Imagine it's 1588 and you're James the Sixth of Scotland. Last year your mum died under
the axe of Elizabeth of England. Now you did everything that you could not to make a fuss,
because you want to succeed the executioner as King of England yourself.
Now that's over what next? Better find a wife eh? If you're interested in people, places and events in
Scottish history, then click on the subscribe button at the bottom right hand side of the
screen at any time during this video. If you want books, further information, or ways to support the
channel, then that's in the description below. In the meantime, let me tell you a story. Now I'm in
the ruins of St Andrews old kirk in North Berwick. North Berwick is a quaint middle class
seaside town with easy commuting to Edinburgh. It feels like nothing happens here. That's now,
but what about then? Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. In 1588, James the Sixth of Scotland was
searching for a wife that would be suitable for a man, who would not only be King of Scots,
but save any missteps, King of England and Ireland as well. Now he'd whittled down the candidates to
a short list of two: Anne, Princess of Denmark, and Catherine of Bourbon, and we're told that he was so
pious and earnest to make the right choice, that he prayed over images of these two women
for two weeks to ensure that he was doing God's will. Now, after two weeks of prayer, God
finally spoke to him and said, 'look, I sent Anne of Denmark with a dowry, was that not sign enough?'
The Spirit of God has moved me, will you be paying cash, cheque or a guarantee that we still own Orkney?
So the 22 year old James would marry the 14 year old Anne, obviously not in person like many of
these royal marriages in those days, it was carried out by proxy, and it was George Keith, the Scottish
Ambassador in Denmark, who stood in for James as the groom. To consummate the marriage all that
was required was that he sat on the wedding bed. Turns out I've got the sex life of a royal!
Anyway, 10 days later Anne was setting sail for Scotland in a fleet of 18 ships, led by Admiral,
aristocrat and royal favourite, Peder Munk, but before they even left Copenhagen ships had been
damaged by two accidents with exploding cannon, then the fleet were hampered by adverse winds and
they had to dock in Norway, which was handy, because one of the ships was leaking and needed repairs.
After several attempts, the Danish party, and the Scottish King's betrothed, were blown back
and left stuck in Norway. Will this marriage ever be properly consummated?
James carried out what has been described as his only ever chivalrous action. On the 25th of October
1589, James set sail for Norway himself. Now bear in mind, that this couple would as anticipated become
monarchs of all the countries of the British Isles The first ever British royal wedding took place
not in Scotland, not in England, not even in Anne's home of Denmark, but in the old Bishops Palace
in Oslo, Norway on the 23rd of November 1589 (take me to the pub quiz I'm ready to dominate)!
The newlyweds spent their winter in Norway and Denmark, they met Tycho Brahe, the great astronomer.
They wined and dined, and had a damn good Scandinavian honeymoon before coming back
to Scotland to do it all again, holding the celebrations and ceremonies that
had originally been planned for Scotland in the first place ... and they all lived happily ever after ...
not quite, in fact, the real intrigue is only just beginning.
Incidentally if you're interested in intriguing Stuart royal weddings,
you might like my video on The Marriage of the Thistle and the Rose. I'll leave a link at the end.
When Peder Munk, the Danish leader of the fleet, got back to Denmark after the Scottish end of
the festivities, a quarrel started with Christopher Valkendorf. He was the penny pinching Royal Treasurer,
who Munk felt had left the fleet unprepared, indeed unfit for sailing. No wonder there had been so
many mishaps, no wonder the fleet had never reached Scotland, no wonder that the Danes had had to face
the national embarrassment of the Scottish King having to come himself to Norway to rescue the
endeavour. So was the failure to reach Scotland due to poor seamanship of Munk or the penny pinching
of Valkendorf? Legal writs followed, and in the end, it turned out that the cause was in fact the evil
interference of witches. You see Munk wasn't the only person with whom Valkendorf had had a public
spat; insults had also flown with a local woman and Valkendorf claimed that all the problems had been
caused by witches in the house of Karen the weaver. Of course! There had to be a logical explanation.
There had to be a public burning, Anna Koldings, one of the most famous of these witches, was tortured,
then confessed to sending demons in empty barrels in the ships, and when
they were out at sea they got out and they caused the storms and all the other problems.
She and 11 other women were executed in September
1590. Of course news that the satanic hordes that were against the marriage James had so dutifully
prayed for got back here to Scotland. Now that James thought about it his own boat had a bit of a
wobble on the way home, what's more he'd appointed a woman called Jane Kennedy as lady and waiting to
his new wife. She'd previously been a servant to the mother that James had allowed beheaded. Well
the ferry bringing Jane Kennedy from Burntisland in Fife across to Leith had sunk in a storm.
Haud on, there must be Scottish witches involved as well. Well it so happened that there was a woman called
Gellis Duncan. Now if you've watched Outlander you'll have heard of this witchy name before.
Gellis' boss noticed that she'd become good at healing people.
Suspicious? Not only that, she was seen going out at night! Oh!!! They asked her,
"Are you a witch?" she said "No", so they tortured her and then they said "are you a witch noo?"
She said "maybes aye maybes no". They tortured her more and she said, "all right I'm a raven
witch and here's a list of other witches that are even witchier than I am". I knew it!
Now I've been a wee bit frivolous about the torture thing here, in truth the barbarity of what
was done to people in order to extract 'confessions' and the name of the religious and morally upright
is unimaginable. St Andrew's kirk here was said to be the home of one of the witch's covens. Over
a hundred women, and actually a couple of men as well, this time were arrested tortured and executed,
and what became known as the North Berwick Witch Trials. The most famous of the blokes accused was
actually a relative of James who'd previously caused him a bit of trouble. How convenient!! He
managed to escape several times actually. In fact, his story would fill several episodes.
The most famous of the female witches was neither as noble of birth nor as lucky. Agnes Sampson was
arrested and accused. No ... Torture ... Maybe ... Torture ... Let me tell you a story ... Oh, we're all ears! The theory at
the time was that witches would always have the devil's mark. This was from where Satan had branded
them. Think Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter, that's how you knew that they were witches and once you
found this devil's mark, they could no longer deny their witchcraft and that's how you got them to
confess. Now they couldn't find the devil's mark on Agnes, so they tortured her and shaved off her hair.
Now it turns out that after torture she did have marks on her body and she started singing like
a bird, even James himself interviewed her, and during that interview she took him aside and
whispered things to him that his new wife had said to him on their wedding night. Aaah! Only a witch
communicating with her satanic Scandinavian associates could possibly have known this!
She was burnt at the stake in Castlehill in Edinburgh on the 28th of January 1591
and of course, many others shared her fate. The North Berwick Witch Trials led to James's
short-term obsession with witches and three books worth noting. 'News From Scotland' was published in
London and described the North Berwick Witch Trials, 'Demonology' written by James himself
revealed in vivid detail his rationale or obsession, with witches and witchcraft, and of course a short
time later an English playwright wrote for James a work intended for a king obsessed by the threat
of witches to his rightful throne: Macbeth, all this because Christopher Valkendorf didn't
want to accept the blame for a royal wedding that accidentally took place in Oslo. I hope you enjoyed
this story. If you have, then why not share it and watch my video on the Marriage of James the Fourth.
Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.