| Anne of Denmark | |
|---|---|
 1605 portrait | |
| Queen consort of England and Ireland | |
| Tenure | 24 March 1603 – 2 March 1619 |
| Coronation | 25 July 1603 |
| Queen consort of Scotland | |
| Tenure | 20 August 1589 – 2 March 1619 |
| Coronation | 17 May 1590 |
| Born | 12 December 1574 Skanderborg Castle, Skanderborg, Denmark |
| Died | 2 March 1619(1619-03-02) (aged 44) Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex, England |
| Burial | 13 May 1619 Westminster Abbey, London, England |
| Spouse | |
| Issue Detail | |
| House | Oldenburg |
| Father | Frederick II of Denmark |
| Mother | Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow |
| Signature |  |
| Danish Royalty |
| House of Oldenburg Main Line |
|---|
.svg) |
| Frederick II |
Anne of Denmark (Danish:Anna; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) wasQueen of Scotland from her marriage toJames VI and I on 20 August 1589 andQueen of England and Ireland from theunion of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 untilher death in 1619.[1][2]
The second daughter of KingFrederick II of Denmark andSophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Anne married James at age 14. They had three children who survived infancy:Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who predeceased his parents;Princess Elizabeth, who becameQueen of Bohemia; and James's future successor,Charles I. Anne demonstrated an independent streak and a willingness to use factional Scottish politics in her conflicts with James over the custody of Prince Henry and his treatment of her friendBeatrix Ruthven. Anne appears to have loved James at first, but the couple gradually drifted and eventually lived apart, though mutual respect and a degree of affection survived.[3]
In England, Anne shifted her energies from factional politics to patronage of the arts and constructed her own magnificent court, hosting one of the richest culturalsalons in Europe.[4][5] After 1612, she had sustained bouts of ill health and gradually withdrew from the centre of court life. Though she was reported to have been aProtestant at the time of her death, she may have converted toCatholicism at some point.[a]
Some historians have dismissed Anne as frivolous and self-indulgent.[8][9][10] However, 18th-century writers includingThomas Birch andWilliam Guthrie considered her a woman of "boundless intrigue".[11] Recent reappraisals acknowledge Anne's assertive independence and, in particular, her dynamic significance as a patron of the arts during theJacobean age.[b]
Anne was born on 12 December 1574 at the castle ofSkanderborg on theJutland Peninsula in theKingdom of Denmark toSophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and KingFrederick II of Denmark. In need of a male heir the King had been hoping for a son,[15] and Sophie gave birth to a son,Christian, three years later.[16]
With her older sister,Elizabeth, Anne was sent to be raised atGüstrow by her maternal grandparents, theDuke andDuchess of Mecklenburg. Christian was also sent to be brought up at Güstrow but two years later, in 1579, his father the King wrote to his parents-in-law, to request the return of his sons, Christian and Ulrich, (probably, at the urging of the Rigsråd, the Danish Privy Council), and Anne and Elizabeth returned with him.[17]
Anne enjoyed a close, happy family upbringing in Denmark, thanks largely to Queen Sophie, who nursed the children through their illnesses herself.[18][c] Suitors from all over Europe sought the hands of Anne and Elizabeth in marriage, includingJames VI of Scotland, who favoured Denmark as a kingdom reformed in religion and a profitable trading partner.[18]
James's other serious possibility, though eight years his senior, wasCatherine, sister of theHuguenot KingHenry III of Navarre (future Henry IV of France), who was favoured byElizabeth I of England.[20] One reason James set this option aside was Henry's hard requirement for military assistance.[21] Scottish ambassadors in Denmark first concentrated their suit on the oldest daughter,[22] but Frederick betrothedElizabeth toHenry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, promising the Scots instead that "for the second [daughter] Anna, if the King did like her, he should have her."[22][23]
The constitutional position of Sophie, Anne's mother, became difficult after Frederick's death in 1588,[d] when she found herself in a power struggle with the Rigsraad for control of her son King Christian IV. As a matchmaker, however, Sophie proved more diligent than Frederick and, overcoming sticking points on the amount of thedowry and the status ofOrkney,[e] she sealed the agreement by July 1589.[f] Anne herself seems to have been thrilled with the match.[27] On 28 July 1589, the English spyThomas Fowler reported that Anne was "so far in love with the King's Majesty as it were death to her to have it broken off and hath made good proof divers ways of her affection which his Majestie is apt enough to requite."[28] Fowler's insinuation, that James preferred men to women,[g] would have been hidden from the fourteen-year-old Anne, who devotedly embroidered shirts for her fiancé while 300 tailors worked on her wedding dress.[h]
Whatever the truth of the rumours, James required a royal match to preserve theStuart line.[30] "God is my witness", he explained, "I could have abstained longer than the weal of my country could have permitted, [had not] my long delay bred in the breasts of many a great jealousy of my inability, as if I were a barren stock."[31] He wrote to Sophie from Aberdeen that Anne's portrait had "fascinated our eyes and heart" and he had "no higher desire" than to behold her in person.[32] On 20 August 1589, Anne wasmarried by proxy to James atKronborg Castle, the ceremony ending with a torchlit procession and James's representative,George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, sitting next to Anne on the bridal bed.[33][34][35]
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Anne set sail for Scotland within 10 days, but her fleet under the command of AdmiralPeder Munk was beset by misadventures. AtElsinore anaval gun backfired, killing two gunners. The next day, a gunfired in tribute to two visiting Scottish noblemen exploded, killing one gunner and injuring 9 of the crew. Storms at sea then put the fleet in severe difficulties and one report had Anne's ship missing for three days. Two of the ships in the flotilla collided, killing two more sailors. Anne's ship, the Gideon, sprang a dangerous leak and put into Gammel Sellohe in Norway for repairs, but it leaked again after setting sail. The fleet then put in atFlekkerøy, by which time it was 1 October and the crews were unwilling to try again so late in the year.[36] Anne was forced back to the coast ofNorway, from where she travelled by land toOslo for refuge, accompanied by the Earl Marischal and others of the Scottish and Danish embassies.[36][i]
_(attributed_to)_-_Anne_of_Denmark_(1574%25E2%2580%25931619)%2c_Queen_of_James_VI_and_I_-_PG_1110_-_National_Galleries_of_Scotland.jpg)
On 12 SeptemberLord Dingwall had landed atLeith, reporting that "he had come in company with the Queen's fleet three hundred miles, and was separated from them by agreat storm: it was feared that the Queen was in danger upon the seas."[38] Alarmed, James called for national fasting and public prayers, and kept watch on theFirth of Forth for Anne's arrival fromSeton Palace, the home of his friendLord Seton.[26][39][40] He wrote several songs, one comparing the situation to the plight ofHero and Leander, and sent a search party out for Anne, carrying a letter he had written to her inFrench: "Only to one who knows me as well as his own reflection in a glass could I express, my dearest love, the fears which I have experienced because of the contrary winds and violent storms since you embarked".[40][41] Anne's letters arrived in October explaining that she had abandoned the crossing. She wrote, in French;
we have already put out to sea four or five times but have always been driven back to the harbours from which we sailed, thanks to contrary winds and other problems that arose at sea, which is the cause why, now Winter is hastening down on us, and fearing greater danger, all this company is forced to our regret, and to the regret and high displeasure of your men, to make no further attempt at present, but to defer the voyage until the Spring.[42]
In what Willson calls "the one romantic episode of his life", James sailed from Leith with a three-hundred-strong retinue to fetch his wife personally.[31][36] He arrived in Oslo on 19 November after travelling by land fromFlekkefjord viaTønsberg.[j] According to a Scottish account, he presented himself to Anne, "with boots and all", and, disarming her protests, gave her a kiss, in the Scottish fashion.[k]
Anne and James were formally married in hall of theOld Bishop's Palace in Oslo, then the house ofChristen Mule, on 23 November 1589, "with all the splendour possible at that time and place."[44] So that both bride and groom could understand, Leith ministerDavid Lindsay conducted the ceremony in French, describing Anne as "a Princess both godly and beautiful ... she giveth great contentment to his Majesty."[44][50] A month of celebrations followed; and on 22 December, cutting his entourage to 50, James visited his new relations atKronborg Castle inElsinore, where the newlyweds were greeted by Queen Sophie, 12 year-oldKing Christian IV, and Christian's four regents.[51][52] Anne and James may have repeated their marriage ceremony at Kronborg, this time by Lutheran rites, on 21 January 1590.[52][l] The couple moved on toCopenhagen on 7 March and attended the wedding of Anne's older sister Elizabeth toHenry Julius, Duke of Brunswick on 19 April, sailing two days later for Scotland in a patched up "Gideon".[53] They arrived in theWater of Leith on 1 May. After a welcoming speech in French byJames Elphinstone, Anne stayed in theKing's Wark and James went alone to hear a sermon byPatrick Galloway in theParish Church.[54] Five days later, Anne made her state entry into Edinburgh in a solid silver coach brought over from Denmark, James riding alongside on horseback.[55]
Anne was crowned on 17 May 1590 in theAbbey Church atHolyrood, the first Protestant coronation in Scotland.[18][56] During theseven-hour ceremony, her gown was opened by theCountess of Mar for presiding ministerRobert Bruce to pour "a bonny quantity of oil" on "parts of her breast and arm", so anointing her as queen.[57] (Kirk ministers had objected vehemently to this element of the ceremony as apagan andJewish ritual, but James insisted that it dated from theOld Testament.)[58] The king handed the crown toChancellor Maitland, who placed it on Anne's head.[59] She then affirmed an oath to defend the true religion and worship of God and to "withstand and despise allpapistical superstitions, and whatsoever ceremonies and rites contrary to the word of God".[56][59][60]
Anne brought servants and courtiers from Denmark, including the ladies-in-waiting andchamberers Katrine Skinkel,Anna Kaas, andMargaret Vinstarr, the preacherJohannes Sering, a pageWilliam Belo, and artisans such as goldsmithJacob Kroger, the carpenter Frederick, her cooksHans Poppilman and Marion,[61] and her tailors.[62] Her Danish secretaryCalixtus Schein had two Scottish colleagues,William Fowler andJohn Geddie. The head of her first household wasWilhelm von der Wense.[63] Servants from her home country provided familiarity and bridged a cultural divide.[64]
At first, observers likeWilliam Dundas thought the queen led a solitary life, with few Scottish companions.[65] Later in 1590 more Scottish noblewomen were appointed to serve her, includingMarie Stewart, a daughter ofEsmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox,Margaret Wood, and members of theOchiltree Stewart family.[66] James invited Scottish lairds includingRobert Mure of Caldwell to send gifts of hackney horses for the queen's ladies to ride.[67] Anne bought her ladies and maidens of honour matching clothes and riding outfits, made by her Danish tailor Pål Rei and furrier Henrie Koss, and the Scottish tailorsPeter Sanderson andPeter Rannald supervised byher master of Wardrobe,Søren Johnson.[68] She had anAfrican servant, noted in the accounts only as the "Moir", who was probably a "page of the equerry", attending her horse. He was dressed in orange velvet and Spanish taffeta.[69] When he died atFalkland Palace in July 1591, James paid for his funeral.[70] The German physicianMartin Schöner attended Anne when she was ill or in childbed.[71]
Two Danish favourites, Katrine Skinkel and Sofie Kass wore velvet hats with feathers to match the queen's, made by an older gentlewoman in the household,Elizabeth Gibb, the wife of the king's tutorPeter Young.[72] Anne gave her ladies wedding gowns and trousseaux when they married, and even arranged a loan for the dowry ofJean, Lady Kennedy.[73] When, in December 1592 the widowerJohn Erskine,Earl of Mar married Marie Stewart, James VI and Anne of Denmark attended the celebrations atAlloa and there was amasque in costume in which Anne of Denmark performed.[74] Materials for Anne's masque costumes included lightweight silks and ribbons and "plumages" of feathers.[75] Her court musicians in Scotland includedJohn Norlie, an Englishlutenist.[76]
In 1593, Anne told the English ambassadorRobert Bowes that she would like to meet Queen Elizabeth, and wanted to have a young English gentleman or maiden of "good parentage" join her household. Bowes passed this request to Cecil to consider.[77] She made another overture of friendship to Elizabeth I in May 1595, asking for her portrait. There was no response and Bowes had to reiterate her request. Finally, in February 1596 Elizabeth condescended to grant Anne's "earnest desire" and send her a picture.[78]
By all accounts, James was at first entranced by his bride, but his infatuation evaporated quickly and the couple often found themselves at loggerheads, though in the early years of their marriage James seems always to have treated Anne with patience and affection.[79]James Melville of Halhill, a gentleman of her bedchamber, wrote that in Scotland Anne would intercede with James on behalf of honest courtiers, if she heard that he was stirred up against them by "wrong information" or slander.[80]
In their first years of marriage, James VI and Anne of Denmark personally dressed in costume and took part inmasques at the weddings of courtiers. These performances typically involved music, dance, and disguise.[81] Between 1593 and 1595, James was romantically linked withAnne Murray, later Lady Glamis. He addressed her in verse as "my mistress and my love". Anne of Denmark herself was also occasionally the subject of scandalous rumours.[18] In theBasilikon Doron, written 1597–1598, James described marriage as "the greatest earthly felicitie or miserie, that can come to a man".[82]
From the first moment of the marriage, Anne was under pressure to provide James and Scotland with an heir. Even before Anne arrived in Scotland, rumours circulated that she was pregnant.[83] but the passing of 1591 and 1592 with no sign of a pregnancy provoked renewed Presbyterian libels on the theme of James's fondness for male company and whispers against Anne "for that she proves not with child".[84] When it was thought that she was pregnant, James tried to prevent her going horse riding but she refused.[85] There was great public relief when on 19 February 1594 Anne gave birth to her first child,Henry Frederick.[86] He was named after his two grandfathers,Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and KingFrederick II of Denmark.[87]
Anne soon learned that she would have no say in her son's care. James appointed as head of the nursery his former nurseHelen Little, who installed Henry in James's own oak cradle.[87] Most distressingly for Anne, James insisted on placing Prince Henry in the custody ofJohn Erskine,Earl of Mar atStirling Castle, in keeping with Scottish royal tradition.[88][m]
In late 1594, she began a furious campaign for custody of Henry, recruiting a faction of supporters to her cause, including thechancellor, John Maitland of Thirlestane.[89][n] Nervous of the lengths to which Anne might go, James formally charged Mar in writing never to surrender Henry to anyone except on orders from his own mouth, "because in the surety of my son consists my surety", nor to yield Henry to the Queen even in the event of his own death.[91] "And in case God call me at any time see that neither for the Queen nor Estates, their pleasure, you deliver him till he be eighteen years of age, and that he command you himself."[92] Anne demanded the matter be referred to the Council, but James would not hear of it.[93] The issue remained unresolved and James went north after theBattle of Glenlivet. He wrote to Anne inviting her to join him as he tried to discover the whereabouts of rebel lords. She did not make the journey.[94]
Anne made plans to make a progress to see the English border in May 1595, but James refused.[95] The controversy over the custody of Prince Henry continued, with public scenes in which James reduced her to rage and tears over the issue.[o] Anne became so bitterly upset that in July 1595 she suffered a miscarriage.[97] Thereafter, she outwardly abandoned her campaign, but it was thought permanent damage had been done to the marriage. In August 1595,John Colville wrote: "There is nothing but lurking hatred disguised with cunning dissimulation betwixt the King and the Queen, each intending by slight to overcome the other."[91] Despite these differences, Anne and James visited the Prince at Stirling in December 1595 and returned toHolyrood Palace to celebrate her 21st birthday.[98]
They had six more children. It was said, in May 1597, that Anne was "careful of no other thing, but to dance and sport".[99] Anne extended and rebuiltDunfermline Palace, in 1601 preparing a lodging for her daughterPrincess Elizabeth, but the princess remained atLinlithgow Palace on the king's orders. Her younger sonsCharles andRobert were allowed to stay with her at Dunfermline andDalkeith Palace.[100]
In February 1603, the French ambassador in London,Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont, reported a rumour spread by James's friends that Anne was cruel and ambitious, hoping to rule Scotland as Regent or Governor for her son after her husband's death.[101] Anne saw a belated opportunity to gain custody of Henry in 1603 when James left for London with the Earl of Mar to assume the English throne following the death ofElizabeth I. At his departure James made a tender public farewell to his wife.[102][103] Pregnant at the time, Anne descended on Stirling with a force of "well-supported" nobles, intent on removing the nine-year-old Henry, whom she had hardly seen for five years; butMar's wife and hisyoung son would allow her to bring no more than two attendants with her into the castle.[104] The obduracy of Henry's keepers sent Anne into such a fury that she suffered another miscarriage: according toDavid Calderwood, she "went to bed in anger and parted with child the tenth of May."[105][106][p]
When the Earl of Mar returned with James's instructions that Anne join him in theKingdom of England, she informed James by letter that she refused to do so unless allowed custody of Henry. James's reply indicates that Anne had accused him of not loving her, of only marrying her because of her high birth, and of listening to rumours that she might turnCatholic: "I thank God," he wrote, "I carry that love and respect unto you which by the law of God and nature I ought to do my wife and mother of my children, but not for ye are a King's daughter, for whether ye were a King's or a cook's daughter ye must be all alike to me, being once my wife." And he swore "upon the peril of my salvation and damnation, that neither theEarl of Mar nor any flesh living ever informed me that ye was upon anypapist or Spanish course."[109] This "forceful maternal action", as historianPauline Croft describes it, obliged James to climb down at last, though he reproved Anne for "froward womanly apprehensions" and described her behaviour in a letter to Mar as "wilfulness".[9][102][107] Both Barroll and McManus point out that Anne's actions were political as well as maternal; Barroll and McManus elaborate diplomacy and politics went into the hand-over: the governing Council met atStirling and banned Anne's noble attendants from coming within ten miles (16 km) of Henry;[110] Mar delivered Henry toLudovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, representing the king; Lennox delivered him to the Council; the Council handed him over to Anne and Lennox, who were to take him south together.[111] As the Queen travelled south,John Graham, 3rd Earl of Montrose, wrote to James urging him to exercise greater control over her: "But lest Her Highness' wrath continuing, should hereafter produce unexpected tortures, I would most humbly entreat Your Majesty to prevent the same ... and suffer not this canker or corruption to have any further progress."[112]
James wrote to Anne that he had not received accusations from Mar's supporters that her actions at Stirling were motivated by religious factionalism or "Spanish courses". He reminded her that she was "a king's daughter" but "whether ye a king's or a cook's daughter, ye must be all alike to me, being once my wife", and so she should have respected the confidence he, her husband, had placed in Mar.[113] The French ambassador in London,Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, heard that Anne would bring and exhibit her embalmed still-born male child in England in order to dispel false rumours about a plot.[114][108]
After a brief convalescence from themiscarriage, Anne travelled from Stirling to Edinburgh, where several English ladies had gathered, hoping to join her court,[117] includingLucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, andFrances Howard, Countess of Kildare.[118] Anne ordered a new gown of figured taffeta and had her white satin gown refashioned.[119] New clothes were bought for her entourage, and her jesterTom Durie was given a green coat.[120]
Marmaduke Darrell was sent from London with money for the expenses of her journey and the group of ladies sent by thePrivy Council to attend her.[121] Anne duly travelled south with Prince Henry, their progress causing a sensation in England. PrincessElizabeth followed two days later and soon caught up, butPrince Charles was left at Dunfermline, being sickly.[122] Anne kept with her the body of the child she had miscarried.[108]
She was met at York on 11 June byThomas Cecil, Lord Burghley. He wrote toSir Robert Cecil, "she will prove, if I be not deceived, a magnifical prince, a kind wife and a constant mistress".[123] Her large crowd of followers was disorderly and there were quarrels between theEarl of Argyll and theEarl of Sussex, and betweenThomas Somerset andWilliam Murray who argued about the role of Master of Horse.[124] TheDuke of Lennox and the Earls ofShrewsbury andCumberland made a proclamation atWorksop Manor that her followers should put aside any private quarrels, and hangers-on without formal roles should leave.[125]
Courtiers and gentry made efforts to meet her on her journey.Lady Anne Clifford recorded that she and her mother killed three horses in their haste to see the Queen atDingley. In the great hall atWindsor Castle, "there was such an infinite number of lords and ladies and so great a Court as I think I shall never see the like again."[126] Lady Anne Clifford was thirteen years old at the time.[127]
Anne and James werecrowned at Westminster Abbey on 25 July 1603. The coronation prayers for Anne alluded toEsther, theWise Virgins, and other Biblical heroines.[128]
A council was appointed in 1593 by theParliament of Scotland to look after her landed estates and income.[129] Anne of Denmark's household expenses in Scotland were alleviated bymoney given to James VI by Elizabeth I. Between July 1591 and September 1594, she received £18,796Scots.[130] At the end of December 1595, the Queen's council, re-appointed as a financial administration known as theOctavians, gave Anne of Denmark a purse of gold which she then presented to the king as a New Year's Day gift.[131]
| Queen Anne's Jointure Act 1604 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Acte of Confirmation of the Jointure of the moste highe and mightie Princesse Anne Queene of England Scotland France and Ireland. |
| Citation | 1 Jas. 1. c.1Pr. |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 7 July 1604 |
| Commencement | 19 March 1604[q] |
Status: Current legislation | |
Anne's financial position changed in England when she was awarded a new jointure estate based on lands, manors, and parks which had previously been given toCatherine of Aragon.[132] Administrators, led bySir Robert Cecil, were appointed in November 1603, while the court was atWilton House.[133] The yearly income would be £6,376 according to a summary sent by King James to Anne's brother Christian IV for approval in December 1603.[134] Anne wrote to Christian IV, pleased by the comparison with Catherine of Aragon, who was also a king's daughter.[135] An Act for the Confirmation of the Jointure was discussed and read in theHouse of Commons on 24 May 1604.[136]
The estate includedSomerset House, theHonour of Hatfield,Pontefract Castle,Nonsuch Palace, and the old palace atHavering-atte-Bower. Robert Cecil had considered other royal dowries, including those ofCecily of York,Mary Tudor, andMary of France.Thomas Edmondes heard the settlement was "as much, or rather more, than has been granted to any former King's wife".[137] The manor ofTopsham in Devon included admiralty rights at the port, and in July 1606 (after the sudden death of its owner) she obtained a cargo of tobacco fromVenezuela.[138]
The English jointure income was to be spent on Anne's clothes and her household wages and rewards. King James would pay the other costs of her household, stable, and food. The Venetian diplomatScaramelli heard she had received a gift of valuable jewels from James, Nonsuch Palace, and a yearly income of 40,000 crowns. If she became a widow she would be independent of her son, Prince Henry.[139] Anne would be able to grant leases of her English manors. An advisory committee was appointed to manage the property and income in England.[140] She would continue to draw an income from her Scottish jointure properties.[141] A similar commission for her Scottish properties had been appointed in April 1603 under the leadership ofAlexander Seton, Lord Fyvie.[142]Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie was chamberlain of the Scottish lands, comprising the Lordship of Dunfermline, the Earldom of Ross, and Lordships of Ardmannoch and Etrrick Forest, and compiled accounts of the queen's revenue.[143]
On 13 February 1610,John Chamberlain wrote that Anne "hath been somewhat melancholy of late about her jointure, that was not fully to her liking" and King James had promised additional funds.[144] In the autumn of 1617, King James changed the settlement, giving Anne an additional £20,000, to make £50,0000 yearly, from which she would pay for her household diet and stable if he died before her.[145]
Observers regularly noted incidents of marital discord between Anne and James. The so-calledGowrie conspiracy of 1600, in which the youngEarl of Gowrie, John Ruthven, and his brotherAlexander Ruthven were killed by James's attendants for a supposed assault on the King, triggered the dismissal of their sisters Beatrix andBarbara Ruthven as ladies-in-waiting to Anne, with whom they were "in chiefest credit."[146][147] The Queen, who was five months pregnant,[r] refused to get out of bed unless they were reinstated and stayed there for two days, also refusing to eat. When James tried to command her, she warned him to take care how he treated her because she was not the Earl of Gowrie.[s] James placated her for the moment by paying a famous acrobat to entertain her,[150] but she never gave up, and her stubborn support for the Ruthvens over the next three years was taken seriously enough by the government to be regarded as a security issue.[t] In 1602, after discovering that Anne had smuggled Beatrix Ruthven into Holyrood, James carried out a cross-examination of the entire household;[153][154] in 1603, he finally decided to grant Beatrix Ruthven a pension of £200, "because though her family is hateful on account of the abominable attempt against the King, she has shown no malicious disposition".[155]
In 1603, James fought with Anne over the proposed composition of her English household, sending her a message that "his Majesty took her continued perversity very heinously."[156] In turn, Anne took exception to James's drinking: in 1604 she confided to the French ambassadorBeaumont that "the King drinks so much, and conducts himself so ill in every respect, that I expect an early and evil result."[18]
A briefer confrontation occurred in 1613 when Anne shot and killed James's favourite dog during a hunting session atTheobalds. After his initial rage, James smoothed things over by giving her a £2,000 diamond in memory of the dog, whose name was Jewel.[157]
Anne enjoyed living in London, while James preferred to escape the capital, most often at his hunting lodge inRoyston.[158] Anne's chaplain,Godfrey Goodman, later summed up the royal relationship: "The King himself was a very chaste man, and there was little in the Queen to make himuxorious; yet they did love as well as man and wife could do, not conversing together."[159] Anne moved intoGreenwich Palace and thenSomerset House, which she renamed Denmark House. After 1607, she and James rarely lived together,[2] by which time she had borne seven children and suffered at least three miscarriages. After narrowly surviving the birth and death of her last baby, Sophia, in 1607, Anne's decision to have no more children may have widened the gulf between her and James.[160]
The death of their son Henry in November 1612 at the age of eighteen, probably fromtyphoid and the departure of their daughterElizabeth further weakened the family ties binding Anne and James.[161] Henry's death hit Anne particularly hard; theVenetian ambassadorFoscarini was advised not to offer condolences to her "because she cannot bear to have it mentioned; nor does she ever recall it without abundant tears and sighs".[162] The letter writerJohn Chamberlain suggested that Anne absented herself from the investiture ofCharles asPrince of Wales four years later "lest she renew her grief by the memory of the last Prince."[163]
At first, Anne had objected to her daughter's match withFrederick V of the Palatinate, regarding it as beneath the royal family's dignity. She did not come to a betrothal ceremony atWhitehall, due to an attack withgout. However, she had warmed to Frederick, and attended the wedding itself on 14 February 1613. She was saddened by the tournaments on the following day, which reminded her of Henry. The couple left England forHeidelberg in April.[164] From this time forward, Anne's health deteriorated, and she withdrew from the centre of cultural and political activities, staging her last knownmasque in 1614, and no longer maintaining a royal court.[161] Anne's ailments included gout,dropsy,arthritis and swollen feet.[165] Her influence over James visibly waned as he became openly dependent on powerful favourites.[161]
Although James had always adopted malefavourites among his courtiers, he now encouraged them to play a role in the government. Anne reacted very differently to the two powerful favourites who dominated the second half of her husband's English reign,Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, andGeorge Villiers, the future Duke of Buckingham. She detested Carr,[161] and although acknowledging his marriage inThe Somerset Masque,[166][167] she encouraged the rise of Villiers, whom James knighted in her bedchamber.[168]Archbishop of Canterbury George Abbot and others had pressed Anne to support Villiers's appointment as aGentleman of the Bedchamber; at first, she refused, saying, according to Abbot's own account, "if Villiers get once into his favour, those who shall have most contributed to his preferment will be the first sufferers by him. I shall be no more spared than the rest"; but Carr's enemies nonetheless persuaded the Queen to advocate for Villiers.[169] She developed friendly relations with Villiers, calling him her "dog".[u] Even so, Anne found herself increasingly ignored after Buckingham's rise and became a lonely figure towards the end of her life.[171]
A further source of difference between Anne and James was the issue of religion; for example, she abstained from theAnglicancommunion at her English coronation.[v] Anne had been brought up aLutheran, and had a Lutheran chaplain,Hans Sering, in her household. However, she may have secretlyconverted toCatholicism at some point, a politically embarrassing scenario which alarmed ministers of the ScottishKirk and caused suspicion in Anglican England.[w]
Queen Elizabeth had certainly been worried about that possibility, sending messages to Anne warning her to ignorepapist counsellors and requesting the names of anyone who had tried to convert her; Anne had replied that there was no need to name names because any such efforts had failed.[147][178] Anne drew criticism from the Kirk for keepingHenrietta Gordon, wife of the exiled CatholicGeorge Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, as a confidante;[x] after Huntly's return in 1596, theSt Andrews minister David Black called Anne anatheist and remarked in asermon that "the Queen of Scotland was a woman for whom, for fashion's sake, the clergy might pray but from whom no good could be hoped."[180]
When former intelligencer SirAnthony Standen was discovered bringing Anne arosary fromPope Clement VIII in 1603, James imprisoned him in the Tower for ten months.[y] Anne protested her annoyance at the gift, but eventually secured Standen's release.[160]
Like James, Anne later supported a Catholic match for both their sons, and her correspondence with the potential bride,Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, included a request that twofriars be sent toJerusalem to pray for her and the King.[181] The papacy itself was never quite sure where Anne stood; in 1612,Pope Paul V advised anuncio: "Not considering the inconstancy of that Queen and the many changes she had made in religious matters and that even if it might be true that she might be a Catholic, one should not take on oneself any judgement."[182]
In Scotland, Anne sometimes exploited court factionalism for her own ends, in particular by supporting the enemies of theEarl of Mar.[183] As a result, James did not trust her with secrets of state.Henry Howard, active in thehighly secret diplomacy concerning the English succession, subtly reminded James that though Anne possessed every virtue,Eve was corrupted by theserpent.[184] Another of James's secret correspondents,Robert Cecil, believed that "the Queen was weak and a tool in the hands of clever and unscrupulous persons."[185] In practice, Anne seems to have been little interested in high politics unless they touched on the fate of her children or friends, and later told Secretary of State Robert Cecil that "she was more contented with her pictures than he with his great employments."[185] However, in November 1600 Robert Cecil had been anxious to find out about correspondence she had withArchduke Albert, Governor of theSpanish Netherlands.[186]
In England, Anne largely turned from political to social and artistic activities.[187] Though she participated fully in the life of James's court and maintained a court of her own, often attracting those not welcomed by James, she rarely took political sides against her husband. Whatever her private difficulties with James, she proved a diplomatic asset to him in England, conducting herself with discretion and graciousness in public. Anne played a crucial role, for example, in conveying to ambassadors and foreign visitors the prestige of theStuart dynasty and itsDanish connections.[188]
TheVenetian envoy,Nicolò Molin, wrote this description of Anne in 1606:
She is intelligent and prudent; and knows the disorders of the government, in which she has no part, though many hold that as the King is most devoted to her, she might play as large a role as she wished. But she is young and averse to trouble; she sees that those who govern desire to be left alone, and so she professes indifference. All she ever does is to beg a favour for someone. She is full of kindness for those who support her, but on the other hand she is terrible, proud, unendurable to those she dislikes.[159]
Anne's comments did attract attention and were reported by diplomats. In May 1612 theDuke of Bouillon came to London as the ambassador ofMarie de' Medici, dowager of France. According to the Venetian ambassador,Antonio Foscarini, his instructions included a proposal of marriage betweenPrincess Christine, the second Princess of France, and Prince Henry. Anne told one of his senior companions that she would prefer Prince Henry married a French princess without a dowry than a Florentine princess with any amount of gold.[189]
Anne has traditionally been regarded with condescension by historians, who have emphasised her triviality and extravagance.[9] Along with James, she tended to be dismissed by a historical tradition, beginning with the anti-Stuart historians of the mid-17th century, which saw in the self-indulgence and vanity of the Jacobean court the origins of theEnglish Civil War. HistorianDavid Harris Willson, in his 1956 biography of James, delivered this damning verdict: "Anne had little influence over her husband. She could not share his intellectual interests, and she confirmed the foolish contempt with which he regarded women. Alas! The king had married a stupid wife."[10] The 19th-century biographerAgnes Strickland condemned Anne's actions to regain custody of Prince Henry as irresponsible: "It must lower the character of Anne of Denmark in the eyes of everyone, both as a woman and queen, that she ... preferred to indulge the mere instincts of maternity at the risk of involving her husband, her infant, and their kingdom, in the strife and misery of unnatural warfare."[190]
However, the reassessment of James in the past two decades, as an able ruler who extended royal power in Scotland and preserved his kingdoms from war throughout his reign,[z] has been accompanied by a re-evaluation of Anne as an influential political figure and assertive mother, at least for as long as the royal marriage remained a reality.[192] John Leeds Barroll argues in his cultural biography of Anne that her political interventions in Scotland were more significant, and certainly more troublesome, than previously noticed; and Clare McManus, among other cultural historians, has highlighted Anne's influential role in the Jacobean cultural flowering, not only as a patron of writers and artists but as a performer herself.[193]
Anne shared with James the fault of extravagance, though it took her several years to exhaust her considerable dowry.[188] In 1593, James appointed a special Council, known as the "Octavians", to sort out Anne's accounts and make economies.[194] She loved dancing and pageants, activities often frowned upon inPresbyterian Scotland, but for which she found a vibrant outlet inJacobean London, where she created a "rich and hospitable" cultural climate at the royal court,[195] became an enthusiastic playgoer, and sponsored lavishmasques.Sir Walter Cope, asked by Robert Cecil to select a play for the Queen during her brotherUlrik of Holstein's visit, wrote, "Burbage is come and says there is no new play the Queen has not seen but they have revived an old one calledLove's Labour's Lost which for wit and mirth he says will please her exceedingly."[196][aa] Anne's masques, scaling unprecedented heights of dramatic staging and spectacle,[198] were avidly attended by foreign ambassadors and dignitaries and functioned as a potent demonstration of the English crown's European significance.Zorzi Giustinian, the Venetian ambassador, wrote of the Christmas 1604 masque that "in everyone's opinion no other Court could have displayed such pomp and riches".[199]
Anne's masques were responsible for almost all the courtly female performance in the first two decades of the 17th-century and are regarded as crucial to the history of women's performance.[200] Anne sometimes performed with her ladies in the masques herself, occasionally offending or scandalising members of the audience. In Anne's first masque,Samuel Daniel'sThe Vision of the Twelve Goddesses of 1604, she playedPallas Athena, wearing a tunic thatDudley Carleton judged too short, because it revealed her legs and feet. Anne commissioned the leading talents of the day to create these masques, includingBen Jonson andInigo Jones.[201][202][ab] InThe Masque of Blackness of 1605, Anne performed while six months pregnant, and caused further scandal by appearing, alongside several of her ladies in waiting, with their skin painted as "blackamores".[205] Carleton reported that, when the Queen afterwards danced with the Spanish ambassador, he kissed her hand "though there was danger it would have left a mark upon his lips".[206]
According toJohn Webb, Inigo Jones had worked for Christian IV in Denmark before joining Anne's service in England.[207] Jones, a gifted architect steeped in the latest European taste, also designed theQueen's House at Greenwich for Anne, one of the first truePalladian buildings in England,[208][ac] as well as ornamental gateways for her gardens and vineyard atOatlands. TheSergeant PainterJohn de Critz decorated a fireplace in her "tiring chamber", her dressing room at Somerset House with various colours ofmarbling and imitation stone, and painted black and white marble in the chapel at Oatlands. In 1618 a passage at Somerset House was decorated with Renaissance stylegrotesque work, recorded as "crotesque".[210]
The diplomatRalph Winwood obtained special greyhounds for her hunting from Jacob van den Eynde, Governor ofWoerden.[211] The Dutch inventorSalomon de Caus laid out her gardens at Greenwich and Somerset House.[212] She had a barge for her journeys on the Thames, with glass windows.[213] Anne particularly loved music and patronised the lutenist and composerJohn Dowland,[ad] previously employed at her brother's court in Denmark, as well as "more than a good many" French musicians.[214][176] Between 1607 and her death in 1619 she also employed the Irish harperDaniel Duff O'Cahill.[215]
Anne also commissioned artists such asPaul van Somer,Isaac Oliver, andDaniel Mytens, who led English taste in visual arts for a generation.[18] Under Anne, theRoyal Collection began once more to expand,[214] a policy continued by Anne's son,Charles. With some irony, Anne's servantJean Drummond compared the queen's reputation to be content among "harmless pictures in a paltry gallery" with the Earl of Salisbury's "great employments in fair rooms".[216] Drummond's remark contrasts the smaller and more private spaces housing the queen's collection with the halls and presence chambers where statecraft was enacted.[217] Two paintings from her collection are now held by theMontreal Museum of Fine Arts, depictingChrist and the woman at the well andChrist and the Canaanite woman.[218]
She was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to found a college or university atRipon in Yorkshire in 1604. The scheme was promoted by Cecily Sandys, the widow of the BishopEdwin Sandys and other supporters includingBess of Hardwick andGilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury.[219] Historian Alan Stewart suggests that many of the phenomena now seen as peculiarlyJacobean can be identified more closely with Anne's patronage than with James, who "fell asleep during some of England's most celebrated plays".[202][220]
Anne had a surprisingly good relationship withJames Montague, one of James's closest aides and Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608 to 1616. Her first visit to Bath may have been timed to coincide with the completion of the re-roofing of Bath Abbey, at the bishop's own expense, and Montague staged a "Panegiricall entertainement", probably at the bishop's palace in Wells in 1613, in which the character ofJoseph of Arimathea presented the queen with a bough from theHoly Thorn of Glastonbury.[221]
Anne of Denmark received "great good" from recipes provided byWalter Raleigh.[222] The royal physician SirTheodore de Mayerne left extensive Latin notes describing his treatment of Anne of Denmark from 10 April 1612 to her death.[223]From September 1614 Anne was troubled by pain in her feet, as described in the letters of her chamberlainViscount Lisle and the countesses of Bedford and Roxburghe.[224] Lisle first noted "the Queen hath been a little lame" as early as October 1611.[225] She was ill in March 1615, suspected to have dropsy.[226] In August an attack ofgout forced her to stay an extra week inBath, her secondvisit to the spa town for its medicinal waters.[227]
Although she danced at a Christmas masque, said to be "a good sign of her convalescence",[228] in January 1616 she moved from Whitehall Palace to Somerset House suffering from gout. King James planned to visit Scotland, and it was said that she dreamed of ruling England as regent in his absence.[229] TheEarl of Dunfermline noted in February that "her majesty looks very well, but yet I think is not perfectly well, she infrequently dresses, and keeps her bedchamber and a solitary life most times."[230] James went to Scotland, while Anne stayed at Greenwich Palace and moved to Oatlands in June.[231] She was well enough to go hunting in August 1617.[232] By late 1617, Anne's bouts of illness had become debilitating; the letter writerJohn Chamberlain recorded: "The Queen continues still ill disposed and though she would fain lay all her infirmities upon the gout yet most of her physicians fear a further inconvenience of an ill habit or disposition through her whole body."[233]
In December 1617 the Venetian ambassadorPiero Contarini had to wait a few days to get an audience with her because of illness. He described her appearance at Somerset House. She was seated under a canopy of gold brocade. Her costume was pink and gold, low cut at the front in an oval shape, and herfarthingale was four feet wide. Her hair was dressed withdiamonds and other jewels and extended in rays, or like the petals of a sunflower, with artificial hair. She had two little dogs who barked at the ambassador.[234] Contarini had a second audience with Anne in December and was led through private corridors in the palace by a richly dressed lady in waiting carrying a candle.[235]
On 9 April 1618 she was well enough to make a shopping trip incognito to theRoyal Exchange, and was discovered, drawing a crowd of onlookers.[236] She had a nosebleed at Oatlands in September 1618 that confined her to bed and disrupted her travel plans.[237] Lucy, Countess of Bedford, thought it had weakened her, and she appeared "dangerously ill".[238] In November, acomet was interpreted as a portent of her death, but she was reported to be in good health and had watched a fox hunt from her bedroom window.[239]Lady Anne Clifford recorded that Anne was ill throughout Christmas and missed seeing masque performed at the WhitehallBanqueting House.[240]
Anne moved toHampton Court and was attended by Mayerne andHenry Atkins.[241] In January 1619 Mayerne instructed Anne to saw wood to improve her blood flow, but the exertion served to make her worse.[242] Mayerne attributed the queen's ill-health to her cold and northerly upbringing, and wrote in his notes that as a child she had been carried around by her nurses until the age of nine, rather than allowed to walk.[243]
James visited Anne only three times during her last illness,[171][ae] though their sonCharles often slept in the adjoining bedroom atHampton Court Palace and was at her bedside during her last hours, when she had lost her sight.[246] With her until the end was her personal maid, Anna Kaas, who had arrived with her from Denmark in 1590.[247]
Queen Anne died aged 44 on 2 March 1619, ofdropsy.[2]
Despite his neglect of Anne, James was emotionally affected by her death.[18] James had also fallen seriously ill when Prince Henry was dying.[248] He did not visit her during her dying days or attend her funeral, being himself sick, the symptoms, according to Sir Theodore de Mayerne, including "fainting, sighing, dread, incredible sadness ...".[246] The king "took her death seemly".[2] The inquest discovered Anne to be "much wasted within, specially her liver".[246] After a prolonged delay, due to a lack of ready money to pay the funeral expenses, the monarchy already being in great debt to its suppliers,[249]she was buried inKing Henry's Chapel,Westminster Abbey, on 13 May 1619.[250]John Chamberlain recorded that the funeral procession turned into "a drawling, tedious sight", since the noblewomen had to walk such a distance and became so exhausted by the weight of their clothes that "they came laggering all along", leaning on the gentlemen for support "or else I see not how they had been able to hold out".[251]
Thecatafalque placed over her grave, designed byMaximilian Colt, was destroyed during theEnglish Civil War.[252] Inigo Jones had provided an alternative design for the catalfaque with more complex sculptural symbolism than Colt's.[253]
As he had done before he ever met her, King James turned to verse to pay his respects:
So did my Queen from hence her court remove
And left off earth to be enthroned above.
She's changed, not dead, for sure no good prince dies,
But, as the sun, sets, only for to rise.[254]
Lionel Cranfield, as Master of Great Wardrobe, spent £20,000 on the funeral.[255] After the funeral, her French servantPiero Hugon, and Anna, a Danish maiden of honour, were arrested and accused of stealing jewels worth £30,000. Another servant,Margaret Hartsyde, had faced similar charges a decade earlier.[256]
Anne gave birth to seven children who survived beyond childbirth, four of whom died in infancy or early childhood.[257] She also suffered at least three miscarriages.[160] The physicianMartin Schöner attended her pregnancies.[71] Her second son succeeded James asKing Charles I. Her daughterElizabeth was the "Winter Queen" of Bohemia and the grandmother ofKing George I of Great Britain.
| Ancestors of Anne of Denmark[262] |
|---|
Anne of Denmark features as a central character in Jean Findlay's historical novel,The Queen's Lender (2022).[263]
Anne of Denmark features as a point of view character in Susanna Kearsley’s historical novel “The King’s Messenger” (2025).[264]
Anne had proved to be both dull and indolent, though showing a certain tolerant amiability so long as her whims were satisfied. She was interested in little that was more serious than matters of dress.;Barroll (2001), p. 27, "Her traditionally flaccid court image ...";Strickland, Agnes (1848).Anne of Denmark. Philadelphia: G. Barrie & son. p. 233.
Scotland
Venice
Anne of Denmark Born: 12 December 1574 Died: 2 March 1619 | ||
| Royal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant Title last held by James Hepburnas consort | Queen consort of Scotland 1589–1619 | Vacant Title next held by Henrietta Maria of France |
| Vacant Title last held by Catherine Parr | Queen consort of England and Ireland 1603–1619 | |
