tempest into Norway, he, impatient of the that the king of Denmark was descended but of merchants, and that few made account of him or his country, but such as spoke the Dutch tongue." "Tis amazing that any one of James's elevated station should be so grossly ignorant. Had he never read of the power of the Danes, their ravages and conquests both in England and Scotland? was he never informed that marriage had been contracted between his own family and that of Denmark? nor that in the year 1468 Christian I. king of Norway and Denmark, renounced all right and title for himself and his successors to James III. king of Scotland, to the isles of Orkney, upon a marriage between him and his daughter"? "Tis plain he knew none of these things, and therefore was miserably qualified to contract alliances, or enter into treaties.However Melvil informed him of these matters, which made him so exceeding glad, "that he said he would not for his head but that he had shewn the verity unto him." "Sometime after, as said is, he called his council together in his cabinet, and told them how he had been advising about his marriage fifteen days, and asked council of God by devout prayer thereon, and that he was now resolved to marry in Denmark." The lady whom James took to wife was Ann, second daughter of Frederick king of Denmark. Our historians give her the character of a courteous and humane princess, and one in whom there was much goodness. It will not perhaps be unacceptable to the reader if I give the character she bore among foreigners, C b Camden's Britannia, by Gibson, edit. 2. p. 1470. d Lond. 1722. detention of his bride, went thither and con who, oftentimes, speak more justly than subjects. "She was naturally, says the duke of Sully, bold and enterprizing she loved pomp and grandeur, tumult and intrigue. She was acquainted with all the civil factions, not only in Scotland, occasioned by the catholics, whom she supported, and had even first encouraged; but also in England, where the discontented, whose numbers were not inconsiderable, were not sorry to be supported by a princess destined to become their queen. In public she affected absolutely to govern her son (prince Henry) whom it was said she thought to inspire with sentiments in favour of Spain: for none doubted but she was inclined to declare herself absolutely on that side. Afterwards, he tells us, he received letters from Beaumont, (the French resident) informing him, that the queen was disposed to pleasures and amusements, and seemed wholly engaged in them, and nothing else. She so entirely neglected or forgot the Spanish politics, as gave reason to believe she had in reality only pretended to be attached to them, through the necessity of eventual conjunctures"." Whoever knows the rank of Sully, as favourite and prime minister to Henry the Great of France, and ambassador extraordinary to James, will pay great deference to his account; for it cannot but be supposed he had the best informations. And indeed from Winwood's state papers the character of queen Ann will be found nearly as Sully has given it, but different with regard to her inclinations to Spain, from what Beaumont informed him. I have before observed, that while in Scotland * Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, p. 211, 213. vol. I. 12mo. Lond. 1751. b Id. vol. II. p. 179. summated the marriage. From whence, upon invitation, he proceeded into Denmark, where being royally entertained, he she employed a person to Bothwell, to hasten him home, assuring him of assistance, in order that Gowry's death might be revenged *. And Mr. Winwood, in a letter to the lord Cranborne, Sept. 12, 1604, O. S. says, "the followers of the constable (of Castile) in their relation of England, gave forth that the queen was wholly theirs." Mr. Levinus Muncke (secretary to the earl of Salisbury) in a letter to Mr. Winwood, Oct. 29, 1605, tells him, "Mons. Caron (the Dutch ambassador) with much ado spake first with the queen, and afterward with the prince. I was glad, adds he, I was made an instrument, under my lord, of his accesses; for otherwise, without his assistance, I fear me, he had never spoken' with her; for let me tell you in your ear without offence, she is meerly Spanish, and had promised Arenberg (ambassador from the arch-dukes) not to speak with Caron. But the best is, she carrieth no sway in state matters, and præter rem uxoriam hath no great reach in other affairs." However the Spaniards valued her friendship, and upon a letter from her to the queen of Spain, "a large pension was granted to one Carre, a Scott." Sir Charles Cornwallis, ambassador in Spain, in a letter to the earl of Salisbury, April 13, 1609, writes, that "the [Spanish] ambassador hath advertised that the queen should say unto him, he might one day peradventure see the prince on a pilgrimage at St. Jago. Whereupon, tho' doubtless she spake in mer a See note 5. b Winwood, vol. II. p. 31, c Id. p. 155. spent the winter, and returned not into Scotland till May 20, 1590. During the remainder of his reign in riment, they here much infer, and seem to hope that his majesty will be contented to send him hither to receive the rest of his education here, yf the inclination of alliance continues"." So that from these passages 'tis plain Sully did not misrepresent this queen, in saying, "no one doubted but she was inclined to declare herself absolutely on the Spanish side." As to pomp and grandeur, pleasures and amusements, whoever will take the trouble of consulting the pages referred to in the margin, will see abundant proof of it. For from these it appears that her inclinations were much towards masques and revels, state and grandeur, which probably ran her in debt, and made her melancholy, 'till the king augmented her jointure, and paid her debts, Sir Edward Peyton represents her indeed in a much worse light. According to him, besides Gowry, [it should be Gowry's brother] she had a great number of gallants, both in Scotland and England *, But what he says on this head, is to me so very im probable, that I will not trouble the reader with it. -She died of a dropsy March 1, 1618-19, at Hampton-Court, without much lamentation from the king, though she was not unbeloved by the people. Osborn observes, that he himself saw "James one evening parting from the queen, and taking his leave at her coach side, by kissing her sufficiently to the middle of the shoulders; for so low, says he, she went and 454. b Id. vol. II. p. 44. vol. III. p. 117. d Peyton's Divine Catastrophe of c Id. p. 117. the House of Stuarts, p. 10, 11. Lond. 1731. 8vo. Scotland, he was engaged in troubles with his nobility; in quarrels with his clergy; and in writing his paraphrase on the Revelations. His Dæmonologie, stiled a rare bare all the days I had the fortune to know her; having a skin far more amiable than the features it covered, though not the disposition, in which report rendered her very debonair." But notwithstanding the debonairness of her disposition, she could not influence her husband, who weakly permitted his favourites to ill-treat her. This probably might in time alter her disposition, and cause her to act with wisdom and prudence, and avoid feastings, revels and factions. For archbishop Abbot, (a worthy venerable prelate) many years after her death, speaks of her with great respect, and as of one whose virtue he had not the least doubt of, which, I dare say, he would not have done, had her character, in his eye, been upon the whole faulty. I have been the longer upon the character of this princess, because it has been little known; our historians contenting themselves to speak one after the other, without examination, whereby, for the most part, it cometh to pass, that they tend little to improve or instruct; and, which is worse, fix such ideas of things and persons as are difficult to be eradicated, tho' ever so false. 16 In writing his paraphrase on the Revelations.] "This paraphrase (says Dr. Montague) was written by his majesty before he was twenty years of age." |