Anne of Cleves: Henry's Luckiest Wife

Gallus Girls and Wayward Women

We go back once again to Tudor times to look at the life of Henry VIII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. She has gone down in history (unfairly) as the ugly fat dim one, the one Henry was so repelled by, he couldn't consummate the marriage. Anne was Henry’s wife for just six months, making her the shortest reigning of all his queens and has subsequently been dismissed as little more than a hiccup in the history of England’s most-married monarch.However - there is far more to this story than the frankly humiliating spin that has been doing the rounds since 1540. Anne may not have been to Henry's liking, but how she responded to being rejected by him proves that she was nothing like the hapless victim of legend.

Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.