CHAPTER TWELVE

ANNA OF DENMARK’S CORONATION AND ENTRY INTO EDINBURGH, 1590: CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND DIPLOMATIC PERSPECTIVES

Maureen M. Meikle

ANNA, our welbelovit Queene, Sat in hir goldin Coche so bricht, And aft er sche thir things had seene, Syne she beheld ane hevinly sicht.1

On 1 May 1590 James VI and his new , Anna of Denmark, arrived in the port of . Th eir fl eet of thirteen ships left Denmark on 21 April, so their voyage had been relatively swift and successful. Th is contrasted sharply with Anna’s earlier attempts to reach her new husband in the autumn of 1589, when aft er many anxious weeks the lovesick James had been forced to go in search of his bride. Th ey fi nally rendezvoused in Old Oslo on 19 November 1589 and were married in person on 23 November in the Bishop’s Palace. James was keen to return to Scotland, but the couple spent their honeymoon in Denmark. Th is was traditionally thought to have been at the invitation of Anna’s family, but the fact that Anna’s dowry worth £150,000 Scots had been returned to Denmark would have easily have persuaded the king to visit his new relatives. James offi cially accepted his mother-in-law Queen Sophie’s off er because of ‘tempesto mari’ (storms at sea). Th e Danes had not anticipated his romantic journey in search of Anna, but made up for their dowry embarrassment by magnifi cently entertaining the King and Queen of Scots for several months.2

1 John Burel, ‘Discription of the Queenis Maisties maist honourable entry into the toun of Edinburgh’, printed in Marriage of James and Anna, p. iii. For a further edition of this see note 19 below. 2 NAS, State Papers SP13/118; M. M. Meikle and H. M. Payne, ‘Anne (1574–1619)’, ODNB, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/559, accessed 11 Feb. 2007; CSP Scot., x, 299; Marriage of James and Anna, 39; O. G. Lundh and I. E. Sars (eds.), Norske Rigs- Registranter (Christiania, 1865), iii, 93–5.

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Th e Scots were conscious that they too would have to provide splendid festivities when the royal couple returned to Scotland. However, there had not been a ceremonial arrival, coronation and entry into Edinburgh of a queen consort since those of Mary of Guise in 1538 and 1540.3 Nei- ther had there been a Protestant ceremony for a queen consort, so Anna’s coronation would be groundbreaking. Anna could not have known that she would also be the last queen consort to be crowned at Holyrood. She had originally been expected to arrive in Scotland in early Septem- ber 1589, but her delay was fortuitous as Scotland was a poor nation in comparison to the wealth of Denmark-Norway. It was said that the country ‘was never in worse state to receive a Queen’ in August 1589. James had to ask nobles to provide foodstuff s for the Queen’s arrival, such as ‘fat beef and mutton on foot, wild fouls and venison or other stuff meet for this purpose’ from Patrick Vaus of Barnbarroch. Sir Rob- ert Muir of Caldwell was asked for ‘a hackney, for transporting of the ladies accompanying’ the queen. In February 1590 Edinburgh was asked to send ‘three or four ships to meet me here [Kronborg] and convoy me home’. James was still writing begging letters in April 1590 to solicit help for the queen’s imminent arrival. He asked to allow 1,200 pieces of English cloth to be exported free of charge, and 200 footmen were to be levied in Edinburgh to assist with the arrival of the Danish entourage.4 * * * James and Anna were near Leith at dawn on 1 May, but it is possible that they did not tie up and disembark in Leith harbour until 2pm. Th eir accompanying Danish and Scottish fl eet fi red a volley of cannon to announce their presence. Th is was answered by a pre-arranged vol- ley from Scottish ships in and around the harbour, organised by Francis Stewart, earl of Bothwell, as admiral of Scotland. A small party led by Ludovick Stewart, duke of Lennox, the earl of Bothwell and Lord John Hamilton boarded the fl agship to welcome the king and queen. Th e other nobles and their ladies had been urged not to crowd into Leith on

3 For the coronation of Mary of Guise see A. Th omas, ‘Crown imperial: coronation ritual and regalia in the of James V’, Chapter 2 above. 4 CSP Scot., x, 137, 277, 285; Selections from the Family Papers preserved at Caldwell, 3 vols., ed. W. Mure (Maitland Club, 1854), i, 83–4; Miscellany of the Maitland Club, i, II, eds. J. Dennistoun and A. Macdonald (1840), 278–9; Robert Bruce, Sermons, ed. W. Cunningham (Wodrow Society, 1843), 19–20.

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