Love Life
Anne of Cleves' love life - or lack thereof - proved to be her ultimate undoing. Even before his wedding, the king had made his dislike of his bride-to-be plain. The day after Henry's wedding night, that dislike turned to sheer disgust. "I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse," he told Lord Chamberlain Thomas Cromwell.
Anne's breasts sagged, and her flesh was "loose," the king complained to any who would hear him. To Henry, a virgin should boast small, muscular breasts and a firm, smooth stomach. Anne's lack of these qualities demonstrated that she was legally not his wife and not a virgin, but the wife of the Duke of Lorraine, her former fiancé. The king would try to consummate his union for four nights and then limit his time with Anne to visits - on the advice of his doctor who warned him "not to enforce himself."
Anne, however, was ignorant of her failure. As rumors swirled throughout the court that the king and queen were joined in name only, Anne's ladies-in-waiting pressed her for details. "When he comes to bed, he kisses me and taketh me by the hand and biddeth me 'good-night, sweet heart' and in the morning kisses me and biddeth me, 'Farwell, darling," Anne recounted. "Is this not enough?"
Within six months of her marriage, Anne could have no doubt that this was in fact not enough - the king desired an annulment and Catherine Howard had come into view.
Anne's Rivals
Catherine Howard:
When precisely Henry VIII's eye fell on this teenaged maid-of-honor to Queen Anne is not known. By the summer of 1540, some several months after Henry's marriage to his fourth wife, the English merchant Richard Helles wrote that "the King's affections were alienated from the lady Anna to that young girl Katharine Howard." Anne's immediate reaction to her rival is not known. But even after her marriage had crumbled, the former Queen Anne would gladly play cards or dine with Henry and Queen Catherine Howard.
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