Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland

Abstract

Anna of Denmark (1574–1619) had her own household in Scotland in the years 1590–1603 separate from that of the King. Costume accounts shed light on this household and its hierarchy, detailing clothes for servants, gentlemen and gentlewomen. Around twenty-five Danish servants had positions, including her secretary, maidens of honour, cooks and stable men. The dress of her riding entourage of pages, lackeys, gentlewomen and maidens of her chamber offered the most conspicuous opportunity for display. Some costume may have been Danish in fashion or in colours representing Anna’s family. Fashioning a Danish-style court may have been a deliberate choice to emphasise the value of the royal marriage as an international union, strengthening Anna’s identity and promoting her independent agency as a royal person.

Notes

1 The author is indebted to Dr Jemma Field for many discussions on Anna of Denmark and her material culture and also to these published sources: Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark, Queen of England (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 5, 14-35; M. M. Meikle, ‘“Holde her at the Oeconomicke Rule of the House”: Anna of Denmark and Scottish court finances, 1589–1603’, in E. Ewan and M. M. Meikle (eds), Women in Scotland, c. 1100–c. 1750 (East Linton, 1999), pp. 105-11; M. M. Meikle, ‘A Meddlesome Princess: Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Politics, 1589–1603’, in J. Goodare and M. Lynch (eds), The Reign of James VI (East Linton, 2000), pp. 126-40.

2 The major manuscript sources for the costume and household of Anna of Denmark are National Records of Scotland (hereafter NRS), E35/13, E35/14, GD16/31/6 and National Library of Scotland (hereafter NLS), Adv. MS 34.2.17; Amy Juhala, ‘The Household and Court of James VI of Scotland’ (Phd diss., Edinburgh University, 2000), pp. 305-6, 329-33.

3 NRS E35/13 (2), p. 5, ‘ane goun of the Dence fassone’.

4 Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark, Queen of England (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 6-7; D. Scarisbrick, ‘Anne of Denmark’s Jewellery Inventory’, Archaeologia 109 (1991), pp. 193-238.

5 Henry Harington, Nugae Antiquae, vol. 1 (London, 1804), pp. 390-7.

6 Calendar State Papers Scotland (hereafter CSP Scotland), 13 vols (Edinburgh, 1898-1969), vol. 11, no 277.

7 C. H. McIlwain, The Political Works of James I (Cambridge MA, 1918), p. 45, quoted in E. Snook, Women, Beauty and Power in Early Modern England (Basingstoke, 2015), p. 90.

8 Sydney Anglo, Images of Tudor Kingship (London, 1992), pp. 6-10.

9 British Library (hereafter BL), Add. MS 22591, ‘The Five Years of King James’, ff. 2r-24v., f4r.

10 Steve Murdoch, Britain, Denmark, Norway and the House of Stuart (East Linton, 2003), pp. 3-4.

11 Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie (Edinburgh, 2005), pp. 239-42.

12 Thomas, Princelie Majestie, pp. 45-6: NRS E33/1 ff. 8-15; NRS E34/9: NLS Adv. MS 29.2.5.

13 Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 12 (London, 1711), p. 789.

14 Thomas Thomson, History of the Kirk by David Calderwood, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1844), pp. 98-9.

15 CSP Scotland, vol. 10, p. 115.

16 Thomas, Princelie Majestie, p. 39.

17 CSP Scotland, vol. 10, pp. 372, 377, 406, 509; NLS MS 13500, f.7.

18 J. T. Gibson Craig, Papers Relative to the Marriage of James the Sixth of Scotland and Anna of Denmark (Edinburgh, 1828), p. 27.

19 CSP Scotland, vol. 10, pp. 373, 546; NRS E35/13 (2) pp. 10, 17; Thomas Riis, Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot, vol. 2 (Odense, 1988), pp. 288, 294, 296-7.

20 CSP Scotland, vol. 10, p. 611.

21 NLS Adv. MS 34.2.17.

22 Juhala, ‘Household and Court of James VI’, p. 39.

23 Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 1, pp. 274-7; Meikle, ‘Oeconomike rule’, p. 106.

24 NRS E35/13 (1) p.1, (3) pp. 2-3, (8) pp. 1, 84.

25 NRS E35/13 (8) pp. 82-4; Will of Mungo Russell, NRS CC8/8/25, p. 373.

26 NRS E35/13 (8) p. 84: Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in England, 1509–1603, vol. 8 (London, 1893), p. 82; Returns of Aliens in London, 1571–1597, vol. 10, part 2 (London, 1902), p. 283.

27 NRS E35/13: CSP Scotland, vol. 10, p. 333, 765; Annie Cameron, Warrender Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1932), pp. 358-80.

28 NRS E35/13, (2) p. 22.

29 NRS E35/13 (2) p. 55; NRS E35/14 f16r, f17r. Marie Stewart and Margaret Winster.

30 Jemma Field, ‘The Wardrobe Goods of Anna of Denmark, Queen Consort of Scotland and England’, Costume 51 (2017), pp. 3-27.

31 NRS E35/14; E35/13 (2) p. 2 ‘riding cloak and safeguard’; E35/13 (4) pp. 1-2 ‘for the bed’; E35/13 (8) p. 71, ‘over heavy’.

32 NRS E21/105, pp. 340-1; E34/43 (2); Exchequer Rolls, vol. 12, p. 119; Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 2, p. 287.

33 L. Laursen, Kancelliets Brevbøger 1588–1592 (Copenhagen, 1908), pp. 330-1; David Stevenson, Scotland’s Last Royal Wedding (Edinburgh, 1997), p. 128.

34 NRS E35/14 f.26r; Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 2, pp. 284-5.

35 William Macray, ‘Third Report on the Royal Archives of Denmark’, Appendix to the 47th Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of Records (London, 1886), pp. 29, 30, 38, 42.

36 Stevenson, Scotland’s Last Royal Wedding, pp. 83, 85.

37 NRS E35/14 f.23r -25r.

38 NRS E35/14 f.29r, 32r.

39 NLS Adv. MS 32.4.17.

40 NRS E22/105 p.465; E35/13 (1) pp. 17-8; Janet Arnold, ‘The Development of Women’s Riding Dress’, in Amy de la Haye and Elizabeth Wilson (eds), Defining Dress: Dress as Object, Meaning, and Identity (Manchester, 1999), pp. 12-13.

41 Gibson Craig, Marriage of King James the Sixth, p. 28, 36.

42 NRS E35/13 (1) pp. 17-8; E21/105 pp. 465-6; GD16/31/6.

43 NLS Adv. MS 34.2.17 includes a household list of 1592 which does not mention the ‘Moir’.

44 Lucinda Dean, ‘Enter the Alien: Foreign Consorts and their Royal Entries into Scottish Cities, c. 1449–1594’, in R. Mulryne and A.M. Testaverde with I. Aliverti (eds), The Iconography of Power: Ceremonial Entries in Early Modern Europe (Ashgate, 2015), pp. 267-95, p. 273; Maureen Meikle, ‘Anna of Denmark’s Coronation and Entry into Edinburgh, 1590: Cultural, Religious and Diplomatic Perspectives’, in J. Goodare and A MacDonald (eds), Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden, 2008), pp. 277–294; Stevenson, Royal Wedding, p. 109; Michael Bath, ‘“Rare shewes and singular inventions”: The Stirling Baptism of Prince Henry’, Northern Renaissance 4 (2012). http://www.northernrenaissance.org/rare-shewes-and-singular-inventions-the-stirling-baptism-of-prince-henry/

45 Jemma Field, ‘Anna of Denmark: A Late Portrait by Paul van Somer’, British Art Journal 18 (2017), pp. 50-5.

46 HMC 6^th Report and Appendix (London, 1877), pp. 324-6; BL, Add. MS 81599, item 6.

47 NRS E35/14 f.24r.

48 NRS E35/14 f.27r-v, 34v; the colours used for the ten seats in the chapel were, ‘tue reid: tue blew: ane poupour: ane green: ane yallow: ane graye: ane blak’ and ‘incarnadin vellvot perlit with sillver’, NRS E35/13 (3) p. 22A.

49 NRS E35/14 f. 23r, 24r, 33v; E35/13 (2) pp. 7, 14; William Fowler, Trew Reportarie (Edinburgh, 1594); CSP Scotland, vol. 11, no 326.

50 NRS E35/14 f.32r.

51 NRS E21/105 pp.466-7, October 1590.

52 E21/105, September 1589 and May 1590.

53 E35/13, (1) pp. 28-9; Juhala, ‘Household and Court of James VI’, p. 331.

54 E35/14 f.20r – f.23v; CSP Domestic: Charles I, 1625–26 (London, 1858), p. 526; Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 2, p. 281.

55 NRS E35/13 (2) p. 55; NRS E35/14 f16r, f17r.

56 Karen Hearn (ed.), Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England, 1530–1630 (London, 1995), pp. 194-5: HMC 6^th Report and Appendix, p. 327; Calendar of Cecil Papers, vol. 19 (1965), pp. 22, 209, 355-6, 440-1; NRS E21/76 p. 551.

57 Oliver Millar, ‘The Inventories and Valuations of the King’s Goods 1649–1651’, The Volume of the Walpole Society 43 (1971-2), p. 67; Oliver Miller, ‘Abraham van der Doort’s Catalogue of the Collection of Charles I’, The Volume of the Walpole Society 37 (1958-9), p. 197; Scottish National Portrait Gallery, PG 1111.

58 CSP Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 372; Laursen, Kancelliets Brevbøger 1588–1592, p. 160.

59 Walter Seton, ‘The Early Years of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Charles, Duke of Albany’, Scottish Historical Review, 13, no 52 (1916), pp. 366-79, p. 377.

60 J. Balfour Paul, Scots Peerage, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 266, 433, 580.

61 NRS E22/105 p. 464; Elizabeth Gibb died at Leith, 10 May 1595, NRS ECC8/8/35; Juhala, ‘Household and Court of James VI’, p. 111; NRS E35/13 p. 9.

62 E35/14 f.11r, ‘fine black silk for your Majestie to vewe with’.

63 Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 2, pp. 294-5.

64 P. A Munch, ‘Beretning om Prindsesse Annas Giftermaal med Jacob d. 6te af Skotland’, Norske Samlinger 1 (Christiania, 1852), pp. 451-512, pp. 467, 474, 476, 486-7; Stevenson, Royal Wedding, p. 137; Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 2, p. 296.

65 Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 544-57; William Fraser, Haddington, vol. 1, pp. 101-2.

66 NRS E31/16.

67 NLS Adv. MS 34.2.17., ‘planfulness’ — extent, ‘plane’ — complain, ‘hard delling’ — unfair bargain.

68 NRS E35/13 p. 79.

69 Juhala, ‘Household and Court of James VI’, p. 198; NLS Adv. MS. 34.2.17; Marriage of King James the Sixth, p. 28; Stevenson, Royal Wedding, pp. 101, 104, 107.

70 NLS Adv. 34.2.17 f.131r; NRS E35/13 (2) p.27; Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 2, pp. 296-7.

71 NRS E35/13 (2) p. 38; NLS Adv. MS 34.2.17; William Fraser, Memorials of the Family of Wemyss of Wemyss, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 31.

72 NRS E35/13 (2) p.3, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17; E35/14 f.30r.

73 NRS E35/14 f.28r, 29r, 30r; NLS Adv. 34.2.17 f.131r.

74 NRS E35/13 (2) pp. 25-6.

75 NRS E35/13 (2) pp. 61-3; (6) pp. 2-3; (8) pp. 76-7.

76 NRS E35/13 (2) pp. 25-6; compare Riis, Auld Acquaintance, vol. 2, p. 284, ‘Elizabeth Clausdatter’.

77 NRS E35/13 (6) p. 4; NLS Adv. MS 33.1.1 vol. 6, f.25; David Cowan, Historical Account of the Noble Family of Kennedy (Edinburgh, 1849), p. 21: Letters to King James the Sixth from the Queen, Prince Henry, Prince Charles etc. (Edinburgh, 1835), p. lxxii-lxxiii.

78 NRS E35/13 (2) p. 28; E35/14, f1r; NLS Adv. Ms. 34.2.17: CSP Scotland, vol. 10, nos 753, 754, 756.

79 Jenny Wormald, ‘View from the throne’, in J. Goodare and M. Lynch, Reign of James VI, p. 253.

80 NRS E35/13 (1) pp. 33-4; CSP Scotland, vol. 11, p. 533, 535; Basilikon Doron (London, 1887), p. 151.

81 NRS E35/13 (2) p. 28.

82 Will of Mungo Russell, NRS CC8/8/25, p. 373.

83 Thomson, History of the Kirk by David Calderwood, vol. 5, p. 409.

84 Sara Jayne Steen, Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart (Oxford, 1994), pp. 192-3.

85 Stevenson, Royal Wedding, pp. 11-15.

86 NRS E22/9 f60r; CSP Scotland, vol. 11, no 63.

87 Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII (Leeds, 2007), p. 57.

88 Jean-François Dubost, ‘Le corps de la reine, objet politique: Marie de Médicis’, in Isabelle Poutrin and Marie-Karine Schaub (eds), Femmes et pouvoir politique. Les princesses d'Europe XV–XVIII siècle (Paris, 2007), p. 247.

89 Elizabeth Currie, ‘Clothing and a Florentine style, 1550–1620’, Renaissance Studies 23 (2009), pp. 33-52, pp. 35-6, 38.

90 Foedera, vol. 15 (London, 1715), p. 264.

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Michael Pearce

Michael Pearce is currently working on editions of ‘King James VI’s English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts 1588–1596’ and ‘Records of the Edinburgh Incorporation of Masons and Wrights 1553–1583’ to be published by the Scottish History Society. His research focuses on material culture in Scotland in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He has published on inventories and domestic space in Architectural Heritage and articles on beds of ‘chapel’ form in Scotland, and the influential role of French craftsmen in Edinburgh furniture-making, in Regional Furniture.