QUEEN ANNE

ANNE (1665-1714), Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, (House of Stuart) (8th March 1702 to 1st August 1714), and was the last British sovereign of the house of Stuart.

Anne was born in London on February 6th, 1665, the second daughter of King James II. Her mother was James's first wife, Anne Hyde. In 1683 she was married to Prince George of Denmark. Although her father converted to Roman Catholicism in 1672, Anne remained Protestant and acquiesced in James's overthrow by the anti-Roman Catholic Glorious Revolution of 1688, which brought her sister Mary and Mary's husband, William of Orange, to the throne. Becoming queen on William's death in 1702, Anne restored to favour John Churchill, who had been disgraced by her predecessor, making him Duke of Marlborough and captain-general of the army. Marlborough won a series of victories over the French in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), and he and his wife, Sarah, had great influence over the queen in the early years of her reign.

Devoted to the Church of England, Anne was inclined to favour the pro-church Tory faction rather than its Whig opponents, but, influenced by the Marlboroughs and Lord Treasurer Sidney Godolphin, earl of Godolphin, she at first excluded the Tories from office. Later, however, her friendship with the Marlboroughs cooled, and in 1710 she took advantage of popular dissatisfaction with the Whigs to remove Godolphin; Marlborough was dismissed the following year. During Anne's reign the kingdoms of England and Scotland were united (1707). She died in London on August 1st, 1714, and, having no surviving children, was succeeded by her German cousin, George, elector of Hanover, as George I.