What if Henry VIII had married Amalia of Cleves?

After reading more into Anne of Cleves/Henry VIII, it makes me wonder what would've happened if Henry married Amalia of Cleves. Well what I suspect that it would've been the same as to what happened with Anne. He meets her she doesn't flirt back, he doesn't like her and then he wants to divorce her. Or maybe it goes a different way - I don't know, but what do you guys think?
 
Is Amalia of Cleves attractive? Henry VIII was known to complain bitterly that Anne looked like a horse in addition to other faults. At any rate, the debacle is what initiated the downfall of his chief minister Thomas Cromwell who arranged the marriage. So removing that would likely have repercussions.
 
Henry didn't like Anne cause he came a courting in disguise when she arrived and she didn't know it was him, so rebuffed him. That put him in a bad frame of mind already about her IIRC. @desmirelle might know more.

I've also heard that Holbein painted Anna as HE saw her, rather than she was - hence the discrepancy between the portrait and her actual appearance. Not to mention that by the time she'd arrived, Henry had gone off the marriage completely (I think the Franco-Habsburg rapprochement was over and both were willing to play with Henry again).
 
Ladies in the court of Cleves were not schooled in the romantic literature of their contemporaries. Hence the huge headdresses that made it hard for Henry's men to see their faces. "What, would you see them naked?" was supposedly Anna's brother's reply to their complaint of this. It was an entirely different upbringing than Katherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn, the idea of hot Saturday night date wasn't playing coy with courtiers, it was embroidering altar cloths. The women weren't schooled in music - that was considered 'light' (read: tease) behavior. This was why Anna did not respond the way Katherine of Aragon always had to his masquerades and Boleyn after her - both of these women knew the rules of courtly love. Henry didn't think she was ugly until after he was humiliated (in his mind) by her not recognizing him. It had to be her fault, I mean, she just arrived in the country, didn't speak the language and was watching the bull-baiting when this huge man in a cape and sloppy hat shows up and starts flirting with her - she was supposed to (in courtly love tradition) recognize him at once and swoon from his masculine presence. Instead, she ignored him as best she could, because she was supposed to be pure and chaste and left alone by strangers (she was supposed to be protected from highwaymen - which is what, I suppose, she thought the disguised Henry was).

The whole charade and failure of things was Henry's fault. Period. He allowed for no viewpoint except his own. He blamed Cromwell, but Cromwell didn't force him to play-act the secret lover and expect a woman raised stricter than a nun to react with passion. I'm sure the same thing would have happened with Amalia - she was raised in the same court of thought as her sister.
 
On the count of three everybody say "aw shame" :p

Poor Henry (not). He just CAN'T get a break (not).

And don't forget Wilhelm telling the ambassadors that his palace was not a cathouse and his sisters were not whores.

Which means that the PoD is gonna have to be that either, Henry doesn't come a-wooing à la OTL OR somebody warns Amalia/Anna that he's coming and she reacts appropriately. She'd probably NOT understand what the Hell's going on, but if she KNOWS its Henry in disguise, will it help?
 
On the count of three everybody say "aw shame" :p

Poor Henry (not). He just CAN'T get a break (not).

And don't forget Wilhelm telling the ambassadors that his palace was not a cathouse and his sisters were not whores.

Which means that the PoD is gonna have to be that either, Henry doesn't come a-wooing à la OTL OR somebody warns Amalia/Anna that he's coming and she reacts appropriately. She'd probably NOT understand what the Hell's going on, but if she KNOWS its Henry in disguise, will it help?
Or maybe not, depending on who's going to tell her what. Don't forget that Henry's match with the House of Cleves was a pet project of Thomas Cromwell. He was despised by many of Henry VIII's aristocratic courtiers for his rise despite his low birth and had in his struggle for power made a lot of important enemies who were highly eager to see him fall from royal grace. Maybe someone tells her that the king will come in disguise to test her chastity.
 
Or maybe not, depending on who's going to tell her what. Don't forget that Henry's match with the House of Cleves was a pet project of Thomas Cromwell. He was despised by many of Henry VIII's aristocratic courtiers for his rise despite his low birth and had in his struggle for power made a lot of important enemies who were highly eager to see him fall from royal grace. Maybe someone tells her that the king will come in disguise to test her chastity.

Henry VIII put Cromwell to the task of finding him a wife who wasn't Roman Catholic. Cromwell might have been enthusiastic and/or happy about the idea, but he couldn't do anything without Henry's support. You've pointed out the reason why. But it's actually in the interest of NO ONE in England to have the marriage fail - the King of England does need a second son, most of the courtiers agreed with that (even though they didn't like Cromwell). It would make more sense for the King to send a strapping young man to test her chastity and for the King to observe. If the King does it, all she has to say is "I knew it was you" and she's passed the courtly love test. (Which someone should have done, but for the haste in which H8 pulled the stunt.)

But let's take Kellen's premise: Cromwell hears of Henry's plan and sends a messenger to Anne and the Englishmen/women with her. That's important. Just telling Anne the King is coming in disguise isn't enough, she also has to be told her "part" in the drama. Her ladies won't know any better than she what to do. The English will. Henry is not humiliated; Anne passes the test (even though she might think Henry childish for play-acting). She'll be queen (or, if you like, Amalia will be queen - she'd have to have been warned as well) and they manage the spare William (for her brother). Catherine Howard will still be around, but if Henry sleeps with whichever Cleves bride he gets, she's not going to be queen. No grounds and like Katherine of Aragon, Anne (or Amalia) of Cleves has international consequences quite different than just dumping one English girl for another. (Anne Boleyn for Jane Seymour.....)
 
Amalia gets a rather intense, free form prog rock track by Rick Wakeman named after her instead of her sister?
 
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