Anne of Great Britain

Anne ( 6 February 1665 – 1 August1714 ) became Queen of England, Queen of Scotland and Queen of Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, when England and Scotland combined into a single Kingdom, Anne became the first sovereign of Great Britain. She continued to reign until her death. Anne was the last monarch of the House of Stuart; she was succeeded by a distant cousin, George I, of the House of Hanover.

Later years

The fall of the Whigs came about quickly as the expensive War of the Spanish Succession grew unpopular in England; Robert Harley was particularly skilful in using the issue to motivate the electorate. A public furor was aroused after Dr Henry Sacheverell, a Tory clergyman who attacked the Whig government for offering toleration to religious dissenters, was prosecuted for seditious libel. Even more humiliating was the failure of the Whigs to obtain the desired sentence; Dr Sacheverell was merely suspended from preaching for three years, and did not face imprisonment, as some Whigs had hoped. In the general election of 1710, a discontented populace returned a large Tory majority.

Related Topics:
Dr Henry Sacheverell - Seditious libel - 1710

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Marlborough was still too influential to be removed, but his relatives soon began to lose their offices. Lord Godolphin was removed on 7 August 1710; the new ministry was headed by Robert Harley and included Henry St John. The new Tory government began to seek peace in the War of the Spanish Succession, for (as later events proved) an unmitigated victory for Austria (Great Britain's primary ally) would be just as damaging to British interests as a loss to France. The Tories were ready to compromise by giving Spain to the grandson of the French King, but the Whigs could not bear to see a Bourbon on the Spanish Throne.

Related Topics:
7 August - Henry St John - Bourbon

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The dispute was resolved by outside events: the elder brother of Archduke Charles (whom the Whigs supported) conveniently died in 1711 and Archduke Charles then inherited Austria, Hungary and the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. To also give him the Spanish throne to which he had aspired was no longer in Great Britain's interests, as he would become too powerful. But the proposed Treaty of Utrecht submitted to Parliament for ratification did not go as far as the Whigs wanted to curb Bourbon ambitions. In the House of Commons, the Tory majority was unassailable, but the same was not true in the House of Lords. To block the peace plan, the Whigs made an alliance with Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and his Tory associates in the Lords. Seeing a need for decisive action, the Queen and her ministry dismissed the Duke of Marlborough, granting the command of British troops to James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde. To erase the Whig majority in the House of Lords, Anne created twelve new peers (one of whom was Abigail Masham's husband) on a single day. Such a mass creation of peers was unprecedented; indeed, Elizabeth I had granted fewer peerage dignities in almost fifty years than did Anne in a single day.

Related Topics:
1711 - Holy Roman Empire - Treaty of Utrecht - House of Lords - Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham - James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde - Elizabeth I

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Under the terms of the ratified treaty, Philip, grandson of the French King Louis XIV, was allowed to remain on the Throne of Spain, and was permitted to retain Spain's New World colonies. The rest of the Spanish inheritance, however, was divided amongst various European princes; Great Britain obtained the Spanish territories of Gibraltar and Minorca. Various French colonies in North America were also ceded to Great Britain. Thus ended Great Britain's involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession (as well as Queen Anne's War).

Related Topics:
Gibraltar - Minorca

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