Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/446

 Christian I of Denmark, on her marriage with James III of Scotland in 1469. The ambassadors had no instructions to speak of any marriage; but before they took their departure they contrived to let it be known that the King of Denmark had fair daughters, a marriage with any one of whom would, as they supposed, settle the Orkney claim at the same time. Notwithstanding the endeavours of Wotton and his friends to prejudice King James against a Danish alliance, he was in the end, by Melville's eloquence or otherwise, induced to return civil though dilatory answers; and the Danish ambassadors departed, satisfied, in August. King James VI was at this time only in his twentieth year, but he had other and more cogent reasons for hesitating about marriage. Queen Elizabeth, who still kept the mother in durance, assumed to herself the right of controlling to some extent the conduct of the son. Whether or not James was to be her successor, he must be her subservient ally; and she would not hear of the Danish connection. Towards the end of 1585 King James had gone so far as to send his almoner, Peter Young, to Denmark, to make polite speeches and discreet inquiries, and to promise a more honourable embassy. Young and Colonel Stuart, who had followed him to Denmark on his own business, returned in 1586 ‘with sa gud and frendly answers, that ther was little mair mention maid of the restitution of the ylles of Orkeney’. Meanwhile Wotton's intrigues continued, growing, if Melville is to be believed, into grave designs against the king himself, the discovery of which led to the English ambassador's flight from Scotland. In the following year, 1587, the Scottish nobility had been roused to vehement indignation against Queen Elizabeth by the execution of Queen Mary; and at the same convention in which the king was called upon to revenge his mother's murder, ‘the nobilitie concludit that the kinge's marriage with Denmarc suld be followit furth’ (Historie and Life, p. 230). In vain Queen Elizabeth had influenced the secretary (from 1588 chancellor) Maitland and others of the dominant party against the proposed marriage; Maitland ultimately proved to be chiefly intent upon securing for himself a slice of the lordship of Dunfermline that would eventually form part of the queen's settlement, and the king was becoming more and more bent upon the match, though still proceeding with great caution. Early in 1588 the laird of Barnbarroch and Peter Young were once more sent to the King of Denmark, who now began to complain of vexatious delay. Possibly he was aware that, shortly after the despatch of these agents from Scotland, Du Bartas (the poet) had arrived there on a confidential mission from King Henry of Navarre to propose the hand of his sister Catharine to King James. But this scheme came to nothing, and Queen Elizabeth, who had favoured it, now counselled the king to suit himself in marriage, but not in such a way as might not suit her (cf. History or Annals of England under Elizabeth, ap. Kennet, ii. 1706). King Frederick II's death, which occurred in April 1588, doubtless caused further delay; but it seems to be an incorrect statement that his eldest daughter Elizabeth was married before his second daughter (Elizabeth married 19 April 1590; see Stammtafeln, No. 86). At last, in June 1589, Earl Marishal, accompanied by Lord Dingwall and a retinue of knights and gentlemen, sailed for Copenhagen; and on 20 Aug. the Princess Anne was duly married by proxy to King James VI. She soon embarked upon her homeward journey with her proxy husband, Earl Marishal; but tempestuous winds drove them upon the coast of Norway, where they stayed for some time awaiting fair weather. ‘Quhilk storm of wind was allegit to haue bene raised be the witches of Denmark, be the confessioun of sindre of them, when they wer brunt for that cause’ (, 369). The bride's own ship was missing for three nights, and in a most perilous condition before it was found by the ambassador's ship (, History of the Kirk, v. 59). Meanwhile James was impatiently awaiting their arrival in Scotland, where the weather was likewise stormy, and the chancellor Maitland, whom the king charged with having caused the untoward delay, suggested to him the adventurous project of putting to sea himself to fetch home his bride. James resolved, in Mr. Burton's words, ‘to have one romance in his life,’ and after issuing a most extraordinary proclamation to his people in explanation of his conduct (see, vi. 39–41) sailed from Leith, 22 Oct. 1589, on his chivalrous errand, accompanied by the chancellor Maitland and others. On the 28th he landed at Slaikray, on the coast of Norway, and thence proceeded to Opsloe (on the site of which Christiania was afterwards founded by Christian IV), where Queen Anne was waiting. At their meeting, which took place on 19 Nov., ‘his majestie myndit to giue the queine a kiss after the Scotis faschioun, quhilk sho refusit, as not being the forme of hir cuntrie. Efter a few wordis prively spoken betuix his majestie and hir, thair past familiaritie and kisses.’ On the 23rd they were married at Upslo by David Lyndsay, minister at Leith.