Who was Anne of Cleves? A talk by Helen Poole

“There’s a whole lot of hyperbole about the painting that Hans Holbein created of Anne of Cleves for Henry VIII,” says Helen Poole, who is giving a talk about Henry’s fourth wife in Lewes today. Many history books have it that Thomas Cromwell, anxious to get Henry involved in a politically expedient marriage, persuaded Holbein to paint a flattering portrait so Henry would be persuaded into agreeing to it. “Holbein certainly painted two pictures of her: the most famous one hangs in the Louvre. You can see she wasn’t that ugly. She was definitely better looking than Jayne Seymour.”

“She’d arrived in England late on New Year’s Day 1539 because of appalling weather and Henry, unable to wait for her in the court, had galloped down to Rochester and burst into the room she was staying in. Some versions have it that she didn’t even realise who he was. He took one look at her and realised they were incompatible. He left the room immediately, and walked down the corridor saying ‘I like her not.’ That stuff about the Flanders Mare was a late 17th century invention.”

It was too late to stop the marriage, but Henry annulled it, with her consent, as soon as he could. As part of her divorce settlement she was given nine houses in Sussex, one of which ‘The Porched House’, now bears her name. “It is unlikely that she ever came to Sussex, let alone Lewes,” says Helen. “She would have viewed the property rather like we view our stocks and shares.” Anne stayed in England until her death, probably of cancer, in 1557. AG