Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves (German: Anna von Kleve; 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 9 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of Bar, son and heir of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, although their marriage did not proceed. In March 1539, negotiations for Anne's marriage to Henry began, as Henry believed that he needed to form a political alliance with her brother, William, who was a leader of the Protestants of western Germany, to strengthen his position against potential attacks from Catholic France and the Holy Roman Empire.Anne arrived in England on 27 December 1539 and married Henry on 6 January 1540, but after six months, the marriage was declared unconsummated and, as a result, she was not crowned queen consort. Following the annulment, Henry gave her a generous settlement, and she was thereafter known as the King's Beloved Sister. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Anne of Cleves has received more than 5,467,740 page views. Her biography is available in 57 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 56 in 2019). Anne of Cleves is the 48th most popular companion, the 211th most popular biography from Germany (up from 237th in 2019) and the 6th most popular German Companion.

Anne of Cleves was a German princess who was married to King Henry VIII of England, but she was divorced after six months of marriage.