ANNE I, STUART
QUEEN OF ENGLAND, 1704-1713
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The last Stuart ruler, Anne was the first to rule over Great Britain, which was created when the Act of Union joined Scotland to England and Wales in 1707. [Bonus Point: E-mail me immediately!]
Her reign, like that of William III, was one of transition to parliamentary government; Anne was, for example, the last English monarch to exercise (1707) the royal veto. Domestic and foreign affairs alike were dominated by the War of the Spanish Succession known in America as Queen Anne's War. In the actual fighting on the Continent, Sarah Churchill's husband, the duke of Marlborough won a series of spectacular victories. At home the costs of the fighting were an issue between the Tories, who were cool to the war, and the Whigs, who favored it.
Party lines were slowly hardening, but party government and ministerial responsibility were not yet established; intrigues and the favor of the queen still made and unmade cabinets, though the influence of public opinion, shaped by an increasingly powerful press and elections, was growing. Thus it was at least partly through the pressure of the Marlboroughs that Anne was induced, despite her Tory sympathies, to oust Tory ministers in favor of Whigs. Great conflict erupted between the parties and Anne's power lessened.
Interesting Note: Anne had a quite tragic life - - eighteen pregnancies, a number of stillborns and her last child died in 1704 at the age of eleven. Anne sought solace in food and brandy and, by the time of her death in 1714, Anne was quite obese; her coffin was almost square.