After their father’s death, Anna’s brother Wilhelm becomes Duke of Kleve and forges a plan to marry his sister to King Henry VIII of England, who has just lost his third wife in childbirth. To do so, Anna must leave her past secrets behind in Kleve. She unwillingly becomes the Protestant hope of the reformists of the English court, led by Cromwell. But Anna isn’t a protestant and then it turns out that the king doesn’t like her and isn’t able to consummate the marriage.
Anna Of Kleve – in English known as Anne Of Cleves – is Henry’s most unknown wife and the real survivor of this six wives. In ‘The queen of secrets‘ we follow her from her childhood in Kleve to her death. I liked the beginning because I know very little about Anna’s family. But there is a big but. The story immediately starts with a big freedom by the author that defines the whole book. Spoiler: I don’t believe Anna had already given birth to a child before she went to England. There is just really too little historical evidence for that. So it’s a big freedom and it makes for a novel that feels like fiction rather than an historical interpretation in a fictionalized novel.
Once in England, I found it interesting to read how Henry and Anna interact. Anna’s insecurity at court felt real. Weir does make some good choices here and also Kathryn Howard comes across as very human so I am already looking forward to reading her story in the next book.
I think religion could have been a bigger topic. And I also found everything around Cromwell a bit underexposed – he lost his head and this marriage was one of the blows that did that. I also didn’t expect Weir to portray Anna as anti-protestant (I don’t think we know anything about her private beliefs for sure?). But that does explain her friendly relationship with Mary in this novel. Although it gets more bitter near the end.
After the divorce, we follow Anna who travels to her various properties as ‘The king’s sister’, dealing with household matters and arguing about trees – no joke 😅. It felt repetitive. At the same time, she follows from a distance everything that happens at court. And a lot happened, but Anna is not part of it.
After Henry’s death, the book drags on with more discussions about trees and about the politics in Kleve. Not much really happens and for me these chapters contributed little to the story. I did find the issue surrounding the rumours of a pregnancy interesting as it really did happen. But again, I don’t believe Weir’s version. It feels so far-fetched. The ending is quite brutal for Anna, we don’t know which sickness took her and how she died, but Weir’s handles it believably.
So far, The queen of secrets is for me the weakest part of the series. But one of the few books that finally tries to give Anna a story of her own. And for that reason I did enjoy reading it.
What’s your favourite part in this series?
In Another Era 
I always think Anne of Cleves got the best deal. She was treated as if she were Henry’s sister, so she had property, servants, a high position at court, etc, but without having to put up with Henry’s moods and the fear that he or his advisors would turn on her.
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I agree, although after Henry’s death she wasn’t always treated with much respect.
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