after a long journey, perhaps the sea air did not agree with
247her skin?&nbsp; Or perhaps nervousness over the impending marriage
248caused a change in her complexion.&nbsp; We cannot know.&nbsp; But we
249do know that Henry's ambassadors, only too aware of their master's
250wishes, allowed the portrait to be sent as a fair likeness of
251Anne.&nbsp; Would they have dared to mislead their monarch in such a
252way?&nbsp; It's not likely.&nbsp; Even Henry himself did not make much
253of the supposed difference between the painted and real Anne, aside
254from a comment to Cromwell that she was 'nothing so fair as she had
255been reported.'&nbsp; Often expectations can be idealistic, and that
256was possibly the case with Henry.&nbsp; Holbein continued to receive
257commissions from the English aristocracy before dying of plague in
258London in 1543. </p>
259 <p>What actually happened to drive Anne and Henry apart was a simple
260matter of attraction.&nbsp; Almost five hundred years later, we still
261don't understand why certain people are physically attracted to each
262other; it simply happens.&nbsp; And it didn't happen with Anne and
263Henry; in fact, quite the opposite occurred and the king was repulsed
264by her.&nbsp; Anne's feelings on the matter are not known but Henry was
265no longer the strong, athletic king of years past; various injuries had
266reduced his exercise but not his appetite.&nbsp; He was increasingly
267obese and subject to its attendant problems. </p>
268 <p>There were other reasons for the king to look askance at this new
269bride.&nbsp; The foreign crisis which had caused Cromwell to seek an
270alliance with the Protestant duchy had passed; France and Spain had
271returned to their old enmity.&nbsp; England was no longer threatened by
272the Catholic powers.&nbsp; Also, the dispute over Gelderland had become
273more serious and Henry was not eager to fight the suddenly genial
274Spanish in defense of Anne's brother.&nbsp; These issues were clear in
275mid-autumn 1539 but the marriage negotiations continued.&nbsp; By that
276point, they had a momentum of their own.&nbsp; A proxy marriage
277occurred and Anne left her home in late November.&nbsp; She reached
278Calais on 11 December; during the journey, she was addressed as Queen
279of England and treated accordingly.&nbsp; For a fortnight she waited at
280Calais until the weather settled.&nbsp; On 27 December she set out for
281Deal; it was a stormy crossing.&nbsp; It was on the first day of 1540
282that the king, so impatient to see his new bride, entered her rooms in
283disguise.&nbsp; The scene was recorded by the Imperial ambassador,
284Eustace Chapuys: </p>
285 <blockquote>
286 <p>And on New Years Day in the afternoon the king's grace with five
287of his privy chamber, being disguised with mottled cloaks with hoods so
288that they should not be recognized, came secretly to Rochester, and so
289went up into the chamber where the said Lady Anne was looking out of a
290window to see the bull-baiting which was going on in the courtyard, and
291suddenly he embraced and kissed her, and showed here a token which the
292king had sent her for New Year's gift, and she being abashed and not
293knowing who it was thanked him, and so he spoke with her.&nbsp; But she
294regarded him little, but always looked out the window.... and when the
295king saw that she took so little notice of his coming he went into
296another chamber and took off his cloak and came in again in a coat of
297purple velvet.&nbsp; And when the lords and knights saw his grace they
298did him reverence.... and then her grace humbled herself lowly to the
299king's majesty, and his grace saluted her again, and they talked
300together lovingly, and afterwards he took her by the hand and led her
301to another chamber where their graces amused themselves that night and
302on Friday until the afternoon.</p>
303 </blockquote>
304 <p><font size="-1">You can read the entire account at <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/pricleve.html">Primary Sources</a>.</font>
305 <br>
306 <br>
307Henry had so far managed to conceal his dislike of Anne.&nbsp; There is
308reason to believe it was not an immediate revulsion; it was only after
309their wedding night, which the king declared he could not consummate,
310that word spread of his physical distaste.&nbsp; When Cromwell asked
311him the next morning, 'How liked you the Queen?', Henry replied, 'I
312liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse.' </p>
313 <p>On Twelfth Night (6 January), they were married in the 'Queen's
314Closet' at Greenwich Palace, where Henry had also married his last
315bride.&nbsp; But the king was already looking for ways out.&nbsp; The
316very day of the ceremony, he told Cromwell, 'My Lord, if it were not to
317satisfy the world, and my Realm, I would not do that I must do this day
318for none earthly thing.'&nbsp; These were ominous words. </p>
319 <p>It is also possible that around this time, the king met <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/howard.html">Catherine
320Howard</a>, cousin of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and now destined to
321be lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves when her Flemish attendants were
322dismissed.&nbsp; There is no doubt he felt an instant attraction to the
323lively, curvaceous Catherine.&nbsp; </p>
324 <p>Henry's nobility, which had long chafed against the power and
325influence of <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/cromwell.html">Cromwell</a>
326(much as they had against Wolsey), welcomed this opportunity to
327discredit him.&nbsp; The minister had pushed the king into the Cleves
328marriage, they reminded Henry gleefully.&nbsp; The king's wrath turned
329against his former friend and Cromwell was executed on 28 July 1540, a
330decision Henry almost instantly regretted.&nbsp; </p>
331 <p>And so four things pushed Henry towards an annulment - his dislike
332of Anne, foreign policy changes, his attraction to Catherine Howard,
333and his courtiers' hatred of Cromwell. </p>
334 <p>In the few days between the first meeting and the wedding,
335Cromwell and the king had found a potential way out, though the
336ceremony continued as planned.&nbsp; In the mid-1530s, Anne had briefly
337been engaged to Francis, duke of Lorraine.&nbsp; The English had not
338explored the issue too much, merely asking the government of Cleves if
339negotiations had ended.&nbsp; Now they looked more closely, with the
340king waiting impatiently for the right response.&nbsp; They suddenly
341discovered there was no dispensation from the precontract; Anne was
342still officially betrothed to Francis.&nbsp; </p>
343 <p>The ambassadors from Cleves were not unaware of Henry's
344intent.&nbsp; They struggled to find the right documents but, on 26
345February 1540, all they could produce was a report in their archives
346which stated that negotiations with Lorraine 'were not going to take
347their natural course.'&nbsp; No actual papers of dispensation could be
348produced since they did not exist.&nbsp; Thus Henry's marriage to Anne
349of Cleves was legally invalid from the start.&nbsp; </p>
350 <p>This is one of the more ironic moments in Henry's checkered
351marital career.&nbsp; For once, his decision to end a marriage was
352legally valid and acceptable to all. </p>
353 <p>Meanwhile, the king made certain comments regarding Anne's body
354and virtue which reveal him in a less than gentlemanly light.&nbsp; He
355told Anthony Denny, a member of the Privy Chamber, that she had
356'breasts so slack and other parts of body in such sort that [he]
357somewhat suspected her virginity.'&nbsp; He further told his court
358physicians of the 'hanging of her breasts and looseness of her
359flesh.'&nbsp; Clearly, consummation of the marriage would not
360occur.&nbsp; The king bravely slept in the same bed at least every
361other night, yet he reported a month later that Anne 'was still as good
362a Maid.... as ever her Mother bare her.'&nbsp; This contradiction - she
363was not a virgin, yet was - was never mentioned. </p>
364 <p>What did Anne think of all this controversy?&nbsp; </p>
365 <p>Luckily for her, she had only a small knowledge of English and
366even less knowledge of the physical relationship between a man and
367wife.&nbsp; Her English ladies were astounded by her innocence.&nbsp;
368'When he [Henry] comes to bed, he kisses me and taketh me by the hand,
369and biddeth me 'Goodnight, sweetheart,' and in the morning, kisses me,
370and biddeth me, 'Farewell, darling.'&nbsp; Is this not enough?' asked
371Anne.&nbsp; No, she was told emphatically, it most certainly was not. </p>
372 <p>Anne's ignorance casts a bad light on her mother, Duchess Maria,
373but it served to protect her feelings in England.&nbsp; </p>
374 <p>In the end, she ruled as queen for just four months; her last
375official appearance as the royal consort was during the May Day
376celebrations.&nbsp; She was never crowned, though even if the king had
377wished it, he could not have afforded such a ceremony.&nbsp; During
378those months, the Catholic nobility pushed their advantage against the
379Protestant Cromwell.&nbsp; The minister was too Lutheran for the king's
380taste.&nbsp; Likewise, the Catholics encouraged the flirtations of
381young Catherine Howard, also a Catholic and the duke of Norfolk's
382niece.&nbsp; Too young and ill-educated to be aware of how others used
383her as a pawn, she happily danced before the king and accepted his
384gifts.&nbsp; She was granted lands in April and the next month received
385rich gifts of fabric and jewelry.&nbsp; There is every possibility
386Catherine consummated her relationship with the king in May.&nbsp; How
387else can we explain the sudden race to rid himself of Anne? </p>
388 <p>The investigation into her precontract with Lorraine had been
389hastily done in January and February but for two months afterwards, the
390king merely lamented his fate.&nbsp; Parliament even confirmed Anne's
391dowry in April.&nbsp; But suddenly in May there was a fierce new
392determination to annul the marriage; the king was no longer content to
393complain.&nbsp; </p>
394 <p>It is possible, and was rumored, that Henry had slept with
395Catherine and consequently there was a chance she was pregnant.&nbsp;
396Another male heir was never far from Henry's mind.&nbsp; He was also
397deeply in love with his 'Rose without a Thorn', a somewhat pathetic
398attraction between an elderly (the king was almost 49 years old) man
399and a very young woman.&nbsp; </p>
400 <p>And so Anne had to go.&nbsp; She succumbed to the inevitable with
401surprising grace.&nbsp; Perhaps she was leery of the royal temper, or<img alt="engraving of Anne of Cleves, after Holbein" src="cleves_files/cleves-bio2.jpg" align="right" border="2" height="218" width="154"> remembered the king's marital
402history, or she simply didn't care.&nbsp; Henry was very
403grateful.&nbsp; If she had not cooperated....&nbsp; He knew, from the
404example of Katharine of Aragon, what could happen if a queen fought an
405annulment.&nbsp; He had no desire to alienate Cleves or engage in
406another lengthy legal and theological dispute.&nbsp; The king declared
407the marriage had not been consummated and, in any case, it was invalid
408from the start.&nbsp; Would Anne agree? </p>
409 <p>She did agree, most readily.&nbsp; She was shocked at first by the
410news; the king's representatives visited her at Richmond Palace, where
411she had gone to escape the threat of plague.&nbsp; They brought an
412interpreter so there would be no misunderstanding.&nbsp; For her part,
413Anne quickly grasped the situation.&nbsp; She had no advisers and the
414king had already executed one wife and harassed another to death.&nbsp;
415Certainly she enjoyed the role of queen, was more fluent in English and
416had taken a liking to her new country; even the people cheered her on
417the occasional public ride between palaces.&nbsp; But did she dare
418fight Henry?&nbsp; Of course not. </p>
419 <p>The king's servants wrote that she was 'content always with your
420Majesty', thus accepting Henry's judgment, and in her <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/letter12.html">letter of</a><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/letter12.html"> submission</a>
421she signed herself 'daughter of Cleves', not 'queen of England'.&nbsp;
422She agreed the marriage had never been consummated and signed all
423necessary documents.&nbsp; For his part, Henry was now prepared to be
424generous.&nbsp; Anne was to enjoy precedence over all the ladies in
425England, except the Queen and the king's daughters.&nbsp; She was to be
426known as the king's 'good sister' and received a very nice settlement
427of manors and estates, some of which belonged to Cromwell.&nbsp; This
428guaranteed her an income of 3000 pds a year, making her one of the
429wealthiest women in England.&nbsp; All this depended upon her remaining
430in England, and this Anne was more than willing to do.&nbsp; 'The
431King's highness whom I cannot have as a husband is nevertheless a most
432kind, loving and friendly father and brother,' she wrote to her
433brother.&nbsp; Why should she return home in ignominy, dependent upon
434her brother's generosity, when she could remain in England and live a
435comfortable, independent life? </p>
436 <p>Anne was perhaps as content with the arrangement as Henry.&nbsp;
437She grew to enjoy English ale and gambling; she spent large sums on
438gowns; she visited with the king's children and occasionally the king
439himself.&nbsp; She was heard to remark that she was more attractive
440than Katharine Parr, to whom the king's attention turned in 1543.&nbsp;
441In fact, upon Catherine Howard's execution in 1542, rumors circulated
442that perhaps the king would take back his former bride.&nbsp; The
443French ambassador was suitably impressed with Anne's handling of a
444delicate situation, observing that 'all her affairs could never make
445her utter a word by which one might suppose that she was
446discontented.'&nbsp; </p>
447 <p>These rumors were understandable enough; Anne occupied a nebulous
448place in English society, unmarried but wealthy and independent.&nbsp;
449She was not an heiress but still honored as a royal.&nbsp; She answered
450to no male authority but that of the king, and he did not choose to
451trouble her.&nbsp; For the rest of her life, rumors spread about her
452lifestyle.&nbsp; For Anne's part, she was content and happy and had
453little reason to be otherwise. </p>
454 <p>She made her last public appearance at Mary Tudor's coronation in
4551553, riding alongside the Princess Elizabeth.&nbsp; She died in 1557
456of a 'declining illness' and was buried with appropriate honor at
457Westminster Abbey.&nbsp; Her will is perhaps most representative of her
458kindly character.&nbsp; In it, she remembered gifts to everyone who had
459ever served her, no matter how humble or long ago. </p>
460 <p>Anne had chosen as her motto 'God send me well to keep' and it
461proved apt, though in a way few could have predicted.</p>
462 <p>&nbsp;</p>
463 <center>
464 <p><font size="-1"><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/wives.html">to the Six
465Wives main page</a></font> <br>
466 <font size="-1"><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to
467Tudor England</a></font></p>
468 <p><font size="-1"> <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/primary.html">to Primary Sources</a></font></p>
469 </center>
470</blockquote>
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