"She does not mix herself up in affairs, though the king tells
her anything she chooses to ask, and loves and esteems her."[2] Her
interest in state matters was only occasional, and secondary to the
pre-occupations of court festivities, masks, progresses, dresses,
jewels, which she much enjoyed; the court being, says Wilson--whose
severity cannot entirely suppress his admiration--"a continued
maskarado, where she and her ladies, like so many nymphs or Nereides,
appeared ... to the ravishment of the beholders," and "made the night
more glorious than the day." Occasionally she even joined in the king's
sports, though here her only recorded exploit was her accidental
shooting of James's "most principal and special hound," Jewel. Her
extravagant expenditure, returned by Salisbury in 1605 at more than
L50,000 and by Chamberlain at her death at more than L84,000, was
unfavourably contrasted with the economy of Queen Elizabeth; in spite of
large allowances and grants of estates which included Oatlands,
Greenwich House and Nonsuch, it greatly exceeded her income, her debts
in 1616 being reckoned at nearly L10,000, while her jewelry and her
plate were valued at her death at nearly half a million. Anne died after
a long illness on the 2nd of March 1619, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey. She was generally regretted. The severe Wilson, while rebuking
her gaieties, allows that she was "a good woman," and that her character
would stand the most prying investigation. She was intelligent and
tactful, a faithful wife, a devoted mother and a staunch friend. Besides
several children who died in infancy she had Henry, prince of Wales, who
died in 1612, Charles, afterwards King Charles I., and Elizabeth,
electress palatine and queen of Bohemia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See Dr A.W. Ward's article in the _Dict, of Nat.
Biography_, with authorities; _Lives of the Queens of England_, by A.
Strickland (1844), vii.; "Life and Reign of King James I.," by A.
Wilson, in _History of England_ (1706); _Istoria del Granducato di
Toscana_, by R. Galluzzi (1781), lib. vi. cap. ii.; _Cal. of State
Papers--Domestic and Venetian_; _Hist. MSS. Comm. Series, MSS, of
Marq. of Salisbury_, iii. 420, 438, 454, ix. 54; _Harleian MSS._ 5176,
art. 22, 293, art. 106. Also see bibliography to the article on JAMES
I. (P. C. Y.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Fasti S. J._, by P. Joannis Drews (pub. 1723), p. 160.

[2] _Cal. of St. Pap.--Venetian_, x. 513.