Episode 286: Queen Anne of Great Britain
Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland did not have the longest reign, nor was she a dynamic ruler full of personality and dazzle, but she was better than that. She quietly had a long and loving marriage, suffered the emotional toll of 17 pregnancies and the deaths of the only three children that survived infancy, and instituted changes that are still relevant today. She was a popular and thoughtful monarch who brought stability to a country that had seen more than its share of chaos, and she did that despite England’s involvement in a war that lasted nearly the entirety of her reign.
Queen Anne was born with a far simpler name, Anne Stuart, Lady Ann of York, on February 6, 1665. She was the second of two surviving children of James, Duke of York, and his wife, Anne Hyde, Duchess of York. Anne’s father was the younger son of King Charles I, a king of England who had been removed from power (and life) in the wake of the English Civil War. By the time Anne was born, her family was back in England, her uncle was King Charles II, and her father was the heir presumptive who took the throne in 1685.
Obviously, we go into much more detail in the podcast, but while Anne was second in the line of succession, her sister Mary was ahead of her, neither of the princesses were raised in the manner a male heir would have been. Their education was mostly social and trained them to be wives to kings, not rulers in their own right. Which is a shame, because Mary co-ruled with her husband William beginning in 1689.
Mary only lived for five years of that reign before she died, but her husband sat on the throne until 1702, when he also passed away.
Of course, all of Anne’s life had a soundtrack of court intrigue, politics,and men behaving badly, but the worst source of conflict in the kingdom was religion. There’s a short time period called the “Glorious Revolution,” and another king who was forced/ abdicated (it depends on how you look at it) into exile. Also, during this time, Anne was married at 18 to Prince George of Denmark- an arranged marriage for political alliances (weren’t they all?) but in this case they were a unicorn of a couple who got along very well from the start. They had a loving, caring, and committed marriage, but they also had tragedy at every corner in 17 pregnancies that ended in miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant or childhood death.
And the biggie: she became Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1702. That added another element of complexity to their household, as did Anne’s very close relationship with Sarah Churchill who was, technically, a lady-in-waiting (and a laundry list of other titles) but more importantly, a long-time, very close friend of Anne’s. Sarah was the source of not only drama during Anne’s lifetime, but also mostly responsible for the false legacy Anne was burdened with for many years after she had passed.
If all you know about Queen Anne was that relationship with Sarah, you missed a lot of accomplishments from the quiet, reflective, attentive, and very popular queen. We cover a lot of them, but joining Scotland and England into Great Britain is just the start. You should probably listen to this podcast.
Queen Anne died on August 1st, 1714, at the age of 49.
Time Travel with The History Chicks
Books!
Web!
A bit about the Magna Carta from, curiously, the US National Archives.
The City of London, a very small section of the greater London area, is still a separate entity, and what the heck is “The Great Refusal?” Learn more from the Independent Labour Publications website.
Here is the motherlode of intel on six UK palaces, including ones where Anne lived (Hampton Court and Kensington.) There is information about them, about visiting them, lots of articles, and many photos. If you’re interested in the ceiling she commissioned in Hampton Court, you can find more here on Google Arts and Culture. Here is more information about the building she had a major financial hand in building (and one of our favorites), Blenheim Palace (it was Blenheim Castle in Anne’s day.) If you find yourself in the UK and are anything like us–you should visit at least a couple of them.
Without Queen Anne, there would be no Ascot Racecourse!
Queen Anne architecture, however, may still have been a thing but it would just have had a different name that would confuse people less, since she had nothing to do with it. Here’s more about that on a Queen Anne site called, Queen Anne Historical Society about a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington.
Moving Pictures!
We did talk about the movie The Favourite a lot (and we edited out even more, we were feeling chatty that day.) We can’t tell you what to think about it, but we can tell you what we thought about it.
In the podcast, of course.
Join us! We have just a few spots left for our Field Trips to the Loire Valley in August, and to Italy in October! For more information and to register, please visit Like Minds Travel!
The end song is A girl a woman by Windshield
