Anne of Denmark (12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) is queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.
The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne marries James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bears him three children who survive infancy, including the future Charles I.
She demonstrates an independent streak and a willingness to use factional Scottish politics in her conflicts with James over the custody of Prince Henry and his treatment of her friend Beatrix Ruthven.
Anne appears to have loved James at first, but the couple gradually drift and eventually live apart, though mutual respect and a degree of affection survives.
In England, Anne shifts her energies from factional politics to patronage of the arts and constructs a magnificent court of her own, hosting one of the richest cultural salons in Europe.
After 1612, she suffers sustained bouts of ill health and gradually withdraws from the center of court life.
Though she is reported to have been a Protestant at the time of her death, evidence suggests that she may have converted to Catholicism at some stage in her life.
Historians have traditionally dismissed Anne as a lightweight queen, frivolous and self-indulgent.
However, recent reappraisals acknowledge Anne's assertive independence and, in particular, her dynamic significance as a patron of the arts during the Jacobean age.
