Motivated by the recent popular tv show based on a series of books named "Outlander", we questioned ourselves about the extent of the facts that led the Hanovers to deal with two Stuart pretenders, one known as the 'old pretender' was named James, this being the son of exiled King James II of England and VII of Scotland; and then his son, named Charles, commonly associated as 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'. Thinking of this, we considered writing a small series connecting two dynasties and their struggle for the crown of Britain. Does it sound familiar for the reader? Indeed it does, or at least should be, for England has quite a history involving royal cousins battling against each other for the possession of its crown. From Matilda days to Queen Anne's, wars were fought for different reasons yet for the same desire in governing a very resourceful and respected country whose tradition remains admirable even to the present days.
Bearing in mind that when the word queen and England are associated in one sentence where its history is concerned, those are very associated to Anne's Tudor predecessors, the most famous being Mary I and, more often, to Elizabeth I. In fact, it is with the latter that Anne would be inspired to, which can be quite an irony if one sees that Anne is the great-great granddaughter of Elizabeth's deadly rival, Mary, Queen of Scots. But, as we will see following the next paragraphs, not only would Anne adopt Elizabeth Tudor's personal motto "Semper Aedem" ("Always the Same"), as she too were to live a rivalry with a sister named Mary and, mostly important to understand not only today's post about Anne as Queen but on the following posts concerning the Hanovers as upcoming Britain's new dynasty, a bittersweet refusal in acknowledging Sophia of Hanover as her heiress. Comprehending that this queen has unfairly not been the subject of many studious or at least capturing the attention of the public eye, we attempt to bring Anne Stuart back to life in the hopes that her deeds make her as inspiring as woman and her queenship as admirable as were her predecessors Mary and Elizabeth and even afterwards when Victoria reigned for quite a while. A link between women as Matilda, Elizabeth, Anne and Victoria we are amused to find is that they all were the "last" of their lines and yet what they left for England and perhaps for Europe to some extent still remains nowadays.
Every story has a beginning. This could not be different. By the time Anne was born, she was hardly the heiress her parents and all of England were expecting for. Bear it in mind that by 1665, her uncle Charles Stuart was on the British throne as King Charles II. He, in turn, was the son of the ill fated King Charles I, who, like his grandmother before him Mary of Scotland, lost his head accordingly to the English laws of treason. When Charles II was invited to return to England, he was already acknowledged as sovereign of Scotland by being the second of his name to wear its crown. In a previous post, we have written about Charles' reign from a different perspective when we wrote about his consort, the forgotten Queen Catherine, the Portuguese Infanta of the House of Braganza. So that way, with Charles II on the throne and well married by then, James, Anne's father, was entitled as Duke of York and was already the father of another girl, Anne's oldest sister named Mary. Until their growth, neither were expected to assume the throne for Charles II was proving to be very healthy, in the lack for a better word, since he fathered more than a few illegitimate children, though none by his lawful wife.
Whatever were the circumnstances of Anne's birth, she was born at St James's Palace, located in London, on the 6 February 1665. She was the fourth child of James, then Duke of York, and his first wife, Lady Anne Hyde. Of the children the Duke and his wife had, only Anne and her oldest sister, Mary, survived adulthood. Throughout her life, Anne suffered of a poor health and we see the first signs of it as a child, when she "suffered from an eye condition, which manifested as excessive watering known as 'defluxion'". As a result, she spent her early years in France to receive treatment for her health, first at the household of her paternal grandmother, the Dowager Queen Henriette Marie, until the death of the latter, and then to the household of her aunt, the Duchess of Orléans, Henriette Anne. But the duchess too would die soon and it was then that Anne would return to England, where she shared a household with Mary.
By this time, Charles II, seeing that he would lack heirs to succeed him, had his eyes to his nieces and began to provide their marriages. But first, he'd see they were to receive an Anglican education as Anne and Mary settled household at Richmond Palace where they were raised as Protestants. Bishop of London, Henry Compton, would be Anne's own preceptor. As a result of such Anglican education, Anne would grow "distrustful of Catholics and 'popery' which would further complicate the family situation, when before his remarriage, the Duke of York converted to Catholicism." It would far from help his cause when reaching the throne that James married a Catholic princess named Mary of Modena. Though it was generally accepted that James would succeed Charles, it was, quite ironically, expected that Mary of Modena would not give James a male heir otherwise things would go quite complicated. Nonetheless, despite this apparent tension, Anne did get well along with James, who was said to be a caring and loving father, and her stepmother.
Following Mary's marriage to Prince of Orange William, in an event which Anne could not attend due to an attack of smallpox, it was arranged for Anne to marry a Danish prince, the younger brother of King Frederick III of Denmark named George. Before that, however, it was apparently expected that the Elector of Hanover, also named George, would marry her when he "visited London for three months from December 1680, sparking rumours of a potential marriage between them."
The apparent decline of George of Hanover's part in marrying Anne is, some would say, partly the reason of her great dislike towards the House of Hanover and why she would stubbornly refuse to acknowledge him as her heir, reflecting also the rivalry Anne would later engage to her cousin Sophia, who was the daughter of Elizabeth Stuart, known as the Winter Queen of Bohemia. Elizabeth, whom we have also spoken on this very same blog, was in turn the daughter of King James VI, hence why the Hanovers were the closest Protestants heirs to the British throne by the time of Anne's death. But, by now, what matters is to understand the arrangement that would bring England and Denmark close together again (a reminder that James VI's consort was a Danish princess, Anne). As we can see below:
"Bishop Compton officiated at the wedding of Anne and George of Denmark, on 28 July 1683 in the Chapel Royal. Though it was an arranged marriage, they were faithful and devoted partners."
By this time, the future Sarah Churchill entered Anne's retinue and became chief lady of bedchamber. Their early friendship would endure for quite some years ahead still and would provide to be an important key role during Anne's reign as a queen. For now, Anne was mostly concerned with her handsome husband, though some would address him as a "chronic asthmatic", "nonentity", and even regarding him as dull, but with pleasant manners. Whatever the case, Anne and George were devouted to each other and, despite George's special affection for wine, they would get along just fine.
Finally, towards the year of 1685, King Charles II died without legitimate heirs. This would thus make James, then Duke of York, as King James VII of Scotland, the II of England and Ireland. His ascension would give the English protestants cause for concern due to the fact that
"[...] James began to give Catholics military and administrative offices, in contravention of the Test Acts that were designed to prevent such appointments. Anne shared the general concern and continued to attend Anglican services. As her sister Mary lived in the Netherlands, Anne and her family were the only members of the royal family attending Protestant religious services in England. When her father tried to get Anne to baptise her youngest daughter into the Catholic faith, Anne burst into tears. "The Church of Rome is wicked and dangerous", she wrote to her sister. [...] Anne became estranged from her father and stepmother as James moved to weaken the Church of England's power."
Because his daughters were still James' heirs,
"[...] people were accepting of him, because his Catholicism was seen as a temporary abhorrence. This would all change in 1688, when Anne's half-brother James was born to Mary of Modena. He would, of course, be raised as Catholic, the religion of his parents. This was unacceptable to a Protestant clergy and nobility. Rumours began to fly immediately that the child was not a Prince, King James' son had died, and the baby of a peasant brought in to take his place. Although there were many witnesses, Anne was not among them, and she wrote to her sister Mary saying she would never be satisfied the child was really her brother."
Despite this sense of strangeness before the birth of a prince, the very unwanted heir, which is a very irony in great contrast to figures of the past who were in desperate need of male heirs as was the case of Henry VIII, must it be written here though in short paragraphs the birth of Prince James and why it's so important to understand how his birth reflected the fears of a society that, by then, was still cultivating the wars of religion that began to spread amongst all Europe from the century before with Luther and other reformists contesting Catholic Church's corruption and among other things they thought well to reform, in a movement that led to what was called Protestantism. This being said, there was the fear in most Englishmen's minds of what the rule of a Catholic could do to England. With the benefict of a century and half, Queen Mary I's reign would not be seen with eyes of understanding people that what she did was a result of her beliefs that other European monarchs that stood for Catholicism shared. No one would remember the positive politics concerned to Mary Tudor, because her image, from Elizabethan age on, maculated by the Protestant perspective that a Catholic sovereign that burns heretic is nothing but the image of devil spreading evil and terror to a holy and sacred land. The most "refreshing" memory to the Englishmen was to the image of the beheaded king Charles Stuart, whose flirtations to Catholicism and an arrogant queen who refused to take Anglican rites out of respect for her beliefs, led, amongst other reasons, to a Civil War.
So as James Francis Edward was born on 10 June 1688, "a Catholic succession became more likely" and set such a public alarm that eventually the crisis culminated in an event we now know by the name of "Glorious Revolution", where the English and Scottish Parliaments invited Mary and her husband William of Orange to take the crown as the true Protestant heirs to the lands. As seen below:
"In January 1689, a Convention Parliament assembled in England and declared that James had effecitvely abdicated when he fled, and that the thrones of England and Ireland were therefore vacant. The Parliament or Estates of Scotland took similar action, and William and Mary were declared monarchs of all three realms. The Bill of Rights 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689 settled the succession. Anne and her descendants were to be in the line of succession after William and Mary, and they were to be followed by any descendants of William by a future marriage. On 24 July 1689, Anne gave birth to a son, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, who, though ill, survived infancy. As King William and Queen Mary had no children, it looked as though Anne's son would eventually inherit the Crown."
As for James VII, it is recorded that his reaction of the event that led him to exile in France alongside his son and wife, was of disappointment. He recalled that he was forsaken by his own daughters. But apparently, Anne would manage to make peace with her father laterwards.
Anne's relationship with William and Mary worsened after this, as they saw with no good eyes the relationship Anne had with Sarah Churchill, due to the heavy influence this latter had on the princess. For this reason, Mary and Anne were constantly in personal battles and they would not reconcile until Mary was dead. When William realized he was not only rulling solely but also lacking heirs, he sought for a reconciliation with his sister-in-law and Anne regained her position, was once more visited by courtiers and held a court of her own.
She would finally become queen on 8 March 1702, and was very popular. It is said that
"[...] in her first speech to the English Parliament, on 11 March, she distanced herself from her late Dutch brother-in-law and said, "As I know my heart to be entirely English, I can very sincerely assure you there is not anything you can expect or desire from me which I shall not ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England."
She did something that Elizabeth Tudor did closely in the last century, when the Tudor queen appealled by the English pride to distance herself from the foreign rule of Mary Tudor's Spanish blood and her Spanish husband. Also, by adopting Elizabeth I's personal motto "Always the Same", as we have mentioned before, it makes us question how far did Anne admire her Tudor cousin and what were the lessons Elizabeth might have taught this Stuart Queen. But this can only be speculated.
One of Queen Anne's first actions as sovereign was to reward the Marlborough's by granting great offices and positions to Sarah and her husband, the latter growing to be an excellent general during the wars England would win within a few years. Following it, Anne was crowned on St George's Day, 23 April 1702. It is said that "[...] afflicted with gout, she was carried to Westminster Abbey in an open sedan chair, with a low back to permit her train to flow out behind her."
The matter of the Queen's poor and deteriorate health would constantly provoke discussions. In politics especially, now that we witness the rise of two political parties: the Whigs, defended by the late king William III, and the Tories, the latter being favoured by the Queen. Both would sustain the inheritance issue and whilst the Whigs supported the Hannovers, it can be possible to state that were Jacobites (a latin name for James, this was used for those who supported James Francis Edward as heir to the English throne) amongst the Tories. It is claimed that to James it was offered the position of an heir had he converted to Anglicanism, which he refused. By then, when this proposal was offered, James was already proclaimed as James III of England and VIII of Scotland as Louis XIV of France acknowledged him. As we can see below:
"Upon the death of James II in 1701, the French king Louis XIV proclaimed James King of England. James's adherence to Roman Catholicism caused the English Parliament to pass a bill of attainder against him in 1701. In 1708 the Pretender set out in French ships to invade Scotland, but he was driven away by the British before he could land. He distinguished himself fighting in the French army in the War of the Spanish Sucession (1701-14). In 1714 he refused to accept suggestions by Robert Harley and Viscount Bolinbroke that he renounce Roman Catholicism and become Anglican in order to be designated Queen Anne's heir to the throne of England."
This was the beginning of a struggle between Stuarts and Hannovers that would only end circa of thirty years after Queen Anne died. In the meanwhile rumours were being spread that Anne herself was more than willing in having her half-brother to the British throne due to the fact she refused to invite the Hanovers to land in England, she was forced to deal with more important matters as her health. The Queen had never a strong health ever since she was born and to worse things, she not only was pregnant for eighteen times, but most of those times she miscarried or gave birth to stillborn children. As we briefly mentioned in the paragraph above, Anne had one son to survive infancy and his name was William. But he too died at the age of 11, which much caused her grief and led her household to commemorate his death every date he passed away. As seen below:
"It is widely believed that the reason behind Queen Anne's miscarriages and stillborn children is because she suffered from Antiphospholipid Syndrome, an immune disorder that turns the body against itself. It is also widely known that Queen Anne suffered with chronic illnesses, most notably gout, which was even so extreme she had to be carried in to her coronation. It could be argued that this illness, as well as the Monarch's excessive drinking, led to the ultimely death's of her young children."
Like her cousin Elizabeth before her, due to the lack of heirs, Anne must have felt pressed to constantly appoint an heir and though she eventually agreed that Sophia of Hanover and her heirs would do so, she would not discuss the matter and even so rivalries between the two houses remained. Some claim that Anne felt pleased that the proud Sophia did not make to inherite the crown herself. Whatever the case, this would only present a great issue to James Francis Edward in the future.
In terms of the politics of her reign, it is characterized by three councillors she trusted the most. Those were the names of Marlborough, at least before his fall, whose wife Sarah Churchill was then in good terms with the Queen; Godolphin and Robert Harley. After all,
"Between them, the three held most of the important political position in the land and between 1702 and 1704 they worked with the Earl of Nottingham [Secretary of State] while the War of Spanish Succession was being fought. Marlborough, via his wife Sarah, advised Anne onf successful government: the Queen must maintain her powers of appointment and that the Queen should administer patronage through a non-party manager."
One important aspect of Anne's domestic politics in her reign is the union of Scottish and English Parliaments that resulted in the Great Britain, which made Scotland and England one kingdom under her realm. Although mostly Scottish nationalists and others blame Queen Elizabeth I for passing the English throne to King James VI of Scots, it was not until Queen Anne's reign that these two realms would be united under one sole crown. It is said that, in spite of opposition, Anne was a "consistent and ardent supporter of union" and even "attended a thanksgiving service in St. Paul's Cathedral" when she achieved her main goal.
As a result,
"The union of England and Scotland, which Anne fervently supported, created Europe's largest free trade area. The political and diplomatic achievements of Anne's governments, and the absence of constitutional conflict between monarch and parliament during her reign, indicate that she chose mininsters and exercised her prerogatives wisely."
Another aspect of her reign that is just as important as the Union Act was the development of two partisans that constituted in Anne's reign but would grow in influence and power with the Hanovers. This system was divided in Tories, who "were supportive of the Anglican church and favoured the 'landed interest' of the country gentry", while the Whigs "were aligned with commerical interests and Protestant Dissenters." Due to her religious nature, Anne was more inclined to support the Tories.
In other words, what can be said of Anne's reign is summoned in one paragraph as we see in the following excerpt:
"Her reign would last twelve eventful years, in which we would see the Acts of Union between Scotland and England, the War of Spanish Succession, and an attempted invasion by her half-brother, the Catholic James Stuart. Anne is also the last British monarch to deny Royal Assent to a Parliamentary bill. Her health declined further throught the years, especially after the death fo her husband in 1708. Already seriously afflicted with gout at her accession and unable to walk, by 1713, the concerns for her health were very serious. She was ill several times throughout the year, eventually recovering until she had a stroke on July 30th, 1714. Anne died the next day, aged forty-nine."As for Anne's character, whilst it certainly had its faults, was certainly marked by a deeply religious nature, which led us to believe that in terms of Succession, she would not pass the crown for her brother so easily as we wrote concerning the rumours over the matter in paragraphs above. But this does not mean we must exclude such possibility. It appears that in her final years, she felt somewhat remorse for the actions done in past, and believed that the reason why she had no surviving children was God punishing her for it. Perhaps a reconciliation was attempted and that Bolinbroke's proposal for James to change religion in order to accept the crown was her idea. We might never know. It is almost certainly that she favoured her brother as successor rather than passing to a house she held bitter grudges over the years. But one might suspect that even still religion and good sense drove her to what her ministers eventually believed to be a wise choice, and yet whose results we will see in the following posts.
Anne was buried in the Henry VII chapel on the South Aisle of Westminster Abbey, being put to rest next to her husband and children on 24 August. Sophia of Hanover, who rumour has it hoped to have see written in her tomb 'Queen Sophia of Britain', had died two months prior, which some might say this giving Anne's pleasure for knowing it there would be no Queen Sophia to succeed her. Yet, like it happened a century earlier between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth Tudor, Anne's crown would go to her rival's son, George, the Elector of Hanover, who was now King George I of Great Britain, Ireland and France.
Bibliography:
-http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/death-queen-anne/
-https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2014/07/18/queen-anne-of-great-britain-a-guest-post-by-samantha-arbisi-hanson/
-http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/stuart-england/queen-anne/
-http://royalcentral.co.uk/blogs/stories-of-the-stuarts-queen-annes-18-pregnancies-47524
-https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anne-queen-of-Great-Britain-and-Ireland
-https://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=anne
-http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Queen-Anne/
-http://historythings.com/queen-anne-first-monarch-great-britian/
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain
-https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Edward-the-Old-Pretender
-http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/death-queen-anne/
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário