I've been struggling with a very persnickety question that I just can't find my way to answer. With lock down easing a bit where I live, I figure I'm going to get to the bottom of it. If anyone can help point me in a direction that would be brilliant.
So the question: On 22 December 1589 King James VI visited the castle of Elsinore, he had just been married the month before and was visiting his in-laws before heading back home to Scotland. (As an aside it is a nice story to read about James romantically sailing off to rescue his stranded bride, arguably the only romantic thing he ever did) On the Anne of Denmark Wikipedia page there is a throw away (non-referenced) comment that when James went to this castle he cut his entourage to 50. The implication is that when he travelled from Norway to Denmark the entourage was cut down not just the day he went to the castle, but then again there is no reference. Wikipedia is brilliant for some things but my supervisor would have chopped my hand off if I hadn't referenced an assertion like that. I am looking for a list partial or whole of who was in that entourage while in Denmark.
What I'm really hoping to see is the name George Gordon Earl of Huntly in that list.
Any ideas on potential sources I could chase up that might list the names of this entourage?
The handful of books I could get my hands on during lock down barely mentioned this whole "rescue" attempt event. However, I was focused on James VI, I didn't have anything on Anne or George to refer to. And I didn't have direct access to any primary sources. I had hoped to find some roster of those people on the boat with James from Norway, but I didn't see anything in the Scottish National archives immediately jumping out.
I'm hoping a fresh pair of eyes, might point me towards the obvious source.
So I guess my question is really about the sources I can use to determine the answer to the question more than just the answer itself.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
While I don't have any immediate suggestions for sources on who James took with him to Denmark, I can confirm that George Gordon, Earl of Huntley, wasn't with them.
Following an abortive attempt at rebellion, Huntley had surrendered himself to King James on 26th April 1589, and was imprisoned in Borthwick Castle (on highly lenient terms) from 6th June until that September.
In the words of his biographer for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, his release "led to his temporary retirement from public life".
Dr Ruth Grant, who completed a PhD on the Earl of Huntly at the University of Edinburgh in 2010, gives a bit more detail. She states that after James left the country, Huntley retired to his estates in the north, focussing on building a new castle at Ruthven ("neir vnto his hunting forests"). He predominantly remained in the north until after James and Anne returned in May 1590.