ANNE OF DENMARK (1574-1619), queen consort of King James I of England, was born in 1574, daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway.   In 1589, at age 15, she married King James (then King James VI of Scotland)  by proxy.   The royal couple proceeded to have eight children.   Their first child, Prince Henry, was born in 1594, followed by daughters Elizabeth (1596) and Margaret (1598), son Charles, later King Charles I of England (1600), son Robert (1602), an unnamed son who died in his infancy (1603), daughter Mary (1605), and lastly daughter Sophia (1606).   Child mortality rate was high in the seventeenth century, a fact even the royalty could not escape — in addition to the unnamed child, Anne lost Margaret at 14 months of age, Robert at the age of 4 months, Mary at 2 years, and one-day-old Sophia—only three made it to adulthood.   It was after Sophia's death that the couple, who had never had much in common, decided to live apart.

Although Anne had been brought up as a Lutheran, she had become a Roman Catholic during the 1590s.   When James succeeded to the English throne as James I after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, James and Anne were crowned together at Windsor Castle, but Anne caused embarrassment by refusing to take Anglican communion.   Anne's Roman Catholic sympathies continued to be a source of embarrassment to King James throughout his reign.

Anne devoted herself to court entertainments, spending extravagantly on the production of masques, including Jonson's Masque of Blackness, in which she herself took part as a masquer.   Anne also had a flair for expensive clothing, and costly building projects, which all added to the financial difficulties of James' reign.  The loss of a husband's affections, or financial troubles, however, were nothing compared to the direst loss of Anne's life:  Henry, Prince of Wales, future King of England, met an untimely death in November 1612, at the age of eighteen.  

Some three months later in February 1613, Anne's second child, Elizabeth, wed Frederick, Elector Palatine, in the palace at Whitehall.   In 1616, Anne saw her son Charles created Prince of Wales.   Anne of Denmark passed away on March 4 1619 at Hampton Court Palace, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Other Local Resources:

• Engraving of James I and His Family
  

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Books for further study:

Barroll, Leeds. Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: A Cultural Biography.
           University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.

Dunn-Hensley, Susan. Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria: Virgins, Witches, and Catholic Queens.
           London: Palgrave Macmillan, 201.

McManus, Clare. Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and
           Female Masquing in the Stuart Court (1590-1619).
           Manchester University Press, 2002.

Stevenson, David. Scotland's Last Royal Wedding: the Marriage of James VI and Anne of Denmark.
           Edinburgh: John Donald Publishing, Ltd., 1996.

Veerapen, Steven. Anna of Denmark: Queen in Two Kingdoms.
           Oxford: Peter Lang, 2021.

Williams, Ethel Carleton. Anne of Denmark: Wife of James VI of Scotland, James I of England.
           Harlow: Longmans, 1970.

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Article Citation:

Jokinen, Anniina. “Anne of Denmark.” Luminarium.
             23 Apr 2009. [Date when you accessed the page].              <http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/annedenmark.htm>

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