Anne of Cleves

A daughter of the ducal house of Cleves, Anne was born on 22 September 1515, probably at Düsseldorf, to John III, Duke of Cleves, and Maria of Jülich-Berg. Her brother William ruled the united duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg on the lower Rhine, a territory of strategic weight in the rivalry between the Habsburg emperor and the German princes. It was this position that recommended her to Thomas Cromwell, who in 1539 sought a continental ally for England at a moment when France and the Empire appeared to be drawing together against the schismatic English king.

Hans Holbein the Younger was sent to paint Anne's portrait, and on the strength of the negotiations she travelled to England at the end of 1539. Henry VIII, meeting her privately at Rochester, was disappointed, but the diplomatic situation made withdrawal awkward and the marriage took place at Greenwich on 6 January 1540. It lasted six months. The union was annulled on 9 July 1540 on the grounds of non-consummation and of Anne's earlier precontract to Francis, son of the Duke of Lorraine. The failed marriage contributed to the fall of Cromwell, who was executed that summer.

Anne's response to the annulment shaped the rest of her life. She accepted the settlement without protest and was rewarded generously: an ample income, precedence as "the King's Beloved Sister," and properties that included Richmond Palace and Hever Castle, the former home of the Boleyns. She chose to remain in England rather than return to Cleves, and maintained cordial relations with Henry and with his daughters Mary and Elizabeth. In 1553 she rode in the procession at Mary I's coronation.

She outlived Henry VIII and all five of his other wives, dying at Chelsea on 16 July 1557, aged forty-one. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, the only one of Henry's queens interred there. Her marriage, though brief, remains a notable instance of Tudor matrimonial diplomacy reaching beyond England's traditional partners to a German princely house, and her quiet navigation of its failure secured her a comfortable position few discarded royal brides of the period achieved.