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Anne of Cleves (German: Anna von Kleve; 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of Bar, son and heir of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, although their marriage did not proceed.
Anne of Cleves (born September 22, 1515—died July 16, 1557, London, England) was the fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England. Henry married Anne because he believed that he needed to form a political alliance with her brother, William, duke of Cleves, who was a leader of the Protestants of western Germany.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 31, 2015 · Learn about Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII, who was a Protestant princess from a Catholic duchy. Discover how she came to England, why Henry married her, and how their brief union ended in an annulment.
Mar 19, 2024 · The painting, which convinced Henry VIII to marry Anne of Cleves in 1540, reveals her beauty and style in vibrant colors and details. Learn how the conservation uncovered the mastery of Hans Holbein the Younger and the fate of the Tudor queen.
- Meilan Solly
- Sarah Roller
- Anne was a political pawn. Anne’s early life is relatively obscure, but she was born in Düsseldorf in 1515 to the Duke and Duchess of Jülich-Berg. Her family had Protestant sympathies in the Reformation, and opposed the Catholic Emperor Charles V.
- The Cleves-England match was purely political. Europe was divided by religion by the late 1530s, and Henry VIII, King of England, was keen to make a Protestant alliance with his next marriage.
- History has focused most on Anne’s looks. Whilst Cromwell was negotiating the marriage, Hans Holbein the Younger, one of the prominent portrait painters of the time, was dispatched to paint both Anne and her younger sister Amalia.
- The match did not have an auspicious start. Anne and Henry had not met before the match, and there is no record of how Anne responded to the betrothal.
May 26, 2024 · In the colorful pageant of Henry VIII‘s queens, Anne of Cleves is often overshadowed by her dramatic counterparts like Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Yet her story, in many ways, is the most remarkable of all.
In the cruel world of Tudor England, where royal marriages were pawns in a murderous game of thrones, Anne of Cleves is often overshadowed by her infamous husband, Henry VIII. Anne's story is frequently reduced to an embarrassing footnote – a queen who was famously 'not as advertised'.
