Anne of Cleves

by Sarah-Beth Watkins

  What Anne thought of this new marriage we do not truly know but Chapuys reported she was upset:

  Indeed, as far as I can hear from an authentic quarter, the said Dame would greatly prefer giving up everything that she has and living with her mother in Germany, to remaining any longer in England, treated as she is, and humiliated and hurt as she has lately been at the King marrying this last lady, who is by no means so handsome as she herself is, besides which there is no hope of her having children, considering that she has been twice a widow and has borne none from either of her deceased husbands.21

  But it must be remembered that Chapuys was the Emperor’s man and no friend to Anne. As Starkey has suggested ‘he was eager to bring about a final rupture between England and Cleves and eager, too, to get Anne out of the way’.22

  Henry personally rode out to Richmond to dine with Anne and tell her of his marriage as he had done after his wedding to Katherine Howard. By now Anne had settled into her own way of life. If Henry had wanted her back she would have remarried him for the prestige and alliance it gave her family and Cleves but he was no longer an attractive proposition. Neither was returning to war devastated Cleves where she would be seen as the rejected wife of a king rather than the wealthy ‘sister’ she had become.

  Plague in the city meant the court moved away from London during the summer. Anne must have moved too perhaps to Bletchingley or Hever to escape the disease. Hans Holbein was not as fortunate. The court artist who had painted Anne’s portrait and that of her sister succumbed to an illness sometime before November of that year. Thomas Cawarden was still keeper of Bletchingley and when Anne visited, he and his wife Elizabeth decamped to Hextalls nearby. But Cawarden, a keen reformer, also spent much of his time at court as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and it was here he heard that his name had been mentioned in relation to heresy. Four men had just been tried under the Act of Six Articles and sentenced to die. One of Katherine’s Parr servants, Fulke, had heard that others had been mentioned at their trial and papers were on their way to Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and member of the Privy Council, that named names. Cawarden intercepted the missive and it was rumoured kidnapped the messenger and had him held at the Earl of Bedford’s lodgings. Sure enough his name was mentioned along with many of the king’s personal servants and their wives. But Henry was appalled there had been a private inquiry, not one authorised by himself, and all those mentioned were pardoned.

  In August Anne heard with horror that Charles V had laid siege to Duren, the capital of Juliers, with 36,000 foot and 8000 horse. Six hundred houses were burnt to the ground with almost every other house damaged by a barrage of shot. On the fifth assault Duren fell with ‘the garrison, and most of the inhabitants, being put to the sword’.23 The bad news did not end there. Anne’s mother died at the end of August and was buried in the Carthusian charterhouse at Wesel near Dusseldorf. It was said that she died from the grief of losing Juliers and the devastation of its people ‘raging and in a manner out of her wits (as it is reported) for spite and anger of the loss of her country’.24

  William had no choice now but to surrender and in September he met with Charles V to sign the Treaty of Venlo. He gave up Guelders and Zutphen but Charles allowed him to keep Juliers – what was left of it. To cement the alliance William divorced the French Jeanne d’Albret which must have been a relief to the young girl who had been dragged to the altar. ‘On Easter Day the young Princess D’Albret made a public declaration in a chapel in the palace of Plessy, where the King was present, to the effect that she had never wished to contract marriage with M. de Cleves; and she swore this by the body of God of which she had that day partaken, and by the holy gospels’25 and plans were now made for William to marry Maria of Austria, the Emperor’s niece.

  Life settled down for Anne and the next two years were peaceful. Henry happy in his last marriage made sure she was well looked after and granted her extra finances when needed. He had paid one William Lok, mercer, Thomas Hungate, havener, to the late Queen Jane, and William Fulwoode, merchant tailor, for themselves and others named in a warrant of 24 June, 328l. 12s. ‘for necessaries bought for the lady Anne of Cleves’.26 When the Duke of Prussia sent him gifts of falcons he also thanked him for the white osprey that had been sent to Anne. Mary visited her again at Richmond and she sent the king’s daughter a gift of silk.

  But Henry was far from ready to hang up his boots, and set off to France at the end of September 1544 leaving Katherine Parr as regent. Henry had always yearned for a glorious victory over his arch enemy but apart from the capture of Tournai in 1513 it had never really happened. Henry knew he was getting no younger. His waist was now 54 inches and his chest measured 57 inches. He was so large he needed help to move around the palace let alone climb on a horse. He was in no state to lead an army but he was not to be thwarted.

  In July 40,000 men of the king’s army were mustered at Calais. Some to take Montreuil, the others, commanded by the sixty-year-old Duke of Suffolk, to lay siege to Boulogne. Henry joined his lifelong friend to watch the destruction of the French town but it was no easy victory. Boulogne had two sections, high and low. The lower section fell with ease but the high section and its castle took a draining amount of time, weakening the men and resulting in many casualties. It was decided to dig under Boulogne’s stone foundations to breach the castle and on 13 September the town surrendered to Henry’s delight and his troops’ relief.

  Henry returned to England at the end of September 1544 leaving the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, who had abandoned the siege on Montreuil, to defend Boulogne. With a large French force arriving in the area, the English army withdrew to Calais against the king’s wishes, leaving only 4,000 men for its defence. Henry was furious but there was nothing he could do.

  The political situation in 1545 saw Henry at odds with France, the Holy Roman Empire and Scotland. England was on the defensive. The Earl of Hertford was sent to Scotland with an army should French troops attempt to cross the Scottish borders, 30,000 men were mustered to protect the south coast and the Lord Admiral was at sea with 12,000 men should an invasion be attempted. Henry once more turned to the Schmalkaldic League. John Frederick of Saxony, Anne’s brother-in-law, would have nothing to do with Henry who he referred to as a ‘crazy man’ but its other leader Philip of Hesse was more amenable to discussion. Ambassadors were sent but with John Frederick absolutely refusing to enter into an alliance, their talks came to nothing.

  Stephen Gardiner wrote:

  We are at war with France and Scotland, we have enmity with the bishop of Rome; we have no assured friendship here with the empror and we have received from the landgrave, chief captain of the Protestants, such displeasure that he has cause to think us angry with him… Our war is noisome to our realm and to all our merchants that traffic through the Narrow Seas… We are in a world where reason and learning prevail not…27

  But there would be no invasion and England would eventually feel a sense of peace. At home at least Henry had found that with Katherine Parr and he did not forget Anne. In December 1545 the king’s payments including wages to Andrew Staill, Richard Bloundell and Thomas Charde, gentlemen to the Lady Anne of Cleves, Cornelius Zifridus, her doctor of physic, Thomas Carew, John Bekynsall, a gentleman usher and John Barnardyne, an Italian. Wymonde Carew had left her service by now and was serving Queen Katherine as her treasurer.

  The following year it was reported that ‘Lady Anne of Cleves has been for some time at Court, well treated’28 but her sojourn to court caused more rumours about her relationship with the king and whether she had had his children at home and abroad. In May John Dymock ‘being in the house of Walter Henricks in Cronenborch in the state of Dordrecht, about eleven o’clock midday, there came in the bailiff of Dordrecht, with Doctor Nicholas, physician, and the bailiff asked him and his host to dinner. They went, and about half an hour later were joined by the procuréur général and three others. The procureur asked Dymock not to take ill what should be
said to him in confidence, and first one Van Henluyden asked if it were true that the King had taken again Lady Anne of Cleves and had two children by her. Dymock answered that they in England knew no more than he had heard here,—it was a matter between God and the King. Dymock was then asked the reason why the King put away the Lady of Cleves, and replied that that was asking too much of him, but it was not without reason, and he thought that men ought to be content with what the King did in his own country’.29

  The truth was that Henry was ailing and that he had no strength for a relationship with his wife let alone Anne. A fever had struck him down for three weeks in March. His leg was troubling him but he rallied and made plans for a summer progress although all those that saw him thought he was an ill man.

  Anne was back and forth to court attending on the queen. Whereas she had never formed a friendship with Katherine Howard, the amiable, likeable Katherine Parr included her in court life. The princesses Mary and Elizabeth were also welcome due to Katherine’s insistence and she became a loving stepmother to them. Henry was surrounded by his family but Katherine only narrowly escaped his ire in March 1546. The Imperial ambassador Van der Delft wrote ‘I am confused and apprehensive to have to inform your Majesty that there are rumours here of a new Queen, although I do not know why, or how true it may (be)’.30 Though some thought Henry might have his eye on the Duchess of Suffolk, the late Charles Brandon’s wife.

  The queen was known for her reformist views and she had tried to express herself to the king ‘frankly to debate with the king touching religion, and therein flatly to discover herself; oftentimes wishing, exhorting, and persuading the king, that as he had, to the glory of God, and his eternal fame, begun a good and a godly work in banishing that monstrous idol of Rome, so he would thoroughly perfect and finish the same, cleansing and purging his church of England clean from the dregs thereof, wherein as yet remained great superstition’.31

  But Henry was not impressed and, spurred on by Gardiner, a devout Catholic and Bishop of Winchester, he gave assent for her arrest. Katherine found out what was happening when she saw a copy of the bill of articles against her. She knew now that she was in danger and close to losing her head as other queen’s had done. Taking the initiative she sought Henry out who ‘began of himself, contrary to his manner before accustomed, to enter into talk of religion, seeming as it were desirous to be resolved by the queen, of certain doubts which he propounded’.32 She knew this was a trap too easily to fall into and instead passively told her husband ‘Since, therefore, that God hath appointed such a natural difference between man and woman, and your Majesty being so excellent in gifts and ornaments of wisdom, and I a silly poor woman, so much inferior in all respects of nature unto you, how then cometh it now to pass that your Majesty, in such diffuse causes of religion, will seem to require my judgment? which when I have uttered and said what I can, yet must I, and will I, refer my judgment in this, and in all other cases, to your Majesty’s wisdom, as my only anchor, supreme head and governor here in earth, next under God, to lean unto’.33 It was all about Henry – his will was her will. She would do nothing to go against him and had only been debating religion with him as way to take his mind off the pain in his leg. Henry replied ‘Is it even so, sweetheart? And tended your arguments to no worse end? Then perfect friends we are now again, as ever at any time heretofore’.34 Henry had been appeased but Wriothesley had already been instructed to arrest her the following day.

  When Katherine was out walking with the king in his privy garden, he approached her with forty guards. But the king attacked him shouting ‘Knave! Arrant knave, beast! And fool!’ The he commanded Wriotheseley ‘presently to avaunt out of his presence. Which words, although they were uttered somewhat low, yet were they so vehemently whispered out by the king, that the queen did easily, with her ladies aforesaid, overhear them; which had been not a little to her comfort, if she had known at that time the whole cause of his coming, as perfectly as after she knew it’.35 It was a public display that showed to the world that Katherine was safe. Anne must have heard of the queen’s jeopardy and been relieved that like herself, she had survived the wrath of the king.

  Anne sent congratulations to her brother William who married the fifteen-year-old Maria of Austria at Regensburg in July. Her gift to them both was a pair of greyhounds and two horses. Maria or Mary was the daughter of Ferdinand I, brother of the Charles V. Unlike his first marriage, this one would prove to be happy and provide the couple with seven children.

  All was well between the king and his sixth wife by August when Henry summoned Anne to attend the reception for the Admiral of France, Claude d’Annebault, after England had finally made peace with the treaty of Ardes in June. Hall was impressed with the celebrations ‘to tell you of the costly banqueting houses, that were built, and of the great banquets, the most costly masks, the liberal huntings that were shown to him, you would much marvel and scant believe’.36 Henry was hardly able to keep up with the revels, leaning heavily on Cranmer, and Anne noticed the extra attention the queen paid to him. Henry was unwell and unknown to Anne this would be the last time she would be in his presence at court.

  The Execution of Lady Jane Grey

  Chapter Eight

  The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

  1547–1553

  Henry’s health took a turn for the worst in December 1546 and he wrote his will on the 30th. He saw in the New Year but as January progressed it was apparent the king was failing. As he approached his demise those around him wanted to tell him his end was near but to talk of the king’s death was treason. It was Anthony Denny, Chief Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, who finally told his master ‘You are not like to live’1 and urged him to make his peace with God, asking if he wished for a priest. Henry replied ‘I will first take a little sleep and then, as I feel myself, I will advise upon the matter’.2 Archbishop Cranmer was sent for anyway to undertake the last rites at Henry’s bedside. Henry was unable to speak now but when Cranmer asked for a sign he trusted in God the king ‘holding him with his hand, did wring his hand in his as hard as he could’.3 In the morning of 28th January 1547, this once strong and proud King died in his fifty-fifth year, with his close confidant, Cranmer, by his side.

  The king’s death was kept a secret and his body stayed in his chamber for three days while political wheels turned. His son Edward would be pronounced King but someone would be needed to guide his reign. Henry had made provision for a regency council but Edward Seymour, the brother of Henry’s wife Jane and Edward’s uncle, saw himself as fulfilling the role of Lord Protector to assist the young prince. Seymour spent the time between Henry’s death and Edward’s proclamation rallying his supporters to him.

  Seymour had already taken Edward from Hertford Castle to where the Princess Elizabeth was staying at Enfield to ensure that the new king was under his control. It was rumoured that when they were told of their father’s demise, brother and sister clung to each crying and sobbing for the man who had featured so largely in their lives. On 31st January, Wriothesley announced to parliament that Henry VIII was dead. On the same day Edward was proclaimed king with Edward Seymour by his side.

  Edward instructed his council ‘If ye have not already advertised my lady Anne of Cleves of king Henry’s death, it shall be well done if ye send some express person for the same’.4 Anne was no longer the king’s sister but a widow and she could only wonder what her life would be like now.

  King Henry’s body was transported by a gilded chariot pulled by eight horses to St George’s Chapel in Windsor. The roads from Westminster to Windsor had been prepared to allow the four-mile long procession to pass. It stopped at Syon Abbey for the night where it is said that Henry’s coffin burst open and dogs licked at his remains. Once the coffin was repaired, Henry continued on to his final resting place alongside the wife he had loved the most, the wife that had given him his only legitimate son, Jane Seymour. King Henry was buried on 16 February in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Cast
le with none of his family present apart from Katherine Parr who watched from the privacy of the Queen’s Closet. It took sixteen strong yeomen to carry his coffin to its resting place. After masses were said and Henry’s coat of arms, helmet, shield and sword were placed reverentially on the altar, the service was ended with the proclamation ‘The King is dead! Long live the King!’

  Edward was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 20th February 1547. Cranmer told the waiting congregation that there was no need to anoint the new king because he was already God’s anointed ‘elected by God, the King was accountable only to God’.5 Edward was crowned three times with St Edward’s crown, the imperial crown and a crown made especially for the young boy. He was handed the orb and sceptre, St Edward’s staff and spurs and allowed each of the nobility to come forward and kiss his left cheek. England had its new king.

  But this new boy king who had thought of Anne and that she should be told of his father’s death would be no friend to her. Whereas Anne had built a relationship with Mary and Elizabeth, she had rarely seen Edward as cosseted as he was. Katherine Parr had moved to Chelsea and resumed her infatuation with Thomas Seymour, the Lord Protector’s younger brother. Seymour wanted to marry her but was wary of the new king’s reaction coming so soon after his father’s death. He asked John Fowler, a gentleman of the privy chamber, to find out his thoughts. Edward suggested first that he marry Anne of Cleves but then thought Mary might be a better option and might give her a chance to ‘change her opinions’.6 Seymour managed eventually to get Edward’s blessing for his marriage to Katherine and they were wed, some said with indecent haste, around April or May.

  Anne had no intention of marrying anyone although members of the Privy Council thought it would be the best answer to her financial difficulties. In April Anne sent her officers to inform them that she had a yearly deficit of £120. During the old king’s reign he had supported her and made up for any shortfall in her income. Due to Henry’s depleted coffers he had instigated a policy where English coin was debased – the amount of gold and silver in coins was reduced and replaced with cheaper metals such as copper thus leading to rising inflation. It led to Henry being called ‘Old Coppernose’ as the silver wore off his nose revealing copper beneath it. Coin was devalued and Anne was struggling. The council agreed to make up her income as per her agreement with Henry but they also had an idea of what she could do with her properties to aid her finances. In December 1546, Bletchingley had been granted to its keeper and also Edward’s Master of the Revels, Thomas Cawarden, on the event of Anne’s death. The council now informed Anne that she should rent Bletchingley to him and in return receive one of Kent’s oldest houses, Penshurst Place, built in 1341 and surrounded by deer parks, where Henry VIII had often hunted.