A Monarch A Month - Anne

Hi all!

It's now time for monarch number 31, Queen Anne. Here she is, resplendent in royal purple (although I do think with her 'wand' she looks more like a fairy godmother than a queen!):

Anne from Kings and Queens by Bothy Threads

Started - 5th December 2021

Finished - 10th December 2021

Total stitching time - 7 hours 5 minutes

Anne's biography wasn't easy to write! I didn't want to write more about the line of succession, but ended up doing that anyway, and certainly didn't intend to summarise her relationship with Sarah Churchill into just a few words. I was also drawn towards her numerous unfortunate pregnancies and spent ages looking at the births, lives and deaths of each of her children. So sad. Coping with even one child death must have been heart-breaking, but to suffer so many... you have to wonder how she coped.

ANNE

Preceded by William III (brother-in-law and cousin)

Succeeded by George I (second cousin)
Lived - 1665-1714

Reigned - 1702-1714
Married - Prince George of Denmark in 1683

Children - 17 pregnancies, no surviving children

               (7 miscarriages, 5 still births, 4 infant deaths, 1 died aged 11 in 1700) 

Anne became Queen following the death of William III in 1702.

She and George were a devoted couple, Anne taking on her heir/Queen responsibilities and George being content as her loyal husband and supporter. They grieved the deaths of their children together, and Anne was similarly grief-stricken when George died in 1708.

Despite being blighted by gout, and often unable to walk, Anne was a popular Queen who took a genuine and serious interest in politics, the military and the arts. 

However, because of her lack of political affiliation, and her closeness to personal 'favourites' Sarah Churchill and, later, Abigail Hill, Anne was often criticised for being weak and too easily influenced by those around her.

In 1707 the Act Of Union was signed, uniting Scotland and England as 'Great Britain'. Not only was this beneficial for economic and trade purposes, it also meant that Scotland had to accept Anne's heir as outlined in the 1701 Act Of Settlement (up until then Scotland had had its own Parliament and could choose its own monarch, which England feared could be Anne's ousted Catholic father James II, or her half-brother James Stuart).

Anne died in 1714 following a stroke. She was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside her husband and nine of their ten children (their penultimate child having been buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor).

Despite rumours that she secretly wished her half-brother to succeed her, the 1701 Act Of Settlement was invoked, thus making Anne the last monarch of the House Of Stuart.

So next month, with Sophia, Electress Of Hanover having died two months previously, it was Sophia's son and Anne's second cousin, George I, who claimed the throne and began the House of Hanover.

Take care,

Rachel x