Anna of Denmark and the Arts in Jacobean England

Abstract

This dissertation examines Anna of Denmark’s (1574-1619) importance as a cultural agent and political figure at the Jacobean court (1603-1619). Using previously untapped archival material, it builds on existing scholarship to provide a more comprehensive and systematic analysis of the nature and significance of Anna’s intellectual and cultural pursuits. Encompassing the visual arts, material culture, patronage, collecting, and architecture, this study offers a multi-disciplinary approach that accords Anna greater relevance to Jacobean politics than is generally ceded. To achieve this, this thesis analyses Anna’s visual persona in miniature and in large, her purchase and use of clothing and jewellery, her architectural choices and garden projects, and the layout and decoration of her three main residences: Somerset (Denmark) House, Greenwich Palace, and Oatlands Palace. In so doing, it moves beyond narrow models that have traditionally focussed on the person who paid for items, circumventing the male privilege of financial control and distribution in the period. This thesis demonstrates how Anna marshalled the portrait arts, material goods, interior furnishings, buildings, and garden structures to illustrate elements of her familial, cultural, and socio-political identity, which often diverged from that of her husband, King James VI and I (1566-1625). This study examines how Anna negotiated a position of cultural and factional difference from James. In contrast to the work of Clare McManus, Karen Hearn, and Barbara Lewalski, however, this study does not concede that Anna was ever “estranged” from her husband. Rather, it acknowledges the inconclusive evidence surrounding the nature of Anna’s political relationship to James. It highlights areas of their continued joint politicking and draws attention to the absence of any documented rift or hostility between the royal couple. It argues that Anna’s ability to secure a degree of separation from James was facilitated by the structure of the court, together with her strong support of the monarchy, and her alliance with James in key areas of policy. This is most evident in her determination to uphold a certain equivocacy about her confessional identity, which this thesis argues was of significant political benefit to James. It is further illustrated by her advantageous politicking in the Stuarts’ attempt to broker a marriage alliance with the Habsburgs. It contends that Anna’s complex balancing act should be read as one example of her political intelligence. Additionally, it is argued that it should be seen as a result of the political and cultural polycentricism of the Jacobean court, which historians Malcolm Smuts, Linda Levy Peck, and Pauline Croft have identified as one of its defining characteristics. By analysing an array of Anna’s cultural activities, locating them within the socio-political milieu of the Jacobean court, and sustaining all discussions with untapped archival research, this thesis presents a more comprehensive view of the Stuart queen consort than has previously been available.