Anne (1665 – 1714) – Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1702Anne was born at St James’s Palace in London, the second daughter of the Duke of York (later James VII and II) and his first wife, Anne Hyde.
She was the younger sister of Mary II (wife of William III). Although her father became a Catholic and married the Catholic Mary of Modena in 1672, Anne was brought up a staunch Protestant.
In 1663 she married Prince George of Denmark (1653 – 1708); she born him 17 children, only one whom survived infancy but died at the age of 12.
For much of her life she was greatly influenced by her close friend and confidante Sarah Churchill, the future Duchess of Marlborough.
During her father’s reign, Anne took no part in politics. When he was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, she supported the accession of her sister Mary and her brother in law William and was placed in the succession, but after quarrelling with Mary she was drawn by the Marlboroughs into Jacobite intrigues for the restoration of her father or to secure the succession of his son, James Stuart the Old Pretender.
In 1701, however, after the death of her own son, she signed the Act of Settlement designing the Hanoverian descendents of James VI and I as her successors and in 19702 she succeeded William III on the throne.
Anne (1665 – 1714) – Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1702
