Page "Anne of Denmark" Paragraph 12

On 12 September, Lord Dingwall had landed at Leith, reporting that " he had come in company with the Queen's fleet three hundred miles, and was separated from them by a great storm: it was feared that the Queen was in danger upon the seas.

" Alarmed, James called for national fasting and public prayers, kept watch on the Firth of Forth for Anne ’ s arrival, wrote several songs, one comparing the situation to the plight of Hero and Leander, and sent a search party out for Anne, carrying a letter he had written to her in French: " Only to one who knows me as well as his own reflection in a glass could I express, my dearest love, the fears which I have experienced because of the contrary winds and violent storms since you embarked ...".

Informed in October that the Danes had abandoned the crossing for the winter, and in what Willson calls " the one romantic episode of his life ," James sailed from Leith with a three-hundred-strong retinue to fetch his queen personally, arriving in Oslo on 19 November after travelling by land from Flekkefjord via Tønsberg.

According to a Scottish account, he presented himself to Anne, " with boots and all ," and, disarming her protests, gave her a kiss in the Scottish fashion.