Anne of Cleves: I don't think she was his sort of lady... !
Actually it's most unlikely that Henry VIII ever called Anne of Cleves a Falnders Mare. This "quote" was first attributed to Henry in Smollett's Histroy of England in 1759, 200 years after their marriage. Of all that was written in Henry's time nowhere was this phrase ever mentioned.
It's true that Henry took an instant dislike to Anne, their first meeting was a disaster. Henry put on a disguise and met her without revealing his true identity. He was no longer the handsome athletic man his legend claimed, he was by then enormously fat with a leg that carried a stinking, infected ulcer. She paid this unattractive stranger no attention and Henry left with his ego shattered.
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