After Jane’s death, Henry had his heir, but he needed a spare. To do this he needed another wife. In the 1500s Kings typically didn’t marry for love, they married for the money and political benefits. Henry’s last two marriages had been different, they were to members of the English nobility and brought no real advantages. So for his next wife, his advisors urged him to take a foreign bride.
The King of England should’ve been quite the catch, but Henry didn’t have such a great track record in wives so far. Unsurprisingly, the princesses of Europe were not jumping up and down to be his next wife. One potential suitor, Christina of Denmark was even reported as saying: “If I had two heads, one should be at the King of England’s disposal.” Shady.
Eventually, Henry’s advisors settled on Anne of Cleves. Henry sent his court painter, Hans Holbein, to paint a portrait of her. He liked what he saw and marriage was proposed. Anne had grown up in the Duchy of Cleves, in modern day Germany. She was educated in domestic skills but not as well educated as his previous wives. She spoke no English and dressed in the unfashionable heavy clothes popular in the German duchies.
When she arrived in England Henry had been reading too much romance and decided to visit her in disguise. He expected her to instinctively know who he was and fall in love with him. But Henry was no longer the hot prince he’d once been, he was now in his forties, and was pretty overweight. Anne, understandably, didn’t recognise him. Maybe his pride was wounded or maybe he really wasn’t attracted to her, either way from that moment Henry ‘liked her not.’
However ugly Henry found his new bride it was too late to back out at this point, so in January 1540 they were married… and things went from bad to worse. Henry refused to consummate the marriage saying that he found her too repulsive. A bit of pot calling the kettle black a bit there. He also reckoned there was no way she was a virgin but, as Anne appeared to not even know what sex was (she thought she’d get pregnant just by kissing), this seems just a bit unlikely.
Another more likely scenario which historians have proposed is that by this stage in life Henry couldn’t get it up. This would have certainly led him to claim that the non-consummation of the marriage was the fault of his wife’s appearance rather than his willy. Henry was not one to ever really take responsibility.
Either way, 6 months later Henry managed to get his divorce. The grounds were the non-consummation of the marriage and an old betrothal* of Anne’s which had never seemed to bother anyone before her marriage to Henry.
After the divorce, Anne stayed in England and was given the status of ‘The Kings Sister’. She was treated relatively well by Henry and had a good relationship with Henry’s children. Some historians have argued that she was actually the luckiest out of the unlucky bunch that was Henry’s wives.
She outlived Henry into the reigns of both his son Edward VI and daughter Mary I. She wasn’t treated quite so well by them as her large income was seen as a drain on the royal bankroll. She died in 1557, most likely due to cancer, the last of Henry’s 6 wives to kick the bucket.
* A betrothal was basically what the 16th Century called an engagement. It was quite a bit more serious than an engagement however as it was a contracted promise to wed.
