This day in history, 22nd September 1515, saw the birth of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, or Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg to give her her proper name.
You can read all about Anne in the following articles. She really is a fascinating woman and it is so sad that she has gone down in history as the ugly one, the one Henry couldn’t even bring himself to sleep with.
- Anne of Cleves – Flanders Mare
- Birth of Anne of Cleves
- Anne of Cleves Arrives in England
- Henry VIII Marries Anne of Cleves
- Henry VIII Divorces Anne of Cleves
- The Death of Anne of Cleves
Are you joining me for The Anne Boleyn Fellowship webinar later today? I hope so, see you there! If you don’t know about it, click here for details.
In one sense only, though, is it sad that he could not bring himself to make love to her. In that day and age, the purpose of marriage was the making of children, and Anne never got to experience motherhood, which would have been tragic, by the standards of the day.
However, that probably makes her the luckiest of the women he married, because there was no doubt the marriage wasn’t “real” and Anne escaped with her head, AND a very nice divorce settlement.
If you think about the conditions in which Tudor women went through pregnancy and childbirth I’m sure many of them would not have considered it such a tragedy. At least Anne got to have some experience of motherhood with Henry’s children with whom she had good relations. As for consummating their relationship Henry, unlike other kings at the time, had always got to choose his wives. He wasn’t used to simply closing his eyes and doing his duty. Although I don’t think the fault was Anne’s as he most likely had the same problem with sexy Katherine Howard.