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| Anne with William, her only child to survive infancy, c. 1694. |
Unfortunately, today Anne is mainly remembered for being fat and dull, a reputation that is entirely undeserved. Firstly, Anne was indeed overweight but this was mostly due to her seventeen pregnancies between 1684 and 1700. Of these, twelve ended in miscarriage or stillbirth and four of the remaining babies died before the age of two. Her surviving son, William, was born in 1689 but died in 1700, just days after his eleventh birthday. Anne should be praised for her amazing strength and stoicism in the face of such horrible tragedy, particularly as her misery was compounded by a number of painful health problems, the death in 1708 of her adored husband (George of Denmark) and the acrimonious collapse of her relationship with her close friend (Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough) to whom she was devoted. Many of our unkind memories of Anne come from Sarah's writings but these chiefly reflect badly on their author, who reveals herself to be an unkind, manipulative woman who scorned the friendship that Anne so wholeheartedly offered, yet had no qualms about taking advantage of the rewards bestowed upon her as a result of her advantageous position.
However, despite her desperately sad personal life, Anne was determined to do her duty as the ruler of her people; having no children, she lavished her maternal love on the the nation. In her speech to Parliament, made upon her accession, she stated that: 'I can very sincerely assure you there is not anything you can expect or desire from me which I shall not be ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England.'
Of her acts as Queen, the one for which she is most remembered, and which has had the greatest effect, was the Act of Union of 1707. On 1st May 1707, this historic Act was passed, unifying England and Scotland into one nation, known as Great Britain (Ireland did not become part of this kingdom until 1801). Until this Act, England and Scotland had been separate countries although they had both been ruled by the same monarch since 1603, when King James of Scotland became King of England upon the death of the childless Elizabeth I.
All in all, Anne was a woman truly devoted to her duty but also one who was painfully aware of her extreme shyness and lack of formal education. She regretted not knowing much about her royal predecessors and her limited grasp of mathematics and economics meant that she rarely attended Treasury meetings although she attended more Cabinet meetings than any other monarch before or since. Despite her failure to produce a child, she is remembered as the most successful Stuart monarch who had a strong work ethic and sense of duty not shared by many of the other members of her dynasty. She never allowed her personal grief to be an excuse for lapsing in her duty and was back at work within two days of her husband's death. I think that she is inspirational for all these reasons and more and deserves to be remembered for far more than her weight and that people should know and understand how truly blessed this country was to have a queen like her.
She died aged only 49 but perhaps this was a blessing, having been alone in the world since her husband's death. When she died, her physician made a statement almost poetic in its beauty - 'Sleep was never more welcome to a weary traveller than death was to her.'
Of her acts as Queen, the one for which she is most remembered, and which has had the greatest effect, was the Act of Union of 1707. On 1st May 1707, this historic Act was passed, unifying England and Scotland into one nation, known as Great Britain (Ireland did not become part of this kingdom until 1801). Until this Act, England and Scotland had been separate countries although they had both been ruled by the same monarch since 1603, when King James of Scotland became King of England upon the death of the childless Elizabeth I.
All in all, Anne was a woman truly devoted to her duty but also one who was painfully aware of her extreme shyness and lack of formal education. She regretted not knowing much about her royal predecessors and her limited grasp of mathematics and economics meant that she rarely attended Treasury meetings although she attended more Cabinet meetings than any other monarch before or since. Despite her failure to produce a child, she is remembered as the most successful Stuart monarch who had a strong work ethic and sense of duty not shared by many of the other members of her dynasty. She never allowed her personal grief to be an excuse for lapsing in her duty and was back at work within two days of her husband's death. I think that she is inspirational for all these reasons and more and deserves to be remembered for far more than her weight and that people should know and understand how truly blessed this country was to have a queen like her.
She died aged only 49 but perhaps this was a blessing, having been alone in the world since her husband's death. When she died, her physician made a statement almost poetic in its beauty - 'Sleep was never more welcome to a weary traveller than death was to her.'
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