Anne of Great Britain
Anne was the second daughter of King James II of England from his first wife Anne Hyde, daughter of Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon, Lord Chancellor of England. Anne Hyde had been Protestant when they married, although she later converted to Catholicism and also converted her husband to that faith. At the time of her birth in 1665, her parents were Duke and Duchess of York, the monarchy had only recently been restored, and there was still every prospect of King Charles II of England, Anne's uncle, producing a male heir. Her parents had several children, but only two daughters Mary (the future Mary II of England) and Anne herself survived infancy.
Anne
Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland until 1707
Queen of Great Britain, Ireland from 1707
In 1683, Anne married Prince George of Denmark (another Protestant state), and the couple had 17 children, most of whom were still-born. None survived long enough to ascend to the throne, the longest-lived being William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who died in 1700 at the age of eleven.
Succession Crisis 1688-1714
When Anne's father, James II, took as his second wife the Catholic Mary of Modena, concern grew that they would produce a son and that James would attempt to restore Roman Catholicism as the prevalent faith within Britain. James was deposed in 1688, in favour of his elder daughter, Mary (who became Mary II of England), and her husband, William of Orange. However, they were childless, and the succession passed to Anne in 1702. Unfortunately, her surviving son, William, had died two years earlier, and she failed to produce another heir.
The lack of a direct and legitimate Protestant heir to the throne precipitated the Act of Settlement in 1701 which bypassed Anne's Catholic father (deposed since 1688) and her Catholic half-brother in favor of a Protestant heir, namely Electress Sophia who was the youngest daughter of James II's paternal aunt and a grandchild of James I of England. (Genealogically senior heirs, the issue of the Elector Palatine Karl I by his second marriage, were bypassed. There is no sign this line was considered during the process of legislation, and the marriage may well have been considered bigamous since the Elector proclaimed his own marriage dissolved without court or church proceedings). Other even more senior lines descended from Karl II's sister Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, and from Charles II's own sister Henriette, Duchess of Orleans (the first wife of Elisabeth Charlotte's husband) were also bypassed. The last-mentioned line was the most senior one, and it is from "Minette" that the present Jacobite claimant is descended. Since all of these lines were considered either Catholic or illegitimate, the choice of heir presumptive thus fell upon Sophia who however pre-deceased her cousin.
Another change was the Act of Union (see below), which resulted partly from the need to keep the English and Scottish crowns united.
Anne and the Churchills
Anne's reign is remembered in part for the influence of the Churchills. John Churchill, an outstanding military commander, was created Duke of Marlborough following his victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. He owed his favour with the queen partly to her long-standing friendship with his wife, Sarah. When, in about 1711, the two women fell out, the Duke and Duchess both lost preferment. Before this, Marlborough had obtained significant preferment in military command partly through his own genius and partly to the influence of his sister (a mistress of James II of England and his wife (a favorite of Queen Anne). As a successful commander and as a royal favourite, the Duke and Duchess had been granted the royal estate of Woodstock where they eventually built Blenheim Palace.
There were some significant changes to the system of government in Britain during Anne's reign. In 1707 the Act of Union between England and Scotland was passed, uniting the two countries (which had been reigned over by one monarch since 1603 but retained separate parliaments and governments) into the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Anne was thus the last monarch of England, and the last monarch of Scotland, titles which had existed for 900 years. She retained the separate title of Queen of Ireland.
Since Anne was preoccupied much of the time with her many pregnancies and poor health, the business of government increasingly passed into the hands of ministers who, while appointed by Anne, were more and more responsible to the House of Commons rather than to her personally. Although the title of Prime Minister did not come into general use until the subsequent reign (Sir Robert Walpole is usually regarded as the first Prime Minister), her ministers, such as Robert Harley (Lord Oxford) and Henry St. John (Lord Bolingbroke) effectively ran the country. Anne was the last British monarch to refuse her assent to an Act of Parliament (a militia bill in 1707).
Queen Anne died in 1714 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. The Act of Settlement, which was passed in 1701, saw the succession of the throne pass to the line of the Electress Sophia of Hanover (one of Anne's cousins). However, she died a few weeks before Anne, Sophia's eldest son succeeded to the throne as King George I of Great Britain. The present Queen is his heir of line and senior co-heir general.
The term, Queen Anne, when applied to a style of furniture or architecture, refers to this monarch.
From 1702 to 1712, Queen Anne’s War -- the second of the French and Indian Wars was fought mostly in New England.
External link
Preceded by:
William III
List of British monarchs
Succeeded by:
George I