Anne Bassett

Anne Bassett was an English aristocrat of the Tudor period, whose charms attracted the attention of King Henry VIII.

Family background

Anne was born in 1521 [Oxford DNB, Arthur Plantagenet] , the fourth child of Sir John Bassett and Honor Grenville. As her father died when she was young, Anne was brought up by her mother and stepfather, Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, in the English enclave of Calais. Lord Lisle was the illegitimate son of Edward IV of England, and thus Henry VIII's uncle.

Love and Marriage

Anne is rumoured to have attracted Henry VIII in 1538 and 1539, at which time the ambassadors thought that she might become his fourth wife, and again in 1542, just after Queen Catherine Howard was sentenced to death. Eventually Anne married Sir Edward Hungerford, a son of Sir Walter Hungerford, a teacher, who had been executed in 1540 for his homosexuality and for his allegiance with Thomas Cromwell.

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