A masque was held at the baptism of Prince Henry Frederick, heir apparent of James VI of Scotland, on 30 August 1594 at Stirling Castle. It was written by the Scottish poet William Fowler and Patrick Leslie, 1st Lord Lindores.Clare McManus, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court 1590–1618 (Manchester, 2002), p. 83.
Prince Henry, born 19 February 1594, was the first child of James VI and his Queen, Anne of Denmark. Henry was heir apparent to the throne of Scotland and potentially in line to the thrones of England and Ireland.Michael Bath, "Rare Shewes, the Stirling Baptism of Prince Henry", in Journal of the Northern Renaissance, no. 4 (2012) William Fowler composed the masque and wrote an account of the celebrations in A True Reportarie of the Baptisme of the Prince of Scotland (1594) printed in Edinburgh and London.Henry Meikle, The Works of William Fowler, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 169–95. An English spectator also made a report of the events.Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 16 (London, 1715), pp. 263–4. The programme owed much to French Valois court festival, while some aspects were attuned to please English audiences and readers of Fowler's book. There was a tournament in exotic costume and a masque during which desserts were served, while Latin mottoes were displayed and verses sung to music. A maritime theme involving a ship laden with fish made of sugar represented the safe sea crossing made in 1590 by Anne of Denmark and James, the North Star,Jamie Reid Baxter, 'Scotland will be the Ending of all Empires', Steve Boardman & Julian Goodare, Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain (Edinburgh, 2014), pp. 332-4. despite the "conspiracies of witches".Martin Wiggins & Catherine Richardson, British Drama 1533–1642: A Catalogue: 1590–1597, vol. 3 (Oxford, 2013), pp. 245–7.Liv Helene Willumsen, 'Witchcraft against Royal Danish Ships in 1589 and the Transnational Transfer of Ideas', IRSS, 45 (2020), pp. 54-99 The ship was said to be the king's "own invention".Graham Parry, The Golden Age Restor'd: The Culture of the Stuart Court (Manchester, 1981), 65. James VI was celebrated as a "new Jason", and by analogy, Anne of Denmark was Medea and also both the Golden Fleece and the embodiment of her dowry.Clare McManus, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court, 1590-1619 (Manchester, 2002), p. 88. The event was delayed by waiting for the completion of the new Chapel Royal designed by William Schaw and described as the new Temple of Solomon,Miles Glendinning & Aonghus McKechnie, Scottish Architecture (Thames & Hudson, 2004), p. 61: Ian Campbell & Aonghus Mackechnie, 'The ‘Great Temple of Solomon’ at Stirling Castle', Architectural History, vol. 54 (2011), pp. 91–118. and the arrival of the English ambassador's party.Clare McManus, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and female masquing in the Stuart Court (Manchester, 2002), p. 79.
Preparations Orders were given to repair the palace at Stirling Castle in December 1593 for the pregnant queen. Some courtiers argued that Edinburgh Castle, where James VI was born, was a more safe and secure place.Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 245, 250. The English ambassador Robert Bowes reported:Order is given by the King and Council that the house at Sterlinge (presently in decay and ruin) shall be repaired and made ready for the Queen to be there delivered of her Chylde, The Queen hath good lykinge to be at Sterlinge, and purposes to remove towards it on the 27th instant. But some principal officers and courtiers, remembering the many enterprises executed at Sterlinge and fearing like events to succeed in that place, are seeking means to stay the Queen's remove thither and to allure her to the Castle in Edinburgh.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 245 no. 1285: TNA SP52/51 f.74.
Anne went to Stirling, conveyed by the Earl of Morton,Registrum Honoris de Morton: Original Papers of the Earls of Morton, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1853), p. 187. at first she was lodged at Argyll's Lodging and then Mar's Wark, a house belonging to the Countess of Mar, until the castle was ready.David Moysie, Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 112. She lodged in the newly repaired palace which had been built by James V. Prince Henry was born on 19 February 1594 and there were widespread celebrations and bonfires. James VI wrote to Elizabeth I asking her to be a godmother. He sent Peter Young to Anne's grandfather, the Duke of Mecklenburg, claiming by way of compliment that the baby resembled the late Frederick II of Denmark. Young also carried Anne's letter announcing the birth to her brother-in-law Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Elizabeth of Denmark.James Orchard Halliwell, Letters of the Kings of England, vol. 2 (London, 1846), pp. 85-6: Thomas Hearne, Sylloge Epistolarum, pp. 202-203. New clothes were bought for King James' old nurse Helen Littil, and her two daughters Grissel and Sara Gray, who were to be guests at the baptism.James Maidment, Letters of James the Sixth etc (Edinburgh, 1838), p. lxxi.
The ambassadors from the relatives of Anna of Denmark arrived at Leith on 12 and 13 July 1594. She left Edinburgh for Falkland Palace to avoid receiving them because Holyrood Palace was not magnificent enough. James VI sent some invitations on 21 July, saying that the event would be on 8 or 9 August "at the fardest".HMC 9th Report: Alfred Morrison, p. 422. But it was said that the building of the "great Temple of Solomon", the Chapel Royal at Stirling, was not complete. The events were postponed until Stirling Castle was ready, and the English ambassador arrived, on 28 August.Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 376–7. Timber for Stirling was bought at Leith in May by the master wright, James Murray. There are no building accounts for the preparations.Marguerite Wood, Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh: 1589-1603 (Edinburgh, 1927), p. 113: Amy L. Juhala, 'Edinburgh and the Court of James VI', Julian Goodare & Alasdair A. MacDonald, Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Brill, 2008), p. 351.
John Colville reported a rumour in July that James VI had conceived a jealousy against Anne of Denmark, and even thought the Duke of Lennox might be the father of Prince Henry. James was beginning to regret the expense of the preparations.Letters of John Colville (Edinburgh, 1858), pp. 109, 115. There were fears that the Catholic lords might try to kidnap Prince Henry. Some spoke of Stirling as an unlucky place and an old Latin saying "Sterling ab initio nequam" (Stirling, wicked from the beginning). A part of this phrase was said to be carved on an old quern-stone kept at the castle.Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 386 no. 299: William Barclay Turnbull, Extracta E Variis Cronicis Scocie (Abbotsford Club, 1842), p. 254.
Anne of Denmark, according to the letters of John Carey, an English officer at Berwick, had made a truce with the rebel Earl of Bothwell that he would do nothing until after the baptism. Carey also wrote that the Danish and Brunswick ambassadors were "every day almost drunk".Joseph Bain, Border Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 540-1. The report of the Dutch ambassadors Brederode and Valck mentions dinners at Stirling Castle in the days before the baptism, a hunt in the park, and James VI dancing in the Great Hall.James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 161-3.
Brederode and Valck described a meeting with the other ambassadors at the castle to discuss the naming of the prince, which was traditional and customary for godfathers. According to their account, the name "Henry Frederick" was chosen to allude to the late Frederick II of Denmark and Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the late Henry, Duke of Mecklenburg, to Henry IV of France, and Henry VIII of England.James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 163-4
According to Fowler, the English ambassador was conducted from the border to Stirling by a gentleman of the king's chamber on 28 August. The baptism was delayed until the 30 August because the English gifts or "propynes" had not arrived.Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1579-1595, vol. 3 (Oxford, 2014), p. 747.
After the events were concluded and the ambassadors had left, the overworked administrator Alexander Hay of Easter Kennet died of exhaustion.Charles Rogers, Estimate of the Scottish nobility (London, 1873), p. 6.
An engraving published in 1764 illustrating William Fowler's True Reportary purports to represent a painted allegory from the chapel or a decorative ensemble like a carved screen. It is not known if this illustration is a genuine representation of anything at the baptism, King James's return in 1617, or made for Charles I. The motifs include the building of Solomon's Temple, and the Last Trump. The motif of the Temple fits with contemporary comment about the project.Gordon Ewart & Dennis Gallagher, With Thy Towers High: The Archaeology of Stirling Castle and Palace (Historic Scotland, 2015), pp. 150-1: Simon Thurley, Palaces of the Revolution, Life, Death & Art at the Stuart Court (Collins, 2021), pp. 214-5.
Tournaments at the castle
A tournament ground had been prepared at the "valley" west of the castle, with "carier and scaffold", a course and a grandstand.Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1579-1595, vol. 3 (Oxford, 2014), p. 748. The first event was a competition called "running at the ring" in which horseriders collect hoops with lances or spears. There were three teams, one dressed as the Christian Knights of Malta, one in Turkish fashion, and three men dressed as Amazons. A fourth team, to be dressed as Africans called "Moors" did not show up. The event was held in the valley by the castle, and watched by the queen, Anne of Denmark, with her ladies-in-waiting, and the ambassadors. The audience was swelled by a large crowd of young men from Edinburgh armed with muskets.William Fowler, A True Reportarie (Edinburgh, 1594), text Early English Books Online.Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stuart: The regime change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford University Press, 2024), p. 51.
The "Christian Knights" were James VI; the Earl of Mar; and Thomas Erskine of Gogar. The "Turks" were the Duke of Lennox; Lord Home; Sir Robert Kerr of Cessford. The "Amazons" were the Lord Lindores; the Laird of Buccleuch; and the Abbot of Holyroodhouse.David M. Bergeron, The Duke of Lennox, 1574-1624: A Jacobean Courtier's Life (Edinburgh, 2022), p. 45. These all bore devices or imprese pertaining to the themes of the festival.Michael Bath, Emblems in Scotland: Motifs and Meanings (Brill, Leiden, 2018), pp. 97–101. A draft for the emblems survives in Fowler's handwriting at the National Library of Scotland. He claims three were "my own" composition.Allison L. Steenson, The Hawthornden Manuscripts of William Fowler (Routledge, 2021), 159–61, 219–220.