The Painter Who Was Ordered To Lie About Anne Of Cleves

History pinned the lie on the painter. Not one paper from his lifetime says he told it. Hans Holbein was sent to Cleves in 1539 to settle two sisters with a brush. The English envoy wrote that he had “expressed their images very lively” — lifelike. That is the only surviving verdict from anyone on the job. Henry rode to Rochester in disguise on New Year’s Day 1540, expecting a romance from a book, and left displeased. He blamed the reports that had been sold to him. Thomas Cromwell, who had been the loudest voice selling them, knelt on Tower Hill on 28 July. Holbein kept his title, his £30 salary, and his head. The nickname “Flanders mare” first appears in print in 1679. Anne was not from Flanders. She outlived Henry. The painter who fixed the king’s face has no known grave. This is the real story of the Cleves portrait — and of a deception history needed a painter for, because the minister was already dead. If you love the private dispatches behind Tudor faces and the artists palaces blamed when a marriage failed, subscribe for more.