Anne of Great Britain

Anne Stuart (London, February 6, 1665-ibid., August 1, 1714) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from March 8, 1702, and of Great Britain and Ireland from May 1, 1707 (the date on which England and Scotland were united into a single kingdom), until her death. This is why Anne became the first sovereign of Great Britain. She was the last British sovereign from the House of Stuarts. She was succeeded to the throne by her second cousin, George I, of the House of Hanover.

His life was marked by many crises related to the succession to the crown. His father, the Catholic James II, had been deposed in 1688; her sister and her brother-in-law then became Kings María II and Guillermo III. The fact that neither she nor her sister had children who reached adulthood meant that, without a Protestant heir, hers, another brother of hers and son of Jacobo II, Jacobo Francisco Eduardo, had the possibility of claiming the crown. It is for this reason that the Parliament approved a Law that allowed the throne to pass to the house of Wittelsbach. When the Scottish Parliament refused to accept the option of the English Parliament, various coercive tactics (such as damaging the Scottish economy by placing restrictions on trade) were used to ensure Scotland's cooperation. The 1707 Act of Union (uniting England and Scotland into Great Britain) was the result of subsequent negotiations.

Ana's reign was also marked by the development of the two-party system. The Queen herself personally preferred the Tory party, for which she was attacked by the Whigs. Her closest friend—and arguably her most influential adviser—was Sarah Jennings, whose husband, John Churchill, 1. er Duke of Marlborough, led English troops in the War of the Spanish Succession. The relationship between the queen, Sarah Jennings, and her cousin, Abigail Masham, was made into a film in the film The Favorite , released in 2018.

Biography

Ann was born in St. James's Palace, London, on February 6, 1665, the fourth—but second surviving child—of the eight children of James, then Duke of York, future King James II of England., and Anne Hyde.

Anne and her older sister, Mary, were the only descendants of the Duke and Duchess of York to survive to adulthood. Anne suffered from an eye infection as a child and was sent to France for medical treatment, where she lived with her grandmother., Henriette Marie of France, and at her death she went to reside with her aunt, Henriette Anne, Duchess of Orleans. In 1670, after her aunt's sudden death, she returned to England. As was customary in the royal family, Anne and his sister Maria were raised apart from their parents, in Richmond, London. Around 1673, he met Sarah Jennings, who became his closest friend and one of his most influential advisers. Jennings later married John Churchill (future Duke of Marlborough), who would go on to become one of the foremost generals in the English army.

In 1672, his father's conversion to Catholicism was made public. However, in accordance with the orders of King Carlos II, Ana and her sister María de ella were raised as strict Protestants. In 1678 Anne accompanied her stepmother Mary of Modena to Holland, and in 1679 she joined her father abroad and then in Scotland.

Her marriage to George of Denmark

Princess Ana with her only surviving son, the Duke of Gloucester. Painting of Godfrey Kneller, c. 1694

Prince George of Denmark, his consort

On July 28, 1683, Anne was married, at St. James's Palace in London, to the Protestant Prince George of Denmark, brother of King Christian V, an unpopular union due to Denmark's French leanings, but which was of great domestic happiness, for the prince and princess were of similar characters and preferred retirement and tranquility to mundane life at court.^{[citation needed]} From this marriage 19 children were conceived, of which only one survived beyond two years:

• A daughter (n. dead, May 12, 1684).
• Mary (n. Whitehall Palace, June 2, 1685 – m. Windsor Castle, February 8, 1687).
• Ana Sofia (n. Windsor Castle, May 12, 1686 – m. Windsor Castle, February 2, 1687).
• A son (n. dead, January 21, 1687).
• A son (n. dead, October 22, 1687).
• An abortion (16 April 1688).
• An abortion (October 1688).
• Guillermo Enrique (n. Hampton Court, July 24, 1689 – m. Windsor Castle, July 30, 1700), Duke of Gloucester.
• Mary (n. et m. Palace of St. James, October 14, 1690).
• Jorge (n. and m. Sion House, Brentford, Middlesex, April 17, 1692).
• A daughter (n. dead, Berkely House, March 23, 1693).
• A daughter (n. dead, January 21, 1694).
• A daughter (n. dead, February 18, 1695).
• A son (n. dead, Windsor Castle, March 25, 1696).
• Twin children (n. dead, March 25, 1697).
• A son (n. dead, December 1697).
• Carlos (n. and m. Windsor Castle, September 15, 1698).
• A son (n. dead, January 25, 1700).

His sister Maria had also married a Protestant prince: William III of Orange. When King Charles II died in 1685 (converting to Catholicism on his deathbed), Anne's father ascended the throne as James II. James, desirous of a Catholic successor, implied to Princess Anne that he would attempt to make her his heir (excluding Mary from her) on the condition that she embrace Catholicism. The project was in vain because of Anne's fervor towards the Church of England, and apart from having sent her Catholic books and pamphlets, James seems to have made no attempt to force his daughter into a change of faith and continued to treat her kindly. ^{[citation required]}

James's attempt to grant religious tolerance to Catholics was not well received by the English. Public alarm increased when, in 1688, James II's wife, Maria of Modena, gave birth to a son, James Francis Eduardo, thus the beginning of a Catholic dynasty became apparent. Anne was not present at the occasion, as she had gone to Bath, and this gave rise to the belief that the child was an impostor. According to court rumors, another woman's newborn child had been hidden under the bed minutes before Mary's labor began, making it appear that the queen, in her simulated labor pains (just like, it was said, her pregnancy) had had a child. Ana believed this rumor for many years, supported by the Protestant sectors of the court, who considered that Jacobo's intention was to exclude all Protestants from state affairs. « Now I will never be satisfied » —Ana wrote to María—, « I don't know if the child is true or false. He may actually be our brother, but only God knows... one cannot help but have a thousand fears and gloomy thoughts, but whatever changes may happen, you will always find me steadfast in my religion. Sincerely”. In later years, however, she had no doubt that the Old Pretender was her brother.

In 1688 his sister Mary and brother-in-law William invaded England to dethrone James II, who tried to flee on December 11 but was captured; twelve days later. However, he was allowed to go into exile in France, where he would reside in one of the palaces of his cousin, King Louis XIV.

During the events immediately preceding the Glorious Revolution, Anne kept aloof from all events, but her behavior was probably influenced by the Churchills. James forbade her to pay her sister a visit in the spring of 1687, although the two were in correspondence and it seems, without a doubt, that Anne was aware of William's plans to overthrow James. When William arrived in England on November 18, 1688, Anne refused to side with James, the deposed king, and on the advice of the Churchills she wrote to the Prince of Orange, declaring his approval of the invasion. Churchill deserted the King on November 24, Prince George on the 25th, and when James returned to London on the 26th, he found that Anne and Sarah Churchill had followed their husbands' example the night before. Escaping from Whitehall Palace by a back staircase, they placed themselves under the care of the Bishop of London, spent a night at his home, and subsequently arrived on December 1 at Nottingham, where the princess first made herself known and appointed a council. She afterwards passed through Leicester, Coventry and Warwick, and finally entered Oxford, where she met Prince George, triumphant, escorted by a great company. Like her Maria, she was censured for showing no concern at the news of the king's flight, but her justification was that "she never liked to do anything that might appear hypocritical ". She returned to London on December 19, and was immediately visited by William.

The new kings, Guillermo and María

In 1689, a Parliamentary Convention met and declared that James had abdicated during his flight from England and that the throne was therefore vacant. The crown was offered—and promptly accepted—to William and Mary, who ruled jointly as monarchs. The Bill of Rights (Bill of Rights) sanctioned the succession to the throne. Princess Ana and her descendants would be in the line of succession after the possible children of Guillermo and María. After them, any descendant of Guillermo in a possible second marriage was entitled.

Shortly after taking the throne, William and Mary rewarded Lord Churchill by granting him the earldom of Marlborough. The treatment that was given to the Marlboroughs later was, however, not friendly at all. In 1692, Mary II dismissed him of all charges against him, suspecting that Lord Marlborough was a Jacobite (ie one of those whom she believed James II to be the rightful monarch). Lady Marlborough was subsequently withdrawn from service to the royal household, prompting Princess Anne to angrily leave her royal residence to move to Sion House, the home of the Marlboroughs. They then deprived Princess Anne of her honor escort, and forbade the guards of the royal palaces to greet her husband as befitted her rank.

When Maria II died of smallpox in 1694, William III continued to reign alone. Seeking to improve his prestige with the English (which had always been much less than his wife's), he restored Anne to her full honours, allowing her to reside at St. James's Palace. But, at the same time, he kept her out of everything and avoided making her regent of the kingdom during her absence. In 1695, William attempted to win Anne's favor by restoring Lord Marlborough to all charges against him. Anne then gave all her help and support to William's government, although at the time, in 1696—apparently—she wrote to her father asking for his consent to take the crown on William's death, and promising his restoration when convenient.. The unfounded rumor that William was contemplating placing James's son in the succession after her death, provided he was brought up as a Protestant in England, may have alarmed her.

Meanwhile, Ana and her husband Jorge suffered a series of personal tragedies. Between 1683 and 1700, the future queen had become pregnant 18 times, but all but one of her children were stillborn or died before reaching the age of 2, and she, too, had suffered several miscarriages. The only son to survive his early childhood, William, Duke of Gloucester, died at the age of 11 on 29 July 1700, precipitating a succession crisis. Guillermo and María had not had children; Thus, Princess Anne, heir presumptive to the throne, was the only one left in the line of succession established by the Bill of Rights. If the line of succession were to be extinguished entirely, it would have become very simple for the deposed King James II to claim the throne. To make it impossible for a Catholic to obtain the crown, Parliament decreed the Act of Establishment (1701), which stipulated that, in the absence of descendants of Princess Anne and William III in any future union, the crown would pass to Sophia of Wittelsbach, Elector of Hannover, and her descendants, as her closest Protestant relative.

Since the death of her son, Anne has signed her letters to Lady Marlborough as "her poor unfortunate ". In the absence of her own descendants, Anne's personal choice at that time would have had to lean towards her father or some member of her family, who was then in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. However, aware of the need for a Protestant successor, she consented to the Act of Establishment. Nevertheless, she dressed in mourning when her father died a few months later, in 1701, although she did not become very close to her half-brother, James II's son and heir, James Francis. Eduardo (the "Old Suitor").

Rise to the crown

Anne of Great Britain

William III died on March 8, 1702, succeeded by Anne, who was crowned on April 23 in Westminster Abbey. At that time, the war of the Spanish succession had broken out, in which the right of Felipe, grandson of King Louis XIV of France, to ascend to the Spanish throne was being resolved. Although Felipe had been named successor in the will of the previous king of Spain, Carlos II, many of the European countries had opposed it, fearing that the House of Bourbon would accumulate too much power in Europe. The will included a clause stipulating that Philip should renounce his claim to the throne of France, but Louis XIV was not afraid to agree to this condition, which he believed he could annul if several of his heirs died. It was certainly not an unfounded concern: smallpox had killed most of the French royal family shortly before his death in 1715, leaving the throne to his 5-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV. England had also been threatened by Louis XIV, when James Stuart, the Old Pretender, had been proclaimed "James III of England" on James II's death. Therefore, England supported the demands of France's rival, Archduke Charles of Habsburg, the Austrian cousin of the late Spanish king.

The War of the Spanish Succession (known in North America as Queen Anne's War, the second of the Indian-French Wars) would continue until the last years of Anne's reign, and would dominate politics foreign and domestic. In 1710 she would receive the visit of four Iroquois chiefs in London, including the Mohawk Hendrick Tejonihokarawa.

Shortly after his accession to the throne, Anne had made her husband Lord High Admiral, giving him control of the Royal Navy. Anne gave control of the army to Lord Marlborough, appointing him Captain General. Marlborough also received numerous honors from the Queen; he was knighted in the Order of the Garter and raised to ducal rank. The new Duchess of Marlborough was awarded the title of Mistress of the Suits, the highest honor a lady could aspire to at court.

Ann was in favor of the Tory party, then led by Sidney Godolphin, Baron Godolphin, from whose members she often chose her prime minister. The Whigs—who were, unlike the Tories, strong supporters of the War of the Spanish Succession—became a much more influential party after the Duke of Marlborough won a major victory in the battle of Blenheim in 1704. The Whigs quickly seized power and soon, through Marlborough's influence, drove almost all the Tories out of the ministries. Lord Godolphin, though a Tory, allied with Marlborough to ensure his continuance in office. Although Lord Godolphin was the nominal head of the ministry, power in reality was held by the Duke of Marlborough and the two Secretaries of State, Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland and Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer. It is noteworthy that Lord Godolphin's son was married to one of the Duke of Marlborough's daughters, and that Lord Sunderland was also Marlborough's son-in-law, and these are not the only examples of Marlborough's nepotism.

The attempts to unify the kingdoms

Portrait of the Queen, by Michael Dahl, 1705

The next few years of Anne's reign were marked by attempts to make England and Scotland into a single kingdom. When the Act of Establishment was passed in 1701, the English Parliament had been negligent in not consulting the Scottish Parliament or the Scottish Estates, which, moreover, tried to preserve the Stuart dynasty. In 1704 the Security Act was passed in Scotland, which stipulated that, if the queen died without issue, the States would be granted the power to choose the next Scottish monarch from among the Protestant descendants of the royal house of Scotland. The person chosen by the States did not necessarily have to be the same person who ascended the English throne, unless the chosen one accepted various religious, economic and political conditions. Although not politically expedient, the Act gained royal assent when the Scottish Parliament threatened to withdraw the Duke of Marlborough's Scottish troops from Europe and refuse to pay taxes. The English Parliament—which feared that an independent Scotland would restore the Auld Alliance with France—responded with the Act of Alienation (1705), which imposed heavy financial penalties and by which Scottish subjects would be declared aliens (leaving them in grave danger of lose any property they held in England), unless Scotland passed the Security Act or agreed to union with England. The States chose the second option, and commissioners were appointed to negotiate the terms of the union. The Articles of Union were approved by the commissioners on 22 July 1706, and accepted by the Scottish Parliament (despite overwhelming opposition from a majority of Scots)^{[citation needed]} on January 16, 1707. Under the Act, England and Scotland became a single kingdom called Great Britain on May 1, 1707.

The Queen's relations with the Duchess of Marlborough began to deteriorate from 1707. The Duchess had proven to be a schemer, and had been displaced from royal favor by another of the Queen's friends, such as Abigail Masham. Lady Masham, a cousin of the Duchess of Marlborough, was also related to one of Anne's Whig ministers, Robert Harley. With the help of Lady Masham, Harley exerted great influence over the queen. Seeing the new power that Harley wielded, Lord Godolphin and the Duke of Marlborough became deeply jealous, seeking his dismissal. Anne was forced to accept Harley's resignation in 1708. A group of five Whigs—Lord Sunderland, Thomas Wharton, Earl of Wharton, John Somers, Baron Somers, Charles Montagu, Baron Halifax, and Robert Walpole—dominated politics, becoming known as "Board". In addition, Harley continued to retain his influence with the queen as a privy councilor.

Ann's husband, George of Denmark, died on 28 October 1708. His leadership in the Admiralty was unpopular with Whig leaders; While he was on his deathbed, some Whigs began preparing a motion to request that he be removed from his position as Lord High Admiral. The Queen was forced to appeal to the Duke of Marlborough to ensure that the motion was not carried out. After her husband's death, however, Anne distanced herself further from the Duchess of Marlborough, preferring the company of Abigail Masham. The queen ended her friendship with Lady Marlborough in 1709.

The fall of the Whigs came rapidly as the costly War of the Spanish Succession became increasingly unpopular in England; Robert Harley was particularly adept at using the cost of war to motivate the electorate in favor of him. Public outrage erupted after Henry Sacheverell, a Tory cleric who attacked the Whig government for tolerating religious dissenters, was indicted on sedition charges. To the further humiliation of the Whigs, the desired sentence could not be obtained; Sacheverell was simply suspended from preaching for three years, and did not face any jail time, as some Whigs had hoped. In the general election of 1710, a discontented populace voted for the tories, who won by a large majority.

Statue of Queen Anne, in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, London (England)

Marlborough was still too influential to be removed from office, but his relatives soon began to lose their positions. Lord Godolphin was sacked on August 7, 1710; the new ministry was headed by Robert Harley and included Henry St John. The new tory government began to seek peace in the war of the Spanish succession, because (as recent events have shown) the victory of Austria (an ally of Great Britain) would be as detrimental to British interests as If France wins The tories were ready to make peace, accepting that the grandson of the French king ascend the throne of Spain, despite the strong opposition of the whigs, who did not want to see a Bourbon on the Spanish throne.

The conflict was resolved by external events: the older brother of Archduke Charles (whom the Whigs supported), Emperor Joseph I, died of smallpox in 1711 and Archduke Charles then inherited Austria, Hungary and the Imperial throne. Also giving him the Spanish throne —to which he had aspired all this time— ceased to be important to Great Britain, as this would have made it too powerful. But when the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) was sent to England for ratification by Parliament, the Whigs devised a way to curb the Bourbon ambitions. In the House of Commons, the Tory majority was unassailable, but this was not the case in the House of Lords. To block the peace plan, the Whigs allied themselves with Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham and the tories who had associates among the Lords. Seeing the need for decisive action, the Queen and her ministry dismissed the Duke of Marlborough, granting command of the British troops to James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde. To remove the whig majority from the House of Lords, Queen Anne appointed twelve new peers (one of whom was Abigail Masham's husband) in a single day. The simultaneous naming of so many peers was unprecedented; in fact, Isabel I had granted fewer noble titles in almost fifty years of reign than Ana in a single day.

End of the War of the Spanish Succession

Under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, Philip, the grandson of French King Louis XIV, was allowed to remain on the throne of Spain, and to retain the viceroyalties of the New World. The rest of the Spanish inheritance, however, was divided among various European princes. Great Britain obtained the Spanish territories of Gibraltar and Menorca. Several French colonies in North America were also ceded to Great Britain. Thus ended the English intervention in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Death

The Queen fell ill at Kensington Palace with a gout attack complicated by erysipelas infections. The febrile episodes and consequent abscesses led to a cerebrovascular accident that ended her life. It was seven in the evening on August 1, 1714. Anne was 49 years old, but her body was so swollen that when she was buried in Westminster Abbey she had to use a coffin twice as wide as it was. the normal.

Ancestors

predecessor: William III

Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland 1702-1707

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland 1707-1714

successor: Jorge I