Anne of Denmark (1574–1619) was the wife of James VI and I, and queen consort of Scotland from 1589, and queen consort of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603 until her death on 2 March 1619 at Hampton Court.Jennifer Woodward, The Theatre of Death: The Ritual Management of Royal Funerals in Renaissance (Boydell & Brewer, 1997), p. 166. She was buried at Westminster Abbey on 13 May.Jemma Field, 'Orderinge Things Accordinge to his Majesties Comaundment: the funeral of the Stuart queen consort Anna of Denmark', Women's History Review, 30:5 (2021), pp. 835–855.

Final illnesses Several letters mention the illnesses of Anne of Denmark and the royal physician Theodore de Mayerne left extensive Latin notes describing his treatment of Anne of Denmark from 10 April 1612 to her death.Joseph Browne, Theo. Turquet Mayernii Opera medica: Formulae Annae & Mariae (London, 1703), pp. 1-97 From September 1614 Anne was troubled by pain in her feet and swellings, which were a form of gout and dropsy and restricted her movements, as described in the letters of her chamberlain Viscount Lisle and the countesses of Bedford and Roxburghe.William A. Shaw, HMC 77 Report on the manuscripts of Lord de l'Isle & Dudley: Sidney Papers 1608-1611, vol. 4 (London, 1926), p. 294: HMC Downshire, vol. 5 (London, 1988), p. 22 no. 56: Lord Braybrooke, The Private Correspondence of Jane Lady Cornwallis (London, 1842), p. 41: HMC Mar & Kellie, 2 (London, 1930), p. 59: William Shaw & G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC 77 Viscount De L'Isle Penshurst, vol. 5 (London, 1961), p. 307. She was well enough to go hunting in August 1617,William Shaw & G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC 77 Manuscripts of the Viscount De L'Isle, vol. 5 (London, 1962), p. 413. but later in the year, Anne's bouts of illness became debilitating. The letter writer John Chamberlain noted, "the Queen continues still ill disposed and though she would fain lay all her infirmities upon the gout yet most of her physicians fear a further inconvenience of an ill habit or disposition through her whole body."Thomas Birch, Court and Times of James I, vol. 1 (London, 1849), p. 42.David M. Bergeron, The Duke of Lennox 1574–1624: A Jacobean Courtier's Life (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), p. 135.

Anne of Denmark received "great good" from recipes provided by Walter Raleigh,The Court and Character of King James, 1650 (London: Smeeton, 1817), 12. and wrote to King James in 1618 that he should not be executed.Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First (London: Colburn, 1849), p. 97. She had a nosebleed at Oatlands in September 1618 that confined her to bed and disrupted her travel plans.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 3 (London, 1828), p. 493. Lucy, Countess of Bedford, thought it had weakened her, and she appeared "dangerously ill".Joanna Moody, Correspondence of Lady Cornwallis Bacon (Cranbury NJ, 2003) p. 93. Still unwell at Hampton Court, she kept to her bedchamber and was attended by the physicians Théodore de Mayerne and Henry Atkins.William Shaw & G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC Manuscripts of the Viscount De L'Isle, 5 (London, 1962), pp. 418–419.

In November 1618, a comet was interpreted as a portent of her death, but she was reported to be in good health and had watched a fox hunt from her bedroom window.Jane Rickard, Authorship and Authority: the Writings of James VI and I (Manchester, 2007), pp. 188–189: Elizabeth McClure Thomson, The Chamberlain Letters (London, 1966), p. 147. In December 1618, Frances Southwell, a gentlewoman of her privy chamber, wrote a note to Ralph Dison a keeper of Oatlands Palace, requesting a group of six paintings with religious subjects which Anne of Denmark wanted to display in her gallery at Hampton Court.Wendy Hitchmough, 'Setting the Stuart court: placing portraits in the performance of Anglo-Spanish negotiations', Journal of the History of Collections, 32:2 (July 2020), p. 263.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 200: Erin Griffey, On Display: Henrietta Maria and the Materials of Magnificence at the Stuart Court (Yale, 2015), pp. 71–72.

Death at Hampton Court

In January 1619, Mayerne instructed Anne to saw wood to improve her blood flow, but the exertion served to make her worse. Mayerne attributed the queen's ill-health to her cold and northerly upbringing.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd series vol. 3 (London, 1827), 198. Anne moved to Hampton Court and was attended by Mayerne, Henry Atkins, and, according to Gerard Herbert, Turner, a physician recommended by Walter Raleigh.William Shaw & G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC 77 Viscount De L'Isle Penshurst, vol. 5 (London, 1961), 418-19: J. S. Brewer, Court of King James, 2 (London, 1839), 187. Her brother, Christian IV of Denmark wrote to Mayerne, thanking him for his work. Christian IV also wrote to Anne's companion, Lady Grey of Ruthin, to encourage Anne who was thought to be melancholy and solitary.William Dunn Macray, 'Report on Archives in Denmark', 46th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1886), 38, 45. Gerrard Herbert wrote that Anne was in a "fairer way to recovery".David M. Bergeron, "Gerrard Herbert's Reports about Drama Performances, 1617–19", Studies in Philology, 118:4 (Fall 2021), p. 731.

The queen's symptoms included a "flux" and a cough, which seemed to be a consumption.Miscellany of the Abbotsford Club, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1837), p. 81 King James and Prince Charles were anxious that Anne should make a will, but she would not co-operate. According to a letter describing the queen's last days, "Pira, and the Dutch woman that serves her" were the queen's closest attendants at the deathbed, mostly excluding other courtiers from her presence. These two attendants were probably the French servant Piero Hugon and the Danish chamberer Anna Kaas. Named in an inventory as "Mr Pero" and "Mrs Hanna" they took delivery of furnishings sent from Oatlands Palace to Anne at Hampton Court.Wendy Hitchmough, 'Setting the Stuart court: placing portraits in the performance of Anglo-Spanish negotiations', Journal of the History of Collections, 32:2 (July 2020), p. 260.

Anne of Denmark died in the same room as Jane Seymour, where she had installed her favourite bed, after calling for a glass of Rhenish wine and then a glass of water.Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), p. 43: Miscellany of the Abbotsford Club, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1837), pp. 81-3. The ladies in waiting and female aristocrats attending in the final days were the Countess of Arundel, the Countess of Bedford, Lady Ruthin, Lady Cary, and the Countess of Derby.Miscellany of the Abbotsford Club, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1837), p. 82. Danish Anna was with her at her last moments, and it was said the queen became blind shortly before her death.John Nichols, Progresses of James First, vol. 3 (London, 1828), p. 531: Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, vol. 2 (London, 1849), pp. 144-5.

The comet King James remained at Theobalds, and was unwell himself. He recovered and wrote a poem, comparing Anne's life to the appearance of the great comet in 1618:Steven W. May, "The circulation in manuscript of poems by King James VI and I", James M. Dutcher & Anne Lake Prescott, Renaissance Historicisms: Essays in Honor of Arthur F. Kinney (University of Delaware, 2008), pp. 215–216. Thee to invite the great God sent his star, Whose friends they run the race of men and die Death serves but to refine their majesty So did my queen from hence her court remove She's changed, not dead, for sure no good prince dies, But as the sun, sets, only for to rise.Olivia Bland, The Royal Way of Death (London: Constable, 1986), p. 44: Samuel Rawson Gardiner, Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage, 1 (London, 1869), p. 240.Facetiae, Musarum Deliciae, or the Muses Recreation, 1640, 2 (London, 1817), p. 214 prints a variant.

James Howell wrote "Queen Anne is lately dead of a dropsy in Denmark-house, which is held to be one of the fatal events that followed the last fearful comet that rose in the tail of the Constellation of Virgo".James Howell, Epistolae Ho-Elianae: Familiar Letters (London, 1705), p. 69.

At Somerset House or Denmark House Anne's body was embalmed by the apothecary Lewis Lemire and sealed in a lead coffin by Abraham Green, the sergeant plumber,Anthony Harvey & Richard Mortimer, The Funeral Effigies of Westminster Abbey (Boydell, 1994), p. 61: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), 357–58. and on 9 March taken by barge to Somerset House, sometimes called "Denmark House", where she lay in state attended by her ladies in waiting.Jemma Field, "Orderinge Things Accordinge to his Majesties Comaundment: the funeral of the Stuart queen consort Anna of Denmark", Women's History Review, 30:5 (2021), p. 841–845. Jennifer Woodward, The Theatre of Death (Woodbridge, 1997), p. 166: Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows: The Life of Lucy, Countess, Countess of Bedford (London: Hambledon, 2007), p. 149. The queen's lodgings were draped with black cloth and her bedchamber with black velvet.Catriona Murray, "The queen’s two bodies: Monumental sculpture at the funeral of Anna of Denmark, 1619", Sculpture Journal, 29:1 (January 2020), p. 29. A tournament or tilt on 24 March to mark the anniversary of the accession of James VI and I was cancelled.Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), pp. 78-9.

Lady Anne Clifford sat by the queen's body on 19 April, and afterwards took her cousin on a tour of the palace. She watched the body all through the night of 23 April, with Lady Elizabeth Gorges and others.Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), pp. 44, 81.

A large of number of heraldic pennants and banners were made by the workshop of the painter John de Critz for use at Denmark House and at the Abbey. The display included the arms of the House of Oldenburg and her wider family connections.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The material and visual culture of the Stuart courts, 1589-1619 (Manchester, 2020), pp. 207-9. There had been a similar display celebrating her ancestry and lineage outside St Giles at her Scottish coronation in May 1590.Catriona Murray, 'The queen’s two bodies: Monumental sculpture at the funeral of Anna of Denmark, 1619', Sculpture Journal, 29:1 (January 2020), p. 32.

Funeral

King James ordered the funeral should be "most honourably solemnized and in such manner in all things as was Queen Elizabeth's late Queen of England".Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The material and visual culture of the Stuart courts, 1589-1619 (Manchester, 2020), p. 202. The cost of the funeral has been estimated at £30,000.Catriona Murray, Imaging Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity (Routledge, 2017), p. 107 fn.142. The expenses were managed by Lionel Cranfield, and the costs of black mourning cloth seem to have been the cause of the delay, until 13 May.Susan Vincent, Dressing the Elite: Clothes in Early Modern England (Berg, 2003), pp. 62, 64, 71: Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, vol. 2 (London, 1848), p. 153.