Henry was famously repulsed by her, feeling no chemistry with her whatsoever. To me, based only on the existing portraits, I think Anne of Cleeves was actually the most attractive Queen of all six. I guess beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder! After the annulment, they ended up being good friends and he treated her with generosity and respect. Smart lady to go along with the divorce without making it an international incident... she had a sweet life after all.
Do you think that he was repulsed by her because he first saw revulsion in her face first. He snuck up on her and surprised her. He was not the handsome man that he used to be. He was used to seeing a woman's face light up by him. It was hard for him to accept that he was not the handsome man he used to be.
It’s been said that Henry only stated he didn’t find her attractive because she wasn’t madly smitten with him like all the ladies he’d been with in the past. It was a blow to his ego for sure. So rather than facing humiliation, he made it known HE was the one who didn’t want her so he wouldn’t look bad in the public eye.
My favorite of his wives because she had the good sense to get out of his way. By doing so she secured her future, got to live an independent life and rid herself of the vile, obese Henry. A win-win. It's a pity she lived such a short life though.
She didn't really live a short life, at least not by Tudor standards. She lived to 42, if my memory serves, which was a ripe old age back then. But yes she did fare the best out of all his wives, even if she never did see her homeland again.
The best queen was the first, Cahterine was a true queen, daughter of kings, and besides had english blood, she was beautifull much better than the German hag.
Win-win? Not sure, queen without neither the kingdom no the king. Henry , of course, would not dearie to execute born princess, but did she have the option to remarry and have children after she become a royal "sister"? She died only 40 - young.
i agree. From the portraits, Anne of Cleaves is certainly the cutest one of all by modern standards. Her facial features are adorable. Face it, Henry VIII had strange taste anyway, as he was the only one who did not think her pretty back then either. Although it does not show in the portrait, I also read that historically Anne of Cleaves had lovely thick very long golden blonde hair when her hair was let down, and was fair, however by 'dark complexion' Henry was referring to her somber expression towards him. He also accused her of smelling bad but it was his own putrefied oozing infected leg ulcer that stunk, and was putting her off from the start, which no doubt insulted him. It was actually Anne Boleyn who was described as olive-skinned and raven-haired with her best feature being her piercing beautiful black colored eyes. Perhaps Henry did seem to prefer more frail figured girls, rather than wholesome curvy though, although even that could be coincidental and that it was some other thing he was looking for and never being satisfied for long that bothered him, but who knows what his real problem was besides being fickle and cruel and Henry VIII’s apparent mental instability due to his syphilis. Anne of Cleaves is so lucky she put him off from the start. Had he not feared revenge from Germany, he probably would have framed and murdered her too by execution as soon as some other young girl caught his fancy. He was already on to poor little young teen Katherine Howard, who would end up being executed by decapitation like Ann Boleyn was. Anne of Cleaves was indeed the luckiest.
+Snowsong Video Pix Having long blonde hair does not make one beautiful. I know you must think so, but I am letting you know that is not true. An olive complexion is more pleasant.
+Snowsong Video Pix Henry never had syphilis. Modern doctors have seen his medical records and he was never treated with mercury, the only treatment for syphilis at the time. Also if he had syphilis he would have had massive stinking ulcers on his face and head which would have caused holes in his bones and they could not have been hidden. I think he blamed his impotence on Anne's looks. . .it's possible he never consummated his marriage to Katherine Howard either.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder mspinkytee. I have seen beautiful people with fair, dark, olive, complexions. It's a subjective thing and I wouldn't pick one particular colour.
@@mspinkytee That was never said nor implied, you were unable to understand none of the post you are so sensitive to. It's not about you, please reread and if you still cannot conceive any of it without referring to yourself, seek medical/mental help immediately. Having lovely blonde hair in regard to Anne of Cleves isn't saying dark hair isn't attractive. The dark complexion comment is how Henry VIII would refer to Anne's disposition. Oh my.
She was SO clever to give Henry what he wanted. By the time Henry married her, he was really obese and his ulcer on his leg smelled horrendous, according to witnesses at the time. She got two castles, $7,000 pounds a year and didn't have to sleep with him! Win win if you ask me! Way to go, Anne of Cleves!!!
I think Anne may not have been as educated but she was the smartest. Give Henry what he wants without a fight, be friends, get a title and independence and keep your head. I'd taken that in a heart beat! Bonus: No Henry in your bed. Independence for a woman back then was far more rare a thing than Royal marriage. She's always been a hero of mine... always weigh your position and outcome. She was truly a fine strategist!
If she wanted children then she was cheated out of that but otherwise she was definitely the smartest. I don't think Henry appreciated her from the beginning.
Henry said Anne was ugly, if the portrait is any indication, she wasn't ugly but Henry was certainly no looker at this point, either. Those banners with writing on the screen make me motion sick when trying to read them.
AoC wasn't a supermodel but she wasn't ugly either. And the famous portrait of her that Henry first saw, was actually described by the English envoy as being "having expressed her image very lively", that is, that it was very lifelike. The Earl of Southampton (one of the nobles sent to escort her to England) also described her as having "as good grace and countenance as ever in my life I saw any noble woman." The real problem was that she wasn't Henry's type; in a nutshell, he just didn't fancy her.
InnannasRainbow The portrait of Anne wasn't an accurate portrait of her . It was deliberately made to cover her flaws according to history books I read . She had a larger nose and pock mark scars on her face apparently...
@@pentirah5282 Actually, the reference to Anne as the "flanders mare" was first made in the 17th century by historian Gilbert Burnet, so not exactly a contemporary.
@@susella646 Yes you are right, Susella, but I couldn't resist throwing that one it! Whatever she looked like, she was smart - she was one of those who survived. Good for her.
For someone so unsophisticated, she sure turned out to be a very smart little cookie. Giving Henry his freedom was the wise course of action. I dare say she was as glad to be rid of him as he was of her.
I've always admired Anne of Cleeves. Despite being foreign-born & not understanding or speaking English, she made out pretty good, as this video points out. Henry actually came to appreciate her finer qualities (she was a good gambler, had a generous disposition, & a kind heart) when he got over himself.
I believe her settlement was an allowance £3500 a year, a lot of money back in the Tudor period along with servants and houses /properties. Anne rented out the smaller properties to obtain extra money. Henry VIII would refer to her as his most 'beloved sister', when presenting her to members of the court.
i read in an autobiographical book that henry was quite fond of anne of cleves she could match him at cards and earned a degree of respect the others never did. also it was rumored when henry had problems with katherine howard he turned to anne of cleves. i think she was probley beautiful. as for henry i think alot of his anger and disagreements came from his jousting head trama and ulsered leg. i have often wondered if that accedent contributed to anne bolyne loosing her head. the way he treated katherine of aragon after there divorce was terrible. still there must have been good in him cause even on her death bed her last thoughts were of henry. henry had many good women in his life and i am sad he was so mangled he didnt appreciate them
WOW such a educated and beautiful depiction of a woman who was Queen for only a day..I love the music and how it correlated in with the explanations of Anne of Cleves..I believe after sometime was passed and Henry saw more of her at Hever Castle when he would surprise her with gifts and visits, he realized he liked her after all and actually contemplated on marrying her a second time but it never came to be because he ended up marrying Katherine Parr a year or two later, Katherine Parr and Anne of Cleves are the only two of Henry's six wives to outlive him Cleves died at Hever in 1557 and Katherine Parr died from a lack of care in her child bed in 1548 a year after Henry VIII passed away at Hampton Court. After their annulment Henry mentioned to Anne one night after dinner how the French ambassador wrote how Anne had won the love of the English people and how she was deemed to be the most sweet and humane Queens England ever had.
Anne of Cleves wasn’t Queen for a day, she was queen for little more than six months, you may be thinking of Lady Jane Gray who was queen for nine days
She was absolutely the most clever of all his wives . She may not have had Catherine Parr's classical education ; She may not have had Katherine of Aragon's Imperial Bloodlines , She may not have had Katherine Howard's beauty or youthful exhuberance . NO! She had street smarts! There was even widely rumoured that the divorce was Her idea! Her Brainchild ! She kept her head; She got real estate and money in the bargain . You gotta love that !
liz sobel The counts of Cleve or Grafen von Kleve are a legitimate branch of the emperors of Europe descending from Charlemagne via the (closely emperor related) early sovereign counts-palatin Von Berg- Lorrain or Lothringen that had a branch called Von (or Van) Arckel in the sovereign Land of Arckel (lost in the Arckel wars around 1400 a.D. and usurpated by the counts of Holland backed by Bavaria, now part of) the Netherlands. They are not German counts-civil servants.
Its Funny that Henry didn't find her attractive, yet as we look at all the portraits of the other wives Anne appears to be the prettiest, there's kind gentleness about her, even in todays standards, she is very pretty. I can't believe she was to much different from her portrait. Henry had his eye on Catherine, and as we know when Henry wanted a woman, he moves heaven and hell to have his way.
the reason Henry and Anne became friends was because she gave him what he wanted instead of being stubborn and hot headed like Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were..Anne Boleyn would have survived if she had only given Henry what he wanted the most she would have gotten was a banishment and living in exile instead she chose to try to convince Henry's officials that she was the true wife of Henry because she believed she bored him a true heir which was her only daughter Elizabeth the first who later was deemed a bastard through the royal courts just as Mary was considered a bastard even though her mother Catherine of Aragon was anointed and crowned..Mary whether Henry liked it or not was his true heir and Princess but in those times Henry believed that if he left his throne to be occupied by a female it was likely that England would succumb to threats and posers trying to vie for the throne.
linda merchette that i do agree with i have seen both Elizabeth films and i can't get enough of them and i have watched her documentary on here as well.
the idea that Anne of Cleves was ugly ie horse- faced or smelly is refuted by most historianstoday as propaganda along with the idea that she was still betrothed to Lorriane in Germany or that she had never consumated with Henry were set forth to justify Henry's VIII annulment and desire for his his 5th wife Katherine Howard.
+Marlene Hodgdon The common denominator in the lives of these poor women who became Henry's wives is Henry. He was a vile, smelly, fat man who wouldn't have had one wife had he been a commoner.
To be fair, when Henry was younger he was described as very handsome - over six feet and athletic with auburn hair. It was mainly as he got older that he became enormously obese. His infected leg prevented him from exercising (and also stank to high heaven) which contributed to his weight gain.
I believe that Anne had a large influence upon Elizabeth in he decision not to marry. Anne did not need a man in her life to make her happy. Court records show that Anne was very close to Henry's two girl's. When Anne was 1st brought to England she was very young and could not even speak English. As she aged she became very attractive and I think Henry noticed.
Henry never learned to appreciate what he had. I do need to do some reading on Anne of Cleves, though. She was smart enough to be able to keep her head on her shoulders.
Thomas Cromwell warned her to become an attractive woman for Henry but she didn’t (or couldn’t) do it, I think Anne was needing much more time to get used to English lifestyle. For Henry, sexual harmony was really important and he desires intelligance and sexual harmony (like most of men) and it seems Anne was not a good choice for this. I wonder if Henry gave her much more time and become a gentle to her, can they have a good marriage and even a child? May be. But after the annulment she lived with honour, never did any disrespectful behaviour for England Royal Family, never interested throne wars, lived in peaceful and died. She left so much “I wonder if” and gone. RIP beautiful woman.
She is buried in Westminster Abbey, but not near the placard shown at 6:46; her tomb is up in the High Alter opposite Edward the Confessor, but can't actually be seen- it has been built over. I tried twice to find it with the help of guides at the Abbey, without success. The famous Holbein portrait is in a small gallery at the Louvre in Paris, you could easily reach out and touch it.
Holbein was very talented. I saw some of his works, very realistic, he had a knack for painting very lifelike portraits, as good as the pictures from a camera we would use.
Anne was the best looking of the wives based on the portraits. He probably did not like her because she was so different from his preference and he had did not choose her but she was more a political match.
It is believed that she succumbed to breast cancer just a couple of months before her forty second birthday. Though her marriage to Henry was to form a Protestant alliance with the German states, Anne converted to Roman Catholicism during the reign of Mary I. It is not known whether she did this for political reasons (Mary being Mary) or of her own accord.
Just because Anne was divorced from Henry doesn’t mean that her life with regard to him was all brotherly and sisterly love. He still played mind games occasionally with her which kept her on her guard until his death. Anne reunited Henry’s children and was a loving stepmother and confidant to them until her death. Ironically, thanks to Princess Mary, Anne left her stern Protestant faith behind her and converted to Catholicism. I wonder what Cromwell would have thought if he’d lived long enough to witness Anne’s conversion!
Not sure how she died but I read that her will was very gracious to those she left behind. Doesn't surprise me because she was truly a gracious lady. Everyone seems so hooked on Anne Boleyn as the best wife but she wasn't, she was a conniving person out for her own interests. Anne of Cleves was the best for Henry, he just didn't realize it.
I bet it went down like in the BBC series, where Anne found Henry fat, boorish and unattractive, basically fighting him off when they first met. He married her for the sake of the Protestant alliance but never consummated the marriage. Shortly afterward Hesse went over to the Emperor, effectively neutering the German league and leaving no point in continuing the marriage. The meeting in Anne's apartments was pure literary license, a historical allegory used to express the politics of the situation.
Don't know if it's an iPad issue, but moving script near impossible to follow, very jerky. Would have been better as still text, allow watchers to view at their pace. Nice idea, and Anne was probably the single most savvy (even while in fear of her life) to be able to keep her properties and live a life as an independent (to the extent of the times a female was such, without the protection financially of men). She was a peacemaker and the first of H's wives to bring his children together with a semblance of real affection and bonding. Out of all his wives, she is the one I would have liked to have met. A good depiction of her is in Philippa Gregory's "The Boleyn Inheritance", she is one of the main 3 characters speaking in first person, my favorite PG book.
According to history books , even though Henry said he was repelled by Anne of Cleves , she said that he would kiss her quite kindly goodnight and say " Good morning sweetheart " . Then kiss her again . Which I thought was really nice considering how he said he didn't want anything to do with her .
Basically because he didn't want to offend her brother Duke William. That is also partly why he gave her a huge payoff when he divorced her, on the condition she "did not go beyond the sea" i.e. that she stayed in England, even though her brother asked for her to return home, saying "the people here would gladly have her, and grudge every inch of her tarrying there." Henry didn't want her going back home and stirring up trouble, as it were.
Anne of Cleves was smarter, maybe not as formally educated, than his other wives. She astutely negotiated her way out of the axe. She knew if she gave into Henry divorce without a fight he would be generous and let her go. She did and He was generous to her. Called her the Kings Sister and provided for her very handsomely until she died. Maybe if Catherine A, Anne Boleyn did the same they would have been spared exile and death. Catherine was not marked for death because Spain would have invaded England, so she fought him and her pride for herself and her daughter.
Thanks for making this. I’ve always wondered how she lived after the divorce. I was hoping she remarried, but it’s seems not. At least she went a long with the annulment, so she got 2 palaces and I’m sure an allowance also.
I read an autobiography that said henry got tired of Catherine and came to Anne's bed later. henry gave her the tittle of the kings sister cause he respected anne . also Anne was quite good at cards and was someone henry would later turn to for solace and advice. both Henrys daughters loved Anne of Cleve's. Anne was an extremely kind person and also had intelligence. I think perhaps Anne's German fashion and customs were not of Henrys taste. henry seemed to go for flat chested boy figured type women. of all his wives the one wife I do not like was Jane seymore; she seduced henry knowing he was married and she shared the blood of Anne bolyne on her hands as well henry. the way seymore and henry were acting in front of Anne bolyne did nothing but drive her into insecurity and paranoid behavior those two are responsible for Anne bolynes miscarriage. basically henry set Anne bolyne up to fail. the two queens I liked the most of Henrys was Anne of cleves who was kind intelligent with no motive for power only to love people for who they were. also Anne bolyne who refused to be treated like her sister Mary bolyne she refused to be used and discarded. I believe if not set up to fail Anne bolyne could have been a very good queen
I got a book from a second hand store, "My Lady Of Cleves" by Margaret Campbell Barnes, written in 1946. It is an awesome portrayal of Anne of Cleves, I reccommend it (if anyone can find it).
Thank you :) I'm doing a video like this for all of henrys wives am workin on katherine howard at the moment :) i knw she wasnt ugly at all se was really pretty
The artist at the time was told to paint Anne's portrait far prettier than what she was . Thomas Cromwell wanted this because he thought it in England's best interests that Henry marry Anne of Cleves .
angryatyou57 talks about great aunt... It seems Anne of Cleves was a great (many times) aunt of Prince Albert Saxe Coburg Gotha, maybe from her elder sister, Sibylle.
any woman of this period had to have known about Henrys ability to get rid of his wives , in any way he saw fit ,to get out of this marriage Anne of Cleves was really lucky , and I believe she never wanted the aging fat king in the 1st place
henry didnt like anne of cleves clothes or her smell. she looked different than her picture. also henry tried to be romantic and surprise anne as she first came to england it didnt go well. he possibly was trying to save his male ego which was as huge as his gut.
My favorite. Read a book about her as a child and none of his other wives except perhaps Catherine of Aragon could hold a candle to her. Brilliant, smart and actually very pretty, she was the only one without guile or a hidden agenda except his true wife.
It's funny how everyone describes Anne of Cleves as "the luckiest" of Henry's wives....Catherine of Aragon lived the longest life, and had 20 happy years as queen. Certainly, her death is a sad one...deprived of love and family, but most of the other wives died before reaching their 37th birthday (Catherine was fifty). Anne of Cleves was only 42 when she died in relative obscurity....she also lived in abject fear for many years, and in relative poverty during the period following Henry's death)
Anne of Cleaves, then Catherine Howard who was beheaded, then Katherine Parr who was widowed when Henry VIII died. But Anne of Cleaves would still out live Katherine Parr.
Anne was tall and robust, but Henry preferred more petite women. (True, Catherine Parr was just under five feet ten, but by then, Henry was marrying only for companionship). Anne was also unable to dance, play any instruments, or speak any languages other than German, so her lack of education and skill was another minus to Henry.
From what I have read, a German noblewoman of that time was not expected to know about music, card games, poetry, etc. Quite the opposite--she knowledge was deemed inappropriate.
Again great tribute...I'm starting to get into Anne of Cleaves...especially since there going to show her in this upcoming season. What do you think about Joss Stone playing her?
Interesting take that she was the most successful of Henry's wives, though I suppose that's a rather low bar given that half were executed. I always felt bad for Anne; she left her home country never to return all for a very brief, miserable marriage and quick divorce. She should've been able to return home and marry someone less atrocious than Henry. I wonder what she died of? Also, I am curious as to what she really looked like. Paintings of her show a rather attractive woman. Jane Seymour not so much....but Henry had no problem with her. Go figure....
The Tudor idea of beauty in women was probably rather different from our modern ideas. To many of us she looks very attractive, but obviously didn’t appeal to Henry.
Of course Enyas song is perfect as usual , still a ridiculously fast and short story , surely some one can treat Anne of Cleves much much better, there has to be more to her life than this
The problem with say the two other pushed aside wives were that Catherine of Aragon and Anna Boleyn (not that she would step down) is that they had children (Mary and Elizabeth respectively) to protect as well as their own hide. Anne of Cleves was not pregnant nor did she have children to contend to. She chose to step aside because she saw it as the best option rather than make a fuss like the two of them did about what happened. Catherine of Aragon was offered a pretty nice settlement if she stepped aside from the marriage, but she refused on account of her daughter Mary. Anne Boleyn was arrested on trumped up charges of infidelity which were likely to be untrue and then later beheaded. Anne of Cleves had a pretty sad life left to her, but she made of the best of it. She could never marry because of the grounds of the divorce that she was precontracted (which were revealed later to have been annulled by her brother) and that her ever so nice husband said that all those things about her appearance and her smell.
In the book My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes, it is implied that Holbein had a crush of Lady of Cleves. He drew the beauty that he perceived.
So, Henry didn't like Anne of Cleves because she had a dark complexion, yet, he liked Anne Boleyn who was similarly dark or perhaps even darker? Henry was a wierd, hypocritical fellow wasn't he? That said, I can't help but feel bad for Anne of Cleves even if she got two castles out of the annulled marriage. I hope that she was able to take on a lover or two. Would be sad if she died a virgin.
No. Historians think he called her ugly because she reacted very poorly the first time they met. There was a tradition, or perhaps a belief, that a woman would instantly recognize her betrothed upon first sight because they were what we'd call soul mates today. So he went in disguise and without warning to Anne of Cleves when she set foot dressed up as such. Anne didn't come from a culture where this was the norm and wasn't warned that Henry might try it. She'd never seen him before and everyone outside of England thought of him as he was in his young, a slim golden prince. So, basically, a very fat, very smelly (it was said his wound stank so badly that you could smell him coming 4 rooms away) man accosted her and tried to kiss her, and she reacted very badly to this. She basically pushed him away and screamed for help. He was grievously offended by this. After he had Katherine beheaded, he did actually try to renew the relationship with her.
I agree with you, I was just reacting to the comments made in the video. Regarding Henry and his later years, it's really striking how this once good looking young man [considered the best looking Prince in Christiandom and the pride of England] became so horrid in old age. Particulary terrible are the stories of his stench. He was literally rotting alive. I heard one commentator say that his outward appearance was a manifestation of his inward corruption. Here is a monarch who allowed absolute power to corrupt and destroy him. I know that we now look back on him and laugh at his antics, sing songs about him and think of him as a jolly old fellow, but he was far from that and did a lot of harm to England. When you think about him killing people like Sir Thomas More one of the great thinkers of his days and of all of the people that he executed [60,000!] as well as the destruction of the English monastaries that worked to help the poor and the indigent at a time when they were the sole social safety nets of the country, he did a lot of harm!
She probably did die a virgin, but the upside of that is that she avoided a common cause of death for women back then, namely dying in childbirth. She did get to live in luxury for the rest of her life, and she got to be her own mistress and answered to no one except Henry (most women back then were regarded as the property of either their father or husband), and developed a taste for English wine (wink wink) so perhaps she regarded it as a good tradeoff.
Noone knows exactly how she looked...for me the question arises ...if the painter Holbein daring at all...to render a very ugly representation ? Shouldn't he have worried about his head , too ? It' s known that most portraits do not show the truth ..who cares...but here surely the result comes ( possibly ) close to the original...Holbein ...one of the greatest renaissance painters ever ...was not allowed to paint portraits for the court after that... . I think he was a brilliant lucky guy to keep his head...with all the rolling heads at that time. And Anne was surely not more unssightly than the others ....who lived in her time .
The painting was accurate. Firstly, he had been explicitly ordered by Henry to paint the princesses as accurately as possible. The portrait was also described by envoy Nicolas Wotton as "very lively," that is, very lifelike. Lastly, your statement that Holbein wasn't allowed to paint for the court again is simply untrue - he painted several other works for Henry, and also for Catherine Parr, the Duke of Suffolk - which supports the viewpoint that even Henry had to admit that Holbein had done exactly as he was ordered, even if he didn't like Anne when he met her in the flesh.
@@chooseyourpoison5105 Less interesting to me wheather he was allowed to continue painting ...., but how he got past his punishment....What is certain is that he fell out of favor at first ...your descriptions took place later .
I think Henry VIII liked very slim women, because he was himself very fat, and Anne might have been not so slim as the others, so he did not like her, but for me she is the prettiest of all his wives , she had a lovely face !
Anne was most likely not unattractive, as Hans Holbein, her portrait painter, has been celebrated for his hauntingly accurate and lifelike depictions of his subjects. (His portraits of Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More have been praised for capturing their true essences). Besides, Holbein was more than aware of Henry's ferocity and volatility, and would never have been so foolish as to knowingly depict Anne in any enhanced or idealized manner. However, Anne already had many strikes against her. She was blonde and sturdily built (Henry preferred brunettes or redheads who were more petite), her only talent was sewing (Henry preferred reasonably educated women who could dance and play at least one instrument), and she spoke only German, a language that Henry never learned. Moreover, she failed to hide her disappointment when Henry first visited her in disguise, then threw off his cover to reveal whom he actually was. From there, it was all downhill.
I love your dedication to Anne....I think Henry is blind, because she's not as ugly as he made her out to be! He should look in the mirror, seriously! great job!
The thing about Anne of Cleves was that Henry never conteplated beheading her,or dishonering her and was friends with her after the divorce,and noone not even his last two wifes or his children hated her as she even drove in the antorage Mary had as she enterd London as Queen,but she died in powerty thoe if my mind serves me right
Henry was famously repulsed by her, feeling no chemistry with her whatsoever. To me, based only on the existing portraits, I think Anne of Cleeves was actually the most attractive Queen of all six. I guess beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder! After the annulment, they ended up being good friends and he treated her with generosity and respect. Smart lady to go along with the divorce without making it an international incident... she had a sweet life after all.
Henry respecting anyone is a feat unto itself.
Do you think that he was repulsed by her because he first saw revulsion in her face first. He snuck up on her and surprised her. He was not the handsome man that he used to be. He was used to seeing a woman's face light up by him. It was hard for him to accept that he was not the handsome man he used to be.
Sweet Pea I think you are right. His ego probably couldn’t take it!
It’s been said that Henry only stated he didn’t find her attractive because she wasn’t madly smitten with him like all the ladies he’d been with in the past. It was a blow to his ego for sure. So rather than facing humiliation, he made it known HE was the one who didn’t want her so he wouldn’t look bad in the public eye.
Bev Youngberg I believe it! It figures!
My favorite of his wives because she had the good sense to get out of his way. By doing so she secured her future, got to live an independent life and rid herself of the vile, obese Henry. A win-win. It's a pity she lived such a short life though.
She didn't really live a short life, at least not by Tudor standards. She lived to 42, if my memory serves, which was a ripe old age back then. But yes she did fare the best out of all his wives, even if she never did see her homeland again.
The best queen was the first, Cahterine was a true queen, daughter of kings, and besides had english blood, she was beautifull much better than the German hag.
She lived longer than Anne Boleyn though.
Win-win? Not sure, queen without neither the kingdom no the king. Henry , of course, would not dearie to execute born princess, but did she have the option to remarry and have children after she become a royal "sister"? She died only 40 - young.
Miss X He did not send her back.
i agree. From the portraits, Anne of Cleaves is certainly the cutest one of all by modern standards. Her facial features are adorable. Face it, Henry VIII had strange taste anyway, as he was the only one who did not think her pretty back then either. Although it does not show in the portrait, I also read that historically Anne of Cleaves had lovely thick very long golden blonde hair when her hair was let down, and was fair, however by 'dark complexion' Henry was referring to her somber expression towards him. He also accused her of smelling bad but it was his own putrefied oozing infected leg ulcer that stunk, and was putting her off from the start, which no doubt insulted him. It was actually Anne Boleyn who was described as olive-skinned and raven-haired with her best feature being her piercing beautiful black colored eyes. Perhaps Henry did seem to prefer more frail figured girls, rather than wholesome curvy though, although even that could be coincidental and that it was some other thing he was looking for and never being satisfied for long that bothered him, but who knows what his real problem was besides being fickle and cruel and Henry VIII’s apparent mental instability due to his syphilis. Anne of Cleaves is so lucky she put him off from the start. Had he not feared revenge from Germany, he probably would have framed and murdered her too by execution as soon as some other young girl caught his fancy. He was already on to poor little young teen Katherine Howard, who would end up being executed by decapitation like Ann Boleyn was. Anne of Cleaves was indeed the luckiest.
+Snowsong Video Pix Having long blonde hair does not make one beautiful. I know you must think so, but I am letting you know that is not true. An olive complexion is more pleasant.
+Snowsong Video Pix Henry never had syphilis. Modern doctors have seen his medical records and he was never treated with mercury, the only treatment for syphilis at the time. Also if he had syphilis he would have had massive stinking ulcers on his face and head which would have caused holes in his bones and they could not have been hidden. I think he blamed his impotence on Anne's looks. . .it's possible he never consummated his marriage to Katherine Howard either.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder mspinkytee. I have seen beautiful people with fair, dark, olive, complexions. It's a subjective thing and I wouldn't pick one particular colour.
Snowsong Video Pix j
@@mspinkytee That was never said nor implied, you were unable to understand none of the post you are so sensitive to. It's not about you, please reread and if you still cannot conceive any of it without referring to yourself, seek medical/mental help immediately. Having lovely blonde hair in regard to Anne of Cleves isn't saying dark hair isn't attractive. The dark complexion comment is how Henry VIII would refer to Anne's disposition. Oh my.
She was SO clever to give Henry what he wanted. By the time Henry married her, he was really obese and his ulcer on his leg smelled horrendous, according to witnesses at the time. She got two castles, $7,000 pounds a year and didn't have to sleep with him! Win win if you ask me! Way to go, Anne of Cleves!!!
Great, Princess Anna accepted the annulment of her marriage.
I think Anne may not have been as educated but she was the smartest. Give Henry what he wants without a fight, be friends, get a title and independence and keep your head. I'd taken that in a heart beat! Bonus: No Henry in your bed. Independence for a woman back then was far more rare a thing than Royal marriage. She's always been a hero of mine... always weigh your position and outcome. She was truly a fine strategist!
Jennifed Primus Anne also was saved from getting Syphilis.
Jennifed Primus j
If she wanted children then she was cheated out of that but otherwise she was definitely the smartest. I don't think Henry appreciated her from the beginning.
@@lizlessner2228 Didn't know Henry had syphillis.
Henry said Anne was ugly, if the portrait is any indication, she wasn't ugly but Henry was certainly no looker at this point, either. Those banners with writing on the screen make me motion sick when trying to read them.
AoC wasn't a supermodel but she wasn't ugly either. And the famous portrait of her that Henry first saw, was actually described by the English envoy as being "having expressed her image very lively", that is, that it was very lifelike. The Earl of Southampton (one of the nobles sent to escort her to England) also described her as having "as good grace and countenance as ever in my life I saw any noble woman." The real problem was that she wasn't Henry's type; in a nutshell, he just didn't fancy her.
InnannasRainbow The portrait of Anne wasn't an accurate portrait of her . It was deliberately made to cover her flaws according to history books I read . She had a larger nose and pock mark scars on her face apparently...
I understand Henry described her as a "fat Flemish Mare?"
@@pentirah5282 Actually, the reference to Anne as the "flanders mare" was first made in the 17th century by historian Gilbert Burnet, so not exactly a contemporary.
@@susella646
Yes you are right, Susella, but I couldn't resist throwing that one it! Whatever she looked like, she was smart - she was one of those who survived. Good for her.
For someone so unsophisticated, she sure turned out to be a very smart little cookie. Giving Henry his freedom was the wise course of action. I dare say she was as glad to be rid of him as he was of her.
I do think she was disappointed he didn't make her a queen but in the end it was to her benefit.
I've always admired Anne of Cleeves. Despite being foreign-born & not understanding or speaking English, she made out pretty good, as this video points out. Henry actually came to appreciate her finer qualities (she was a good gambler, had a generous disposition, & a kind heart) when he got over himself.
Maybe she was the reason Henry finally grew up. No one wanted to marry him because of his inclination to behead his wives.
I believe her settlement was an allowance £3500 a year, a lot of money back in the Tudor period along with servants and houses /properties. Anne rented out the smaller properties to obtain extra money. Henry VIII would refer to her as his most 'beloved sister', when presenting her to members of the court.
Frances Sweeney she also outlived henry and the rest of the wives even living to see Mary's coronation
and all this without a divorce lawyer!
I think she lucked out by not having his children. She was wise with her money, something Henry should have paid attention to.
@@IRex-wm9pd Which points to how intelligent she was. I think she would have been an excellent wife to him as well, his loss.
i read in an autobiographical book that henry was quite fond of anne of cleves she could match him at cards and earned a degree of respect the others never did. also it was rumored when henry had problems with katherine howard he turned to anne of cleves. i think she was probley beautiful. as for henry i think alot of his anger and disagreements came from his jousting head trama and ulsered leg. i have often wondered if that accedent contributed to anne bolyne loosing her head. the way he treated katherine of aragon after there divorce was terrible. still there must have been good in him cause even on her death bed her last thoughts were of henry. henry had many good women in his life and i am sad he was so mangled he didnt appreciate them
+Carrie Sue Helmich that was after their divorce.
He was a tyrant before the jousting accident, he became a worse tyrant afterward.
WOW such a educated and beautiful depiction of a woman who was Queen for only a day..I love the music and how it correlated in with the explanations of Anne of Cleves..I believe after sometime was passed and Henry saw more of her at Hever Castle when he would surprise her with gifts and visits, he realized he liked her after all and actually contemplated on marrying her a second time but it never came to be because he ended up marrying Katherine Parr a year or two later, Katherine Parr and Anne of Cleves are the only two of Henry's six wives to outlive him Cleves died at Hever in 1557 and Katherine Parr died from a lack of care in her child bed in 1548 a year after Henry VIII passed away at Hampton Court. After their annulment Henry mentioned to Anne one night after dinner how the French ambassador wrote how Anne had won the love of the English people and how she was deemed to be the most sweet and humane Queens England ever had.
Anne of Cleves wasn’t Queen for a day, she was queen for little more than six months, you may be thinking of Lady Jane Gray who was queen for nine days
She was absolutely the most clever of all his wives . She may not have had Catherine Parr's classical education ; She may not have had Katherine of Aragon's Imperial Bloodlines , She may not have had Katherine Howard's beauty or youthful exhuberance . NO! She had street smarts! There was even widely rumoured that the divorce was Her idea! Her Brainchild ! She kept her head; She got real estate and money in the bargain . You gotta love that !
liz sobel The counts of Cleve or Grafen von Kleve are a legitimate branch of the emperors of Europe descending from Charlemagne via the (closely emperor related) early sovereign counts-palatin Von Berg- Lorrain or Lothringen that had a branch called Von (or Van) Arckel in the sovereign Land of Arckel (lost in the Arckel wars around 1400 a.D. and usurpated by the counts of Holland backed by Bavaria, now part of) the Netherlands. They are not German counts-civil servants.
Its Funny that Henry didn't find her attractive, yet as we look at all the portraits of the other wives Anne appears to be the prettiest, there's kind gentleness about her, even in todays standards, she is very pretty. I can't believe she was to much different from her portrait. Henry had his eye on Catherine, and as we know when Henry wanted a woman, he moves heaven and hell to have his way.
the reason Henry and Anne became friends was because she gave him what he wanted instead of being stubborn and hot headed like Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were..Anne Boleyn would have survived if she had only given Henry what he wanted the most she would have gotten was a banishment and living in exile instead she chose to try to convince Henry's officials that she was the true wife of Henry because she believed she bored him a true heir which was her only daughter Elizabeth the first who later was deemed a bastard through the royal courts just as Mary was considered a bastard even though her mother Catherine of Aragon was anointed and crowned..Mary whether Henry liked it or not was his true heir and Princess but in those times Henry believed that if he left his throne to be occupied by a female it was likely that England would succumb to threats and posers trying to vie for the throne.
More importantly, Anne did give an heir, Elizabeth 1, and she proved be a better ruler good old Dad
linda merchette That is true Elizabeth I ended ruling England for 44 glorious years..have you seen both Elizabeth Movies?
I have seen a few of the movies made about her life, And each one of them, does show her strength
linda merchette that i do agree with i have seen both Elizabeth films and i can't get enough of them and i have watched her documentary on here as well.
I have read more about Anne of Cleves and I found her to be the best he could have had. She was also lovely by all accounts.
the idea that Anne of Cleves was ugly ie horse- faced or smelly is refuted by most historianstoday as propaganda along with the idea that she was still betrothed to Lorriane in Germany or that she had never consumated with Henry were set forth to justify Henry's VIII annulment and desire for his his 5th wife Katherine Howard.
+Marlene Hodgdon The common denominator in the lives of these poor women who became Henry's wives is Henry. He was a vile, smelly, fat man who wouldn't have had one wife had he been a commoner.
To be fair, when Henry was younger he was described as very handsome - over six feet and athletic with auburn hair. It was mainly as he got older that he became enormously obese. His infected leg prevented him from exercising (and also stank to high heaven) which contributed to his weight gain.
scot60 z
Ditto scot0
I believe that Anne had a large influence upon Elizabeth in he decision not to marry. Anne did not need a man in her life to make her happy. Court records show that Anne was very close to Henry's two girl's. When Anne was 1st brought to England she was very young and could not even speak English. As she aged she became very attractive and I think Henry noticed.
Henry never learned to appreciate what he had. I do need to do some reading on Anne of Cleves, though. She was smart enough to be able to keep her head on her shoulders.
@@janbadinski7126 Yes! She gave Henry what he wanted and didn't have to sleep with an old, fat, smelly king!!! LOL
Good for her.
Nicely done...I had read that she was responsible for uniting Henry with his daughters and was quite supportive of them.
The Tudors are habit forming aren't they. Biggest soap opera in world history
lol, yeah.
Thomas Cromwell warned her to become an attractive woman for Henry but she didn’t (or couldn’t) do it, I think Anne was needing much more time to get used to English lifestyle. For Henry, sexual harmony was really important and he desires intelligance and sexual harmony (like most of men) and it seems Anne was not a good choice for this. I wonder if Henry gave her much more time and become a gentle to her, can they have a good marriage and even a child? May be. But after the annulment she lived with honour, never did any disrespectful behaviour for England Royal Family, never interested throne wars, lived in peaceful and died. She left so much “I wonder if” and gone. RIP beautiful woman.
She is buried in Westminster Abbey, but not near the placard shown at 6:46; her tomb is up in the High Alter opposite Edward the Confessor, but can't actually be seen- it has been built over. I tried twice to find it with the help of guides at the Abbey, without success. The famous Holbein portrait is in a small gallery at the Louvre in Paris, you could easily reach out and touch it.
Holbein was very talented. I saw some of his works, very realistic, he had a knack for painting very lifelike portraits, as good as the pictures from a camera we would use.
The Kings Sister kept her head . It's interesting that she never remarried. Next poor Katheryn Howard , she lost her head .
As if he was sttill the guy whom everyone wanted, back then, at his time he was already a freaked up DOG. Poor Anne~
My favorite Henry viii queen is Anne of Cleve,she was a clever woman and full of wisdom!
Anne was the best looking of the wives based on the portraits. He probably did not like her because she was so different from his preference and he had did not choose her but she was more a political match.
What a gracious lady she was!
It is believed that she succumbed to breast cancer just a couple of months before her forty second birthday. Though her marriage to Henry was to form a Protestant alliance with the German states, Anne converted to Roman Catholicism during the reign of Mary I. It is not known whether she did this for political reasons (Mary being Mary) or of her own accord.
Just because Anne was divorced from Henry doesn’t mean that her life with regard to him was all brotherly and sisterly love. He still played mind games occasionally with her which kept her on her guard until his death. Anne reunited Henry’s children and was a loving stepmother and confidant to them until her death. Ironically, thanks to Princess Mary, Anne left her stern Protestant faith behind her and converted to Catholicism. I wonder what Cromwell would have thought if he’d lived long enough to witness Anne’s conversion!
Cromwell was probably rolling over in his grave over that one.
they actually become good friends and he viewed her as a sister. Was very generous with his divorce endowments.
there is an other version. She did not regenese him when he came to her... She dispised him at the look at him at first sight.
Not sure how she died but I read that her will was very gracious to those she left behind. Doesn't surprise me because she was truly a gracious lady. Everyone seems so hooked on Anne Boleyn as the best wife but she wasn't, she was a conniving person out for her own interests. Anne of Cleves was the best for Henry, he just didn't realize it.
Sie war sehr schön. Sehr passend die Musik dazu.
its called exile by the artist enya
its actually about 3/4 mins long i just repeated it for the duration of the vid xx
Beautifully done~
Thank-you so much.... :)
beautiful music!!!
She has a lovely voice.
A lovely serene looking lady who had the good sense to become his "sister" .love the music. Thank you.
I bet it went down like in the BBC series, where Anne found Henry fat, boorish and unattractive, basically fighting him off when they first met. He married her for the sake of the Protestant alliance but never consummated the marriage. Shortly afterward Hesse went over to the Emperor, effectively neutering the German league and leaving no point in continuing the marriage. The meeting in Anne's apartments was pure literary license, a historical allegory used to express the politics of the situation.
she was compliant in the divorce and became like a sister to Henry.
Don't know if it's an iPad issue, but moving script near impossible to follow, very jerky. Would have been better as still text, allow watchers to view at their pace. Nice idea, and Anne was probably the single most savvy (even while in fear of her life) to be able to keep her properties and live a life as an independent (to the extent of the times a female was such, without the protection financially of men). She was a peacemaker and the first of H's wives to bring his children together with a semblance of real affection and bonding. Out of all his wives, she is the one I would have liked to have met. A good depiction of her is in Philippa Gregory's "The Boleyn Inheritance", she is one of the main 3 characters speaking in first person, my favorite PG book.
In all this I have to wonder why she never married again.
According to history books , even though Henry said he was repelled by Anne of Cleves , she said that he would kiss her quite kindly goodnight and say " Good morning sweetheart " . Then kiss her again . Which I thought was really nice considering how he said he didn't want anything to do with her .
Basically because he didn't want to offend her brother Duke William. That is also partly why he gave her a huge payoff when he divorced her, on the condition she "did not go beyond the sea" i.e. that she stayed in England, even though her brother asked for her to return home, saying "the people here would gladly have her, and grudge every inch of her tarrying there." Henry didn't want her going back home and stirring up trouble, as it were.
ChooseYour Poison )
Anne of Cleves was smarter, maybe not as formally educated, than his other wives. She astutely negotiated her way out of the axe. She knew if she gave into Henry divorce without a fight he would be generous and let her go. She did and He was generous to her. Called her the Kings Sister and provided for her very handsomely until she died. Maybe if Catherine A, Anne Boleyn did the same they would have been spared exile and death. Catherine was not marked for death because Spain would have invaded England, so she fought him and her pride for herself and her daughter.
Spain would not invade over Catherine. By that time her parents were dead and her siblings wouldn't want to.
@@nancybroertjes2292 Then Elizabeth I came along and kicked Spain's backside.
Thanks! I have to admit at the moment I'm most proud of this video because of how well her story and the music went together
In a way, I pity her, but she was smart in her own way. As far as
Thanks for making this. I’ve always wondered how she lived after the divorce. I was hoping she remarried, but it’s seems not. At least she went a long with the annulment, so she got 2 palaces and I’m sure an allowance also.
Nicola Platt, Lovely presentation
Very good film. You have failed to mention that long before she died she had long been reconverted back to Catholism.
I read an autobiography that said henry got tired of Catherine and came to Anne's bed later. henry gave her the tittle of the kings sister cause he respected anne . also Anne was quite good at cards and was someone henry would later turn to for solace and advice. both Henrys daughters loved Anne of Cleve's. Anne was an extremely kind person and also had intelligence. I think perhaps Anne's German fashion and customs were not of Henrys taste. henry seemed to go for flat chested boy figured type women. of all his wives the one wife I do not like was Jane seymore; she seduced henry knowing he was married and she shared the blood of Anne bolyne on her hands as well henry. the way seymore and henry were acting in front of Anne bolyne did nothing but drive her into insecurity and paranoid behavior those two are responsible for Anne bolynes miscarriage. basically henry set Anne bolyne up to fail. the two queens I liked the most of Henrys was Anne of cleves who was kind intelligent with no motive for power only to love people for who they were. also Anne bolyne who refused to be treated like her sister Mary bolyne she refused to be used and discarded. I believe if not set up to fail Anne bolyne could have been a very good queen
Don't forget Anne Bolyen did to Catherine of Aragon what Jane Seymour did to her. Karma.
Lots of great information! But sliding text is a bit of a pain to look at. Would have been better if it was slower.
I got a book from a second hand store, "My Lady Of Cleves" by Margaret Campbell Barnes, written in 1946. It is an awesome portrayal of Anne of Cleves, I reccommend it (if anyone can find it).
Thank you :) I'm doing a video like this for all of henrys wives am workin on katherine howard at the moment :)
i knw she wasnt ugly at all se was really pretty
LOVE THE MUSIC
I can't stand when there's text and no audio
The artist at the time was told to paint Anne's portrait far prettier than what she was . Thomas Cromwell wanted this because he thought it in England's best interests that Henry marry Anne of Cleves .
angryatyou57 talks about great aunt... It seems Anne of Cleves was a great (many times) aunt of Prince Albert Saxe Coburg Gotha, maybe from her elder sister, Sibylle.
Are you sure? I have spent about 1h now to find evidences and I couldn't find anything 😅
At least both stayed friends and she cared for his kids too
any woman of this period had to have known about Henrys ability to get rid of his wives , in any way he saw fit ,to get out of this marriage Anne of Cleves was really lucky , and I believe she never wanted the aging fat king in the 1st place
My favorite wives of Henry were Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves.
henry didnt like anne of cleves clothes or her smell. she looked different than her picture. also henry tried to be romantic and surprise anne as she first came to england it didnt go well. he possibly was trying to save his male ego which was as huge as his gut.
My favorite. Read a book about her as a child and none of his other wives except perhaps Catherine of Aragon could hold a candle to her. Brilliant, smart and actually very pretty, she was the only one without guile or a hidden agenda except his true wife.
PRINCESS Anna of Cleves was an attractive lady from her portraits. Smart lady to accept the Annullment of her marriage. She became a wealthy lady.
It's funny how everyone describes Anne of Cleves as "the luckiest" of Henry's wives....Catherine of Aragon lived the longest life, and had 20 happy years as queen. Certainly, her death is a sad one...deprived of love and family, but most of the other wives died before reaching their 37th birthday (Catherine was fifty). Anne of Cleves was only 42 when she died in relative obscurity....she also lived in abject fear for many years, and in relative poverty during the period following Henry's death)
clanad!..love their music
That is so nice to share her Birthday.
I thought Katherine Parr was the last wife of Henry thus coming after Ann of Cleves.
Anne of Cleaves, then Catherine Howard who was beheaded, then Katherine Parr who was widowed when Henry VIII died. But Anne of Cleaves would still out live Katherine Parr.
Anne was tall and robust, but Henry preferred more petite women. (True, Catherine Parr was just under five feet ten, but by then, Henry was marrying only for companionship). Anne was also unable to dance, play any instruments, or speak any languages other than German, so her lack of education and skill was another minus to Henry.
From what I have read, a German noblewoman of that time was not expected to know about music, card games, poetry, etc. Quite the opposite--she knowledge was deemed inappropriate.
I passed my speed reading test with flying colors
The luckiest of all the King's wives!
Again great tribute...I'm starting to get into Anne of Cleaves...especially since there going to show her in this upcoming season. What do you think about Joss Stone playing her?
Interesting take that she was the most successful of Henry's wives, though I suppose that's a rather low bar given that half were executed. I always felt bad for Anne; she left her home country never to return all for a very brief, miserable marriage and quick divorce. She should've been able to return home and marry someone less atrocious than Henry. I wonder what she died of? Also, I am curious as to what she really looked like. Paintings of her show a rather attractive woman. Jane Seymour not so much....but Henry had no problem with her. Go figure....
The Tudor idea of beauty in women was probably rather different from our modern ideas. To many of us she looks very attractive, but obviously didn’t appeal to Henry.
Of course Enyas song is perfect as usual , still a ridiculously fast and short story , surely some one can treat Anne of Cleves much much better, there has to be more to her life than this
Anne had a dark complexion? to me anne seems as fair as the others
The problem with say the two other pushed aside wives were that Catherine of Aragon and Anna Boleyn (not that she would step down) is that they had children (Mary and Elizabeth respectively) to protect as well as their own hide. Anne of Cleves was not pregnant nor did she have children to contend to. She chose to step aside because she saw it as the best option rather than make a fuss like the two of them did about what happened. Catherine of Aragon was offered a pretty nice settlement if she stepped aside from the marriage, but she refused on account of her daughter Mary. Anne Boleyn was arrested on trumped up charges of infidelity which were likely to be untrue and then later beheaded. Anne of Cleves had a pretty sad life left to her, but she made of the best of it. She could never marry because of the grounds of the divorce that she was precontracted (which were revealed later to have been annulled by her brother) and that her ever so nice husband said that all those things about her appearance and her smell.
I think the music is by Enya.
In the book My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes, it is implied that Holbein had a crush of Lady of Cleves. He drew the beauty that he perceived.
So, Henry didn't like Anne of Cleves because she had a dark complexion, yet, he liked Anne Boleyn who was similarly dark or perhaps even darker? Henry was a wierd, hypocritical fellow wasn't he? That said, I can't help but feel bad for Anne of Cleves even if she got two castles out of the annulled marriage. I hope that she was able to take on a lover or two. Would be sad if she died a virgin.
No. Historians think he called her ugly because she reacted very poorly the first time they met. There was a tradition, or perhaps a belief, that a woman would instantly recognize her betrothed upon first sight because they were what we'd call soul mates today. So he went in disguise and without warning to Anne of Cleves when she set foot dressed up as such.
Anne didn't come from a culture where this was the norm and wasn't warned that Henry might try it. She'd never seen him before and everyone outside of England thought of him as he was in his young, a slim golden prince.
So, basically, a very fat, very smelly (it was said his wound stank so badly that you could smell him coming 4 rooms away) man accosted her and tried to kiss her, and she reacted very badly to this. She basically pushed him away and screamed for help. He was grievously offended by this.
After he had Katherine beheaded, he did actually try to renew the relationship with her.
I agree with you, I was just reacting to the comments made in the video. Regarding Henry and his later years, it's really striking how this once good looking young man [considered the best looking Prince in Christiandom and the pride of England] became so horrid in old age. Particulary terrible are the stories of his stench. He was literally rotting alive. I heard one commentator say that his outward appearance was a manifestation of his inward corruption. Here is a monarch who allowed absolute power to corrupt and destroy him. I know that we now look back on him and laugh at his antics, sing songs about him and think of him as a jolly old fellow, but he was far from that and did a lot of harm to England. When you think about him killing people like Sir Thomas More one of the great thinkers of his days and of all of the people that he executed [60,000!] as well as the destruction of the English monastaries that worked to help the poor and the indigent at a time when they were the sole social safety nets of the country, he did a lot of harm!
She probably did die a virgin, but the upside of that is that she avoided a common cause of death for women back then, namely dying in childbirth. She did get to live in luxury for the rest of her life, and she got to be her own mistress and answered to no one except Henry (most women back then were regarded as the property of either their father or husband), and developed a taste for English wine (wink wink) so perhaps she regarded it as a good tradeoff.
Rayarena maybe her features reminded him of Anne Boleyn and guilt crept in that her name was also "Anne"
someone her who says they are descended from Anne of Cleves maintains she had a son and then twins...Never heard of her having any children...
What's this song its beautiful
If I remember correctly it is Enya-Exile.
She has a kind sweet face it must have been terrifying for her in a foreign land not knowing what was going to happen to her
@@maureengillies9495 Yet she handled it with the grace of a leader.
This looked interesting but the scrolling was just to fast for me to be able to read comfortably.
I only watched half...it did my head in my me feel dizzy.
Noone knows exactly how she looked...for me the question arises ...if the painter Holbein daring at all...to render a very ugly representation ? Shouldn't he have worried about his head , too ? It' s known that most portraits do not show the truth ..who cares...but here surely the result comes ( possibly ) close to the original...Holbein ...one of the greatest renaissance painters ever ...was not allowed to paint portraits for the court after that... . I think he was a brilliant lucky guy to keep his head...with all the rolling heads at that time. And Anne was surely not more unssightly than the others ....who lived in her time .
The painting was accurate. Firstly, he had been explicitly ordered by Henry to paint the princesses as accurately as possible. The portrait was also described by envoy Nicolas Wotton as "very lively," that is, very lifelike. Lastly, your statement that Holbein wasn't allowed to paint for the court again is simply untrue - he painted several other works for Henry, and also for Catherine Parr, the Duke of Suffolk - which supports the viewpoint that even Henry had to admit that Holbein had done exactly as he was ordered, even if he didn't like Anne when he met her in the flesh.
@@chooseyourpoison5105 Less interesting to me wheather he was allowed to continue painting ...., but how he got past his punishment....What is certain is that he fell out of favor at first ...your descriptions took place later .
I was wondering why it sounded like something out of lord of the rings lol Enya was singing the song lol
No; Anne retired from the Royal Court after the succession of Mary I.
I think Henry VIII liked very slim women, because he was himself very fat, and Anne might have been not so slim as the others, so he did not like her, but for me she is the prettiest of all his wives , she had a lovely face !
Anne was most likely not unattractive, as Hans Holbein, her portrait painter, has been celebrated for his hauntingly accurate and lifelike depictions of his subjects. (His portraits of Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More have been praised for capturing their true essences). Besides, Holbein was more than aware of Henry's ferocity and volatility, and would never have been so foolish as to knowingly depict Anne in any enhanced or idealized manner. However, Anne already had many strikes against her. She was blonde and sturdily built (Henry preferred brunettes or redheads who were more petite), her only talent was sewing (Henry preferred reasonably educated women who could dance and play at least one instrument), and she spoke only German, a language that Henry never learned. Moreover, she failed to hide her disappointment when Henry first visited her in disguise, then threw off his cover to reveal whom he actually was. From there, it was all downhill.
Anne face was so young nd beautiful 0-0
I love your dedication to Anne....I think Henry is blind, because she's not as ugly as he made her out to be! He should look in the mirror, seriously! great job!
I wonder what Anne really thought about Henry.
yes she was german
Who is the music by please?
Enya
@@terryrogers7899 Many thanks.
I think she was attractive and highly intelligent with a sharp mind.
the description makes me have motion sickness. it is too hard to read this way. skip.... sorry :
Sie war doch hübsch und schlau👍
Indeed she was.
"Henry had WORE a disguise"?!
fascinating subject, great music, can't watch those banner info-strips.
who is the background music? Sounds a bit like Clannad to me....
Wanted to watch this, but got dizzy and a friggin migraine one minute in. Ugh!!
The thing about Anne of Cleves was that Henry never conteplated beheading her,or dishonering her and was friends with her after the divorce,and noone not even his last two wifes or his children hated her as she even drove in the antorage Mary had as she enterd London as Queen,but she died in powerty thoe if my mind serves me right
I don't think she died in poverty, as she left some money to her servants.
@@susella646 Very kind hearted of her.
But didn't she die penny-less because she got cut off when Henry died?
I'm watching this on the day (not the year) Thomas Cromwell was beheaded 😶
wow, need to speed read to watch this video as the text flys by so fast, slow it down a bit