Anne

Queen Anne. Portrait by Michael Dahl. 1705.

With Queen Anne the House of Stuart, who had ruled England since 1603 and Scotland since 1371, came to an end. It was during her reign that the two countries officially united as Great Britain. A woman who was content to rule as a constitutional monarch, she had a life of tragedy and triumph. Although she and her older sister were able to get her Roman Catholic father, James II, out of England, Anne failed to produce an heir. She had seventeen pregnancies with only one surviving child who preceded her in death.

"I know my own heart to be entirely English" - Queen Anne, 1702.

Anne was born at St. James Palace on February 5, 1665. Although her parents - James, Duke of York (later James II) and his first wife Anne Hyde - converted to Catholicism, Anne's uncle, Charles II, insisted that she and her elder sister Mary be brought up as Protestants.

James II and Anne Hyde. Queen Anne's parents.

In 1683, Anne married Prince George of Denmark. The son of Frederick III of Denmark, George was a fellow Protestant. Although he met with the approval of Anne's protestant uncle, he failed to please her Catholic parents Although Prince George proved to be a devoted husband to Anne, she increasingly relied on her close confidant, Sarah Churchill, the wife of John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough.

Prince George of Denmark

Sarah Churchill

It was Sarah Churchill who convinced Anne to abandon her father, James II, during the glorious revolution. Anne's sister Mary and Mary's husband, William of Orange, were planning to reclaim England for the protestants and James II, the current monarch, was a Catholic. By then, Anne Hyde was dead and James II had remarried and had another child, Anne's half-brother, James Stuart. Unlike Anne and Mary, James was raised a Catholic. Anne, Mary and William of Orange successfully deposed their father and half-brother in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. William of Orange and Mary became William III and Mary II, joint monarchs, in 1689. Later in 1701, the Act of Settlement barred Roman Catholics, like their half-brother, from coming to the throne. 

William III and Mary II

During the reign of her sister and brother-in-law, Anne desperately tried to have children with Prince George of Denmark. Out of her seventeen pregnancies, she had one surviving child. Prince William, Duke of Gloucester was adored by his mother and seemed to be the only foreseeable heir. Prince William's importance increased when Mary II died childless in 1694. After the deaths of William III and Anne, William would be King. Unfortunately the Duke of Gloucester died in 1700 at age 11, leaving Anne heartbroken.

Queen Anne and her son, the Duke of Gloucester

After William III's death in 1702, Anne became Queen of England and Scotland. Anne took being Queen very seriously attended cabinet meetings several times a week, being careful to not show political bias. The generalship of Sarah Churchill's husband, the Duke of Marlborough, gave England and Scotland several victories. Among these victories were the defeat of the French and her half-brother, James Stuart. 

After England and Scotland merged in 1707 to make Anne the first queen of Great Britain, her health began to decline. She was becoming obese and struggled with alcoholism. Anne even earned the nickname Brandy Nan for her fondness of Brandy. Pegging down a protestant heir became extremely important. Over fifty Catholic heirs were skipped over and the aging Sophia of Hanover was to be Great Britain's next queen. She was the former consort of Hanover and a great-granddaughter of King James I. Sophia's son, Georg Ludwig, was the monarch of the tiny German nation. Although Sophia was older than Anne, she became so popular at the British court that Anne sent her back to Hanover until she would return as monarch.

Sophia of Hanover

Queen Anne died on August 1, 1714 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. Sophia of Hanover actually died two months prior to Anne and Sophia's son, Georg Ludwig, assumed the British throne as George I. 

Statue of Queen Anne outside of St. Paul's Cathedral in London