Editing Anne of Cleves (section)

==Wedding preparations==
[[File:Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1540s?.jpg| thumb|Portrait from 1538{{sfn|Darsie|2019|loc=Chapter 5:&nbsp;|ps="Wilhelm sent portraits of Anna and Amalia to England. These were the portraits painted by [[Barthel Bruyn the Elder]] in late 1538. The painting of Anna is now in the possession of the [[Rosenbach Museum and Library]] in Philadelphia […]"}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Object Record Anne of Cleves |url=https://rosenbach.catalogaccess.com/objects/2084 |website= |publisher=[[Rosenbach Museum and Library]] |access-date=11 August 2024}}</ref>]]
The artist [[Hans Holbein the Younger]] was dispatched to [[Düren]] to paint portraits of Anne and her younger sister, [[Amalia of Cleves|Amalia]], each of whom Henry VIII was considering as his fourth wife. Henry required the artist to be as accurate as possible, not to flatter the sisters. The portraits are now located in the [[Louvre Museum]] in Paris and the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] in London. Another 1539 portrait, by the school of [[Barthel Bruyn the Elder]], is in the collection of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Trinity College, University of Cambridge|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/search/located_at/trinity-college-cambridge-5846_locations|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329135246/https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/anne-of-cleves-15151557-queen-consort-to-henry-viii-134673|url-status=|archive-date=29 March 2024|publisher=[[ArtUK]]}}</ref>

Negotiations to arrange the marriage were in full swing by March 1539. [[Thomas Cromwell]] oversaw the talks and a marriage treaty was signed on 4 October of that year.

Henry valued education and cultural sophistication in women (e.g., Anne Boleyn), but Anne lacked these traits. She had received no formal education but was skilled in needlework and liked playing card games. She could read and write, but only in German.{{sfn|Norton|2009|pp=10–11}} Nevertheless, Anne was considered gentle, virtuous and docile, which is why she was recommended as a suitable candidate for Henry.

Anne was described by French ambassador [[Charles de Marillac]] as tall and slim, "of  medium beauty, and of very assured and resolute countenance."{{sfn |Gairdner |Brodie |1896 |p=[https://archive.org/details/letterspapersfor15lond/page/10/mode/2up p. 10, #22]}} She was fair-haired and was said to have had a lovely face. In the words of the chronicler [[Edward Hall]], "Her hair hanging down, which was fair, yellow and long&nbsp;... she was apparelled after the English fashion, with a [[French hood]], which so set forth her beauty and good visage, that every creature rejoiced to behold her."{{sfn|Hall|1809|pp=836–837}} She appeared rather solemn by English standards, and looked old for her age. Holbein painted her with a high forehead, heavy-lidded eyes and a pointed chin.

Anne was initially to travel to England alone with her cortège – the death of her father prevented her brother and mother from travelling – but there were concerns about a beautiful, sheltered young woman who had never traveled by sea making such a journey, especially during the winter. She traveled from Düsseldorf to Cleves, and then to Antwerp where she was received by fifty English merchants.{{sfn |Fraser |2003 |p=[https://archive.org/details/sixwivesofhenryv0000fras_p2d1/page/370/mode/2up 370]}}

Henry met her privately on New Year's Day 1540 at Rochester Abbey in [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]] on her journey from [[Dover]].{{sfn|Warnicke|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=P1PrjR79wzgC&pg=PA138 138]}} Henry and some of his courtiers, following a [[Courtly love|courtly-love]] tradition, went disguised into the room where Anne was staying.{{sfn|Warnicke|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=P1PrjR79wzgC&pg=PA138 138]}} The chronicler [[Charles Wriothesley]] reported:
{{Wives of Henry VIII}}

<blockquote>[The King] so went up into the chamber where the said Lady Anne was looking out of a window to see the bull-baiting which was going on in the courtyard, and suddenly he embraced and kissed her, and showed her a token which the king had sent her for [[New Year's Day gift (royal courts)|New Year's gift]], and she being abashed and not knowing who it was thanked him, and so he spoke with her. But she regarded him little, but always looked out the window&nbsp;.... and when the king saw that she took so little notice of his coming he went into another chamber and took off his cloak and came in again in a coat of purple velvet. And when the lords and knights saw his grace they did him reverence.{{sfn|Wriothesley|1875|p=[https://archive.org/details/achronicleengla04hamigoog/page/n172/mode/2up?view=theater 110]}}</blockquote>

According to the testimony of Henry's companions, he was disappointed with Anne, feeling that she was not as described. Although Anne "regarded him little", it is unknown whether she knew this was the King.{{sfn|Warnicke|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=P1PrjR79wzgC&pg=PA132 132]}} Henry then revealed his true identity to Anne, and although he is said to have been put off, the marriage preparations proceeded. Henry and Anne then met officially on 3 January on [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] outside the gates of [[Greenwich Park]], where a grand reception was laid out.{{sfn|Warnicke|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=P1PrjR79wzgC&pg=PA146 146]}}

Most historians believe that Henry's misgivings about the marriage derived from his assessment that Anne's appearance was unsatisfactory and failure to inspire him to consummate the marriage. He felt that he had been misled by his advisors' praise: "She is nothing so fair as she hath been reported", he complained.{{sfn|Schofield|2011|p=361}} He told others in his court that if "it were not that she had come so far into my realm, and the great preparations and state that my people have made for her, and for fear of making a ruffle in the world and of driving [[William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg|her brother]] into the arms of the Emperor and the French King, I would not now marry her. But now it is too far gone, wherefore I am sorry."{{sfn|Weir|2007|p=[https://archive.org/details/sixwivesofhenryv0000weir_o4f8/page/402/mode/2up 403]}}{{efn| Henry's reported response, likening Anne to a "Flanders mare", has no contemporary source but originates from a "misogynist" coining only in 1679, by [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] historian [[Gilbert Burnet]].{{sfn|Warnicke|2000|p=[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/P1PrjR79wzgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA256 256]}}}}

Cromwell received some blame for the Holbein portrait, which Henry believed not an accurate representation of Anne, and for some of the exaggerated reports of her beauty.{{sfn|Elton|1978|p=[https://archive.org/details/englandundertudo00elto/page/157/mode/1up 157]}} Henry urged Cromwell to find a legal way to avoid the marriage but, by this point, doing so was impossible without endangering the vital alliance with the Germans. In his anger and frustration, the King turned on Cromwell, to his subsequent regret.{{sfn|Lehmberg|1977|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MhY9AAAAIAAJ&dq=Henry+VIII+execution+of+cromwell+later+regretted&pg=PA127 127]}}