See _Lives of the Queens of England_, by A. Strickland, iii. (1851); _The Wives of Henry VIII_., by M. Hume (1905); _Henry VIII_., by A.F. Pollard (1905); _Four Original Documents relating to the Marriage of Henry VIII. to Anne of Cleves_, ed. by E. and G. Goldsmid (1886); for the pseudo Anne of Cleves see _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, i. 467. (P. C. Y.)
ANNE OF DENMARK (1574-1619), queen of James I. of England and VI. of Scotland, daughter of King Frederick II. of Denmark and Norway and of Sophia, daughter of Ulric III., duke of Mecklenburg, was born on the 12th of December 1574. On the 20th of August 1589, in spite of Queen Elizabeth's opposition, she was married by proxy to King James, without dower, the alliance, however, settling definitely the Scottish claims to the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Her voyage to Scotland was interrupted by a violent storm--for the raising of which several Danish and Scottish witches were burned or executed--which drove her on the coast of Norway, whither the impatient James came to meet her, the marriage taking place at Opslo (now Christiania) on the 23rd of November. The royal couple, after visiting Denmark, arrived in Scotland in May 1590. The position of queen consort to a Scottish king was a difficult and perilous one, and Anne was attacked in connexion with various scandals and deeds of violence, her share in which, however, is supported by no evidence. The birth of an heir to the throne (Prince Henry) in 1504 strengthened her position and influence; but the young prince, much to her indignation, was immediately withdrawn from her care and entrusted to the keeping of the earl and countess of Mar at Stirling Castle; in 1595 James gave a written command, forbidding them in case of his death to give up the prince to the queen till he reached the age of eighteen. The king's intention was, no doubt, to secure himself and the prince against the unruly nobles, though the queen's Roman Catholic tendencies were probably another reason for his decision. Brought up a Lutheran, and fond of pleasure, she had shown no liking for Scottish Calvinism, and soon incurred rebukes on account of her religion, "vanity," absence from church, "night waking and balling." She had become secretly inclined to Roman Catholicism, and attended mass with the king's connivance. On the death of Queen Elizabeth, on the 24th of March 1603, James preceded her to London. Anne took advantage of his absence to demand possession of the prince, 'and, on the "flat refusal" of the countess of Mar, fell into a passion, the violence of which occasioned a miscarriage and endangered her life. In June she followed the king to England (after distributing all her effects in Edinburgh among her ladies) with the prince and the coffin containing the body of her dead infant, and reached Windsor on the 2nd of July, where amidst other forms of good fortune she entered into the possession of Queen Elizabeth's 6000 dresses.