ltogether on the side of the
English system.[300]

On the approach of the Spanish armada James at once placed his power
and his person at the disposal of the Queen. He assured her that he
would behave not as a foreign prince, but as if he were her son and a
citizen of her realm. With unusual decision he put himself at the head
of the Protestant nobles, and pursued the Catholic lords who gave ear
to those Spanish overtures which he had resisted.

He now sought for a wife in a Protestant family. With the concurrence,
if not at the instigation, of the English ministers, he solicited the
hand of a daughter of Frederick II, King of Denmark, whom Elizabeth
had praised for adhering to the general interests of the Protestant
world. In this enterprise James was influenced by the consideration
that if any other state opposed his claims on England, Denmark with
its naval power could afford him substantial assistance. A touch of
romance is imparted to his youth by the circumstance that he set out
in person to fetch home his bride, who was detained in Norway by
contrary winds, and who had been promised to him by her mother after
her father's death. Their marriage was celebrated at Opslo (Nov. 23,
1589), but their homeward voyage was now attended with difficulty;
James therefore took his wife over the snow-clad mountains and the
Sound, back to her mother to Kronborg and Copenhagen, and spent a
couple of months there. He had many conversations with the divines of
the country, during which the idea of an union of both Protestant
confessions was mooted. He also paid a visit to Tycho Brahe on the
island of Hveen, which gave him indescribable pleasure: he believed
that in his company he fathomed the marvels of the universe, and
lauded the astronomer in spirited Latin verse as the friend of Urania,
and as the master of the starry world.[301] And a general influence
was exercised in Europe both by his alliance with the house of
Oldenburg, and the connexion which he formed through it with many of
the most distinguished families in Germany. His consort was niece of
the Elector of Saxony, sister-in-law of the Elector of Brandenburg,
and granddaughter of the German Nestor, Ulric of Mecklenburg. Her
sister had just married Henry Julius Duke of Brunswick; at whose
marriage, which was celebrated at Cronberg, a company of North German
princes met together, which seemed like one single family. But the
days of this assemblage were not occupied with