Queen Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 8 March 1702 to 1 May 1707 (succeeding William III) and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 May 1707 until her death on 1 August 1714. She was the last monarch of the House of Stuart and was succeeded by George I.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Anne Stuart was born on 6 February 1665 at St. James's Palace, Westminster, England, the fourth child and second daughter of James, Duke of York and his wife Anne Hyde. She was the niece of King Charles II, the maternal granddaughter of Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, and the younger sister of Mary II. Anne was brought up in the Church of England and remained a Protestant despite her father's conversion to Catholicism. She spent much of her childhood at Richmond in Surrey.
Friendships and Marriage[]
She befriended Sarah Jennings (later Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough) around 1670; Sarah married John Churchill in 1678 and became one of Anne’s closest female companions for many years. The sickly Anne married Prince George of Denmark in 1683 and established her household at Whitehall in London. Anne suffered a large number of pregnancies (conventionally counted as seventeen), many of which ended in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the early death of the infant; only one of her children, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester (1689–1700), survived infancy, and he died aged eleven in 1700. Anne’s repeated personal losses had a profound effect on her health and outlook. In 1688, Mary and her husband William III of Orange overthrew King James II in the "Glorious Revolution", and disagreements over Anne's finances, status, and choice of acquaintances led to a deterioration in her relations with Mary.
Accession to the Throne[]
On the deaths of Mary in 1694 and William in 1702, Anne became Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. She favoured moderate Tory politicians — whose country-gentleman outlooks and Anglican sympathies were closer to her own — rather than the more mercantile and dissenting Whigs. In 1702, she supported a bill that would disqualify Protestant Dissenters from public office, but the Whigs blocked it from passing. The Whigs became increasingly popular due to their support for the War of the Spanish Succession and John Churchill's battlefield victories; the Whigs secured the removal of pro-peace "High Tories" from office. Sarah Churchill, Anne's favourite, badgered her to appoint more Whigs and decrease the power of the Tories, causing Anne to become discontented with her.
The question of the succession was already settled by the Act of Settlement 1701, which bypassed several closer Catholic claimants and ultimately provided the legal basis for the succession of the House of Hanover after Anne’s death. In 1708, a Jacobite invasion scare led to the Whigs securing a majority in that year's general election. At the same time, however, Anne found a new favourite in Abigail Hill, who served as an intermediary between Queen Anne and the Tory leader Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.
Political Struggles and Favourites[]
Prince George of Denmark died in October 1708. Political disagreements — and Sarah Churchill’s forceful influence at court on behalf of the Whigs — contributed to a growing estrangement between Anne and Sarah; the friendship effectively broke down around 1710–1711 as Anne turned toward the Tory leader Robert Harley and the influence of Abigail Masham.
Ultimately, the growing expenses of the war with France caused the Whig administration to decline in popularity, and the impeachment of Tory clergyman Henry Sacheverell by the Whigs led to Tory riots in London. The Queen removed the Junto Whigs from power in 1710, and, in 1711, Harley secured a large Tory majority in Parliament with the help of government patronage.
Treaty of Utrecht and Later Years[]
In 1711–1712 the ministry arranged the creation of twelve new peers (sometimes called "Harley's Dozen") to secure a Tory majority in the House of Lords and ensure passage of peace terms; Abigail Masham’s husband, Samuel Masham, 1st Baron Masham, was among those elevated. The resulting Treaty of Utrecht (1713) concluded Britain’s involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession.
King Louis XIV of France recognised the House of Hanover's right to succeed to the British throne on the death of the childless Queen Anne. The Acts of Union 1707 (which united England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain) and the Act of Settlement 1701 were two constitutional milestones that shaped the succession and the political landscape in Anne’s reign.
Legacy[]
Anne’s reign saw the political realignment of Whigs and Tories, the creation of Great Britain by the Acts of Union (1707), and the resolution of the succession question under the Act of Settlement (1701). She is remembered as the last Stuart monarch, as well as for her turbulent personal life, her patronage of the church and the arts, and for presiding over Britain at the end of a long European war that reshaped the balance of power on the continent.
Death[]
Anne died on 1 August 1714 at Kensington Palace, after suffering a series of illnesses and what contemporary physicians described as a paralytic stroke (accounts vary over precise cause). She was succeeded under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701 by George I.
Gallery[]
| Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: William III |
1702–1707 | Succeeded by: Crown of Great Britain |
| Queen of Great Britain and Ireland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Crown established |
1707–1714 | Succeeded by: George I |