Wardrobe of Anne of Denmark
[1] Anne of Denmark came to Scotland as the bride of King James VI in 1590, bringing a large trousseau of newly made clothes, with other supplies and personnel, "all so costly, it is strange to hear".
[7][8] Fabrics were purchased for her wardrobe by a merchant Robert Jousie and his business partner Thomas Foulis, using some of the money James VI received as a subsidy from Elizabeth I and the custom duty of the Scottish gold mines.
[17] On 13 June 1592, Anne ordered coordinating orange and green summer clothes for herself, Vinstarr, Marie Stewart (a "tender bairn"),[18] and for Belo (who was probably a page).
She and King James gave clothes as gifts to her servants and gentlewomen for their weddings, including Marie Stewart who married the much older Earl of Mar in December 1592.
The treasurer's accounts for October 1590 include a payment for costumes made by James Inglis and Alexander Miller for four pages and an African servant recorded as the "Moir".
[32] Lightweight costume in brightly coloured taffeta was bought for masques, theatrical performances held at the weddings of courtiers, where she and King James danced in special outfits described as "maskerye claythis".
[42][43] Giovanni Carlo Scaramelli, a Venetian diplomat, wrote that Anne of Denmark had given away her jewels, costume, and wall-hangings to her ladies remaining in Scotland, and would find six thousand gowns in Elizabeth's wardrobe which were being adjusted for her.
[46] When the Spanish ambassador Juan Fernández de Velasco y Tovar, 5th Duke of Frías, arrived in August 1604 to negotiate the Treaty of London, Anne and her companions wore black masks while observing from a barge on the Thames.
[49] The court and royal households moved locations several times to avoid the plague that year, and "James Duncan's man" carried gowns from Winchester (where Anne had staged a masque) to Nonsuch and Oatlands for Princess Elizabeth and her companions.
[50] According to Arbella Stuart, Anne of Denmark asked Audrey Walsingham and the Countess of Suffolk to take Elizabeth's old clothes from a store in the Tower of London for a masque at New Year, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses.
[55] Anne, playing the part of Pallas, wore a brand new stage helmet made by Mary Mountjoy and skirts below the knee but shorter than was customary.
[73] Sir Edward Herbert fought with a Scottish usher who had snatched a ribbon or "topknot" from Mary Middlemore's hair in a back room of the queen's lodgings at Greenwich Palace.
An inventory of Anne's clothes made in 1611 (now held by Cambridge University Library) details many items of her costume, including the skirts and petticoats worn over the farthingale support.
[83][84] Anne gave away one of her white satin petticoats as a New Year's Day gift on 1 January 1611, listed in the inventory as:One petticote of white sattine Imbroydred alover butt moste Fayrest in a border 3 quarters deepe with rinninge workes of venice gold and purle with 12 broad squares of the Foresayd gold with severall Devices in eache square Intermixte with Dyvers Sorts of fruits Fowells and fyshes: with a gard one each Syde the border with Imagerie worke & fowles, edged with gold and Silver bone lace and Linde with yelow and white taffeta.
[85](in modernised spelling) One petticoat of white satin embroidered all over, but most fairest in a border 3 quarters deep with running works of Venice gold and purl, with 12 broad squares of the foresaid gold with several devices in each square, intermixted with diverse sorts of fruits, fowls, and fishes: with a gard (border) on each side, the border with imagery work & fowls, edged with gold and silver bone lace and lined with yellow and white taffeta.William Stone in Cheapside was a major supplier of fabrics in her first years in England, and had sent silks to Scotland in 1589 for the royal wedding.
[86] Agents for the late Thomas Woodward, a mercer to Anne of Denmark who also provided fabrics for masques, finally obtained a payment of £3,720 in November 1627.
[101] At the wedding of her daughter Princess Elizabeth in 1613, Anne wore white satin, with a head attire featuring pear-shaped pearls, and other jewels said to be worth £40,000.
[102][103] The expenses of Anne's "apparel and the entertainment of her servants" were intended to be met by an annual income of £30,000 from crown lands,[104] the yearly amount spent on clothes alone was said to be £8,000.
[108] Wardrobe staff and suppliers attended Anne of Denmark's funeral on 13 May 1619 and walked in the procession, including Dorothy Speckard, Hester Tillier, Blanche Swansted, and Elizabeth Rider.
