Literature Review The outline of my research topic will encompass Anne of ’s role as in and , from 1589 to 1619, in order to investigate her political influence. To fully understand Anna’s political role, recent historiography surrounding influential women in early modern England and, in particular, the role of the queen consort will be evaluated in depth. My research will contribute to these two growing fields and fill a gap by re-examining Anna, who historians once considered frivolous and vain.

Accompanied by re-definitions of high politics at one end of the spectrum and court at the other, a re-assessment of her character throughout her reign as queen consort of Scotland and England is accordingly needed. The value of analysing Anna in a political light will be demonstrated in this essay through an examination of the historiography surrounding influential women in early modern England, queen consorts in general and then Anna herself.

Previous study has excluded women from high politics because it was considered part of the public sphere, rather than the private sphere that they belonged to. In her article ‘Women and Politics in Early Tudor England’, Harris challenges the traditional view of high politics by emphasising its redefinition to include the influence of women.1

Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford’s book, Women in Early Modern England, echoes this view. Although women exercised some influence in high politics, this is not

1 B. Harris., ‘Women and Politics in Early Tudor England’, The Historical Journal, 33:2 (1990), pp.259-281, p.259.

to say that they played the same role as men, which Harris is quick to point out.2

Women’s role in high politics was centred round their influence in the household, patronage and the court. Recent literature about women in early modern England has led to a re-assessment of some women involved in high politics, but accounts of Anne of

Denmark have remained largely unchanged. Therefore, this dissertation will contribute to the growing field of literature surrounding women in high politics in early modern England by re-examining the political influence of Anna of Denmark.

Before beginning to assess the extent of Anna’s political influence, it is important to evaluate the limits associated with the role of queen consort in early modern England.

There is not much literature about the role of queen consort in this period. Any literature that does refer to it tends to ridicule it, which is not helpful or accurate. Mendelson and

Crawford’s book proves informative once again as it clearly states that the queen consort played an important political role.3 However, they also emphasise the fact that their influence fluctuated in matters relating to the , such as where his sexual interest rested, his mistresses and if the queen consort was pregnant with his child.4 The most illuminating source on this topic seems to be ‘ in the : perspectives on the role of consort queens in Ancien Regime courts’ by Caroline Hibbard. Whilst the article focuses specifically on Henrietta Maria, it discusses some general aspects of the queen consort during the early modern period. Hibbard states that the queen consort

2 Ibid. p.260. 3 S. Mendelson and P. Crawford, Women in Early Modern England 1550-1720 (New , 2003), pp.367. 4 Ibid. p.369. was the most prominent position, second only to the king.5 She also emphasises that the queen consort brought a different element to the court with the creation of new positions, particularly for women.6 Hibbard’s article is a starting point for looking at the role of the queen consort but it is obviously limited because of the focus on Henrietta Maria.

McManus engages in some discussion about the queen consort by examining the role of the court in her book Women and Culture at the Courts of the Early Stuart Queens. She explains that the court of the queen consort was the main aspect of the role because it became the centre of cultural activity and was where influential women at court gathered. She also makes the point that the queen’s court was created in relation to the king’s court, even if this was in opposition, which is certainly true of .7

McManus provides some insight in to the role and her ideas will be useful to expand on. I intend to investigate this role further in my dissertation to ensure a true assessment of

Anna’s political influence.

Anna has been subject to criticisms in previous scholarship, which is partly down to the fact that she was of a gender that has received a poor assessment in historical scholarship. In 1959, Maurice Lee commented that, ‘she was not an interesting woman.

She had no particular distinction of mind or spirit. She showed occasional neurotic tendencies, she enjoyed intrigue, she was stupid, and she bore grudges’.8 Following up from this in 1986, Roy Strong said, ‘on the whole, Anne lived for pleasure… she

5 C.M. Hibbard, ‘Henrietta Maria in the 1630s: perspectives on the role of consort queens in Ancien Regime courts’ in I. Atherton and J. Sanders (eds.), The 1630s: interdisciplinary essays on culture and politics in the Caroline Modern Britain (Manchester, 2006), pp.92-110, p.92. 6 Ibid. p.94. 7 C. McManus, Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens (New York, 2003), pp.5.

8 http://www.oxforddnb.com deliberately avoided politics’.9 Negative images of Anne persist among other contemporary historians, such as Michael Lynch and Ethel Carleton Williams. However, it is my opinion that this negative image of Anne results from a lack of secondary literature on her altogether. In recent scholarship, scholars tend to cite the same quotes from the same historians and this suggests that Anne has simply been understudied, which had led to a negative consensus of her character. Fortunately, as Barroll makes reference to in his article ‘Theatre as Text: The Case of Queen Anna and the Jacobean

Court ’, a change in the scholarship of women in early modern England has allowed Anna’s reputation to become more positive.

There is little literature about Anna as queen consort of Scotland as historians tend to focus on her more apparent cultural influence in England and the subsequent activities of her court. However, it is Anna’s political activities in Scotland that led to her cultural influence in England. It appears that historians who criticise Anna have overlooked her political activities in Scotland and therefore, only see a woman who was involved in

‘frivolities’ such as court masquing. Clare McManus makes passing reference to Anna’s

Scottish political influence in her book Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart

Queens as she mentions events such as the disputed ownership of her dowry lands, struggle for the care of her children and her involvement in Scottish court factions.10

Barroll is most noted for his extensive biography Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: A

Cultural Biography, but he also contributes to the study of Anna in Scotland with his

9 J.L. Barroll, ‘The Court of the First Stuart Queen’, in L. L. Peck (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (Cambridge, 1991), pp.191-208, p.192.

10 McManus, Women and Culture, p.4. article ‘The Court of the First Stuart Queen’. His article looks at Anna from her origins in

Denmark through to her arrival in Scotland and the role that she came to play and moves on to looking at her role at the English court. In concluding his article, he highlights

Anna’s use of factionalism as a political tool and the importance this had in Scotland.

Although this article looks at Anna’s influence in Scotland, the account is brief and hastily moves towards the more familiar English rule. Maureen Meikle has contributed the most to this field with her two articles: ‘A Meddlesome : Anna of Denmark and

Scottish Court Politics, 1589-1603’ and ’Holde her at the Oeconomicke rule of the

House’: Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Finances, 1589-1603’. In both articles,

Meikle considers Anna’s influence at the Scottish court in detail, analysing her finances and involvement in factionalism. Meikle remains the most informative read on the subject, with her use of primary sources and extensive detail.

Comparatively speaking, work on Anna’s role in England is much more extensive.

Nonetheless, most of these accounts tend to focus entirely or mostly on her cultural activity. Whilst it is true that different circumstances in England meant that Anna’s political activity was not what it had been in Scotland, historians tend to overlook the political aspects of the cultural activity she engaged in. Clare McManus wrote an extensive text about Anna’s cultural activity, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of

Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court 1590-1619. The book looks at her

‘masque performances and cultural agency in terms of the political and cultural status of the elite female courtier and the nature of a queen’s court’.11 It is a solid account of

Anna’s cultural legacy but it contributes little to my agenda. Barbara Lewalski also writes about Anna’s cultural undertakings in her article, ‘Anne of Denmark and the Subversions of Masquing’. She states that the early masque was a site for ‘contestation about gender, power, and status’.12 This quote suggests that the masque held more significance than just cultural. This article focuses on Anna’s cultural influence, as can be seen in the , so it is not fair to criticise its lack of reference to politics.

Barroll’s biography of Anna is unrivalled in this field as it provides an extensive account of Anna’s activities in England, both political and cultural. Barroll states that he is concerned with ‘advancing the idea of Anna’s relevance to the artistic production of the very early Stuart court’ and ‘suggesting how our sense of the interaction between the arts and the early Stuart Court may require some reconfiguration’.13 Barroll justifies

Anna’s involvement in cultural rather than political areas by stating that she understood the different political situation in England and decided to take a new avenue in order to ensure the influence she had in Scotland was maintained.14 Barroll’s book is impressive and probably contains the best account of Anna to date. However, it lacks detail about her time in Scotland and neglects the political aspects of her cultural activity.

In her book Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens, McManus passively states that Anna’s political activities were evident in England through her

11 C. McManus, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court 1590-1619 (Manchester, 2002), pp.1. 12 B. Lewalski, ‘Anne of Denmark and the Subversions of Masquing’, Criticism, 35:3 (1993), pp.341-355, p.342. 13 Barroll, Cultural Biography, p.4. 14 Ibid. p.9. ‘refusal to take Protestant communion on her , in her marriages of her children and her involvement with the Spanish ambassador during those manoeuvrings’.15 In his article, ‘Unmasquing the Connections between Jacobean Politics and Policy: The Circle of Anna of Denmark and the beginning of the English Empire, 1614-18’, Roper clearly states that Anna succeeded in establishing herself as a political figure because she regained control of Henry, established her own English household against advice of the king and council and used her household for a nexus for political and literary patronage.16 In Thomas’ article, ‘Politics and Culture at the Jacobean Court: The Role of

Queen Anna of Denmark’, he actively chooses to focus on Anna’s political involvement because he believes it has been neglected by historians. He begins by stating that the image of Anna has recently changed because culture has been accepted as part of politics. He then goes on to explain that there are new understandings of court masques as forms of political expressions. However, his article looks at Anna’s political activities at the highest levels of government, as well as political involvement through masques and culture. 17 Although other texts make reference to Anna’s political influence, Thomas’ article is most useful because it follows the line of argument I intend to take in my dissertation.

15 McManus, Women and Culture, p.4. 16 L. H. Roper, ‘Unmasquing the Connections between Jacobean Politics and Policy: The Circle of Anna of Denmark and the beginning of the English Empire, 1614-18’ in C. Levin, J. Eldridge Carney and D. Barrett-Graves (eds.), ‘High and Mighty Queens’ of Early Modern England: Realities and Representations (New York, 2003), pp.45-60, p.47.

17 C. Thomas, ‘Politics and Culture at the Jacobean Court: The Role of Queen Anna of Denmark’, Quidditas, 29 (2008), pp.64-107, p.64.

My research will build on existing literature about influential women in early modern

England and show that they did in fact play a significant role in high politics, although not the same role as men. I also aim to set out the limits of the role of the queen consort so that Anna can be fairly assessed. This will be a challenge because there is not much literature on the subject but I believe it is essential for my dissertation to be credible.

From the research I have undertaken, I am yet to find an account of Anna that follows her throughout her role as queen consort in both Scotland and England. Neither is there an account that accurately expresses her political influence. The research gap I intend to fill is to provide a thorough account of Anna’s role as queen consort and her political activities in both England and Scotland. I will refrain from discussing her cultural influence because I believe that recent works on court masques and other cultural aspects of court have been conclusive in showing the political aspects of these activities.

I intend to show the political side to Anna’s cultural activities in order to add to my account of Anna as a significant political player that has been neglected in historiography.

From the research I have done so far, I have deduced a provisional structure for my dissertation. The first chapter will look at ‘images’ of Anna. This will include examining her use of depictions of Elizabeth in order to create an image that people could recognise. It will then go on to look at James and Anna’s marriage, which is often stereotyped as being poor but in reality that is not accurate. I will investigate how Anna used her marriage to enhance her political situation. Finally, the chapter will consider

Anna’s masques. This will be of equal consequence to the other two points of this chapter because as I have mentioned, historians tend to focus on this part of Anna’s rule and neglect other aspects. I intend to emphasise the political aspects of the masques that allowed Anna to continue a strong influence at the Jacobean court. My second and third chapters will take a chronological approach, with the second looking at the Scottish court and the third moving on to the English court. The second chapter about the

Scottish court will detail events in her reign as queen consort that reflect her political role. The third chapter will aim to do the same with the hope that by looking at cultural activities earlier on in my dissertation, I will be able to show that there are plenty of examples of Anna’s political influence at the English court to justify her significance as a political player.

There are several key issues I intend to address in my dissertation, the first being the negative connotations that exist about Anna. Although work has been done to eradicate this stereotype, there has not been enough literature and research to remove it completely. I will ensure this image is dismissed by emphasising her political influence and astuteness throughout her Scottish and English rule. I also intend to provide an account of Anna that is solely about her political influence. I will examine cultural issues but present them in a political light that eliminates ideas of Anna being unaware of the political situation. Finally, I want to use Anna as an example of the importance of the queen consort in this period. There is much historiography surrounding the role that slights and ridicules its influence. I believe this is inaccurate and intend to show the many aspects of this role and the influences it had. I am acutely aware of the lack of primary sources for this subject. The material is very sketchy and will take much amalgamation to result in a coherent dissertation. This is partly because there is not much material from Anna herself. There remain a few letters but nothing particularly substantial to show her opinions on matters at hand.

Although this is not ideal, there is a wealth of material that can be used. The Calendar of

State Papers for Scotland, which have recently been released to the public, and England will provide an insight into political matters that Anna was involved in. So far, I have used sources such as British History Online (BHO), State Papers Online (SPO) and Early

English Books Online (EEBO) to locate sources relating to Anna. From these databases,

I have discovered letters from Anna to various people or vice versa, letters about the

Queen and accounts of the Queen being received and entertained at various places.

Accounts from foreign ambassadors will prove useful in assessing Anna’s character because due to the social circles she moved in, others often entertained her. Some of the sources are pleas to Anna to help them with a situation and these will be key in showing her political involvement. There are a few larger bodies of sources such as the

Diaries of Anne Clifford and the Basilikon Doron, which sometimes makes reference to Anne.

Overall the major gap in this historiography rests on its failure to provide a coherent account of Anna’s political influence throughout her role as queen consort in

Scotland and England. Admittedly, Barroll provides a solid account of Anna’s activities in

England, yet this account fails to sufficiently acknowledge her political influence and there is little reference to her Scottish years. Nevertheless, Barroll’s account shows the changes that are occurring in the historiography of women in this period. The aim will therefore be to expand upon the discussion surrounding women in early modern

England and the role of the queen consort and apply this to Anne of Denmark. Through examining Anna’s Scottish and English rule, which have not been combined in research before, I hope to shed new light on understandings of her character and the subsequent political activities.

Bibliography

Barroll, J. L., ‘The Court of the First Stuart Queen’, in L. L. Peck (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (Cambridge, 1991), pp.191-208.

Barroll, J. L., Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: A cultural biography (Philadelphia,

2001).

Harris, B., ‘Women and Politics in Early Tudor England’, The Historical Journal, 33:2

(1990), pp.259-281.

Hibbard, C. M., ‘Henrietta Maria in the 1630s: perspectives on the role of consort queens in Ancien Regime courts’ in I. Atherton and J. Sanders (eds.), The 1630s: interdisciplinary essays on culture and politics in the Caroline Modern Britain

(Manchester, 2006), pp.92-110. Lewalski, B., ‘Anne of Denmark and the Subversions of Masquing’, Criticism, 35:3

(1993), pp.341-355

McManus, C., Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens (New York, 2003).

McManus, C., Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female

Masquing in the Stuart Court 1590-1619 (Manchester, 2002).

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1589-1603’ in J. Goodare and M. Lynch (eds.), The Reign of James VI (Scotland, 2000), pp.126-140.

Meikle, M. M., ‘’Holde her at the Oeconomicke rule of the House’: Anna of Denmark and

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Mendelson, S., and Crawford. P., Women in Early Modern England 1550-1720 (New

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Circle of Anna of Denmark and the beginning of the English Empire, 1614-18’ in C.

Levin, J. Eldridge Carney and D. Barrett-Graves (eds.), ‘High and Mighty Queens’ of

Early Modern England: Realities and Representations (New York, 2003), pp.45-60.

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1589-1603’ in J. Goodare and M. Lynch (eds.), The Reign of James VI (Scotland, 2000) pp.126-140.

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Denmark’, Quidditas, 29 (2008), pp.64-107. Wormald, J., ‘James VI and I: Two of One?’, History, 68:223 (1983) pp.187-209.