In today's Claire Chats I look at the evidence regarding Henry VIII's claims that Anne of Cleves was unattractive and the origin of the "Flanders Mare" label.
Miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger
Sources
- Cromwell's letter to the king concerning his marriage with Anne of Cleves, reproduced in Burnet's The History of the Reformation, Vol 1: Pt 3. p305.
- "Ill smells" or "evil smells" comment from Burnet's The History of the Reformation, Vol I, p436-7.
- Deposition of Sir Anthony Browne, Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, Volume I Part II, p456-7.
- Marillac's description of Anne of Cleves is in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15, 23. In another letter, this time to Francis I, he writes "She looks about 30 years of age, tall and thin, of medium beauty, and of very assured and resolute countenance. She brought 12 or 15 ladies of honour clothed like herself—a thing which looks strange to many." LP xv. 22.
- Deposition of Dr William Butts, reproduced in Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, Volume I Part II, p461-62.