QUEEN ANNE – THE LAST BRITISH SOVEREIGN OF THE HOUSE OF STUART

Anne (1665-1714), queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1702-14), the last British sovereign of the house of Stuart. Anne Stuart was an unlikely person to become queen of England. She was born on February 6, 1665 to the Duke and Duchess of York and was their second daughter out of three children. Shortly before her birth, her uncle, King Charles II, had married and seemed destined to have a large family after fathering several illegitimate children.  But he had no more children. As Anne grew older she was tormented by numerous health problems, but she survived to adulthood. She only received a limited education, yet Anne would reign during a critically important period in her nation’s history. During her reign she would oversee two major events in English history, one domestic and one foreign. The first being the Act of Union that united England and Scotland. The second was a major international war, the War of Spanish Succession. Best remembered as the last of the Stuart dynasty Anne had no heirs. The events of her reign paved the way for Britain to become an international world power.

Although born into royalty, her education was similar to that of other aristocratic girls: languages and music. Her knowledge of history was limited and she received no instruction in civil law or military matters that most male monarchs were expected to have. She was also a sickly child, and may have suffered from the blood disease porphyria, as well as having poor vision and a serious case of smallpox at the age of twelve. Poor health would torment Anne her entire life, probably contributing to her many miscarriages.

Anne grew up in an atmosphere of controversy. Her father James, the Duke of York, and both her mother and later her stepmother were Roman Catholic. They would have preferred to raise Anne and Mary (their only children to survive early childhood) as Catholics. Nevertheless, prominent Protestants, such as Henry Compton, later bishop of London, took their side and ensured the girls would not only be required to attend Protestant services but that they also receive Protestant religious instruction.

Anne’s life dramatically changed when the Lord Treasurer and Earl of Danby, in an attempt to strengthen his influence with King Charles II, proposed the marriage of Anne's sister, Mary, to William of Orange. Their father, the Duke of York, had wanted to wed Mary to the heir to the French throne, a Catholic. Danby persuaded by the King to allow the marriage to William, a rabid anti-Catholic, thus straining the close relationship between Anne and Mary. Once the marriage had taken place, William interfered in Anne’s life by arranging a marriage to the Prince of Hanover. This time the Duke of York got the king to oppose the marriage, although Anne did not realize this, and therefore felt that she had been denied by the Prince.

Anne eventually married Prince George of Denmark in 1683. This was an arrangement Anne’s father negotiated in secret with sponsorship by King Louis XIV of France, who hoped for an Anglo-Danish alliance against William of Orange and the Dutch. No such alliance would ever materialize.

When King Charles II died, Anne’s father became king. His Catholicism and his desire to rule without Parliament’s input caused Parliament to call on William of Orange and Mary to take the throne. When this occurred Anne supported it and opposed her father. Her husband did not affect Anne’s position, as he remained politically weak and inactive, suffering from a drinking problem. His influence in matters of state would remain small throughout their marriage. The relationship he had with Anne was a close one and she loved him deeply, however, their marriage was saddened by Anne’s twelve miscarriages and the fact that none of their other five children reached adulthood. Although her father converted to Roman Catholicism in 1672, Anne remained Protestant and gave her tacit consent to James's overthrow by the anti-Roman Catholic Glorious Revolution of 1688, which brought her sister Mary and Mary’s husband, William of Orange, to the throne.

After Mary died, followed by William, in 1702, they had no heirs and the throne then passed to Anne. The only challenge to the throne was her half brother James, a Catholic. Since the English, having suffered under the Catholic rule of earlier Stuarts, they wanted a Protestant monarch. Thus Anne ascended to the throne, as the last Stuart monarch, and was the first married queen to rule England alone. Becoming Queen Anne restored to favour John Churchill, who had been disgraced by her predecessor, making him duke of Marlborough and captain-general of the army. Marlborough won a series of victories over the French in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14, known in America as Queen Anne’s War), and he and his wife, Sarah, had great influence over the queen in the early years of her reign.

The end of Anne’s friendship with Sarah signalled a change in political influences as well. Although Anne had always been a strong Tory throughout her reign she had vigorously supported the War of Spanish Succession, a Whig war. Sarah Churchill was a Whig and her husband John, though a Tory, was the leading English general in the conflict. Because of the Churchill’s influence, Anne had always been inclined to support the war, which was the most important event in foreign affairs during Anne's reign. However, when Abigal Masham a Tory replaced Sarah as Anne’s close friend it signaled a shift in the politics of the government too, particularly in with regards to the war of Spanish Succession. Some historians believe Anne manipulated her ministers to enact the policies she wanted while others see her as a monarch manipulated by her ministers. Whatever the case when the Tories came into power they negotiated an end to the war.

Domestically much also happened of great significance during Anne’s reign. The Settlement Act of 1701 was the first important piece of legislation of Anne's reign. It stated that if Anne died without children the throne would pass to the German Hanovers. This angered Scotland where the Stuart dynasty had originated. The Scots threatened to bring back James, Anne's Catholic half brother and pretender to the throne, to rule. To head off a revolt and unite support for the crown Anne pushed for the Act of Union which would unite England and Scotland. The Act of Union was finally accepted in 1707. Also significant in domestic politics is that Queen Anne became the last British monarch to veto an act of Parliament.

In the last couple years of her life Anne became very ill. She was often bedridden and attended to by doctors. These doctors used many techniques to try to cure Anne including bleeding her and applying hot irons. These crude medicinal techniques probably did more harm than good. Anne died in London on August 1, 1714, and, having no surviving children, was succeeded by her German cousin, George, elector of Hannover, as King George I of Great Britain.