The wedding of James and Anne of Denmark had been followed by a month of celebrations, and James, cutting his entourage to fifty, had on on December 22 visited his new relations at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, where the newlyweds were greeted by Dowager Queen Sophie, twelve-year-old King Christian IV, and Christian's four regents.
The couple moved on to Copenhagen on March 7 and attended the wedding of Anne's older sister Elisabeth to Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, sailing two days later for Scotland in a patched up Gideon.
They had arrived on May 1 in the Water of Leith.
Anne makes her state entry into Edinburgh five days later in a solid silver coach brought over from Denmark, James riding alongside on horseback.
Anne is crowned on May 17, 1590, in the Abbey Church at Holyrood; this is the first Protestant coronation in Scotland.
During the seven-hour ceremony, the Countess of Mar opens Anne's gown for presiding minister Robert Bruce to pour "a bonny quantity of oil" on "parts of her breast and arm," so anointing her as queen. (Kirk ministers had objected vehemently to this element of the ceremony as a pagan and Jewish ritual, but James had insisted that it dated from the Old Testament.)
The king hands the crown to Chancellor Maitland, who places it on Anne's head.
She then affirms an oath to defend the true religion and worship of God and to "withstand and despise all papistical superstitions, and whatsoever ceremonies and rites contrary to the word of God."
