Divorced, Beheaded, Died: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks by Kevin Flude Page A
Authors: Kevin Flude
Tags: Historical, History, Biography & Autobiography, Reference, Europe, Great Britain, Royalty, Queens
Ads: Link
troops was a brave one. The chances of a disastrous storm were high at that time of year and the welcome he would receive in England was entirely uncertain. But there was no storm and the invasion was unopposed – in fact the Glorious Revolution was a resounding success. In London, Mary and William accepted the Bill of Rights, which provided that the monarchy should be Protestant, that Parliament should be called regularly, that there should be no standing army without parliamentary permission, and that no monarch should dispense or suspend English laws. This in effect established England as a constitutional monarchy, although the monarch remained the leading power in the land, still with the power to veto new laws suggested by Parliament.
William’s chief foreign policy was the war against France. He met opposition from Tory MPs, who resented the high taxation needed to pursue a war that some felt benefited Holland more than England. William spent long periods of his reign in Ireland, leaving Mary to rule in his absence.
The formation of the Bank of England in 1694 and the creation of the National Debt solved the financial crisis that had handicapped English monarchs from the fifteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century. It has been suggested that the National Debt was a necessary precondition of the formation of the British Empire, which required the defeat of France in Canada, the West Indies and India.
Mary died of smallpox in 1694, leaving no surviving children. After her death her sister Anne allowed William to continue to reign, and he did so until his death in 1702.
A NNE
Reigned 1702–1714
Anne was born in 1665 at St James’s Palace to James II and his first wife, Anne Hyde. She was brought up as a Protestant, and in 1683 she married Prince George of Denmark, another northern European Protestant power. Her mother died when she was very young and her father married the Catholic Mary of Modena, whom Anne disliked. She played an important part in the fall of her father by giving credence to rumours that her stepmother had secretly switched her stillborn baby with someone else’s live one in order to secure a Catholic dynasty. She fed information to her older sister Mary and her husband William of Orange about James II’s deteriorating position, and she knew that William was preparing to invade in 1688, but did not warn her father. When the invasion proved successful, she gave her permission for William to become joint monarch with her sister, and when Mary died she set aside her claim to the throne until William died.
After William’s death in 1702 she finally became queen, with Prince George as her consort. George remained very much in the background. William III once said of him, ‘I’ve tried him drunk and I’ve tried him sober but there’s nothing in him,’ but by all accounts Anne and George had a happy, loving marriage. Plain and increasingly plump, Anne did not cut a regal figure, but she was good-natured and generous, and she was much loved by her subjects. She conceived at least nineteen children, but sadly only one, William, survived for any length of time, and he too died at the age of eleven.
Anne was involved in one of the most famous royal friendships. Sarah Jennings, later the wife of the Duke of Marlborough, became Anne’s favourite and they used to address each other as Mrs Morley and Mrs Freeman in correspondance, to avoid the tedious formality normally required between sovereign and subject.
Perhaps the most important legacy of Anne’s rule was England’s political union with Scotland, which was masterminded by her Whig government. The Acts of Union were passed by both Scottish and English Parliaments in 1707, which merged both kingdoms and their Parliaments. Robert Burns wrote about the widespread bribery necessary to persuade the Scots to the Union: ‘We were bought and sold for English gold.’ England and Scotland had had the same monarchs since the accession
William’s chief foreign policy was the war against France. He met opposition from Tory MPs, who resented the high taxation needed to pursue a war that some felt benefited Holland more than England. William spent long periods of his reign in Ireland, leaving Mary to rule in his absence.
The formation of the Bank of England in 1694 and the creation of the National Debt solved the financial crisis that had handicapped English monarchs from the fifteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century. It has been suggested that the National Debt was a necessary precondition of the formation of the British Empire, which required the defeat of France in Canada, the West Indies and India.
Mary died of smallpox in 1694, leaving no surviving children. After her death her sister Anne allowed William to continue to reign, and he did so until his death in 1702.
A NNE
Reigned 1702–1714
Anne was born in 1665 at St James’s Palace to James II and his first wife, Anne Hyde. She was brought up as a Protestant, and in 1683 she married Prince George of Denmark, another northern European Protestant power. Her mother died when she was very young and her father married the Catholic Mary of Modena, whom Anne disliked. She played an important part in the fall of her father by giving credence to rumours that her stepmother had secretly switched her stillborn baby with someone else’s live one in order to secure a Catholic dynasty. She fed information to her older sister Mary and her husband William of Orange about James II’s deteriorating position, and she knew that William was preparing to invade in 1688, but did not warn her father. When the invasion proved successful, she gave her permission for William to become joint monarch with her sister, and when Mary died she set aside her claim to the throne until William died.
After William’s death in 1702 she finally became queen, with Prince George as her consort. George remained very much in the background. William III once said of him, ‘I’ve tried him drunk and I’ve tried him sober but there’s nothing in him,’ but by all accounts Anne and George had a happy, loving marriage. Plain and increasingly plump, Anne did not cut a regal figure, but she was good-natured and generous, and she was much loved by her subjects. She conceived at least nineteen children, but sadly only one, William, survived for any length of time, and he too died at the age of eleven.
Anne was involved in one of the most famous royal friendships. Sarah Jennings, later the wife of the Duke of Marlborough, became Anne’s favourite and they used to address each other as Mrs Morley and Mrs Freeman in correspondance, to avoid the tedious formality normally required between sovereign and subject.
Perhaps the most important legacy of Anne’s rule was England’s political union with Scotland, which was masterminded by her Whig government. The Acts of Union were passed by both Scottish and English Parliaments in 1707, which merged both kingdoms and their Parliaments. Robert Burns wrote about the widespread bribery necessary to persuade the Scots to the Union: ‘We were bought and sold for English gold.’ England and Scotland had had the same monarchs since the accession
Similar Books
