Henry VIII’s Love Life Hardly Fit for a King : Royalty: The monarch’s lusty image was all pomp and little circumstance, newly opened records reveal.

Secret details of King Henry VIII’s sex life show he did not live up to his lusty image and never consummated his marriage with fourth wife Anne of Cleves.

Documents of clerical records made public today show that although Anne and Henry shared the same bed, their eight-month marriage was never consummated because he found his wife flabby and unattractive.

The portly Henry was totally put off by Anne, the fourth of his six wives. He had expected her to be beautiful after seeing her portrait.

The records show he was “stricken with horror” at the sight of his 34-year-old bride and nicknamed her “The Flanders Mare.”

The records, in Tudor English, include a statement from royal physician Dr. Butts that “the morning after the first night the Kings Highnes lay with the Quene, his Majesty said unto hymn that he had not that night carnally knowne the Quene.”

The documents, which for years were kept under wraps as they contain some explicit language, are to be displayed at an exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the king’s birth later this year.

Exhibition consultant David Starkey said the papers shattered the myth of Henry VIII as the macho monarch, as he has been portrayed in films. They showed he was virtually impotent after the mid-1530s and his third marriage.

“Henry had six wives and produced only three children. This certainly does not suggest he was a man of great capacity,” Starkey said.

But he said that if the king had sexual problems, they were nothing compared to the queen’s problems.

“Anne thought that as she had slept in the same bed as Henry, that meant the marriage had been consummated. She was a total innocent,” Starkey said.