Anne of Denmark (1574–1619) was the queen of Scotland from her marriage by proxy to King James VI on 20 August 1589 and queen of England and Ireland from his accession on 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619. When Anne intended to sail to Scotland in 1589 her ship was delayed by adverse weather. Contemporary superstition blamed the delays to her voyage and other misfortunes on "contrary winds" summoned by witchcraft. There were witchcraft trials in Denmark and in Scotland. The King's kinsman, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell came into suspicion. The Chancellor of Scotland John Maitland of Thirlestane, thought to be Bothwell's enemy, was lampooned in a poem Rob Stene's Dream,Maurice Lee jnr., John Maitland of Thirlestane and the Foundation of the Stewart Despotism in Scotalnd (Ptinceton UP, 1959), p. 225. and Anne of Denmark made Maitland her enemy.Maureen Meikle, 'A meddlesome princess: Anna of Denmark and Scottish court politics, 1589–1603', Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, The Reign of James VI (East Linton: Tuckwell, p. 130. Historians continue to investigate these events.Edward J. Cowan, 'The Darker Version of the Scottish Renaissance: the Devil and Francis Stewart', Ian B. Cowan & Duncan Shaw, Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland: Essays in honour of Gordon Donaldson (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1983), pp. 125–140.Susan Dunn Hensley, Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria: Virgins, Witches, and Catholic Queens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 46–51, 56.
James VI wrote verses given the title "A complaint against the contrary Wyndes that hindered the Queene to com to Scotland from Denmarke".Sarah M. Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry in the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Palgrave, 2002), pp. 80–81. The historian Liv Helene Willumsen, who examined international correspondence and highlighted examples of the phrase "contrary winds", said that in 1589 fears over straightforward events like adverse weather at sea were blamed on supernatural causes, and the powerless and the vulnerable, to bolster personal and royal honour.Liv Helene Willumsen, 'Witchcraft against Royal Danish Ships in 1589 and the Transnational Transfer of Ideas", International Review of Scottish Studies, 45 (December 2020), pp. 54–99.
Anne of Denmark sails from Copenhagen Anne of Denmark sailed on 5 September 1589 with Peder Munk and Henrik Knudsen Gyldenstierne, admiral of the fleet, and 18 ships.Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 134: David Stevenson, Scotland's Last Royal Wedding (Edinburgh, 1997), p. 86: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 150, 164. The Danish fleet included the Gideon, Josaphad or Josafat their flagship, Samson, Joshua, Dragon, Raphael, St Michael, Gabriel, Little Sertoun (Lille Fortuna), Mouse, Rose, the Falcon of Birren, the Blue Lion, the Blue Dove (Blaa Due) and the White Dove (Hvide Due).Kancelliets brevbøger vedrørende Danmarks indre forhold i uddrag (Copenhagen, 1908), pp. 242–3: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 289. When they were only a mile away from the palace of Kronborg, adverse winds prevented progress for two days.David Stevenson, Scotland's Last Royal Wedding (Edinburgh, 1997), p. 86.
Anne's fleet sailed west but the wind failed them and they put in to Flekkerøy or Flekkerøya, an island on the coast of Norway, where Peder Munk was able to arrange a welcoming banquet. Contrary winds frustrated attempts to progress from Flekkerøy.David Stevenson, Scotland's Last Royal Wedding (Edinburgh, 1997), pp. 86–87. The Gideon began to leak. Peder Munk told Anne that the hold was filling with water, despite the request of the two learned academics and diplomats Paul Knibbe and Niels Krag. Two ships, the Parrot and the Fighting Cock were scattered from the fleet.Ethel Carleton Williams, Anne of Denmark (London, 1970), p. 16. Peder Munk and the Danish nobles discussed their options to return to Denmark or go to Oslo with the Scottish representative, George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal.
Lord Dingwall's ship arrived at Stonehaven with the news of the storm and the apprehension that the Queen was in danger on the seas.James Dennistoun, Moysie's Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 79 James VI wrote to the Earl Marischal, Anne's companion, (who he called "My little fat pork"), on 28 September asking for news, and worried about the "longer protracting of time" and the "contrariousness of winds".George Akrigg, Letters of King James VI & I (University of California, 1984), p. 95.
While waiting for his bride at Seton Palace,Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), p. 49. James VI may have begun a series of love poems in Scots now known as the Amatoria.Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland: Manuscript Production and Transmission (Oxford, 2016), pp. 60–61: Jane Rickard, Authorship and Authority in the writings of James VI and I (Manchester, 2007), pp. 56–60: Sarah Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry at the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Basingstoke, 2002), pp. 77–104. A manuscript copy of the eleven Amatoria sonnets in the British Library gives the first poem the title, "A complaint against the contrary Wyndes that hindered the Queene to com to Scotland from Denmarke", although internal evidence suggests the poems were completed later.Sarah Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry at the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Basingstoke, 2002), pp. 81–82 citing British Library Add. MS 24195.David M. Bergeron, Royal Family, Royal Lovers (University of Missouri, 1991), pp. 50–51.
James VI and the Flekkerøy resolution King James decided to go to Norway himself after he received letters from Anne of Denmark saying she had been delayed from setting out and would not try again.David M. Bergeron, The Duke of Lennox, 1574–1624: A Jacobean Courtier's Life (Edinburgh, 2022), pp. 16–18: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 150, 164. The diplomats Steen Bille and Andrew Sinclair delivered the letters to King James on 10 October.Clare Jackson, The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI and I (Allen Lane, 2025), p. 114: Liv Helene Willumsen, "Witchcraft against Royal Danish Ships in 1589 and the Transnational Transfer of Ideas", IRSS, 45 (2020), p. 60: David Stevenson, Scotland's Last Wedding (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1997), p. 26. Anne of Denmark had written two letters from Flekkerøy near Oslo in Norway, in the French she had learned in preparation for her marriage.Maureen Meikle, 'A meddlesome princess: Anna of Denmark and Scottish court politics, 1589–1603', Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, The Reign of James VI (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000), p. 127. She signed one letter as "Anne" and another as "Anna". The "Anna" letter includes this phrase, about vents contraires;Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'King James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts', Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), pp. 1–2, 10, 93–94."nous sommes desja par quatre ou cinq fois avances en la mer, mais que par vents contraires et autres inconvenients y survenus, avons maintenant nous present, et la redoubtance de plus grands dangers qui sont tresapparents a contrainct toute ceste compagnie, bien à nostre grand regret et des vostres, qui en sont extrement desplaisants, de prendre une resolution, de ne rien plus attenter pour ceste fois, ains de differer le voiage jusques à la primevere"Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'King James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts', Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), pp. 10, 93: Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 136: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 3 (London, 1889), p. 438: British Library Add MS 19401 ff.141-3 copies in the Rigsarkivet are dated 3 October 1589.[W]e have already put out to sea four or five times but have always been driven back to the harbours from which we had sailed, thanks to contrary winds and other problems which arose at sea, which is the cause why, now Winter is hastening down on us, and fearing greater dangers which are clearly apparent, all this company is constrained, much to our regret, and that of your men, who are highly displeased about it, to make it our resolution not to risk any further attempt at this time, but to defer the voyage until the spring.
Anne of Denmark's mother Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and her brother Christian IV sent similar letters.William Dunn Macray, 'Report on Archives in Denmark', 46th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1886), p. 32: See also BL Cotton Caligula D/I f.273. James VI made his decision at Craigmillar Castle.Liv Helene Willumsen, 'Witchcraft against Royal Danish Ships in 1589 and the Transnational Transfer of Ideas', IRSS, 45 (2020), p. 66.Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), p. 133. The Chancellor of Scotland, John Maitland of Thirlestane, who had previously advocated that the King marry a French Protestant bride, Catherine de Bourbon, now backed the Danish marriage.David Stevenson, Scotland's Last Wedding (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1997), p. 28. According to David Moysie, when he received the news from Flekkerøy, James VI, in perplexity, immediately moved from Craigmillar to Leith.James Dennistoun, Memoirs of the Affairs of the Scotland by David Moysie (Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1830), p. 79
Accused witches of Denmark Anne of Denmark's stay at Flekkerøy was blamed on witchcraft. According to the diplomat James Melville of Halhill, who was appointed to be a Gentleman of Anne of Denmark's chamber in Scotland in 1590 and wrote a Memoir, women accused of witchcraft in Denmark confessed to raising the "tempestuous wyndis" that drove the fleet to Norway. Melville heard their motive was a "kuff" or blow given by the Admiral of Denmark to the Baillie of Copenhagen, whose wife sought revenge by consulting with associates in the art of witchcraft to raise the storms.Thomas Thomson, Memoirs of his own life by Sir James Melville of Halhill (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1827), pp. 369, 393–94.
James VI sails to Norway and Denmark On account of the "sundrie contrarious windis" that delayed the Danish fleet, on 11 October James VI asked East coast mariners and ship masters to come to Leith.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council, Addenda 1540–1625 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 370–71. James VI sailed with six ships including the James hired from Robert Jameson of Ayr.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'King James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts', Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), pp. 10, 93–94: Ane Cronickill of the Kingis of Scotland (Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1830), p. 142. Patrick Vans of Barnbarroch hired the Falcon of Leith from John Gibson.Robert Vans-Agnew, Correspondence of Sir Patrick Waus of Barnbarroch, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1887), pp. 452–53.