# Henry marries Anne of Cleves on 6 January 1540 as a completed diplomatic Protestant-alliance ceremony Date: 1540 ## The fact Britannica and ODNB print 6 January 1540 as the Greenwich marriage to Anne of Cleves, a completed diplomatic match in the Schmalkaldic neighbourhood. July annulment and Cromwell’s death are other days, not twins of this rite. It is one event. ## Context The match was rapidly voided. Anne’s later English household is not invented as a welfare series. [Henry VIII](/people/henry-viii)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death. Reign 1509–1547. Statutes are parliamentary instruments with royal assent: Cromwell, bishops, judges, and unnamed officers share the file. Later legislation.gov.uk and TNA pages are carriers, not autographs. Complex contribution is required. Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file. ## Evidence and sources Britannica and ODNB independently describe the January 1540 marriage. Official or archival record: Britannica — Henry VIII (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England; Encyclopaedia Britannica). ## Significance A diplomatic royal marriage is a cohesion-and-alliance path of medium confidence given its brief life. It is not a lasting Protestant league. ## What is established and what is not Established: 6 January 1540 ceremony. Not established: that the marriage uniquely altered German politics. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Henry VIII. They are not a public rating. The driver `social-cohesion` is attached because the mechanism named in Significance follows from this instrument, not because a standing list of welfare headings needed another tick. Henry VIII did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct. Do not merge with 28 July 1540. Keep the carrier date of later English distinct from the received historical year stored in the date field. Do not read a later English edition as a recovered autograph of Henry VIII. ## People - Henry VIII: https://factrail.ai/people/henry-viii ## Drivers - Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion ## Sources - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England - https://www.oxforddnb.com/ ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/h8-cleves-marriage-1540