THIS week sees the 450th anniversary of the birth of Anne of Denmark, Queen Consort of James VI and I, and through two of her children, the ancestor of all the monarchs of Scotland, England and the United Kingdom since her death in 1619.

This week and next, I am going to tell the story of Anne of Denmark, who I believe has been unfairly neglected in Scottish and British history.

Though it does not appear that the royal family are going to mark the anniversary in any special way, the Royal Museums Greenwich most certainly are doing so, with a weekend of events at Queen’s House, which is highly appropriate as Queen Anne commissioned the house from the architect Inigo Jones. It was the first Classical villa in England and was apparently paid for by James VI and I as an apology for him swearing in front of Anne – a very expensive contribution to a swear box.

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Queen’s House also features some of the finest art in the royal collection, and again that’s appropriate because Anne of Denmark was a true patron of the arts throughout her reign in both Scotland and England.

I have written before about Anne but have no hesitation in doing so again because she was a truly fascinating and strong-minded person with many facets to her life.

She was born in Skanderborg Castle on December 12, 1574, as the second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway and his consort Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow.

Growing tall and blonde with a fair complexion, Anne was given the education that a royal princess required, such as embroidery, though her mother Queen Sophie encouraged her in more intellectual pursuits as she herself was fascinated by science.

At first, Anne was largely raised at her grandparents’ court but along with her brother Christian, the heir to the throne, she returned permanently to the Danish royal court which followed the Lutheran religion.

Practically from birth, the question of who Anne would marry was constantly raised, with James VI of Scotland in the running from when Anne was just four.

James needed a Protestant match, not least because he hoped to succeed Elizabeth I of England and unite the Scottish and English crowns. Denmark was also an important trading partner of Scotland, and at first it was proposed that James should marry Anne’s elder sister Elizabeth.

King Frederick intervened and married off Elizabeth to the Duke of Brunswick, promising James that he could have his second daughter if he so wished – and he did.

As Anne entered her teens, negotiations began in earnest for James and Anne to be married, with James said to be ecstatic at the notion of marrying a beautiful Protestant princess – and he all but drooled over her portrait.

Queen Sophie led the negotiations for the marriage, and when King Frederick II died in April 1588, she moved quickly to seal the deal. The execution of James’ mother Mary, Queen of Scots, the previous year meant that he was now in pole position to succeed Elizabeth of England and needed a wife quickly.

Elizabeth gave her approval for the marriage and that was the final green light – that and Queen Sophie’s approval of a huge dowry for her daughter.

The couple were married by proxy at Kronborg Castle – immortalised as Elsinore in Shakespeare’s Hamlet – on August 20, 1589. George Keith, the 5th Earl Marischal, stood in for James and even had to lie on a bed with 14-year-old Anne so that the marriage was considered complete.

Ten days later, a fleet of 16 ships under Admiral and diplomat Peder Munk left Copenhagen for Scotland, but in the North Sea they encountered a massive storm which saw the fleet split in two. Ten ships, including the chief vessel carrying Munk and Anne, made for the safety of Oslo in Norway, while six others pressed on and made it to Scotland.

Meanwhile, James VI waited on his bride, writing a sonnet he called A Complaint Against The Contrary Wyndes That Hindered The Queene To Com To Scotland From Denmarke. Its first stanza is this:

“From sacred throne in heauen Empyrick hie

A breathe divine in Poets brests does blowe

Wherethrough all things inferiour in degrie

As vassals unto them doe hommage showe.”

Fortunately he switched to prose … and unfortunately started to seriously study witchcraft.

In his 1858 work Domestic Annals Of Scotland, Robert Chambers draws on original records dating from the 1580s to tell what happened next: “The king, hearing of the detention of his bride by stormy weather, resolved to go to Denmark to bring her home. He sent, ‘directing Robert Jameson, burgess of Air (Ayr), to bring his ship whilk was callit the JAMES, to the road of Leith, she being ane gallant ship, weel appointit with ordnance, her sails being covent with red taffeta, and her claiths red scarlet’.

“On the day noted (October 22), he set sail in this vessel, with other five ships in company, and after outriding a gale or some time in the Firth of Forth, proceeded on his course with fair winds. Landing on the 28th at Flaikray (Flekkerøy), in Norway, he, after some days’ rest, commenced a difficult land-journey to Upslo – now Christiania – where the princess had taken up her residence for the winter.

“Immediately at his coming (November 19), [he] passed quietly with buits and all, to her hieness . . . . he minded to give her a kiss after the

Scots fashion, whilk she refusit, as not being the fashion of her country.

Marry, after a few words spoken privily betwixt his majesty and her, there passed familiarity and kisses. They were married four days after at Upslo, and spent the remainder of the winter in Denmark.”

Indeed they enjoyed their “second” wedding and spent their impromptu honeymoon visiting royal places in Norway and Denmark. The marriage was certainly consummated, and James was well received at the royal court of Anne’s sister King Christian and the dowager Queen Sophie.

They attended the wedding of Anne’s sister in Copenhagen and when better weather arrived in March,1590, they prepared to go home to Scotland and a wedding the like of which had never been seen in this land.