Note 28 — I ELIZABETH AND JAMES

Occasionally it was still used as a guesthouse. The Constable of Castile was lodged here in 1604, the Danish ambassador in 1605, Christian of Denmark in 1606 and 1614. Fuller, Church History, vii. 46, says that the name Denmark House was adopted by proclamation in honour of King Christian, but I can find no such proclamation. Arthur Wilson (Compleat Hist. ii. 685) dates the change c. 1610, and says that the new name 'continued her time among her people; but it was afterwards left out of the common calendar, like the dead Emperor's new-named month'. On the other hand I find Cecil dating from 'Queens Court' on 6 March 1605 (S. P. D. xiii. 15), Chamberlain writing in Feb. 1614 of the performance of Daniel's Hymen's Triumph that it was in a 'little square paved court' at 'Somerset House or Queens Court, as it must now be called' (W. W. Greg in M. L. Q. vi. 59, from Addl. MS. 4173, ff. 368, 371), and plays acted by Anne's men 'at Queenes Court' in 1615 (cf. App. B). The reason suggested in the text for the second attempt to change the name seems to me a plausible conjecture. Perhaps 'Denmark House' was tried at Christian's second visit in 1614. In any case, neither novelty permanently established itself. The first use of 'Denmark House' I have noticed is in 1615; that of 'Somerset House' was resumed under Charles I.