27 December – Anne of Cleves arrives in England

On this day in Tudor history, 27th December 1539, Anne of Cleves landed at Deal in Kent in preparation for her forthcoming marriage to King Henry VIII. Anne of Cleves would be King Henry VIII's fourth wife.

Find out more about her journey, the background to it, and what happened next, in today's talk.

Also on this day in history:

• 1530 – Death of Thomas Lupset, clergyman and humanist scholar, at Bisham from tuberculosis. He was buried in St Alfege Church, Cripplegate. Lupset joined the household of John Colet in his youth and was taught by William Lilye before attending Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he worked with Erasmus on the “New Testament”. Lupset tutored Cardinal Wolsey's son, Thomas Wynter, and was friends with Thomas More, Reginald Pole and John Leland. His works included “Exhortacion to Young Men”, “A Treatise of Charitie” and “Dieyng Well”.
• 1583 – Death of Katherine Killigrew (née Cooke), scholar and puritan, after giving birth to a stillborn child. She was buried at St Thomas the Apostle Church in London. Katherine was the daughter of scholar and royal tutor Sir Anthony Cooke, and the wife of diplomat Sir Henry Killigrew. She was known for her ability at writing poetry and her knowledge of languages, including Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
• 1603 – Death of Thomas Cartwright, theologian, Puritan and Master of the Earl of Leicester's Hospital in Warwick. He spent his last days in Warwick and was buried there. Cartwright is known for the struggle between him and John Whitgift, the man who deprived Cartwright of his position as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. Cartwright supported the attack on the Elizabethan church in the form of “An Admonition to the Parliament” by preachers John Field and Thomas Wilcox. Whitgift answered with “Answere to a Certan Libel Intituled, ‘An Admonition’”, Cartwright replied with “Replye”, Whitgift answered again with “The Defense of the Aunswere to the ‘Admonition’, Against the ‘Replie’” and Cartwright responded with “The Second Replie” and “The Rest of the Second Replie”.
• 1615 – Death of John Fenn, Roman Catholic priest and translator. He was buried in the cloister of St Monica's English Augustinian monastery in Louvain, where he was chaplain. Fenn had settled in Louvain while in exile during Elizabeth I's reign. His works included an English translation of Bishop Osorius's treatise against Walter Haddon: “A Learned and Very Eloquent Treatie, Written in Latin”, translations of works by John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and the Council of Trent's catechism, and Concertatio ecclesiae catholicae in Anglia, which he co-edited with John Gibbons, a Jesuit.

Transcript:

On 27th December 1539, at 5pm, Anne of Cleves landed at Deal in Kent in preparation for her forthcoming marriage to King Henry VIII. Anne was to be the king’s fourth wife and their marriage had been agreed by a treaty in September 1539. Henry had never laid eyes on Anne but instead, had commissioned his court artist, Hans Holbein, to paint her. The portrait was described as a good likeness of Anne and Henry was happy to commit to the marriage, which would see England forming an alliance with the Schmalkaldic League.

Anne had arrived at Calais, having travelled from Düsseldorf, on 11th December 1539 “at the head of a glittering retinue comprising 263 attendants with 228 horses.” Strong winds had delayed her departure from Calais, but Anne and her party had finally left the port on the morning of 27th December.

When Anne of Cleves landed at Deal at 5pm on 27th December, she was met by Sir Thomas Cheyne and taken to Deal Castle to rest after her long journey. There, she was visited by the Duke of Suffolk and his wife, Catherine Willoughby, the Bishop of Chichester and various knights and ladies. She was informed that she would be meeting the King, her future husband, at Greenwich Palace at a formal reception in a few days time, and on New Year’s Eve, she travelled on to Rochester, where she was to rest before travelling on to Greenwich.

However, Henry VIII was excited about meeting his bride-to-be, and so decided to disguise himself and travel to Rochester to surprise her. Tradition said that the love between them would be so strong that Anne would see through his disguise and recognise her future husband, however, as historian Elizabeth Norton points out, Henry should have learned from the disastrous meeting between his great-uncle, Henry VI, and his bride, Margaret of Anjou! The first meeting between Henry and Anne just did not go to plan and I will tell you more about it on 1st January.