BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
T
he fact that Queen
Anne was the last of the
Stuarts was due to an
extraordinary, and tragic,
quirk of fate. By the time
of her accession in March
1702, she had been
pregnant no fewer than 17 times, though
only five children were born alive, and all
of those died in infancy. Her son William,
Duke of Gloucester, lived the longest,
dying in 1700 at the age of 11.
The same reproductive misfortune had
befallen Anne’s sister, Mary, who had also
failed to produce an heir – if she had, then
Anne would not have come to the throne
upon William III’s death on 8 March 1702.
The two women were daughters of James II
by his first wife, Anne Hyde. The future
Queen Anne’s birth had taken place on
6 February 1665 during the reign of her
uncle, Charles II.
At the time, there seemed little prospect
of Anne’s inheriting the throne. Charles II
had fathered numerous illegitimate children
and there was little reason to suppose that
his marriage to Catherine of Braganza
would not result in a legitimate one. But his
queen remained barren and, upon his death
in 1685, he was obliged to leave the throne to
his brother, Anne’s father, James. Anne was
now second in line to the throne, but James
had remarried after his first wife’s death and
his second wife, Mary of Modena, was
proving a fertile one. Ironically, when she
gave birth to a son in 1688, it ought to
have removed any prospect of Mary
and Anne inheriting the throne. In
fact, it brought them to it. By then,
James II had so alienated his people
that the prospect of a new son and
heir continuing his dogmatic
and absolutist policies was too
much to bear. James was duly
ousted from power and
replaced by his protestant
daughter, Mary, and her
husband, William of Orange.
James never gave up the idea
of reclaiming the throne for
himself or his son, and the
‘Jacobite’ movement would remain
a thorn in both Mary and Anne’s
side throughout their respective reigns.
Nevertheless, Anne’s accession in 1702
was a peaceful one – even if it had only
been decided upon the year before. The
death of her longest-surviving child,
William, duke of Gloucester, in 1700 hadthrown the succession into question.
William III had adored the boy and had
intended him as his heir. Anne was the
next natural choice, but her gender and the
fact that William disliked her made it
possible that the throne would revert to the
male Stuart line in the form of James II’s
son. But James Francis Edward Stuart was
as rigidly Catholic as his father had been
and this proved the deciding factor. In
1701, Parliament passed the Act of
Settlement, reaffirming the principle that a
Roman Catholic should never be monarch.Charm offensive
Anne was 37 at the time of her accession.
She had never been a great beauty like her
sister Mary, but she was a handsome
woman. Her numerous pregnancies had
taken their toll on her figure, though, and
her widening girth would become ever
more pronounced during the years that
followed. It contributed to the gout that
plagued her from her mid-thirties and
which left her barely able to walk, often
resorting to sedan chairs, wheelchairs and
walking sticks. One uncharitable observer
remarked: ‘Nature seems to be inverted
when a poor infirm woman becomes one
of the rulers of the world.’
But Anne made up for her physical
deficiencies with the power of herpersonality. She had inherited the charm
of her late uncle, Charles II, and had the
popular touch that William III had so
markedly lacked. When she gave her first
speech to Parliament three days after her
accession, she won widespread acclaim for
declaring: ‘I know my heart to be entirely
English.’ It was exactly what her naturally
xenophobic people wanted to hear after
being ruled by a Dutchman for eight years.
As well as her gift for public relations,
Anne possessed another attribute which
made her subjects delight in their new
queen. She was firmly committed to the
Protestant Anglican Church, so there was
no question that she would try to inflict her
father’s despised brand of dogmatic
Catholicism upon the nation. She also
combined the perfect blend of a high regard
for the ancient ceremonies and pageantry
of the crown with a firm commitment to a
modernised monarchy. During her reign,
the notion of a constitutional monarchy,
in which the sovereign reigned and the
ministers ruled, was consolidated, thereby
laying the foundations for the modern state
of Britain.
Although she presented a welcome
change to her predecessor, Anne upheld
most of William’s policies – including his
aggression towards France. Barely two
months after her accession, the Grand
Alliance of Britain, the Netherlands, the
Empire and the German princes declared
war on Louis XIV. Anne’s choice of
commander was inspired. John Churchill
had been dismissed from court by
William III, but appointed captain of
the forces towards the end of his
reign. The fact that Anne retained
him in this post was due not just
to his undoubted qualities as a
military leader, but to the fact
that his wife Sarah was the
queen’s best friend.
Losing her mother at the age
of six and being separated
from her father because of his
conversion to Catholicism had
made Anne reserved and lonely.
She had subsequently forged a
number of close friendships with
women, and by far the most
significant and enduring was that
with Sarah. In the countless letters they
wrote to each other, they assumed the
pseudonyms of Mrs Morley (Anne) and Mrs
Freeman (Sarah). William III’s dislike for
the Churchills had prompted him toWilliam was Anne’s only child to survive
infancy, but died when he was eleven