Merchant-taylor and diarist Henry Machyn recorded that on this day in history, 3rd August 1557, the body of forty-one year-old Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII, was processed from her home, Chelsea Old Manor, where she had died on 16th July, to Westminster Abbey for burial.
Also on this day in history, 3rd August 1553, Mary, who had just been proclaimed Queen Mary I, rode with her half-sister, Elizabeth, from Wanstead to Aldgate to be greeted by the City of London, as its new queen.
The discarded wife of Henry V111 who although she never became his queen and got to rule beside him nonetheless did not die lonely in an isolated castle nor lose her life to the headsman’s axe, forty one is not old yet it will be said her final years must have been filled with peace and happiness.