Anne of Denmark

Anne of Denmark, wife to King James I, lived from 1574 to 1619 and was Queen from 1603 to 1619.

As the Danish King was very wealthy, there were many candidates who wanted to marry Anne and her sister. Denmark finally decided to accept the proposal of King James VI of Scotland because this way the argument about the Orkney- and Shetland islands would finally be solved as they belonged to Anne’s dowry.

The marriage took place on August 20th, 1589, and was carried out without King James – it was a Scottish delegate who was present. There was another marriage celebration which took place on November 23rd, 1589, this time the King was present as well; the ceremony was repeated once again in the presence of the Danish royal family.

Anne was very popular among the Scottish people; this was both because of her youth and the splendour which accompanied her arrival in Scotland because the financial means of the royal family in Scotland were rather limited. However, court life changed after Anne’s arrival as she was the first Queen after 20 years of male reign.

Anne soon lost her popularity, this was especially due to the fact that she did not get pregnant. However, their first child was born on February 19th, 1594, and was called Henry Frederick. King James was happy about being provided with an heir as he thought this should confirm his claim on the English throne. Anne and James had several other children: Elisabeth (born on August 19th, 1596), Margaret (born on December 24th, 1598, but died at a very young age), Carl ( born on November 19th, 1600, later King Carl I of England ), Robert Bruce ( born on May 27th, 1602, died early ), Mary ( 1605 – 1607 ) and two other children who also died very early.

After James was crowned King of England, Anne visited England for the first time and discovered many things that were completely new to her. She was highly impressed by masques and thus decided to support Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. Apart from supporting English theatre, Anne also spent a lot of money on her clothing and on building projects and thus added to King James' financial troubles.

Anne had rather little influence on King James’ political decisions and they lived in different places for most part of the year. Nevertheless, they still appeared together for official occasions.

Sources

Panzer, Marita A. Englands Königinnen, Von den Tudors zu den Windsors, Regensburg: Pustet, 2001.

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