What's Love Got to Do With It? Anne of Cleves and Henry VIII
She was arguably the luckiest of Henry VIII’s six wives. Had she been less agreeable she could have found herself facing the executioner’s block, but instead she led a happy life of luxury and privilege. When she died on July 16, 1557, it was as the late King Henry’s “beloved sister” and one of the highest-ranking and most beloved ladies in England.
Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of Henry VIII. She was definitely not his first choice for the job. But since Henry’s marital track record was so poor (one wife tossed to the curb, one executed, one supposedly allowed to die to save the heir she was birthing), the eligible royal ladies of Europe were hardly jumping at the chance to be the new Queen of England.
There were also political and religious issues to be considered. Henry’s break with the pope years earlier had alienated him from the powerful Catholic countries of France and Spain, and they had joined forces against him. The King’s chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, was a staunch Protestant. He believed a match with a princess from a Lutheran background would give England a much-needed ally on the continent — and further the Protestant cause at home to boot.
Cromwell found what he thought was a likely prospect in the small German duchy of Cleves.
