PLACE NAME
Anne of Cleves (1515 – July 16, 1557) was Queen of England between January 6 to July 9, 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. The nuptials were fuelled by Henry’s desire to align himself with Anne’s brother, the Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, a leader of the Protestants in Germany. Upon her arrival in England, Henry is said to have been disappointed with Anne’s appearance, reportedly confiding to Thomas Cromwell, “I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse.” The marriage was declared unconsummated after six months. Though the pair remained closed, Anne received a hefty settlement and from that point on became known as the King’s Beloved Sister. This is one of a cluster of local streets on the Boleyn Estate built in about 1880 and named after five of Henry’s six wives on account of a dubious local legend linking Anne Boleyn with a local mansion, where she is said to have lived and the king is meant to have come to court her. The castle-like mansion, with tower, known locally as Boleyn’s Castle, was located at the southern end of Green Street. In 1904 its grounds were rented to West Ham Football Club and became the infamous Boleyn Ground.
