Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein the Younger

Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves

On 6 January 1540, Henry VIII married Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg.

Certainly not one of the happiest marriages in history and it was over in six months time.  Henry – of course – blamed Anne entirely as being too unattractive.  Though I doubt that by that stage she found him very attractive either.  However, she managed to come out of the divorce fairly well provided and with the title of the “King’s Sister”.

My interest in Anne was re-kindled after reading Mavis Cheek’s Amenable Women (this review was also published in the Ricardian Bulletin, June 2010, pp. 28-29).

More information:

Antonia Fraser, The Six Wives of Henry VIII.  Phoenix Paperback, UK, 2003.  ISBN 978-1-8421-2633-2 (pbk)

Elizabeth Norton, Anne of Cleves:  Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride.   Amberley Publishing, UK, 2009.  ISBN 978-1-84868-329-7

Mary Saaler, Anne of Cleves:  Fourth Wife of Henry VIII.  The Rubicon Press, UK, 1995.  ISBN 0-948695-41-2

Retha M. Warnicke, The Marrying of Anne of Cleves:  Royal protocol in early modern England.  Cambridge University Press, UK,  2000.  ISBN 0-521-77037-8

Online:

Retha M. Warnicke, ‘Anne [Anne of Cleves] (1515–1557)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [last accessed online 2 Jan. 2020]

Various articles on The Anne Boleyn Files, URL:  http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/

Fiction:

Margaret Campbell Barnes, My Lady of Cleves.  (Originally published in 1946, but there are various later editions)

Mavis Cheek, Amenable Women.  Faber and Faber, UK, 2008.  ISBN 978-0-571-23953-5

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Tags: Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII