In the old town of Lewes, in Sussex, this sixteenth-century timber-framed house bears the name of a queen who never set foot in it. Its history sums up, with a touch of irony, the fate of Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's fourth wife, gently repudiated, compensated in properties — including this one.
A Wealden house of Sussex
The building is a fine sixteenth-century 'Wealden hall house': this type of timber-framed house, proper to the Weald of Kent and Sussex, is arranged around a central open hall, flanked by two slightly jettied wings. It is a precious witness of the domestic architecture of the late Middle Ages and the English Renaissance — not a palace, but the comfortable home of a well-off family. Today a museum of the Sussex Archaeological Society, it presents a chamber and kitchen furnished in the old manner, and a remarkable collection on the iron metallurgy of the Weald, a major industry of the region in Tudor times.
The dower of a repudiated queen
In 1541, the house was granted to Anne of Cleves as part of the financial settlement of the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII. The king, disappointed by this German wife from their first meeting, had had the union annulled after a few months; but, unlike others, Anne accepted the divorce without resisting and was generously endowed — treated as the 'king's sister', with several properties by way of income. The house at Lewes was one of them: an income holding, never lived in by its royal owner. To see: the period-furnished chamber and kitchen, the collection on Wealden iron (forge machinery, fireback plates, cannon-boring equipment).
Did you know?
Of Henry VIII's six wives, Anne of Cleves was perhaps the shrewdest: by accepting without drama the annulment of her marriage, she escaped the scaffold, won the title of the king's 'beloved sister' and a fortune in properties — including this house at Lewes, which she never visited. To survive Henry VIII was, for a queen, a success in itself.
Notes
Anne of Cleves House lies on Southover High Street, Lewes, East Sussex; a museum run by the Sussex Archaeological Society (Sussex Past). Seasonal hours to check.
Quiz
- What type of house is Anne of Cleves House?
- A sixteenth-century 'Wealden' timber-framed house
- A Norman keep
- A Roman villa
- How did Anne of Cleves receive this house?
- In the settlement of her marriage annulment (1541)
- As a marriage dowry
- By inheritance from her mother
- Did Anne stay here?
- No, never
- Yes, until her death
- Yes, every summer