Anne of Cleves

Still on the subject of royalty. Anne (not of Cleves) commenting yesterday on my blog raised the interesting question of whether the police would arrest members of the Royal Family should they continue to hunt. I agree that they would have no hesitation. But that in itself points to another question, would the Royals flaunt the law deliberately ?
There was a famous case many years ago when Princess Anne was caught speeding, and fined. If they flaunted the hunting ban however, I feel this would be a very much bolder statement and would possibly call into question their place in a modern state. It would also be contrary to the image we have of Prince Charles as a caring, quite green person. I would be surprised to learn that he rode to hounds at all, polo seems much more his cup of tea.

In the past, obviously, royalty have played a much bigger role in influencing public opinion. The wives of Henry the eighth interest me because individually they had very little power, but the result of their lives looked at together had quite an impact - in my opinion.

We have been watching the documentary series 'The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth' and it has been an interesting programme, although lacking in sufficient detail to really do the women justice.
From the TV series it might be difficult to see how Anne of Cleves was of any interest at all - though this may be something that will be mentioned further in the future.

I believe that Queen Elizabeth the first was the most important monarch that England ever had. She presided over a time of renaissance, of discovery and learning, of art, literature and poetry, a time of prosperity. She laid the groundwork for a truly united Britain. Most importantly, she consolidated the work of her father in allowing the Protestant church to flourish. I believe this was important because the reforms which were apparent in Europe allowed the Church to move forward in its thinking, the straitjacket of dogma to be loosened and in so doing, science was finally allowed to breathe and expand.

The first wife of Henry the eighth, Katherine of Aragon, unwittingly sowed the seeds. In being so ... I think I can only say reasonably pig-headed, she forced the strong-willed Henry to be somewhat alienated from the catholic church. By continuing this she created further tension, the Vatican did not want to deal with Henry's stupidity but they didn't want to turn him down flat either, so they prevaricated and Henry was obliged to accept religious counsel from within England and by acting on it, elevate it to the same level as had it come from Rome.

Anne Boleyn was important of course because she was the cause of Henry's estrangement from Katherine and because she was Elizabeth's mother, but she was also a reformist thinker. She may have further influenced Henry's thinking in the early days of their marriage, but she certainly influenced the thinking of her own daughter.

Jane Seymour was a catholic, but she angered Henry, almost to the point of losing her own head, by suggesting that his daughter Mary should be brought back into the fold, be re-legitimised. This served to strenghten the rift between Henry and Rome. I think that even this tension was also important because along with Jane's own son, the three chidren although of different faiths, were close. Mary ultimately was not a tolerant monarch, but Elizabeth was far more so.

When Jane died shortly after childbirth and Henry didn't have anyone else already lined up, he went searching abroad. A certain artistic licence on the part of Holbein brought him Anne of Cleves from Germany. Sadly, it seems possible that the marriage was never consummated because of Henry's revulsion towards his new wife. Anne was pragmatic and accepted the divorce that was thrust upon her, learning from the mistakes of Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Her celibacy however, which she didn't seem too peturbed by, meant that she had no children of her own. She did have a need to nurture though, and she was pleased to have Elizabeth spend a lot of time with her. Being a protestant herself and a very intelligent woman, like Elizabeth, the two women became intellectually close. Anne of Cleves formed Elizabeth's thinking in a way that probably Anne Boleyn herself would have approved of.

I would argue that all of these women, used and disposed of by Henry, were important in shaping the future at a time when the monarch led the country.