Henry VIII’s Painter Hid Symbols In His Art, And One May Identify The King’s Fourth Wife

The guy responsible? You may have heard of him: a certain Hans Holbein. He’s widely considered to be one of history’s most accomplished portraitists. Henry VIII noticed that talent, too, and so he hired the German to be his court painter.

Holbein was obviously tasked with painting a portrait of the king himself. But aside from that, he was also asked to work on portraits of people close to the king. And it was one of these pieces – from 1540 – that captured Moyle’s professional attention centuries later.

Moyle is aware of Holbein’s unique techniques, so she knows that his work often says more than you’d see at a glance. In other words, his paintings sometimes contain hidden messages or signs. Everything he created was meticulous, and no detail was incidental. Yep, it all mattered and told a story.

With that in mind, Moyle couldn’t help but notice something about Holbein’s work from 1540. On the surface, the portrait depicts one of Henry’s wives, but the expert got the impression that there was more to the piece. So, she started to investigate. And what she found totally defies traditional wisdom.

Holbein had actually come from an artistic family. In fact, it was his father who had taught him to paint. And the German spent much of his adult life traveling around Europe for work. Eventually, that brought him into contact with a king.

And if you’ve seen any of Holbein’s most famous artworks, they’ll likely have been produced when he was living in England. He settled there permanently in 1532 and rose to become one of the country’s most prominent artists. Then he got his most important job yet.

Yep, at some point, Holbein became the official painter of the royal court. The record on precisely when this happened is a little patchy, but it’s thought to have occurred around 1536 or maybe a little earlier. In any case, that brought him into the realm of Henry VIII – sometimes a dangerous place to be.

Yes, we’re talking about that Henry VIII – the one with six wives and a bit of a bloodlust. Across 37 years, he sat on the English throne and had a profound and long-lasting impact on the country. It’s his personal life we most remember him for, though. And there’s a hint at this contained within the Holbein painting.

Henry was crowned king while he was only 17. Then, just over a month later, he tied the knot with Catherine of Aragon – the first of many wives to come. With her, the king had three boys and three girls, but only Mary would survive into adulthood. This spelled doom for Catherine.

Henry was frustrated that Catherine hadn’t given him a surviving heir, so his attention turned elsewhere. He sought permission from the Pope to divorce Catherine, but his request was denied. Ignoring the Catholic Church’s stance, Henry divorced her anyway and went on to found the Church of England. He then married his second wife Anne Boleyn in 1533. Yes, Holbein was coming into the middle of this right royal mess...

When Henry’s marriage failed to bring him a male heir, though, he tried to break it off. And yet again, it was curtains for his wife. He accused Anne of adultery and other crimes and received an annulment. These accusations against his wife were probably made up, but Anne was beheaded nonetheless.

Henry moved on pretty quickly, tying the knot for the third time mere days later. This latest marriage was to Jane Seymour, who actually did give birth to a male heir. Jane was the mother of the future king Edward VI, but she passed away weeks after the birth of her child. That tragedy may have left Henry shaken, but it’s not Jane who seems to be featured in that Holbein portrait.

Henry didn’t marry again for a couple of years after Jane’s death, but he was eventually advised to seek another wife. For political reasons, the king was pushed to tie the knot with one of two sisters from the German aristocracy. Then, after the royal was shown paintings of each woman, he chose to marry Anne of Cleves. The only issue? When the two finally met, the king angrily claimed that Anne was less attractive than in her portrait. Their marriage was annulled after just a few days – but it wouldn’t be the end of the connection between Henry and Anne.

Henry went on regardless, wedding a then-19-year-old Catherine Howard. But like Anne Boleyn before her, Catherine met a gruesome end after the marriage. The English monarch also accused her of adultery, and she was beheaded in 1542. Turns out Henry was a very hard man to please!

Finally, in 1543, Henry married the woman who would turn out to be the last of his six wives. Catherine Parr was arguably the most influential of all the king’s spouses, with some historians claiming that she altered the very culture of English royalty. She helped to repair broken relationships within the Tudor court and supported her husband during his war against France. It was a happy ending of a sort.

Henry passed away four years after his and Catherine’s wedding, and Catherine herself died a year after that. But although Henry’s turbulent reign as king came to its natural end, the man – and his six wives – still intrigue us today. He certainly intrigued Franny Moyle, anyway.

And Henry may have intrigued Holbein, too. As the official portraitist to the king, he created plenty of miniature versions of him in paint. Yep, small portraits were very popular during Henry and Holbein’s era. But why, exactly?

Well, these tiny works of art were small enough for people to carry around. This was an important feature at the time – particularly among members of the aristocracy, who were prone to having dramatic trysts and relationships. And thanks to Franny Moyle, one particular portrait miniature has captured historians’ attention.

The piece in question was created by Holbein back in 1540, and it’s a treasured work from one of history’s best portrait painters. And for a long time, we assumed that the miniature was presumed to depict Henry’s fifth wife Catherine Howard. Now, though, Moyle has put forward another theory.

Moyle argues that the woman depicted isn’t Catherine at all, but rather Henry’s fourth wife Anne of Cleves. It’s a gripping hypothesis for art historians. And the way Moyle came to this conclusion is even more interesting.

Holbein has a reputation for including hidden signs and symbols in his work. And while the untrained eye won’t spot them, they’re very revealing to an expert like Moyle. So, what was it about this piece from 1540 that jumped out at the art historian?

Well, the telling detail wasn’t actually a feature of the painting itself. Instead, it was all about the manner in which the work was displayed. Basically, the miniature was mounted to a playing card. And given Holbein’s reputation, Moyle couldn’t ignore the potential significance of this.

After all, another of Holbein’s portrait miniatures was also mounted on a playing card – one showing the ace of spades. This work depicted Thomas Cromwell, who was an important figure within Henry VIII’s court. And he had a reputation for speaking in blunt, plain terms. You could say that he was the type to “call a spade a spade,” as the famous expression goes.

Given Holbein’s love for a visual pun, then, it seems no accident that he decided to mount his depiction of Cromwell onto an ace of spades card. And Moyle has argued that the artist did something similar for the 1540 miniature once thought to depict Catherine Howard.

The 1540 piece was mounted to a card bearing the four of diamonds. And Moyle sees this as significant. Based on what she knows about Holbein, she thinks that the artist chose this specific card because his subject was Henry VIII’s fourth wife. She, of course, was Anne of Cleves – not Catherine Howard. But do we know this for sure?

Both Catherine and Anne married Henry in 1540 – the very year that this miniature was created by Holbein. That makes the two women equally as likely to be depicted in the artwork. And there are other details in the painting that make it difficult to decipher between the two ladies. That jewelry could belong to either one of them.

On the surface, the pendant in the artwork looks like something once owned by Jane Seymour – the third of Henry’s wives. But in May 2021 Moyle told The Observer, “When Henry got rid of one wife, he was in the habit of handing down their belongings to their successors.” Again, this could mean the woman in the miniature is either Catherine or Anne. So, how can Moyle be so sure that it’s Anne?

Well, there are details in the painting that support Moyle’s theory. For one thing, the woman in the miniature doesn’t appear to be terribly young. Catherine was still a teenager when she tied the knot with Henry, while Anne was an adult well into her twenties.

But perhaps Moyle’s most convincing argument comes from looking at another one of Holbein’s paintings. In 1539 he produced a portrait that unquestionably depicted Anne of Cleves, and Moyle thinks this depicts the very same person in the miniature. As she remarked to The Observer, “They’re the same woman. She has this soporific expression in both paintings.”

When Holbein captured Anne’s likeness for the original piece, the artist depicted his subject wearing clothes from Germany. Henry didn’t like this style, though, and generally found Anne to be unattractive. One person close to the king is supposed to have said, “He was not pleased with her in that German dress.”

So, Moyle believes that Anne would have wanted a new portrait to be produced. In this fresh artwork, she would dress in clothes that were more acceptable to English sensibilities at the time. Henry may then find her more attractive when he looked at the miniature and saw her wearing something more to his taste.

Moyle explained to The Observer, “So, I think there’s a good reason why, in early 1540 [Anne] – or Thomas Cromwell, perhaps, who was very pro the marriage – might suggest Holbein paint her again so that, in the little miniature that Henry had in his pocket, he could see a version of Anne that was more appealing.”

As Moyle understands it, either Anne or somebody else with an interest in her marriage tried to charm Henry. The thinking behind such a move, presumably, was to convince the king that the marriage was worthwhile. But they failed, as he was soon embarking on his next union with Catherine Howard.

If Moyle’s theory about the portrait miniature is right, though, why did people think it was Catherine Howard for so long? Well, one potential reason for the misunderstanding could be that nobody actually knows what Catherine looked like. No official portraits of her have ever conclusively been found.

Catherine was only married to Henry for a short period of time, so maybe she never had the opportunity to pose for a portrait. On the other hand, a picture may have once existed – only to be destroyed after Henry had Catherine executed.

The whole saga is just another messy, confusing footnote in the story of Henry and his royal court. It seems that everyone close to him was affected by the king’s conduct! Even Holbein didn’t escape without a little trouble of his own.

In a conversation with the Radio Times, Moyle argued that Holbein fell out of favor with Henry after the furor surrounding Anne’s initial portrait. Eventually, though, he managed to get back into the king’s good books. And for that, the artist could apparently thank his extraordinary talent.

Moyle said, “It takes about a year for his work to pick up again after that incident... Holbein gets off through a mixture of brilliance and charm. I can only suggest that it was because of his talent, and the king’s personal love of him, that the king didn’t want to lose him.”

Holbein ultimately produced a huge number of works for Henry, depicting the king along with members of his inner circle. And by the time he passed away in 1543, his legacy was assured – even if there’s a great deal of controversy surrounding that painting.