by Неизвестный
Moving on via Frederiksborg and Horsholm,52 James reached the island of Hveen in the Sont near Copenhagen on 20 March, home and laboratory to the great Danish astronomer Tygo (latinised as Tycho) Brahe. Brahe had become famous for his 1572 tract discovering the new star in Cassiopeia, and for his lectures at the University of Copenhagen, where he had promulgated his belief that astronomy could only improve through systematic and accurate observation. Anna’s father, Frederick II, had sponsored Brahe’s research by giving him the island of Hveen, on which Brahe built his observatory, Uraniborg. Brahe’s home and laboratory was now a popular attraction on the academic tourist circuit. His meteorological diary for 1590 records that, in addition to long-term guests such as the Dutch instrument maker Jakob van Langgren, Brahe welcomed a constant stream of visitors, both noblemen and academics, from Scotland, Germany, Denmark and Eastern Europe.53 James had a particular interest in Brahe, because the astronomer was a correspondent of both George Buchanan and Peter Young. Brahe had sent Buchanan his treatise De nova stella, when he learned that Buchanan was composing a poem on the subject; when Buchanan failed to acknowledge receipt (though the book in fact had arrived), Brahe sent another copy, this time with a poem enclosed. Young had met Brahe during the embassy to Elsinore in 1586, and later sent Brahe a portrait of Buchanan, much to Brahe’s delight, promising to follow it with his ‘life’ of Buchanan.54 Brahe’s diary records that the King of Scots visited on 20 March 1590, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. According to Brahe, James smiled at seeing a portrait of Buchanan in his library, although, if true, this presumably suggests James’s desire to please Brahe rather than a love for Buchanan.55 Reports tell us that James discussed various scientific matters with Brahe, including the Copernican system, and was apparently impressed enough with the Dane to promise him copyright over his writings in Scotland for the next thirty years (copyright was a pet peeve of Brahe’s: he had already won blanket copyright for his works in the Holy Roman Empire and France).56 Three years later, James made this arrangement formal in a document that praised Brahe’s learning, which he knew not merely from others’ accounts or from reading his published work: ‘I have seen them with my own eyes, and heard them with my own ears, in your residence at Uraniborg, during the various learned and agreeable conversations which I then held with you, which even now effect my mind to such a degree, that it is difficult to decide, whether I recollect them with greater pleasure or admiration.’57
At Uraniborg, Brahe threw a banquet for James, with musicians, entertainers, and plenty of wine, at which the company talked in Latin. James produced three English sonnets on Brahe,58 and left his mark at Uraniborg, presenting Brahe with two English mastiffs to guard the gates, and setting on the door a Latin epigram: ‘Est nobilis era Leonis | Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos. | Jacobus Rex.’ (The Lion’s wrath is noble | Spare the conquered and overthrow the proud).59 James wrote the same lines in a hymn book belonging to King Christians tutor, Henrik Ramel, and it eventually became the motto on his twenty pounds coin.60 The King also composed a four-line Latin eulogy ‘in commendation of Tycho Brahe his works, and worth’, which Brahe proudly placed in his printed Works. An English version read,
What Phaeton dared, was by Apolle done
Who ruled the fiery horses of the sun.
More TYCHO doth; he rules the stars above
And is Urania’s favourite, and love.61
It appears, however, that James’s compositions were helped along by his Chancellor Maitland, a much more accomplished Latinist. Maitland too was inspired by the surroundings, and poured out Latin epigrams, on the Armada, the problems of the Pope, the ill fortunes of France, and Parma’s scheming with the Scots.62 He then moved on to another set, this time in honour of Brahe, with one on Uraniborg – ‘the Muses’ royal castle, jewel of the world, rivalling Olympus, | Nourishing house, your spirit’s equal to your name’. Maitland set his poems on the door of James’s bedchamber, where they were taken to be James’s, and remained for visitors to copy.63
Even as he was revelling in the high intellectual atmosphere, James was thinking ahead to his return to Scotland – which he envisioned in glorious terms. ‘I pray you,’ he wrote from Kronborg to the Kirk minister and Privy Councillor Robert Bruce on 19 February 1590, instructing him to ‘waken up all men to attend my coming, and prepare themselves accordingly.’ James had his reasons for wanting his homecoming to be spectacular. ‘For God’s sake, take all the pains ye can to toon our folks well, now against our homecoming; lest we be all shamed before strangers.’ He thought the homecoming ‘should be a holy jubilee in Scotland’. He asked Bruce to persuade the Provost of Edinburgh to kit out and send three or four ships to take him home, and to set top craftsmen to work getting the royal residences into shape. James signed off from both himself and his wife: ‘Thus recommending me and my new rib to your daily prayers, I commit you to the only All-Sufficient.’64
Maitland had wanted James to return to Scotland directly after the ceremony and before ‘the closing of the seas’ in winter, but he had quickly realised he was to be foiled in that ambition. Maitland had then opposed the trip to Denmark, knowing only too well ‘what occasion of expenses he should have in a foreign part’. German dukes were due to visit, which would mean ‘exorbitant charges’ to ensure that the King of Scots were not hopelessly outclassed. Maitland was by no means sure that James should even meet foreign princes: ‘interview of princes,’ he confided to Robert Bruce, ‘produces not oft the expected fruit, but breeds rather emulation, than increase of amity and good intelligence.’ Moreover, sailing home from Denmark would be longer and more dangerous than sailing home from Norway would have been. Foiled in all his ambitions, Maitland could now only turn his attentions to a campaign ‘to conserve his Majesty’s toucher [dowry]’ – to prevent James and his retinue from merrily spending all the financial advantage the marriage had brought, although he knew he could not save it all. By December, James had retrenched his retinue to fifty men,65 but even that was costly. The only remedy was ‘to haste his Majesty’s returning’: Maitland dealt with the Danes to expedite the preparation of the navy, and in mid-February nudged Robert Bruce to encourage the sending of Scottish ships and skilled mariners.66 By April 1590, the Gideon was patched, and it was time for James to present his Queen to Scotland. By now, Anna’s arrival was eagerly awaited: it was reported in mid-March that a messenger returning from Denmark reported ‘very confidently that the Queen of Scots is already discovered to be with child’, although a month later that rumour ‘is not so generally embraced as before it hath been’.67 James’s final engagement in Denmark was to attend the much-delayed marriage of Anna’s elder sister Elizabeth, his first choice as bride, to Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, on 19 April.68 Two days after the wedding, James and Anna, accompanied by a sizeable Danish embassy set sail in thirteen ships. The fleet arrived in the Firth of Leith on 1 May 1590, landing at about 2 p.m.
Scotland was determined to impress her new Queen from the start. James led Anna on to dry land through a ‘trance’, or covered way, covered with tapestry and cloth of gold, designed so ‘that her feet touch not the earth’. Accommodating Anna’s lack of Scots, the first oration of welcome was made by James Elphinstoun, a senator of the College of Justice, in French,69 while great volleys were fired from Edinburgh Castle and the town’s ships. At the church of Leith, James listened to a sermon of thanksgiving by Patrick Galloway, and then the couple retired to their lodgings. Since, despite the forewarning, the elaborate celebrations were not fully ready, the couple had to lodge in the ‘King’s Wark’ while the final preparations were made for Anna’s state entry into Edinburgh. It was therefore five days before the royal couple rode from Leith to Holyroodhouse. Well aware that Scotland lacked a vehicle grand enough to convey its new Queen, Denmark had sent over with their daughter a coach of silver, dressed with cloth of gold and purple velvet, to be drawn by eight white horses; James, Lennox, Bothwell and Lord John Hamilton rode alongside on horseback. W
hen they reached the palace, James took his Queen by the hand and took her through to the Great Hall, and then to the chambers, which had been newly refurbished with cloth of gold and silver.70
Scarcely had he set foot on the soil of his homeland before James was reminded of the rebellious Kirk that he had so happily forgotten during his Scandinavian idyll. Both James and the Danes wanted Anna’s coronation and entry to take place on a Sunday, but some Kirk ministers, led by John Davidson, vehemently opposed this use of the Sabbath, alleging that a Sunday coronation would be unlawful. Even more controversial was James’s wish for Anna to be anointed Queen. He chose Robert Bruce to perform the ceremony, but predictably the Kirk objected to the anointing, which they regarded as ‘popish’. James stood his ground, pointing out that anointing dated back to Old Testament times and that, if they truly objected to Bruce, one of their most prominent brethren, being given the duty, then he could quite easily appoint a bishop to do it. It was a clever tactic. After much soulsearching, the Kirk sanctioned the Sunday coronation, the reasoning being that it was merely a minister’s blessing of ‘a solemn oath passed mutually betwixt the prince and the subjects, and from both to God’. Even the anointing was justified, not as a minister’s duty, but as a ‘civil ceremony’ that a subject might perform at the command of his King, ‘not as a minister, but as a civil person, providing declaration were made by the anointer in time of the action to that sense, that all opinion of superstition be removed’. After much debate, Bruce was allowed to carry out the anointing.71
While James’s own coronation had necessarily been rushed on account of his infancy, Anna was afforded the full ordeal.72 The ceremony, which took place on 17 May at Holyrood’s Abbey Church, lasted all of seven hours, with sermons and speeches in Latin and French as well as Scots, none of which languages Anna understood well. The anointing was the ritual’s centrepiece. The Countess of Mar was selected to open the Queen’s gown, and Bruce poured on her shoulder and breast ‘a bonny quantity of oil’.73 Anna received the sceptre from Lord John Hamilton, and her sword of state from the Earl of Angus, and pronounced the Kirk-friendly oath in which she had been carefully coached:
I, Anna, by the grace of God, Queen of Scotland, profess, and before God and his angels wholly promise, that during the whole course of my life, so far as I can, shall sincerely worship that same eternal God according to his will revealed unto us in the Holy Scriptures, and according to those precepts which are in the same scriptures commanded and directed: That I shall defend the true religion and worship of God, and advance the same, and shall withstand and despise all papistical superstitions, and whatsoever ceremonies and rites contrary to the word of God: And that I shall further and advance justice and equity, and maintain the same, and shall procure peace to the Kirk of God within this kingdom, and to the subjects thereof: so God, the father of all mercies, have mercy upon me.74
The ambassadors expressed their ‘great admiration’ for an oration by Andrew Melvill, and even the King had to acknowledge that Melvill ‘had honoured him and his country that day’. He promised never to forget the sermon, and had it rushed to the printer the very next day to be published as Stephanischion.75 James, who had been seen to bestow favour on Lennox and Bothwell since his return, diplomatically passed the matrimonial crown to Maitland for placing on Anna’s head, and chose the day for rewarding the Chancellor for all his recent support by creating him Lord Thirlestane.76
The following Tuesday, Anna made her formal entry into Edinburgh, entering in her white coach drawn by eight horses at the West Port, preceded by the Scottish and Danish noblemen, and followed by their ladies. The coach was accompanied by the citizens who held a purple velvet sheet over the coach, and the entire procession was headed by twenty-four youths apparelled in cloth of silver and white taffeta, with golden chains around their necks, legs and arms, and visors covering their faces, the intention apparently to ‘mak[e] them seem Moors’, all ‘very gorgeous to the eye’. At the West Port, Anna was greeted by an oration made by John Russell,77 whose son then appeared from inside a descending globe, which opened to reveal an angel who presented her with keys, a Bible and a Psalm book. As she processed, there were further orations by Hercules Rollock, Master of the Grammar School, and by the young son of the prominent Kirk minister John Craig. On Bow Street, another globe was placed on a table, with a boy sitting representing James, who made an oration. At the Butter Trone, nine women, representing the nine Muses, sang psalms. The Tolbooth presented five boys in women’s clothing representing Peace, Plenty, Policy, Justice, Liberality and Temperance.78 Entering St Giles’, Anna heard Robert Bruce deliver a half-hour sermon, which presumably she could not follow, before emerging again into the town. At the Cross, the Queen was greeted by Bacchus ‘winking, and casting’ wine ‘by cups full upon the people’, to a musical accompaniment, with the Goddess of Corn and Wine crying out in Latin ‘that there should be plenty thereof in her time’, while the Cross itself ‘ran claret wine upon the causeway’ – perhaps a backhanded tribute to the Queen’s bibulous motherland. Moving to the Salt Trone, James’s genealogy was represented, with one king lying at their feet ‘as if he had been sick’: Anna’s presence revived him, to give a Latin oration, while the Nether Bow had been ‘beautified’ with an image of ‘a marriage of a King and his Queen, with all their nobility about them’. A representation of the seven planets was followed by a more tangible treat. ‘There was let down unto her, from the top of the port, in a silk string, a box covered with purple velvet; whereupon was embroidered A. for Anna, her Majesty’s name, set with diamonds and precious stones, esteemed at twenty thousand crowns, which the township gave for a present to her Highness.’ Anna probably did not know the story behind the generous gift. Protocol required that Edinburgh give Anna a gift, but there was no money available. Finally, it was remembered that James, in need of cash, had given to the city a pledge of ‘a tablet of gold in a case with a diamond and an emerald’ in return for a loan of £4,000. And thus, with his blessing, James’s pawned jewels were presented as Edinburgh’s heartfelt gift to their new Queen.79
The Danish retinue was not merely decorative. The wedding settlement still had plenty of creases to be ironed out, and there was fierce bargaining going on behind the ambassadorial smiles. On 12 May, the Danes gained Falkland and parts of Fife (symbolised by a stone and some earth, solemnly handed over); on the 13th Dunfermline; and on the 14th Linlithgow.80 After some final tidying up of the paperwork, the ambassadors were feasted in splendour at Edinburgh’s Coinhouse on the 23rd, and finally took their leave on 26 May.81 Anna was left with only sixteen attendants, instructed by her mother Queen Sophia ‘to attend upon her daughter the Queen of Scots, till she might be acquainted with this country and language’.82 In time the Danes left one by one, being replaced by Scots, although one maid, Anna Roos, was to stay with Anna until the Queen’s death.83
James was concerned that Anna’s household should have a Scottish presence, and sent for Sir James Melville of Halhill, informing him that, to fulfil a promise to Queen Sophia and the Danish Council, he was appointing ‘good and discreet company’ around the Queen. In Melville’s own account, James explained that only one other man had been made privy to the plan but somehow Anna had got wind of it, and supposed that Melville had been placed there to ‘inform her rightly’ of Scottish court etiquette, and instruct her how she should behave towards the King and each nobleman and woman: in short, ‘to be her keeper’. At dinner, in front of the Queen, James talked Melville up, pointing out his long-standing dealings with Denmark, and Queen Sophia’s personal approbation of him, with the purpose ‘to cause her Majesty [to] take the better liking of me’. The strategy failed. When James presented Sir James to the Queen after dinner, telling her that he would be her ‘counsellor and Gentleman of her Chamber’, Anna ‘took coldly’ with Melville. A few days later, she asked him outright ‘if I was ordoned to be her keeper’. Melville handled the situation tactfully, pointing out to the Queen that she was ‘k
nown to be descended of so noble and princely parents, and so well brought up, that she needed no keeper’, only honourable servants. Anna replied Melville had been ‘evil done to’, and that ‘some indiscreet enviers’ had taken advantage of her when ‘she was yet ignorant of every man’s qualities’. Melville assured her that his job was precisely ‘to instruct such indiscreet persons’ and to give them an example of how to behave with the Queen, and ‘to hold them a-back’. In time, Anna appeared ‘well content with my service’, and Sir James struck up a long-standing relationship with the Queen.84
James saw his return to Scotland as a clean start. On Sunday 24 May, attending a sermon by Patrick Galloway at the Great Kirk, he took the opportunity to reinforce his previous promises to ‘prove a loving, faithful and thankful king; to amend his former negligence, and to execute justice without feed or favour, and to see the kirks better provided’. He confessed that ‘many things had been out of order before, partly through the injury of the time, and partly through his youth’; now, however, ‘he had seen more, and being married, he said he would be more staid’. As soon as the Danes had departed, he promised, he would devote all his attentions to proving his promises.85 But, as Calderwood noted tartly, ‘the King soon forgot his promises made in the Great Kirk’.86 At a General Assembly of the Kirk in August, James paid lip service to various Kirk demands, but failed to satisfy any of his hearers. In a last-ditch attempt ‘to please the Assembly’, he started to praise God that he had been ‘born in such a time of the light of the Gospel, to such a place as to be king in such a kirk, the sincerest kirk in the world’. Even Geneva, he alleged, celebrated the papist holidays of Easter and Christmas. As for ‘our neighbour Kirk in England’, they celebrated little more than ‘an evil said mass in English’. He charged his people ‘to stand to your purity’ and proclaimed that ‘I, forsooth, so long as I brook my life and crown, shall maintain the same against all’. The plan worked, prompting the Assembly to a lengthy ‘praising of God’ and a quarter of an hour of prayers for the King.87 It was a rare moment of unity.