Henry believed he needed to form a political alliance with her brother, William, a leader of the Protestants of Western Germany, to strengthen his position against potential attacks from Catholic France and the Holy Roman Empire.

He decided to side with the Schmalkaldic League and opposed Emperor Charles V. After John's death, Anne's brother William became Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, bearing the promising epithet "The Rich".

In 1526, her elder sister Sibylle was married to John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, head of the Protestant Confederation of Germany and considered the "Champion of the Reformation."

[8] Her father's ongoing dispute over the Duchy of Guelders with Charles V made the family suitable allies for England's King Henry VIII in the wake of the Truce of Nice.

Anne was described by French ambassador Charles de Marillac as tall and slim, "of medium beauty, and of very assured and resolute countenance.

In the words of the chronicler Edward Hall, "Her hair hanging down, which was fair, yellow and long ... she was apparelled after the English fashion, with a French hood, which so set forth her beauty and good visage, that every creature rejoiced to behold her.

Henry and Anne then met officially on 3 January on Blackheath outside the gates of Greenwich Park, where a grand reception was laid out.

[20] He went even further to tell others in his court that if "it were not that she had come so far into my realm, and the great preparations and state that my people have made for her, and for fear of making a ruffle in the world and of driving her brother into the arms of the Emperor and the French King, I would not now marry her.

"[21][b] Cromwell received some blame for the Holbein portrait, which Henry believed had not been an accurate representation of Anne, and for some of the exaggerated reports of her beauty.

[23] Henry urged Cromwell to find a legal way to avoid the marriage but, by this point, doing so was impossible without endangering the vital alliance with the Germans.

[24] Despite Henry's very vocal misgivings, the two were married on 6 January 1540 at the royal Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.

[25] According to Edward Hall, she wore a "gowne of ryche cloth of gold set full of large flowers of great and Orient pearl, made after the Duche fassion rownde".

[28] Immediately after arriving in England, Anne conformed to the Catholic form of worship which Henry had retained after his break with Rome.

"[31] Anne was commanded to leave the Court on 24 June, and on 6 July she was informed of her husband's decision to reconsider the marriage.

[36] As former queen, she received a generous settlement, including Richmond Palace, and Hever Castle, home of Henry's former in-laws, the Boleyns.

She was invited to court often and, out of gratitude for her not contesting the annulment, Henry decreed that she would be given precedence over all women in England save his own wife and daughters.

"[39] In March 1547, Edward VI's Privy Council asked her to move out of Bletchingley Palace, her usual residence, to Penshurst Place to make way for Thomas Cawarden, Master of Revels.

[42] On 28 September 1553, when Mary left St James's Palace for Whitehall, she was accompanied by her sister Elizabeth and Anne of Cleves.

Despite occasional feelings of homesickness, Anne was generally content in England and was described by Raphael Holinshed as "a ladie of right commendable regards, courteous, gentle, a good housekeeper and verie bountifull to her servants.

[57] She was buried in Westminster Abbey, on 3 August,[59] in what has been described as a "somewhat hard-to-find tomb" on the opposite side of Edward the Confessor's shrine and slightly above eye level for a person of average height.

Anne's epitaph in Westminster Abbey, which is in English, reads simply:[60] She was the last of Henry VIII's wives to die.