{"id":2638,"date":"2022-01-17T10:55:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T10:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2022-02-07T09:11:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T09:11:39","slug":"queen-anne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/stuarts\/queen-anne\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Anne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queen Anne, the younger of James II\u2019s surviving daughters from his marriage to Lady Anne Hyde, was born at St. James\u2019 Palace in London on 6th February 1665.<\/p>\n

Most unusually for Stuart and Hanoverian royal children, their parents were not related to each other.<\/p>\n

The clandestine marriage between the then Duke of York and the Chancellor\u2019s daughter produced 8 children, but 6 died in infancy.<\/p>\n

Anne and her older sister Mary were the only two children to grow to adulthood.<\/p>\n

Medieval and early modern statistics on pregnancy and infant mortality tend to make any modern mother wince and be grateful for health care and antibiotics.<\/p>\n

But Anne was particularly unfortunate, and her obstetric history was a real tragedy.<\/p>\n

Accession to the throne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anne\u2019s older sister took the throne as Mary II in 1689 after their father, James II<\/a>, was deemed to have abdicated during the Glorious Revolution.<\/p>\n

Queen Mary ruled as joint monarch with her husband, William, Prince of Orange.<\/p>\n

Queen Mary II married William of Orange, her first cousin, when she was only 15 years old, in an arranged marriage.<\/p>\n

Mary was pregnant 3 times, and suffered two miscarriages and a stillbirth.<\/p>\n

King William III and Queen Mary II reigned jointly until Mary\u2019s death from smallpox on 28nd December 1694. William of Orange then ruled alone until his own death on 8th March 1702.<\/p>\n

As William and Mary had no children, Anne inherited the throne.<\/p>\n

Queen Anne\u2019s Marriage<\/strong><\/p>\n

When she was 18 years old, in July 1683, Anne married her second cousin, Prince George of Denmark.<\/p>\n

George was suitably protestant, which was essential given the dislike and fear of Catholics which still prevailed in the country. George was not a member of the Church of England, and never became one \u2013 he was a Lutheran.<\/p>\n

The marriage was arranged by Anne\u2019s uncle, Charles II<\/a> (Anne\u2019s father\u2019s older brother).<\/p>\n

George was blond-haired, blue-eyed, and considered fairly good-looking. He was also monumentally dull, and not over-blessed with brains.<\/p>\n

Charles II said of him after the marriage, I have tried him drunk, and I have tried him sober; and there is nothing in him.<\/p>\n

George also suffered from asthma, and a contemporary said that his heavy breathing was the only thing which confirmed he was alive.<\/p>\n

Anne herself was not particularly attractive (see the portraits on this page and judge for yourself).<\/p>\n

Both George and Anne ate and drank with enthusiasm, and became extremely large.<\/p>\n

George and Anne\u2019s marriage appears to have been a happy one, despite the frequent tragedies. When George died in 1708, Anne mourned him sincerely and deeply.<\/p>\n

Queen Anne\u2019s Pregnancies, Miscarriages and Stillbirths<\/strong><\/p>\n

Different sources quote different numbers of miscarriages and stillbirths, as the line between one and the other is not always clear.<\/p>\n

What does appear to be the case is that Queen Anne was pregnant 17 or 18 times, with 18 or 19 children, between the ages of 18 and 34.<\/p>\n

1. Stillborn daughter, 12th May 1684<\/p>\n

2. Mary, 2nd June 1685<\/p>\n

3. Anne Sophia, 12th May 1686<\/p>\n

4. Miscarriage, January 1687<\/p>\n

5. Stillborn son, 22nd October 1687<\/p>\n

6. Miscarriage, 16th April 1688<\/p>\n

7. William, Duke of Gloucester 24th July 1689<\/p>\n

8. Mary, 14th October 1690<\/p>\n

9. George, 17th April 1692<\/p>\n

10. Stillborn daughter, 23th April 1693<\/p>\n

11. Stillborn child, 21st January 1694<\/p>\n

12. Stillborn daughter, 18th February 1696<\/p>\n

13. Miscarriage, 20th September 1696<\/p>\n

14. Stillborn daughter, 25th March 1697<\/p>\n

15. Miscarriage, December 1697<\/p>\n

16. Charles, 15th September 1698<\/p>\n

17. Stillborn daughter, 25th January 1700<\/p>\n

There was also another probable miscarriage in 1688.<\/p>\n

Queen Anne\u2019s Children<\/strong><\/p>\n

As can be seen from the list above, Queen Anne gave birth to 6 living children.<\/p>\n

Of those 6, the 3 born in the 1690s, Mary, George and Charles, all died within 24 hours of birth.<\/p>\n

Mary and Anne Sophia, born in 1685 and 1686, were healthy girls. They both died of smallpox in February 1687, within a few hours of each other.<\/p>\n

Prince William, Duke of Gloucester<\/strong><\/p>\n

William, born on 24th July 1689, was the only one of Queen Anne\u2019s children to survive infancy.<\/p>\n

A British Medical Journal Article from 1982, For the want of an heir: the obstetrical history of Queen Anne states that he suffered from a mild form of hydrocephalus, also known as water on the brain.<\/p>\n

This is based partly on portraits and partly on medical descriptions of the boy when he was alive.<\/p>\n

William had a large head, and had some trouble learning to walk. He was not a particularly healthy child. He was of normal intelligence and development otherwise, though. At the age of 11, William caught a fever and possibly pneumonia as a result, and died on 30th July 1700.<\/p>\n

Lack of Heirs and the Hanovers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever the reasons, Queen Anne\u2019s childbearing and pregnancies must have been almost unbearable for both her and her husband.<\/p>\n

It caused problems for the country, too. After Queen Anne\u2019s death at the age of 49, the House of Stuart was extinct, and the throne passed to the Hanoverian Kings \u2013 George I, George II, George III, George IV, and William IV.<\/p>\n

Taken as a group, the Hanoverian royals were dull, boring, not intelligent, badly educated, often illiterate, and prone to wasting absolutely huge sums of money and running up enormous debts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queen Anne, the younger of James II\u2019s surviving daughters from his marriage to Lady Anne Hyde, was born at St. James\u2019 Palace in London on 6th February 1665. Most unusually for Stuart and Hanoverian royal children, their parents were not related to each other. The clandestine marriage between the then Duke of York and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3301,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions\/3301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}