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(#8) She Even Won Over Bloody Mary
Some historians say that Anne's ability to strike up a warm camaraderie with her oldest stepdaughter, Mary Tudor (AKA "Bloody Mary") is perhaps the greatest testament to her likability. Given that the marriage between Henry and Anne was predicated on their shared Protestant Reformation beliefs in the face of Catholicism – and given Bloody Mary's almost unparalleled commitment to the Catholic faith – their amiable relationship was an unlikely one. It is even said that Mary refused to listen to rumors that pitted she and Anne against one another. Anne also returned to the Catholic fold before her death.
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(#7) She Outlived All The Other Wives
Compared to Henry VIII's five other wives - two died before she was queen, two were beheaded, and the last only outlived Henry by one year - Anne of Cleves beat them all! Regardless of how low the bar was set, that's still an accomplishment and a real testament to Anne's political prowess. In fact, her pragmatism in the face of Henry's pursuit of an annulment (unlike that shown by her predecessors) is likely what kept her alive. Anne outlived her ex-husband by 10 years and died peacefully at the ripe old age of 41 on July 16, 1557, almost outliving her step-daughter, Mary Tudor.
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(#2) The Wedding Night Was A DISASTER
Despite Henry's vehement protestations, the wedding had to move forward, and Anne and Henry were married on January 6, 1540. That night, which should have included a consummation of the royal nuptials, did not really go as planned. In the words of Henry:
"Surely, as ye know, I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse. For I have felt her belly and her breast, and thereby, as I can judge, she should be no maid… [The] which struck me so to the heart when I felt them that I had neither will nor courage to proceed any further in other matters… I have left her as good a maid as I found her."
For her part, even though she was 24 when she married Henry VIII, Anne still thought she could get pregnant from kissing. After telling her handmaidens as much, they kindly informed her that it would take a little bit more than that and probably gave the new Queen of England (who still couldn't speak English very well) the most awkward "birds and the bees" talk in history. If their annulment is to be believed, sexy time most certainly did not happen that night.
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(#4) The Reason For Their Divorce Was Almost "Bewitchment"
If you wanted to get a divorce in Henry VIII's day, you had to get creative (see Henry chopping off his wives' heads as an example). In the event of sexual troubles on the part of the man, blame could be absolved from either party by citing the fact that a witch could have put a spell on the man and thus cursed the union, making him unable to perform. Bewitchment was actually cited as a cause for divorce in those days fairly frequently. Henry, however, was persistent that his troubles in this regard were selective, meaning that it was just Anne of Cleves, and there was nothing at all wrong with his manhood. So, they just went with the less supernatural reason of non-consummation.
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(#5) She Probably Wasn't That Ugly
Anne wasn't seen as bad-looking until Henry expressed his displeasure with her appearance, so the rumor was probably started so as not to contradict the King. This description may also have been kept up by the fact that she continued to dress in the German style, which the English considered to be frumpy. In all depictions of her, however, she seems fairly normal-looking and modern scholars say that there is very little reason to believe that these were inaccurate or exaggerated. Thus, Anne of Cleves's reputation is probably a classic example of beauty (or hideousness) being in the eye of the beholder.
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(#10) She Routinely Shocked The Tudor Court
Instead of being rude or temperamental, Anne was almost shockingly polite and courteous. Even after she found out Henry was divorcing her, she was calm, civil, and modest, signing the divorce papers and accepting the annulment without protest. She even wrote the King an exceedingly cordial letter (which he is said to have appreciated very much), and she returned the ring he gave her as an assurance that there were no hard feelings.
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Henry VIII had six queens who divorced and married. Two were beheaded, two were forced to divorce, one died after a year of marriage. In the first divorce, Henry VIII was finally divorced after 8 years of divorce disputes. Henry VIII's infamous marriage has become the most popular subject of many movies and TV series. Among the previous wives, Henry VIII was the most tolerant of his 4th wife, the German Anne of Cleves, even though he thought Anne is ugly and divorced her.
The divorce between Henry VIII and his 4th wife went very smoothly. In order to ease the relationship with the Duchy of Cleves, Henry VIII gave Anne a lot of property and noble status, calling her the noblest woman in England. The random tool explained 12 facts about the marriage of Henry VIII and his 4th wife.
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