Anne of Cleves

by Sarah-Beth Watkins

  Understands that Florence de Diaceto (nephew to the Chancellor of Cleves), born in Antwerp of Florentine parentage, who had a pension in England, but since her Majesty’s accession having been in trouble and dismissed, has left England, and been seen in Paris by John Somer within these two days. As contrary to his former habit he would keep no company with Somer, Wotton has caused an eye to be had upon him, and been informed that he has been divers times with the Constable and with the whole Council, whereby it should seem he is here for no good intent. The person who had offered to supply her Majesty with secret information of the Court here, asks 50 crowns per mensem, which is more than Wotton dare give without knowing her Majesty’s pleasure therein.16

  Someone else who was in trouble was Archbishop Cranmer. Mary had never liked the man and blamed him for all that had gone wrong in her life. After all, it was he who had found the grounds for her mother’s divorce from Henry VIII. He was responsible for not only paving the way for Anne Boleyn to take the throne but as she saw it he was also to blame for her father’s break from the Church of Rome. Cranmer had been sentenced to death on 13 November 1553 but in 1554, he was moved to Bocardo prison in Oxford to await further trial for heresy.

  On 21 March 1556, Cranmer was put to death. He had promised to renounce his Protestant faith and admit that Catholicism was the one true religion. At a service at the University Church in Oxford however, he used his final chance to speak to tell the world that the Pope was Christ’s enemy and furthermore the Antichrist. He was dragged from the pulpit and tied to the stake. As the flames rose around him he placed his right hand – the hand that had signed away his true faith – into the fire. Cranmer would die a Protestant and martyr to the cause.

  In the same month Anne heard that Thomas Cawarden was in trouble again. This time he was implicated in the Dudley plot to put Elizabeth on the throne and spent two months under house arrest at Blackfriars from May till July after which he returned to Bletchingley. Anne wanted to visit Blackfriars but had to ask for his help ‘for her grace lacked money to buy the needful furniture, and she promised payment to Sir Thomas if he would make the purchases for her.’17 Cawarden with whom she had such a tumultuous relationship supplied the house with all she could possibly want; gallons of wine, spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cloves and mace, mutton, capons, rabbits, wheat, firewood, coal, candles, pots, pans, kettles, skillets, ladles, skimmers, spits, trays and flaskets. Fresh fish like carp, pike and tench were also supplied ‘for the trial of cookery’18 so Anne could practise her culinary skills. Her household were not ideal guests and Cawarden found some of the items were ‘broken, spoiled, and lost, and the rest remain at his house to his use, for which he asks no compensation’.19

  One of her servants had been dismissed and now she heard that four others were in jeopardy. Count von Waldeck had spent time in her household but had been recalled to Cleves when Olisleger heard rumours he was trying to get Anne to make him her heir. The disgruntled count informed her brother William that she had servants about her who could not be trusted who came from Cleves and were his responsibility. Waldeck had particularly fallen out with Anne’s cofferer Brockehouse who had put a reign on Anne’s expenses and curtailed the expenditure of her household. William sent Karl Harst to ask Anne to discharge Brockehouse, his wife Gertrud – who was said to have driven Anne mad with her ‘impostures and incantations’20 – and Otho Wylik (the illegitimate son of Otto van Wylich, Lord of Huit and Grubbenvorst) and Thomas Chare, another member of her household, but she had refused. ‘Every exertion has already been used, not a stone left unturned, to have them removed from her service, but in vain’.21 Now her brother asked Queen Mary to become involved and in September the unfortunate servants were called before the council. Mary had had no contact with Anne for some time but she felt the need to intervene.

  Brockehouse was told to ‘departe from the house and family of the lady Anne of Cleve, and come never after in any of the same lady’s houses, or where she shall for the tyme make her abode, ne do entromedle or busye himself in thadministracion of the government of her howseholde or other her affaires as her servant or officer’.22 Brockehouse and his wife were ordered to leave England as was Otho Wylik. It is uncertain what happened to Chare.

  William had also written to King Philip for his support and though he was absent from England he wrote from Ghent to say he ‘approved of the measures relative to the Lady Anne of Cleves’.23 Anne however did not approve and was unhappy to see her loyal servants go. She would need them beside her in the days to come.

  Mary I

  Chapter Ten

  Final Days

  1557

  Anne moved to the manor at Chelsea in the spring of 1557. Henry VIII had exchanged lands here with Lord Sandys around 1536 so that he could build his own riverside mansion in what was then a pleasant, rural setting not too far from the city. The house had previously been home to the widowed Katherine Parr where she stayed with Thomas Seymour. The Princess Elizabeth too had lived here, both as a child and when under Katherine’s care.

  In April Sir Thomas Cornwallis was complaining Anne was being stubborn regarding the exchange of Westhorpe Hall. Mindful of losing yet more revenue, she was asking for the ‘house and park in Gulford’.1 Cornwallis wrote to William Cecil that he thought it would be hard to get for her. He blamed her cofferer Freston for ‘her grace’s disposition towards Westropp’ and asked whether he would find out if Freston ‘deals doubly’.2

  Anne may have felt the pleasing air at Chelsea would help her. She had been unwell for some time but took to her bed with an undiagnosed illness on 12 July where she wrote her will. In it she made sure her household and those who had been loyal to her were rewarded. Each was to receive a year’s wages and black cloth for their mourning clothes. She especially remembered her ladies ‘for their great pains taken with us’.3 She left Dorothy Wingfield and Dorothy Curzon £100 each and asked that Princess Elizabeth to take Curzon into her household. Susan Broughton was gifted £20 towards her marriage. Her laundress Elizabeth Eliot received £10 as did Mother Lovell who had looked after her during her sickness. Otho Wylik, the servant who had had to return to Cleves, was given £20.

  She bequeathed to her brother a diamond and gold ring, his wife received a ruby one. Diamond rings were also gifted to her sister Amelia, the Duchess of Suffolk and the Countess of Arundel. Count von Waldeck also received a ruby ring despite their disagreement. But her best jewel was left to Queen Mary and her second best to the Princess Elizabeth. There were gifts for her executors, Nicholas Heath, the Earl of Arundel, Sir Edmund Peckham and Sir Richard Preston and all who served her.

  Anne even remembered those less fortunate with £4 being gifted to the poor of Richmond, Bletchingley, Hever and Dartford and £10 a piece to her alms-children for their education. Her final wish was that she was buried at the queen’s ‘will and pleasure’ in the Catholic faith. (See Appendix Two for Strickland’s version).

  Anne died aged 41 on 16 July and after being embalmed laid in state for nearly three weeks. The Imperial ambassador later reported he had ‘interrogated a widow who was in the service of the Duchess of Cleves till her death and was endowed by her. She told me that she had held the Duchess’s hand when she was expiring. Everybody has nothing but good to say of the Duchess’.4 Queen Mary wished her to be ‘honourably buried according to the degree of such an estate’.5 Her hearse travelled from Chelsea to Charing Cross from where the funeral procession left for Westminster Abbey.

  After the priests, clerks, and monks with the crosses, came Bishop Bonner, with the Abbot of Westminster, followed by Sir Edmund Peckham, Sir Richard Preston (two of Anne’s executors), the Lord Admiral, Lord Darcy, and numerous knights and esquires. Behind, there came the gentlemen of Anne’s household, and the chariot containing her bier, on each side of which rode four heralds with white silken flags, as an emblem that she had lived and died a virgin, and twelve banners, some of arms, some of white taffeta, richly wrought with gold forming th
e rear. At Charing Cross, the procession was met by Anne’s servants clad in mourning, and bearing an hundred lighted torches. At the Abbey door all the horsemen alighted, and the corpse, after Bishop Bonner had censed it, was carried in under a canopy of black velvet, and placed under the hearse. Dirge was then sung, and throughout the night, the bier, surrounded by burning tapers, was watched by the mourners.6

  The following day Anne was buried. The diarist Henry Machyn wrote:

  The iiij day of August was the masse of requiem for my lade prenses of Cleyff, and dowther to [William] duke of Cleyff; and ther my lord abbott of Westmynster mad a godly sermon as ever was mad, and [then] … the byshope of London song masse in ys myter; [and after] masse my lord byshope and my lord abbott mytered dyd [cense] the corsse; and afterward she was caried to her tomb, [where] she leys with a herse-cloth of gold, the wyche lyys [over her]; and ther alle her hed offesers brake ther stayffes, [and all] her hussears brake ther rodes, and all they cast them in-to her tombe; the wyche was covered her co[rps] with blake, and all the lordes and lades and knyghtes and gentyllmen and gentell-women dyd offer, and after masse agrett [dinner] at my lord (abbat’s); and my lade of Wynchester was the cheyff [mourner,] and my lord admeroll and my lord Darce whent of ether syde of my lade of Wynchester, and so they whent in order to dinner.7

  She was interred on the south side of the High Altar – the only one of Henry’s wives to be buried at the abbey. It seems as though her monument with carvings of her initials, a crown, lions’ heads and skull and crossed bones possibly started by Theodore Haveus of Cleves was never finished. A plain inscription on the back simply reads Anne of Cleves Queen of England. Born 1515. Died 1557.

  Thomas Becon’s Pomander of Prayer dedicated to Anne was reissued after her death (see Appendix Three). Anne’s brother William ordered services to be held in her memory in every church in Cleves. Anne, a gentle soul, who escaped the most tyrannical Tudor king was largely forgotten. However a woman pretending to be Henry’s fourth queen arrived at her nephew John Frederick’s court at Coburg asking for protection. She was entertained for eighteen months until they realised she was mad.

  Holinshed wrote that of Anne that she was ‘a lady of right commendable regard, courteous, gentle, a good housekeeper and very bountiful to her servants’.8 More than anything Anne was a strong woman and a survivor even though she sometimes saw herself as a stranger in a foreign land and she made a life for herself, a good life with friends and companions who loved her, despite being the unwanted wife of the King of England.

  Appendix One

  The Marriage Treaty

  The treaty, which is here set forth textually, declares and provides:—

  (1.) That a marriage has been concluded, by commissioners, between Henry VIII., king of England, &c., and lady Anne, sister of William duke of Juliers, &c., whose other sister, the lady Sibilla, John Frederic duke of Saxony, &c., has received in matrimony. (2.) That the duke of Juliers shall within two months, if he can obtain safe conduct, convey, at his own expense, the lady Anne his sister honourably to Calais. (3.) That there the King shall receive her, by his commissioners, and traduct her thence as soon as possible into his realm and there marry her publicly. (4) That if safe conduct cannot be obtained, which is very unlikely, the Duke shall send her, as soon as possible, to some sea-port and transport her thence to England with a suitable convoy of ships at his expense. (5.) That the Duke shall give with her a dote of 100,000 florins of gold, viz., 40,000 on the day of solemnisation of the marriage and the rest within a year after. (6.) That the King shall give the lady Anne, under his seal, a dower in lands worth yearly 20,000 golden florins of the Rhine, equal to 5,000 mks. sterling money of England, as long as she remains in England. And if, after the King’s death, she have no children surviving and would rather return to her own country, she shall have a pension of 15,000 florins, payable half-yearly, for life, and her own dress and jewels; and it shall be at the choice of the King’s heirs to pay the pension or redeem it with 150,000 florins. The sealed grant of this dower to be delivered to the Duke’s commissioner on the day of the marriage and a true copy of it to be sent to the Duke ten days before her traduction. (7.) If the Duke die without lawful issue, and his duchy go therefore to the lady Sibilla, wife of John Frederic duke of Saxony, according to their marriage contract, and they in turn die without lawful issue, the succession shall go to the lady Anne. In the event of the succession going as aforesaid to the duke of Saxony a sum of 160,000 florins shall be paid within four years to the two sisters, the ladies Anne and Amelia, or their heirs; or if the succession come as aforesaid to the king of England he shall pay the 160,000 florins to the lady Amelia and her heirs. (8.) If the succession go to Saxony as aforesaid, and either of the two other sisters die without children, her share shall accrue to the surviving sister or her children. (9.) If the succession go to Saxony, then the lady Anne shall have, besides her dowry, the castles of Burdericum in Cleves with 2,000 florins a year, Casterium in Juliers with 2,000, and Benradum in Berg with 1,000, for life. (10.) That the duke of Juliers shall keep the King informed by letter of his proceedings for the transportation of the lady Anne, so that the King may thereby time his preparations for her reception. (11.) That the King and the said dukes of Saxony and Cleves shall confirm this treaty by letters patent under their hands and seals to be mutually delivered within six weeks from the date of this present, viz., by the King to the duke of Cleves and by the dukes to the King.

  Appendix Two

  The Last Will and Testament of Anne of Cleves

  We, Anna, daughter of John, late duke of Cleves, and sister to the excellent prince William, now reigning duke of Cleves, Gulick (Juliers), and Barre, sick in body, but whole in mind and memory, thanks be to Almighty God, declare this to be our last will and testament: 1st, We give and bequeath our soul to the holy Trinity, and our body to be buried where it shall please God. 2dly, We most heartily pray our executors undernamed to be humble suitors for us and in our name, to the queen’s most excellent majesty, that our debts may be truly contented and paid to every one of our creditors, and that they will see the same justly answered for our discharge. Beseeching also the queen’s highness of her clemency to grant unto our executors the receipts of our land accustomed to be due at Michaelmas, towards the payment of our creditors. For that is not the moiety of our revenues, nor payable wholly at that time, and not able to answer the charge of our household, especially this year, the price of all cattle and other amt; (purchases) exceeding the old rate. 3dly, We earnestly require our said executors to be good lords and masters to all our poor servants, to whom we give and bequeath every one of them, being in our check-roll, as well to our officers as others, taking wages either from the queen’s highness or from us, from the current month of July, one whole year’s wages, also as much black cloth, at 13s. 4d. per yard, as will make them each a gown and hood, and to every one of our gentlemen waiters and gentlewomen accordingly. And to our yeomen, grooms, and children of our household, two yards each of black cloth, at 9s. the yard. Also to every one of the gentlewomen of our privy chamber, for their great pains taken with us, to Mrs. Wingfield, 100l; 20l. to Susan Broughton towards her marriage; to Dorothy Curzon, towards her marriage, 100l; to Mrs. Haymond, 20l. (To twelve other ladies, who seem in the like degree, she bequeath: various nuns, from 10l. to 16l. each.) To our laundress, Elizabeth Eliot, 10l, and to mother Lovell (this was the nurse of her sick room), for her attendance upon us in this time of this our sickness, 10l.

  Item, we give and bequeath to every one of our gentlemen daily attendant on us, over and beside our former bequests (viz. wages and black cloth) 10l, that is to say, to Thomas Blackgrove, 10l, to John Wymbushe, 10l (eight gentlemen are enumerated); likewise to our yeomen and grooms, 11s. a-piece, and to all the children of our house 10s a-piece. And we give to the duke of Cleves, our brother, a ring of gold with a fair diamond, and to our sister, the duchess of Cleves, his wife, a ring, having therein a great rock of ruby, the ring being bla
ck enamelled. Also we give to our sister, the lady Emely, a ring of gold, having thereon a fair pointed diamond. And to the lady Katharine, duchess of Suffolk, a ring of gold, having a fair table diamond, somewhat long, and to the countess of Arundel a ring of gold, having a fair table diamond, with an H. and I. of gold set under the stone. Moreover, we give and bequeath to the lord Puget, lord privy seal, a ring of gold, having therein a three-cornered diamond, and to our cousin, the lord Waldeck, a ring of gold, having therein a fair great hollow ruby. Moreover, our mind and will is, that our plate, jewels, and robes, be sold with other of our goods and chattels, towards the payment of our debts, funerals, and legacies. And we do further bequeath to Dr. Symonds, our phisicon, towards his great pains, labours, and travails, taken oft-times with us, 20l; and to Alarde, our surgeon and servant, 4l; and to our servant John Guligh, over and above his wages, 10l; and to every one of our alms-children, towards their education, 10l a-piece, to be delivered according to the discretion of our executors. Also we will and bequeath to the poor of Richmond, Bletchingly, Hever, and Dartford, 4l to each parish, to be paid to the churchwardens at the present, and to be laid out by the advice of our servants thereabouts dwelling. And to our chaplains, sir Otho Rampello, and to sir Denis Thoms, either of them to pray for us, 5l and a black gown. And to our poor servant James Powell, 10l, and to Elya Turpin, our old laundress, to pray for us, 4l, and to our late servant, Otho Willicke, 20l; and our will and pleasure is, that our servants, sir Otho Rampello, Arnold Ringlebury, John Guligh, John Solenbrough, Derrick Pasman, Arnold Holgins, and George Hagalas being our countrymen, and minding to depart of this realm of England, shall have, towards their expenses, every one 10l. And we bequeath to Thomas Perce, our cofferer, to Thomas Hawe, our clerk-comptroller, and to Michael Apsley, clerk of our kitchen, for their pains with us taken sundry ways, over and beside their formal wages, 10l each. And our will and pleasure is, that our said cofferer, who hath disbursed much for us, for the maintenance of our estate and household, should be truly paid by our executors, likewise all other of our servants that hath disbursed any money for us at any time, if they have not been paid. The residue of all our goods, plate jewels, robes, cattle, and debts, not given or bequeathed, after our funeral debts and legacies, we give and bequeath to the right honourable Nicholas Heathe, archbishop of York, and lord chancellor of England, Henry earl of Arundel, sir Edmund Peckman, and sir Richard Preston, knights, whom we ordain and make executors of this our last will and testament. And. our most dearest and entirely beloved sovereign lady, queen Mary, we earnestly desire to be our overseer of our said last will, with most humble request to see the same performed as shall to her highness seem best for the health of our soul: and in token of the special trust and affiance which we have in her grace, we do give and bequeath to her most excellent majesty, for a remembrance, our best jewel, beseeching her highness that our poor servants may enjoy such small gifts and grants as we have made unto them, in consideration of their long service done unto us, being appointed to wait on us at the first erection of our household by her majesty’s late father, of most famous memory, king Henry VIII., for that his said majesty said then unto us, ‘that he would account our servants his own, and their service done to us as if done to himself.’ Therefore We beseech the queen’s majesty so to accept them in this time of their extreme need. Moreover, we give and bequeath to the lady Elizabeth’s grace [afterwards queen Elizabeth] my second best jewel, with our hearty request to accept and take into her service one of our poor maids, named Dorothy Curzon. And we do likewise give and bequeath unto every one of our executors before named, towards their pains, viz. to the lord chancellor’s grace, a fair bowl of gold with a cover; to the earl of Arundel, a maudlin standing cup of gold with a cover; to sir Edmund Peckham, a jug of gold with a cover, or else a crystal glass garnished with gold and set with stones; to sir Richard Preston, our best gilt bowl with a cover, or else that piece of gold plate which sir Edmund leaveth (if it be his pleasure), most heartily beseeching them to pray for us, and to see our body buried according to the queen’s will and pleasure; and that we may have the suffrages of the holy church according to the catholic faith, wherein we end our life in this transitory world. These being witnesses, Thomas Perce, our cofferer, Thomas Hawe, our comptroller, John Symonds, doctor in physio, &c.; also Dorothy Wingfield, widow, Susan Boughton, Dorothy Curzon, jantlewomen of our privy-chamber (bed chamber), with many others; and by me, Dionysius Thomow, chaplain and confessor to the same most noble lady Anna of Cleves.