Princess Anne of Denmark has enjoyed a…
July 1589 CE
Princess Anne of Denmark has enjoyed a close and happy family upbringing, thanks largely to Queen Sophie, who tends the children herself during their illnesses.
Suitors from all over Europe have sought the hands of Anne and her older sister in marriage, including James VI of Scotland, who favors Denmark as a kingdom reformed in religion and a profitable trading partner.
Scottish ambassadors had at first concentrated their suit on the oldest daughter, but after had Frederick had betrothed Elizabeth to Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, he promised the Scots instead that "for the second [daughter] Anna, if the King did like her, he should have her."
Sophie's constitutional position had become difficult after Frederick's death in 1588, when she found herself in a power struggle with the Rigsraad for control of King Christian IV, her eleven-year-old son.
As a matchmaker, however, Sophie proves more diligent than Frederick and, overcoming sticking points on the amount of the dowry and the status of Orkney, she seals the agreement by July 1589.
Anne herself seems to have been thrilled with the match.
The English spy Thomas Fowler reports on July 28, 1589, that Anne is "so far in love with the King's Majesty as it were death to her to have it broken off and hath made good proof divers ways of her affection which his Majestie is apt in no way to requite."
Fowler's insinuation that James prefers men to women, would have been hidden from the fourteen-year-old Princess, who devotedly embroiders shirts for her fiancé while three hundred tailors work on her wedding dress.