Take a chance Caroline

The Lady Anne is perfectly sweet and gracious.

“I am very grateful and thank God every night for your good health and trust you will be our good King, and father, a long time.”

On this day in history, the 16th July 1557 (some sources say the 15th), Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves died at her home, Chelsea Old Manor, the former home of Catherine Parr. She was only 41 but she was the last surviving wife of Henry VIII and on the 3rd August 1557 Anne was taken from Chelsea to Westminster to be buried. She is the only one of Henry VIII’s wives to be buried at Westminster Abbey and her tomb is on the south side of the High Altar. It is decorated with carvings of a crown and her initials, AC, skulls and crossed bones, and a lion’s head. It is a sad fact that Anne, as Elizabeth Norton points out, “is often portrayed as the least significant of Henry’s wives” but that she was actually “an international figure of some prominence” and a woman who used her intelligence to survive the English court and become an independent woman. Just like Catherine of Aragon, she did not accept the annulment of her marriage and still thought of herself as Henry’s wife and Queen, and subsequently his widow, but she made the best out of the situation. [x]

HORRIBLE HISTORIES - The Henry VIII Song. (Part 4) Divorced, beheaded and died. Divorced, beheaded, survived. I am Henry the 8th, I had six sorry wives. Some might say I ruined their lives.

“I have something which I should like to return to Your Majesty. My wedding ring. I should like you to break it into pieces, as a thing of no value.”

“I am very grateful and thank God every night for your good health and trust you will be our good King, and father, a long time.”

requested by blancsanglier

THE TUDORS TOP 7 CHARACTERS | AS VOTED BY OUR FOLLOWERS

#6 | Anne of Cleves

The Six Wives of Henry VIII ⇒ IV. Anne of Cleves (22 September 1515 – 16 July 1557)

"At the 1541 banquet, which followed the former Queen’s obeisance to the present incumbent, it was noted that the Lady Anne looked as happily unconcerned ‘as if there had been nothing between them’ (herself and the king). Anne of Cleves, aged 25, ended the evening dancing with Queen Katherine Howard, aged 19, while the King stumped off to bed, because his leg was hurting him. This arrangement was evidently a great success. The next day all parties had dinner together again with much ‘conversation, amusement and mirth’, as before the evening ended with the young ladies dancing together after the king retired.” ~ Antonia Fraser “The SIx Wives of Henry  VIII”