Today in 1589, Mary Queen of Scot’s son James married Anne of Denmark in Oslo. They had been married by proxy earlier that year, but damage to her ships and bad weather had prevented Anne from reaching her new kingdom of Scotland, and she was forced to stop her journey in Norway.
She was fifteen years old. James was twenty-three, and had been king of Scotland since his infancy, after his mother was forced to abdicate. Now he returned to Scotland with a new queen, and Anne was crowned in May 1590.
The marriage started off well, although when Anne did not immediately conceive, James faced attacks on his masculinity and ability to father a child, also due in part for his well known preference for his male favourites. There was relief when the queen finally gave birth to a son in 1594: Prince Henry Frederick.
But after Henry’s birth James and Anne began to clash, disagreeing on how to raise the new prince. Little Henry was placed with a guardian, but Anne did not want to be parted from her son. When James refused to back down, they grew distant – although more children followed: Elizabeth, who would briefly be queen of Bohemia, and the future Charles I, along with a number of children that did not survive infancy
When the crowns of England and Scotland were united and the royal family moved to London, Anne and James lived increasingly separate lives. Anne was a great patron of the arts, and fond of masques and pageants. Her expensive lifestyle put the already strained royal treasury under further pressure.
When Prince Henry died in 1612, and Princess Elizabeth married and left the country the following year, the couple grew ever more separate. Anne died in 1619 after a long illness, and James, also suffering from his own illness, was unable to attend her funeral.
Despite their often rocky marriage, her death was a blow to him. He did eventually recover, and lived until 1625, when their son Charles I took the throne.
Images: Anne of Denmark, by John De Critz, c.1605-1601, NPG 6918, © National Portrait Gallery, London. James VI and I, by John de Critz, c.1606, Dulwich Picture Gallery, via Wikimedia Commons.