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The Wives of Henry VIII: Anne of Cleves, Part I

© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler

Henry's grief, real enough, over the death of Jane Seymour, was sufficient to keep him a widower for very nearly three years. During that time life at the English court lost the heedless gaiety which had characterized it for so many years. There was no lady of precedence, queen or princess (at least not one in favor with the king) to lead the festivities - it was like a White House with no First Lady to play hostess. But though Henry was in mourning for the mother of his son, his ministers began almost immediately to urge him to remarry - he had, after all, only one frail son to follow him to the throne, and infant mortality in that day was high - and Henry agreed that he would think about it. It is likely that he also, after so many years of being a husband, needed a woman in his life. It would be a boost for him, too, to be the object of matrimonial negotiations, and to be considered once more a matrimonial prize on the international market.

His reputation, however, preceded him. A king who had repudiated one wife, executed a second, and lost a third in childbirth did not recommend himself favorably to the eligible princesses of the world. Christina, Duchess of Milan, when Henry was mentioned as a possible spouse for her, remarked that if she had had two heads she would gladly have put one of them at his majesty's disposal - and this comment seemed representative of the other available ladies. An international alliance was necessary at this time, as the religious configuration of the world was changing. Protestant alliances, such as the Schmalkaldic League, were springing up everywhere, and since Henry could no longer flatter himself that he was an attractive alliance for Catholic nations such as Spain or France, it was imperative that he ally himself with some powerful Protestant force. His excommunication, while not yet implemented, did not recommend him to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles, nor to Francis of France. Cromwell was also pushing Henry decisively in the direction of a Protestant alliance. Henry made tentative movements toward Marie de Guise, of the powerful French Catholic house of Guise, hoping that such a union would help reconcile him to the French and therefore bring about some sort of rapprochement with the Catholic world - but Marie had the effrontery to turn him down and marry instead his nephew, James V of Scotland. This was a slap in the face scarcely to be born, only slightly palliated by Henry's knowledge that Scotland and France had always had extremely close ties - usually in league against England, unfortunately.

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