This is the portrait of Anne of Cleaves Hans Holbein of Augsberg painted for King Henry VIII. Anne was the King Henry's bride to be after his third wife, Jane Seymour, died. King Henry had never seen or met Anne of Cleaves, but Thomas Cromwell thought it would be good for the king to marry someone of a Protestant dynasty. The king was leery about Protestantism, but Cleves was not getting along with Charles the V just like England. So as a result, Henry decided to go through with the marriage. However, because King Henry had never seen her he seen Anne he sent Hans Holbein to paint her and return, too bad they didn't have snapchat.
Whenever Holbein returned with the painting the king was pleased with Anne and allowed the finalization of the wedding. However, afterwords upon the actual meeting of the two the king changed his mind on being attracted to Anne and quickly annulled the wedding. He believed Hans Holbein's painting was misleading that it covered up the effects of smallpox. This goes to show Henry's views on marriage. He obviously only wanted a young woman that was beautiful and gave birth to only living sons. That couldn't have been too hard (sarcasm). Giving birth in this time period was dangerous and the fact that Henry wanted his wives to give birth multiple times and expected sons is absurd.
It's so crazy to think that Henry ended their marriage solely on the fact that she was ugly. It makes me wonder if anything happened to the artist as well for painting her in such a "false light."
ReplyDeleteZophy mentions that Anne's and Henry's dislike were actually mutual and that neither like what they saw. Henry apparently moved from a 32-inch waist to a 52-inch waist (they didn't showed that with sexy Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the Tudors though!) and Anne wasn't that happy either. The marriage was annulled but she got a nice country estate a sufficient income. She also wasn't banned from court and was often invited. The way Zophy tells the story, the annulment was in Anne's interest as well and she didn't got of that bad (especially compared to other of Henry's wives who lost their heads....).
ReplyDeleteFunny that Henry thought she was the ugliest, by the photos I would have said she was the most beautiful!
ReplyDeleteIn the great age of nationalism, Henry may have preferred an English gal. Even the photos show different style of clothing and of course language issues. If you watch the television series, The Tudors, Anne of Cleves is portrayed coming to dinner sometimes. She did end up better than Catherine of Aragon (monastery); Anne Boleyn (executed); Jane Seymour (childbirth), etc.
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