ABSTRACT
When King Henry VIII of England was looking for a fourth wife, and considering both Anne of Cleves and her younger sister Amalia, Hans Holbein was commissioned to paint their portraits, so that Henry could decide if either would be a suitable bride. The portraits were to be as accurate as possible, and not flattering. Holbein undertook his commission but, so it is said, strayed from his brief and painted Anne too generously. When Henry finally met Anne, he is reported to have remarked: ‘She is nothing so fair as she hath been reported.’ The marriage took place but ended in annulment after six months. Whether the portrait really was misleading is impossible to tell, and in any case beauty is in the eye of the beholder (and love is not skin-deep), but the story serves a useful function to begin this chapter because it points to how our assessment of the things we might value, such as a subject sitting for a portrait, may depend on the context within which the valuation takes place. The EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), and the obligation on Member States contained in Article 6(4) of the Directive to take ‘all compensatory measures necessary’ where harm to the Natura 2000 network is deemed unavoidable, is one particular context in which the value of natural habitats is considered.
