Anne

Anne, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and the last British sovereign of the House of Stuart, was born at St James's Palace, London, on 6th February 1665. She was the second daughter of James II. of England and VII. of Scotland (who at the time of her birth was Duke of York), by his first wife, Anne Hyde, the daughter of the famous Earl of Clarendon. When she was six years of age, her mother died; and her father soon after professed himself a member of the Church of Rome; but his daughters were educated in the principles of the Church of England, to which Anne always retained an ardent if not a very enlightened attachment. In 1683 Anne was married to Prince George of Denmark (1653-1708), an indolent and good-natured man, who concerned himself little about public affairs, and had as little capacity for dealing with them. Soon after her marriage, the wife of Colonel Churchill (afterwards the famous Duke of Marlborough) was appointed one of the ladies of her bed-chamber. As the queen needed some one on whom she could lean, Lady Churchill speedily became her intimate friend, and acquired supreme influence over her, which she exerted in favour of her husband. In their correspondence with each other, Anne went by the name of Mrs Morley, and Lady Churchill by that of Mrs Freeman. During the reign of her father, Anne lived in retirement, taking no part in politics. On the landing of the Prince of Orange, she soon joined his party, the Churchills having decided on that step. She consented to the act by which the throne was secured to the Prince of Orange in the event of his surviving her sister Mary; but quarrelled with her sister about questions of etiquette, and was afterwards drawn into intrigues in which the Churchills were engaged, for the restoration of her father, or to secure the succession of the throne to his son. She even entered into a secret correspondence with her father. She was herself childless when, on the death of William III., on 8th March 1702, she succeeded to the throne. She had borne, indeed, seventeen children; but only one, the Duke of Gloucester, survived infancy, and he died in 1700, at the age of 11. The influence of Marlborough and his wife was most powerfully felt in all public affairs during the greater part of her reign. The strife of parties was extremely violent, and political complications were increased by the queen's anxiety to secure the succession for her brother. In so far as she had any political principles, they were opposed to that constitutional liberty to which she owed her occupancy of the throne. These principles and her family attachment tended to alienate her from the Marlboroughs, whose policy, from the time of her accession, had become adverse to Jacobitism, and who now, along with Godolphin, were at the head of the Whig party. The duchess also offended the queen by presuming too boldly and haughtily upon the power which she had so long possessed. In 1710 they parted, never to meet again. Anne found a new favourite in Mrs Masham, a cousin of the duchess, who herself had introduced her into the royal household. To Mrs Masham's influence the change of government in 1710 was in a great measure owing, when the Whigs were cast out, and the Tories came into office, Harley (afterwards Earl of Oxford) and St John (Lord Bolingbroke) becoming the leaders of the ministry. But, although concurring more or less in a design to secure the succession of the throne to her brother, the new ministers had quarrels among themselves which prevented its successful prosecution, and kept the poor queen in a state of constant unrest. She died 1st August 1714. The Elector of Hanover succeeded her as George I.—The public events of her reign belong to the history of Britain; but the union of England and Scotland, in 1707, may be mentioned in its personal relation to herself, as she was the last sovereign who reigned over these as separate kingdoms, and the first sovereign styled of Great Britain.—Queen Anne was of middle size, and comely, though not beautiful. She was virtuous, conscientious, and affectionate, more worthy of esteem as a woman than of admiration as a queen. Her reign is often mentioned as a period rendered illustrious by some of the greatest names, both in literature and science, which this country has ever produced; but literature and science owed little to her active encouragement.