Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/49

1606.] familiarity and of drunken debauchery as were more in character with a groom than a great king. The description which we have already given of his person is by no means attractive, yet cardinal Bentivoglio, whilst expressing his resentment at his persecution of the catholics, represents him in a much more agreeable light than many other contemporaries. He says, "The king of England is above the middle height, of a fair and florid complexion, and very noble feature, though in his demeanour and carriage he manifests no kind of grace or kingly dignity."

The cardinal was equally flattering in his opinion of the queen, praising her beauty and elegance of manner, and her fluency in the Italian language. On the other hand, Molino draws a very different picture of her. "She has an ordinary appearance," he says, "and lives remote from public affairs. She is very fond of dancing and entertainments; very gracious to those who know how to promote her wishes; but to those whom she does not like, she is proud, disdainful, not to say insupportable."

Anne of Denmark, we may believe, was a princess of a handsome person, and possessing a love of elegance and pleasure. She had a high, sensitive spirit, and much taste. She was fond of court pageants, and of those domestic sports and relaxations in which the German and Scandinavian people still delight, but which, to our grave fancy, often approach the puerile. Whilst James and his lords were absent at the hunt, she and her maids amused themselves in the long autumnal evenings with a variety of such games as may yet be seen in her native country at social parties. They played at "Rise pig, and go." "One penny, follow me." "Fire," and "I pray, my lord, give me a course in your park." Anne was passionately fond of dancing, and the marquis of Westminster gave some grand fêtes and balls at Basing House for her entertainment. But as she was fond of poetry and the fine arts, she made her court celebrated for the performance of masques, of which Ben Jonson was the chief artificer. On the installation of prince Charles as duke of York in 1605, she had performed Jonson's Masque of Blackness, and appeared in it herself as one of the twelve daughters of the Nile, with her maids of honour, all with their faces, arms, and hands blackened. In this sable disguise she danced with the Spanish ambassador.

With her taste for amusement, however, Anne was a woman of spotless honour, and displayed much affection for her children, and good sense in their management; and had James been a man to estimate her better qualities and to cherish them, she might have displayed a still higher tone of womanly superiority. But the king was too vain, and too much addicted to rude and degrading indulgences to sympathise sufficiently with her in her tastes and fancies, and the consequence was that she despised him, and was not at sufficient pains often to disguise her feelings. Her son Henry is said to have caught this sentiment from her, and James was so much aware of it, that he was often constrained and embarrassed in her presence. After Anne arrived in England, however, and had the society of her children, she never meddled in political affairs, except it was to intercede in behalf of some meritorious man in trouble, as in the case of Sir Walter Raleigh. She contented herself with her domestic life, and with enlivening her court with gay masques and ballets, with the assistance of the first poets and artists of the age; sometimes appearing herself as a goddess, a Turkish sultana, or an Indian queen. To enable her to appear fitly as the queen of England in this her gay court, she not only retained her Scotch dower, but had a jointure of six thousand three hundred and seventy-six pounds a year, besides Somerset House, Hatfield Manor, and the royal palaces of Nonsuch and Pontefract; the king charging himself with all the expenses of her household and stable, her own funds being reserved for her costs in wages, her wardrobe, and gratuities. Twelve councillors were appointed to assist her in regulating her expenditure, and she devoted much money to the improvement and embellishment of her town residence, Somerset House, which then, in honour of her, was called Denmark House.

The severity of James did not prevent his wife being suspected of a leaning towards popery and the Spanish interest; but this probably arose from the favour which the Spanish ambassador enjoyed amongst all the ladies at court, not excepting the queen herself, being a very gay and fascinating fellow, who devoted himself greatly to their amusement, and distributed amongst them Spanish gloves. Perhaps, too, the popery notion was strengthened by Anne refusing at her coronation to receive the sacrament in the English fashion. She had already been required in Scotland to abandon her Lutheran faith for the Calvinistic one, and thought it rather too unreasonable to be called on to relinquish that for the modes of the church of England. She was only the more deserving of respect for objecting to put off her religion as she would a dress on every new occasion; and it seems that the prelates of the Anglican church were some of them liberal enough to admit that; for the bishop of Winchester declared that she "was of a religious stock, professing the gospel of Christ with him; a mirror of true modesty, a queen of beauty, beloved by the people." It is much to the credit of Anne that she always expressed her unmitigated disgust at the injustice and rapacity which she found rife at the English court, and did not hesitate to counsel any of those about her to resist it, and to guard themselves against it.

Meantime the king addicted himself to his own low mode of life in spite of conjugal appeal or ministerial remonstrance. We are assured by various authorities of the time that twice a week he went to the cock-pit, and the rest of the week was given up to the pleasures of the chase, from dawn till twilight, and the night was wound up by a gormandising supper and a drunken debauch. Business was the last thing he could be led to. For weeks together foreign ambassadors on pressing occasions could obtain no access to him, though his ministers on their knees implored him to give attention to urgent affairs. Anonymous letters were addressed to him, calling him to remember his royal duties; and the actors even introduced him on the stage in the character of a mad huntsman, cursing his hounds and hawks, striking his attendants in his fury, and drinking like a bacchanal every evening. But these freedoms only irritated without reforming him. He declared that his health demanded active life, that he did not come to England to be a slave, and would sooner go back to Scotland than mope his time away in a closet or chained to the council table.

The visit of his brother-in-law of Denmark had led James into greater excess than ever, and no sooner was he gone than prince Vaudemont, a relative of James's, of the house of Guise, made his appearance with a gay and numerous retinue. This led to fresh hunting, fresh jovialities,