Anne of Cleves House

Anne of Cleves (1515-1557) was born to a noble family in Düsseldorf, then in the Kingdom of Germany.

After the death of his third wife, Jane Seymour, King of England, King Henry VIII wanted to form a political alliance with Anne of Cleves’s brother, a leader of the Protestants in western Germany. He sent an artist to portray Anne and her sister, and by that picture, the 49 years old King Henry destined 24 years old Anne to be his wife.

On her way to England, Anne and the king met. During that meeting, she was unaware she was meeting the king and future husband and barely paid attention to him; he, on the other hand, was disappointed with her looks and lack of sophistication. Yet, they got married after five days but never consummated their marriage.

Six months later, she was ordered to leave and give her agreement to an annulment.

On 12 July 1540, only seven months after their wedding, Anne’s marriage to the king was annulled on the grounds of non-consummation. As part of the annulment settlement, Anne received a generous income, three estates, including the family home of the king’s second wife Anne Boleyn, and a property in East Sussex, which became known as Anne of Cleves House, though she never lived there.

In the following years, Anne became close friends with the king; she was a frequent visitor to his court and maintained a good relationship with his two daughters and future queens, Mary and Elizabeth. When Mary succeeded the throne, Anne was accused of plotting with Elizabeth to replace her and make England Protestant again. She was never invited to the court again.

Anne died a few years later, at the age of 41.

Although Anne of Cleves never lived in the house named after her, the 16th-century timber-framed structure preserves Tudor’s way of life. The architect Walter Godfrey restored the house as a museum, and the Sussex Archaeological Society operates it.

On display are authentically furnished rooms, including a Tudor kitchen, parlor, a bedroom with four poster beds, a collection of domestic artifacts, and a selection of royal clothes that visitors may try on. The museum also exhibits Wealden iron-making exhibition, which includes a hammer found in Etchingham, a cannon, and several iron firebacks.

Do not miss a visit to the garden, home to shrubs, herbs, and fruit trees, which were planted according to traditional Tudor planting schemes.

Also in Lewes are Virginia Woolf’s Monk’s House, Lewes Castle & Barbican House Museum, the 1500’s Grange gardens, and the Glyndebourne Opera house.

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