English subsidy of James VI

There are several lists of the actual yearly amounts paid,[15] and some records of the expenditure are held by the British Library, the National Library of Scotland and the National Records of Scotland.[16] The records in the British Library were obtained from the collections of Dawson Turner and Hopetoun House.[17] Turner also had two letters Anne of Denmark sent to James VI from Flekkerøy.[18] The subsidy records compliment the Scottish royal treasurers' accounts, exchequer rolls, vouchers, and precepts of the period held by the National Records of Scotland.

Some of the subsidy money in 1589 and 1590 and revenue collected by William Keith of Delny was accounted by Jean Fleming, wife of the Chancellor of Scotland, John Maitland of Thirlestane.[19] Some money passed to William Schaw, Master of Work, to repair royal palaces.[20] Maitland was reimbursed for expenses made on the king's voyage to Norway and Denmark to meet his bride Anne of Denmark from the subsidy. The accounts detail the expense of fitting out and decorating a ship belonging to Robert Jameson of Ayr. Maitland also accounted expenditure of part of the dowry of Anne of Denmark and a gift from her mother Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow in Denmark in Danish dalers.[21]

By May 1591, the money came to be managed by Thomas Foulis a well connected Edinburgh goldsmith and his business partner the Edinburgh textile merchant Robert Jousie.[22] Foulis and Jousie were regarded as the "chief furnishers" of the king and queen by July 1596.[23] An account made by Foulis for the years 1594 to 1596 survives. The money was received for James VI from the English subsidy, from the duty on the gold mines of Crawford Mure and Robert Mure, money coined at the royal mint by Thomas Acheson, and further subsidy money received from the Secretary, Richard Cockburn of Clerkington.[24] Elizabeth had let it be known that the money given to Cockburn should be taken to Scotland, and not spent in London, as had happened in previous years.[25]

Foulis was bankrupted in February 1599 and the money from England was then recorded in the usual treasurer's account kept by Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre and his successor, Alexander Elphinstone, 4th Lord Elphinstone.[26]

The subsidy was not always regarded as beneficial by the people of Scotland. In April 1591 James VI sent Sir John Carmichael and William Stewart of Blantyre to Glasgow to arrest Brian O'Rourke, a rebel to Queen Elizabeth in Ireland, and take him to England.[27] This caused a riot in Glasgow, because the arrest was thought likely to damage the Irish trade, and Carmichael and Blantyre were cursed as "Queen Elizabeth's knights" and the king for taking "English angels", a clear reference to the subsidy James V received from Queen Elizabeth.[28]

In July 1594 the textile merchant Robert Jousie was paid £18,280 Scots from the subsidy money for the clothes he had supplied to the king and Anne of Denmark.[29] Jousie declared on 1 February 1596 he had spent £71,513-14d Scots on the queen's clothes in six years. He kept meticulous accounts of fabrics supplied to the royal tailors which are held by the National Archives of Scotland. Such expenditure demonstrated the power and stability of the Stuart monarchy.[30]

An English poet named "Mr Breton" who visited the Scottish court in 1588 or 1589 and received a gift of £160 Scots may have been Nicholas Breton.[33] Around the same time James VI paid a "Highlandman" for making a chart of the genealogy of all the Kings of Scotland.[34][35] Such charts were displayed in the gallery of Linlithgow Palace and the English keeper Roger Aston added his own genealogy for comic effect.[36]

In 1589 the English admiral George Beeston took a fleet to Scotland for an unknown purpose. An unfortunate incident embarrassed James VI. On 1 June Beeston arrived in the Forth on the Vanguard followed by Edward Croft in the Tiger with the Achates. On 5 June some of the English crewmen came ashore into Edinburgh to shop and sightsee. Three got in fight in a tavern, one was stabbed, and as returned to Leith and their ship they were attacked by a group of Spanish sailors, survivors from the Armada shipwrecks. An English trumpet officer, was killed. Beeston and the English ambassador William Ashby had an audience with James VI on 7 June at the Palace of Holyroodhouse seeking an enquiry and justice. Ashby and Thomas Fowler wrote that the king treated the sailors honourably; James VI gave Beeston a locket set with diamonds and 100 gold crowns and gold chains and rings provided by the goldsmith Thomas Foulis to his captains.[37] James also requested that Edinburgh town council give Beeston his three captains, and the English ambassadors an "honest banquet" in Nicol Edward's new house. The banquet was organised by William Fairlie.[38]

James VI took a silver service to Norway and gave some of it to Steen Brahe

On 26 September 1589 the Maitlands made an inventory of a gilt silver service, known collectively a "cupboard" after the furniture with shelves where such silver was displayed at mealtimes. Part of the service came from Thomas Foulis.[39] Other silver pieces were probably from £2,000 sterling worth of silver and silk fabrics given to James VI by Elizabeth. Master John Colville had arrived in Scotland on 22 September with the silver, which was supplied by Alderman Martin.[40] The silver service was taken to Denmark-Norway and gifts from it were given to dignatories.[41] James gave silver plate from the service to Steen Brahe and Axel Gyldenstierne in Oslo on 15 December 1589.[42]

Robert Jousie's costume accounts include masque outfits for Anne of Denmark and James VI.[43] These include costumes for James VI and his valet at the wedding celebrations of the "laird of Tullibardine's daughter". The occasion was the wedding of Lilias Murray and John Grant of Freuchie.[44]

In 1591 Anne of Denmark received £1,000 Scots from the subsidy, as did Lord Sypynie, "Rachaell, an Englishwoman" was given £400, and John Wemyss of Logie had £300.[45]

In 1594 James VI requested a shipment of English lead to repair the roof of Linlithgow Palace

In May 1594 James VI ordered English alabaster for the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle and lead to repair the roof of Linlithgow Palace, the responsibility of Roger Aston. The alabaster may have been for carving or to make gypsum plaster to decorate the chapel for the baptism of Prince Henry.[46] James VI frequently visited Prince Henry at Stirling and on 16 August 1595 ordered some silver work for his chamber from Thomas Foulis. He encouraged the infant to hold a pen and write on the precept, noting "I will testify this is the prince's own mark".[47]

Richard Cockburn of Clerkington, Secretary of State was sent as ambassador to London in October 1594 and received £2000.[48] The cost of Cockburn's embassy was met with £1,000 Scots from the Danish dowry paid to James VI which had been invested with the town council of Haddington.[49] He passed £680 Scots from the subsidy money to the goldsmith and royal financier Thomas Foulis for the king's use.[50] The rest of the payment was sent to the Duke of Lennox for the wages of his soldiers in the north of Scotland for one month.[51]

As New Year's day gifts in 1596, Thomas Foulis supplied jewels including a gold salamander studded with diamonds given to the Master of Work, William Schaw. Anna of Denmark had a diamond set gold locket or tablet with a diamond and ruby necklace. Sir Thomas Erskine had a locket set with rubies and diamonds, the Duke of Lennox had a hat badge in the shape of a diamond set gold crown, and a courtier known as the "Little Dutchman" (possibly William Belo) received a diamond ring.[52]

In 1598 Robert Jousie's account of costume includes a payment to a Dutch craftsman in London who engraved a sapphire with Queen Elizabeth's portrait for Anne of Denmark for £17 Sterling or £280 Scots. Master David Foulis carried the sapphire "home" to Scotland.[53] This Cornelius "Draggie" turned up in Edinburgh in 1601, attempting to set up a weaver's workshop to exploit generous subsidies for expert craftsmen, but the other weavers protested he was a lapidary, not a weaver.[54] In London, Cornelius seems to have been associated with the Harderet family workshop.[55] The sapphire is the last item mentioned in Thomas Foulis' accounts of royal apparel.

The remainder of the dowry was taken back to Scotland and invested in various burgh towns by the Comptroller, David Seton of Parbroath.[62] It was spent on the celebrations at the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle in 1594. Costumes for the women of Queen Anne's household were bought using £4000 held at St Andrews and Anstruther collected by John Elphinstone of Selmes and Baberton, while £3000 from Perth paid for upholstery and repairs to tapestry.[63] Robert Jousie received £1000 from Aberdeen.[64] According to the author of the Historie and Life of King James the Sext the money had been lodged with the towns to give the queen an annual income, and James was urged to spent it by corrupt advisors to offset his expenditure on "unnecessary" armed troops.[65]