ANNE, queen of Great Britain, was born in 1664, and was the second daughter of king James II, by Anne Hyde, his first wife. In order to increase the popularity which he then enjoyed, James reckoned it expedient to marry his daughter Anne to prince George, brother of the king of Denmark. This marriage, which was so lemnized in 1684, was the source of the most severe domestic misfortunes. A numerous family, of seventeen children, were hurried prematurely to the grave, and the duke of Gloucester, destined .to the throne by the act of settlement, lived only to the age of twelve, that period of life, when youthful genius begins to display the marks of future greatness, and to call forth the fond anticipations of parental affection. When the"king was involved in the deepest distress, in consequence of the desertion of his army, and the success of the prince of Orange, he was doomed to suffer, from the conduct of his daughter, a species of distress still more severe. The ungrateful lord Churchill, who was not satisfied with deserting his unsuspecting master in the hour of misfortune, prevailed upon prince George to join the army of the prince of Orange ; and the princess Anne, under the guidance of lady Churchill, followed the for tunes of her husband, and thus completed the measure of her father's sufferings. When the news of this dis tressing event was conveyed to James, his heart was torn with anguish at the defection of his favourite (laughter. He sought relief in a flood of tears, and exclaimed, in all the agony of sorrow, "God help me !—Even my own children have forsaken me !" The conduct of the prin cess may possibly find some palliation, from the peculiar circumstances in which she was placed, and from that partiality to the Protestant faith, which, from her ear liest infancy, she had been taught to cherish. But every feeling of the heart rises in indignation against the un natural deed, and seeks to hide it in that blaze of light, which encircles the brilliant events of her reign. If Heaven, in this world, ever interposes its avenging arm between guilt mid happiness, may we not consider the loss of as the penalty which it exact ed from a mother, who had broken the heart of the most indulgent father ; and, as if this exaction had not been sufficiently severe, the infliction of the punishment pre ceded the commission of the crime.
Having been appointed by the Convention Bill, in 1689, to succeed the prince and princess of Orange, she ascended the throne on the death of William III. in 1702. The violent contentions of party, which dis tracted the reign of this princess, and the glorious events by which it was distinguished, will be detailed at full length in the history of England : We can at pre sent only notice the particulars of her private character. After a short reign of thirteen years, during which the towns of France had been diminished by the unexampled success of the English arms, and the union between England and Scotland had been effected, the queen died of a dropsy, on the 1st of August 1714.
Queen Anne was of the middle size, and well propor tioned. Her hair was of a dark-brown colour ; her com plexion ruddy ; and her features, though regular and comely, were not entitled to the praise of beauty, With an understanding,naturally good, though not highly cul tivated, she possessed a taste for music and painting ; but she never exhibited that vigour of mind, which dis plays itself in personal ambition, and in the contempt of those sycophants and favourites, which generally sur round a throne. Timid and conscientious, she blindly submitted herself to the guidance of the duchess of Marlborough and, with the name and dignity of a queen, she surrendered her power, and placed the scep tre of England in the hands of her favourites. This dis trust of her own talents was accompanied, as it gene rally is, with that equanimity and mildness of temper.
which form the basis of the domestic virtues. Her af fection and fidelity to her husband ; her virtues as a mother, a friend, and a princess ; her unostentatious charity and unaffected piety, were justly rewarded with the affection of a grateful people, and with the simple, though honourable appellation, of the " Good Queen Anne." Se; Hume's Hist, chap. lxxxi. vol. viii. p. 299. Smollet's Mat. chap. xi. vol. ii. p. 286, 287 ; and Som merville's History of the reign of Queen ?Inne. See also ENGLAND. (0)