NOTES
AMATORIA
The titles and contents of most of the pieces in the Amatoria, as well as His Maties Jurnei among the Fragmenta, indicate that they were written at the time of the King's marriage, an account of which is thus essential to an understanding of the poems. Though there were tentative proposals several years earlier (Bowes' Correspondence, Surtees Soc., October 7, 1580), negotiations for the marriage were first seriously undertaken hi the summer of 1585, upon the arrival of envoys to suggest an alliance with one of the daughters of Frederick II of Denmark. The ambassadors were given encouragement, and in the autumn Peter Young, the King's tutor and master almoner, was sent to Denmark as the King's representative. Young was again in Denmark in the summers of 1586 and 1587 (Thorpe, Cal. S. P. Sco., July 30, 1586; Aug. 13, 1587), but the negotiations dragged on till the spring of 1 589. The reasons for this delay were partly no doubt the King's youth and the possibility of a marriage with the sister of Henry of Navarre, but chiefly Queen Elizabeth's opposition to this match or any other the King might make. As early as 1585 her envoy Wotton had almost prevented the reception of the Danish ambassadors. Later Elizabeth was said to favor the French princess, who was reported "olde and croked. " (Papers of the Master of Gray, Bann. Club, p. 161.) In reality, as Melville remarks, her aim "was to stay him fra any mariage, as sche and hir consail had ever done and delt, baith with his mother and himself" (Memoirs, Bann. Club, p. 368). When the King finally reached his decision, "efter fyften dayes advysement and devot prayer" (Ibid., p. 366), it was in opposition not only to Elizabeth, but to his chancellor, Maitland, who was under English influence.
69
