Anne , Queen of Great Britain Anne ( 6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714 ) became Queen of England , Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702 . On 1 May 1707 , under the Acts of Union , two of her realms , the kingdoms of England and Scotland , united as a single sovereign state , the Kingdom of Great Britain . She continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death . Anne was born in the reign of her uncle Charles II , who had no legitimate children . Her father , James , was first in line to the throne . His Catholicism was unpopular in England and on Charles ' s instructions Anne was raised as a Protestant . Three years after he succeeded Charles , James was deposed in the " Glorious Revolution " of 1688 . Anne ' s Protestant brother - in - law and cousin William III became joint monarch with his wife , Anne ' s elder sister Mary II . Although the sisters had been close , disagreements over Anne ' s finances , status and choice of acquaintances arose shortly after Mary ' s accession and they became estranged . William and Mary had no children . After Mary ' s death in 1694 , William continued as sole monarch until he was succeeded by Anne upon his death in 1702 . As queen , Anne favoured moderate Tory politicians , who were more likely to share her Anglican religious views than their opponents , the Whigs . The Whigs grew more powerful during the course of the War of the Spanish Succession , until in 1710 Anne dismissed many of them from office . Her close friendship with Sarah Churchill , Duchess of Marlborough , turned sour as the result of political differences . Anne was plagued by ill - health throughout her life . From her 30s onwards , she grew increasingly lame and corpulent . Despite seventeen pregnancies by her husband , Prince George of Denmark , she died without any surviving children and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart . Under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701 , she was succeeded by her second cousin George I of the House of Hanover , who was a descendant of the Stuarts through his maternal grandmother , Elizabeth , daughter of James VI and I . Early life . Anne was born at 11 : 39 p . m . on 6 February 1665 at St James ' s Palace , London , the fourth child and second daughter of James , Duke of York ( afterwards James II and VII ) , and his first wife , Anne Hyde . Her father was the younger brother of King Charles II , who ruled the three kingdoms of England , Scotland and Ireland , and her mother was the daughter of Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde , 1st Earl of Clarendon . At her Anglican baptism in the Chapel Royal at St James ' s , her older sister , Mary , was one of her godparents , along with the Duchess of Monmouth and the Archbishop of Canterbury , Gilbert Sheldon . The Duke and Duchess of York had eight children , but Anne and Mary were the only ones to survive into adulthood . As a child , Anne suffered from an eye condition , which manifested as excessive watering known as " defluxion " . For medical treatment , she was sent to France , where she lived with her paternal grandmother , Queen Henrietta Maria , at the Château de Colombes near Paris . Following her grandmother ' s death in 1669 , Anne lived with an aunt , Henrietta Anne , Duchess of Orléans . On the sudden death of her aunt in 1670 , Anne returned to England . Her mother died the following year . As was traditional in the royal family , Anne and her sister were brought up separated from their father in their own establishment at Richmond , London . On the instructions of Charles II , they were raised as Protestants . Placed in the care of Colonel Edward and Lady Frances Villiers , their education was focused on the teachings of the Anglican church . Henry Compton , Bishop of London , was appointed as Anne ' s preceptor . Around 1671 , Anne first made the acquaintance of Sarah Jennings , who later became her close friend and one of her most influential advisors . Jennings married John Churchill ( the future Duke of Marlborough ) in about 1678 . His sister , Arabella Churchill , was the Duke of York ' s mistress , and he was to be Anne ' s most important general . In 1673 , the Duke of York ' s conversion to Roman Catholicism became public , and he married a Catholic princess , Mary of Modena , who was only six and a half years older than Anne . Charles II had no legitimate children , and so the Duke of York was next in the line of succession , followed by his two surviving daughters from his first marriage , Mary and Anne . Over the next ten years , the new Duchess of York had ten children , but all were either stillborn or died in infancy , leaving Mary and Anne second and third in the line of succession after their father . There is every indication that , throughout Anne ' s early life , she and her stepmother got on well together , and the Duke of York was a conscientious and loving father . Marriage . In November 1677 , Anne ' s elder sister , Mary , married their Dutch cousin , William of Orange , but Anne could not attend the wedding because she was confined to her room with smallpox . By the time she recovered , Mary had already left for her new life in the Netherlands . Lady Frances Villiers contracted the disease , and died . Anne ' s aunt Lady Henrietta Hyde ( the wife of Laurence Hyde ) was appointed as her new governess . A year later , Anne and her stepmother visited Mary in Holland for two weeks . Anne ' s father and stepmother retired to Brussels in March 1679 in the wake of anti - Catholic hysteria fed by the Popish Plot , and Anne visited them from the end of August . In October , they returned to Britain , the Duke and Duchess to Scotland and Anne to England . She joined her father and stepmother at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh from July 1681 until May 1682 . It was her last journey outside England . Anne ' s second cousin George of Hanover ( her eventual successor ) visited London for three months from December 1680 , sparking rumours of a potential marriage between them . Historian Edward Gregg dismissed the rumours as ungrounded , as her father was essentially exiled from court , and the Hanoverians planned to marry George to his first cousin Sophia Dorothea of Celle as part of a scheme to unite the Hanoverian inheritance . Other rumours claimed she was courted by Lord Mulgrave ( later made Duke of Buckingham ) , although he denied it . Nevertheless , as a result of the gossip , he was temporarily dismissed from court . With George of Hanover out of contention as a potential suitor for Anne , King Charles looked elsewhere for an eligible prince who would be welcomed as a groom by his Protestant subjects but also acceptable to his Catholic ally , Louis XIV of France . The Danes were Protestant allies of the French , and Louis XIV was keen on an Anglo - Danish alliance to contain the power of the Dutch . A marriage treaty between Anne and Prince George of Denmark , younger brother of King Christian V , was negotiated by Anne ' s uncle Laurence Hyde , who had been made Earl of Rochester , and the English Secretary of State for the Northern Department , Robert Spencer , 2nd Earl of Sunderland . Anne ' s father consented to the marriage eagerly because it diminished the influence of his other son - in - law , William of Orange , who was naturally unhappy at the match . 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 . They were given a set of buildings in the Palace of Whitehall known as the Cockpit as their London residence , and Sarah Churchill was appointed one of Anne ' s ladies of the bedchamber . Within months of the marriage , Anne was pregnant , but the baby was stillborn in May . Anne recovered at the spa town of Tunbridge Wells , and over the next two years , gave birth to two daughters in quick succession : Mary and Anne Sophia . Accession of James II and VII . When Charles II died in 1685 , Anne ' s father became king as James II in England and Ireland and James VII in Scotland . To the consternation of the English people , James began to give Catholics military and administrative offices , in contravention of the Test Act s 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 , " their ceremonies – most of them – plain downright idolatry . " Anne became estranged from her father and stepmother as James moved to weaken the Church of England ' s power . In early 1687 , within a matter of days , Anne miscarried , her husband caught smallpox , and their two young daughters died of the same infection . Lady Rachel Russell wrote that George and Anne had " taken [ the deaths ] very heavily . . . Sometimes they wept , sometimes they mourned in words ; then sat silent , hand in hand ; he sick in bed , and she the carefullest nurse to him that can be imagined . " Later that year , she suffered another stillbirth . Public alarm at James ' s Catholicism increased when his wife , Mary of Modena , became pregnant for the first time since James ' s accession . In letters to her sister Mary , Anne raised suspicions that the Queen was faking her pregnancy in an attempt to introduce a false heir . She wrote , " they will stick at nothing , be it never so wicked , if it will promote their interest . . . there may be foul play intended . " Anne suffered another miscarriage in April 1688 , and left London to recuperate in the spa town of Bath . Anne ' s stepmother gave birth to a son , James Francis Edward , on 10 June 1688 , and a Catholic succession became more likely . Anne was still at Bath , so she did not witness the birth , which fed the belief that the child was spurious . Anne may have left the capital deliberately to avoid being present , or because she was genuinely ill , but it is also possible that James desired the exclusion of all Protestants , including his daughter , from affairs of state . " I shall never now be satisfied " , Anne wrote to her sister Mary , " whether the child be true or false . It may be it is our brother , but God only knows . . . one cannot help having a thousand fears and melancholy thoughts , but whatever changes may happen you shall ever find me firm to my religion and faithfully yours . " To dispel rumours of a supposititious child , James had 40 witnesses to the birth attend a Privy Council meeting , but Anne claimed she could not attend because she was pregnant herself ( which she was not ) and then declined to read the depositions because it was " not necessary " . " Glorious Revolution " . In what became known as the " Glorious Revolution " , Anne ' s brother - in - law , William of Orange , invaded England on 5 November 1688 in an action that ultimately deposed King James . Forbidden by James to pay Mary a projected visit in the spring of 1687 , Anne corresponded with her and was aware of William ' s plans to invade . On the advice of the Churchills , she refused to side with James after William landed and instead wrote to her brother - in - law on 18 November declaring her approval of his action . Churchill abandoned the unpopular king on the 24th . Prince George followed suit that night , and in the evening of the following day James issued orders to place Sarah Churchill under house arrest at St James ' s Palace . Anne and Sarah fled from Whitehall by a back staircase , putting themselves under the care of Bishop Compton . They spent one night in his house , and subsequently arrived at Nottingham on 1 December . Two weeks later and escorted by a large company , Anne arrived at Oxford , where she met Prince George in triumph . " God help me ! " , lamented James on discovering the desertion of his daughter on 26 November , " Even my children have forsaken me . " On 19 December , Anne returned to London , where she was at once visited by her brother - in - law William . James fled to France on the 23rd . Anne showed no concern at the news of her father ' s flight , and instead merely asked for her usual game of cards . She justified herself by saying that she " was used to play and never loved to do anything that looked like an affected constraint " . In January 1689 , a Convention Parliament assembled in England and declared that James had effectively 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 . William and Mary . Soon after their accession , William and Mary rewarded John Churchill by granting him the Earldom of Marlborough and Prince George was made Duke of Cumberland . Anne requested the use of Richmond Palace and a parliamentary allowance . William and Mary refused the first , and unsuccessfully opposed the latter , both of which caused tension between the two sisters . Anne ' s resentment grew worse when William refused to allow Prince George to serve in the military in an active capacity . The new king and queen feared that Anne ' s financial independence would weaken their influence over her and allow her to set up a rival political faction . From around this time , at Anne ' s request she and Sarah Churchill , Lady Marlborough , began to call each other the pet names Mrs . Morley and Mrs . Freeman respectively , to facilitate a relationship of greater equality between the two when they were alone . In January 1692 , suspecting that Marlborough was secretly conspiring with James ' s followers , the Jacobites , William and Mary dismissed him from all his offices . In a public show of support for the Marlboroughs , Anne took Sarah to a social event at the palace , and refused her sister ' s request to dismiss Sarah from her household . Lady Marlborough was subsequently removed from the royal household by the Lord Chamberlain , and Anne angrily left her royal lodgings and took up residence at Syon House , the home of the Duke of Somerset . Anne was stripped of her guard of honour ; courtiers were forbidden to visit her , and civic authorities were instructed to ignore her . In April , Anne gave birth to a son who died within minutes . Mary visited her , but instead of offering comfort took the opportunity to berate Anne once again for her friendship with Sarah . The sisters never saw each other again . Later that year , Anne moved to Berkeley House in Piccadilly , London , where she had a stillborn daughter in March 1693 . When Mary died of smallpox in 1694 , William continued to reign alone . Anne became his heir apparent , since any children he might have by another wife were assigned to a lower place in the line of succession , and the two reconciled publicly . He restored her previous honours , allowed her to reside in St James ' s Palace , and gave her Mary ' s jewels , but excluded her from government and refrained from appointing her regent during his absences abroad . Three months later , William restored Marlborough to his offices . With Anne ' s restoration at court , Berkeley House became a social centre for courtiers who had previously avoided contact with Anne and her husband . According to James , Anne wrote to him in 1696 requesting his permission to succeed William , and thereafter promising to restore the Crown to James ' s line at a convenient opportunity ; he declined to give his consent . She was probably trying to ensure her own succession by attempting to prevent a direct claim by James . Act of Settlement . Anne ' s final pregnancy ended on 25 January 1700 , when she miscarried a stillborn son . She had been pregnant at least seventeen times over as many years , and had miscarried or given birth to stillborn children at least twelve times . Of her five liveborn children , four died before reaching the age of two . Anne suffered from bouts of " gout " , pains in her limbs and eventually stomach and head , from at least 1698 . Based on her foetal losses and physical symptoms , she may have had disseminated lupus erythematosus , or Hughes syndrome . Alternatively , pelvic inflammatory disease could explain why the onset of her symptoms roughly coincided with her penultimate pregnancy . Other suggested causes of her failed pregnancies are listeriosis , diabetes , intrauterine growth retardation , and rhesus incompatibility . Rhesus incompatibility , however , generally worsens with successive pregnancies , and so does not fit with the pattern of Anne ' s pregnancies , as her only son to survive infancy , Prince William , Duke of Gloucester , was born after a series of stillbirths . Experts also rule out syphilis , porphyria and pelvic deformation as incompatible with her medical history . Anne ' s gout rendered her lame for much of her later life . Around the court , she was carried in a sedan chair , or used a wheelchair . Around her estates , she used a one - horse chaise , which she drove herself " furiously like Jehu and a mighty hunter like Nimrod " . She gained weight as a result of her sedentary lifestyle ; in Sarah ' s words , " she grew exceeding gross and corpulent . There was something of majesty in her look , but mixed with a gloominess of soul " . Sir John Clerk , 1st Baronet , described her in 1706 " under a fit of the gout and in extreme pain and agony , and on this occasion everything about her was much in the same disorder as about the meanest of her subjects . Her face , which was red and spotted , was rendered something frightful by her negligent dress , and the foot affected was tied up with a poultice and some nasty bandages . I was much affected by this sight . . . " . Anne ' s sole surviving child , the Duke of Gloucester , died at the age of eleven on 30 July 1700 . She and her husband were " overwhelmed with grief " . Anne ordered her household to observe a day of mourning every year on the anniversary of his death . With William childless and Gloucester dead , Anne was the only individual remaining in the line of succession established by the Bill of Rights 1689 . To address the succession crisis and preclude a Catholic restoration , the Parliament of England enacted the Act of Settlement 1701 , which provided that , failing the issue of Anne and of William III by any future marriage , the Crown of England and Ireland would go to Sophia , Electress of Hanover , and her Protestant descendants . Sophia was the granddaughter of James VI and I through his daughter Elizabeth , who was the sister of Anne ' s grandfather Charles I . Over fifty Catholic claimants more closely related to Anne were excluded from the line of succession . Anne ' s father died in September 1701 . His widow , Anne ' s stepmother , the former queen , wrote to Anne to inform her that her father forgave her and to remind her of her promise to seek the restoration of his line . Anne , however , had already acquiesced to the new line of succession created by the Act of Settlement . Reign . Anne became queen upon the death of William III on 8 March 1702 , and was immediately popular . 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 be ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England . " Soon after her accession , Anne appointed her husband Lord High Admiral , giving him nominal control of the Royal Navy . Anne gave control of the army to Lord Marlborough , whom she appointed Captain - General . Marlborough also received numerous honours from the Queen ; he was created a Knight of the Garter and was elevated to the rank of duke . The Duchess of Marlborough was appointed Groom of the Stole , Mistress of the Robes , and Keeper of the Privy Purse . Anne was crowned on St George ' s Day , 23 April 1702 . 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 . On 4 May , England became embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession , in which England , Austria and Holland fought against France and Spain . Charles II of Spain had died childless in 1700 , and the succession was disputed by two claimants : the Habsburg Archduke Charles of Austria and the Bourbon Philip , Duke of Anjou . Act of Union . While Ireland was subordinate to the English Crown and Wales formed part of the kingdom of England , Scotland remained an independent sovereign state with its own parliament and laws . The Act of Settlement 1701 , passed by the English Parliament , applied in the kingdoms of England and Ireland but not Scotland , where a strong minority wished to preserve the Stuart dynasty and its right of inheritance to the throne . Anne had declared it " very necessary " to conclude a union of England and Scotland in her first speech to the English Parliament , and a joint Anglo - Scots commission met at her former residence the Cockpit to discuss terms in October 1702 . The negotiations broke up in early February 1703 having failed to reach an agreement . The Estates of Scotland responded to the Act of Settlement by passing the Act of Security , which gave the Estates the power , if the Queen had no further children , to choose the next Scottish monarch from among the Protestant descendants of the royal line of Scotland . The individual chosen by the Estates could not be the same person who came to the English throne , unless England granted full freedom of trade to Scottish merchants . At first , Anne withheld royal assent to the act , but granted it the following year when the Estates threatened to withhold supply , endangering Scottish support for England ' s wars . In its turn , the English Parliament responded with the Alien Act 1705 , which threatened to impose economic sanctions and declare Scottish subjects aliens in England , unless Scotland either repealed the Act of Security or moved to unite with England . The Estates chose the latter option ; the English Parliament agreed to repeal the Alien Act , and new commissioners were appointed by Queen Anne in early 1706 to negotiate the terms of a union . The articles of union approved by the commissioners were presented to Anne on 23 July 1706 , and ratified by the Scottish and English Parliaments on 16 January and 6 March 1707 respectively . Under the Acts of Union , England and Scotland were united into a single kingdom called Great Britain , with one parliament , on 1 May 1707 . Anne , a consistent and ardent supporter of union despite opposition on both sides of the border , attended a thanksgiving service in St Paul ' s Cathedral . The Scot Sir John Clerk , 1st Baronet , who also attended , wrote , " nobody on this occasion appeared more sincerely devout and thankful than the Queen herself " . Two - party politics . Anne ' s reign was marked by the further development of a two - party system . In general , the Tories were supportive of the Anglican church and favoured the " landed interest " of the country gentry , while the Whigs were aligned with commercial interests and Protestant Dissenter s . As a committed Anglican , Anne was inclined to favour the Tories . Her first ministry was predominantly Tory , and contained such High Tories as Daniel Finch , 2nd Earl of Nottingham , and her uncle Laurence Hyde , 1st Earl of Rochester . It was headed by Lord Treasurer Lord Godolphin and Anne ' s favourite the Duke of Marlborough , who were considered moderate Tories , along with the Speaker of the House of Commons , Robert Harley . Anne supported the Occasional Conformity Bill of 1702 , which was promoted by the Tories and opposed by the Whigs . The bill aimed to disqualify Protestant Dissenters from public office by closing a loophole in the Test Act s , legislation that restricted public office to Anglican conformist s . The existing law permitted nonconformists to take office if they took Anglican communion once a year . Anne ' s husband was placed in an unfortunate position when Anne forced him to vote for the bill , even though , being a Lutheran , he was an occasional conformist himself . The Whigs successfully blocked the bill for the duration of the parliamentary session . Anne reinstituted the traditional religious practice of touching for the king ' s evil that had been eschewed by William as papist superstition . After the Great Storm of 1703 , Anne declared a general fast to implore God " to pardon the crying sins of this nation which had drawn down this sad judgement " . The Occasional Conformity Bill was revived in the wake of the storm , but Anne withheld support , fearing its reintroduction was a ruse to cause a political quarrel . Once again it failed . A third attempt to introduce the bill as an amendment to a money bill in November 1704 was also thwarted . The Whigs vigorously supported the War of the Spanish Succession and became even more influential after the Duke of Marlborough won a great victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 . Many of the High Tories , who opposed British involvement in the land war against France , were removed from office . Godolphin , Marlborough , and Harley , who had replaced Nottingham as Secretary of State for the Northern Department , formed a ruling " triumvirate " . They were forced to rely more and more on support from the Whigs , and particularly from the Whig Junto — Lords Somers , Halifax , Orford , Wharton and Sunderland — whom Anne disliked . Sarah , the Duchess of Marlborough , incessantly badgered the Queen to appoint more Whigs and reduce the power of the Tories , whom she considered little better than Jacobites , and the Queen became increasingly discontented with her . In 1706 , Godolphin and the Marlboroughs forced Anne to accept Lord Sunderland , a Junto Whig and the Marlboroughs ' son - in - law , as Harley ' s colleague as Secretary of State for the Southern Department . Although this strengthened the ministry ' s position in Parliament , it weakened the ministry ' s position with the Queen , as Anne became increasingly irritated with Godolphin and with her former favourite , the Duchess of Marlborough , for supporting Sunderland and other Whig candidates for vacant government and church positions . The Queen turned for private advice to Harley , who was uncomfortable with Marlborough and Godolphin ' s turn towards the Whigs . She also turned to Abigail Hill , a woman of the bedchamber whose influence grew as Anne ' s relationship with Sarah deteriorated . Abigail was related to both Harley and the Duchess , but was politically closer to Harley , and acted as an intermediary between him and the Queen . The division within the ministry came to a head on 8 February 1708 , when Godolphin and the Marlboroughs insisted that the Queen had to either dismiss Harley or do without their services . When the Queen seemed to hesitate , Marlborough and Godolphin refused to attend a cabinet meeting . Harley attempted to lead business without his former colleagues , and several of those present including the Duke of Somerset refused to participate until they returned . Her hand forced , the Queen dismissed Harley . The following month , Anne ' s Catholic half - brother , James Francis Edward Stuart , attempted to land in Scotland with French assistance in an attempt to establish himself as king . Anne withheld royal assent from the Scottish Militia Bill 1708 in case the militia raised in Scotland was disloyal and sided with the Jacobites . She was the last British sovereign to veto a parliamentary bill , although her action was barely commented upon at the time . The invasion fleet never landed and was chased away by British ships commanded by Sir George Byng . As a result of the Jacobite invasion scare , support for the Tories fell and the Whigs were able to secure a majority in the British general election , 1708 . The Duchess of Marlborough was angered when Abigail moved into rooms at Kensington Palace that Sarah considered her own , though she rarely if ever used them . In July 1708 , she came to court with a bawdy poem written by a Whig propagandist , probably Arthur Maynwaring , that implied a lesbian relationship between Anne and Abigail . The Duchess wrote to Anne telling her she had damaged her reputation by conceiving " a great passion for such a woman . . . strange and unaccountable " . Sarah thought Abigail had risen above her station , writing " I never thought her education was such as to make her fit company for a great queen . Many people have liked the humour of their chambermaids and have been very kind to them , but ' tis very uncommon to hold a private correspondence with them and put them upon the foot of a friend . " While some modern commentators have concluded Anne was a lesbian , most have rejected this analysis . In the opinion of Anne ' s biographers , she considered Abigail nothing more than a trusted servant , and was a woman of strong traditional beliefs , who was devoted to her husband . At a thanksgiving service for a victory at the Battle of Oudenarde , Anne did not wear the jewels that Sarah had selected for her . At the door of St Paul ' s Cathedral , they had an argument that culminated in Sarah offending the Queen by telling her to be quiet . Anne was dismayed . When Sarah forwarded an unrelated letter from her husband to Anne , with a covering note continuing the argument , Anne wrote back pointedly , " After the commands you gave me on the thanksgiving day of not answering you , I should not have troubled you with these lines , but to return the Duke of Marlborough ' s letter safe into your hands , and for the same reason do not say anything to that , nor to yours which enclosed it . " Death of her husband . Anne was devastated by her husband ' s death in October 1708 , and the event proved a turning point in her relationship with the Duchess of Marlborough . The Duchess arrived at Kensington Palace shortly before George died , and after his death insisted that Anne leave Kensington for St James ' s Palace against her wishes . Anne resented the Duchess ' s intrusive actions , which included removing a portrait of George from the Queen ' s bedchamber and then refusing to return it in the belief that it was natural " to avoid seeing of papers or anything that belonged to one that one loved when they were just dead " . The Whigs used George ' s death to their own advantage . The leadership of the Admiralty was unpopular among the Whig leaders , who had blamed Prince George and his deputy George Churchill ( who was Marlborough ' s brother ) for mismanagement of the navy . With Whigs now dominant in Parliament , and Anne distraught at the loss of her husband , they forced her to accept the Junto leaders Lords Somers and Wharton into the cabinet . Anne , however , insisted on carrying out the duties of Lord High Admiral herself , without appointing a member of the government to take George ' s place . Undeterred , the Junto demanded the appointment of the Earl of Orford , another member of the Junto and one of Prince George ' s leading critics , as First Lord of the Admiralty . Anne appointed the moderate Earl of Pembroke , on 29 November 1708 . Pressure mounted on Pembroke , Godolphin and the Queen from the dissatisfied Junto Whigs , and Pembroke resigned after less than a year in office . Another month of arguments followed before the Queen finally consented to put Orford in control of the Admiralty as First Lord in November 1709 . Sarah continued to berate Anne for her friendship with Abigail , and in October 1709 , Anne wrote to the Duke of Marlborough asking that his wife " leave off teasing & tormenting me & behave herself with the decency she ought both to her friend and Queen " . On Maundy Thursday 6 April 1710 , Anne and Sarah saw each other for the last time . According to Sarah , the Queen was taciturn and formal , repeating the same phrases — " Whatever you have to say you may put in writing " and " You said you desired no answer , and I shall give you none " — over and over . War of the Spanish Succession . As the expensive War of the Spanish Succession grew unpopular , so did the Whig administration . The impeachment of Henry Sacheverell , a High Church Tory Anglican who had preached anti - Whig sermons , led to further public discontent . Anne thought Sacheverell ought to be punished for questioning the " Glorious Revolution " , but that his punishment should only be a mild one to prevent further public commotion . In London , riots broke out in support of Sacheverell , but the only troops available to quell the disturbances were Anne ' s guards , and Secretary of State Sunderland was reluctant to use them and leave the Queen less protected . Anne declared God would be her guard and ordered Sunderland to redeploy her troops . In line with Anne ' s views , Sacheverell was convicted , but his sentence — suspension of preaching for three years — was so light as to render the trial a mockery . The Queen , increasingly disdainful of the Marlboroughs and her ministry , finally took the opportunity to dismiss Sunderland in June 1710 . Godolphin followed in August . The Junto Whigs were removed from office , although Marlborough , for the moment , remained as commander of the army . In their place , she appointed a new ministry , headed by Harley , which began to seek peace with France . Unlike the Whigs , Harley and his ministry were ready to compromise by giving Spain to the Bourbon claimant , Philip of Anjou , in return for commercial concessions . In the parliamentary elections that soon followed his appointment , Harley , aided by government patronage , secured a large Tory majority . In January 1711 , Anne forced Sarah to resign her court offices , and Abigail took over as Keeper of the Privy Purse . Harley was stabbed by a disgruntled French refugee , the Marquis de Guiscard , in March , and Anne wept at the thought he would die . He recovered slowly . Godolphin ' s death from natural causes in September 1712 reduced Anne to tears ; she blamed their estrangement on the Marlboroughs . The elder brother of Archduke Charles , Emperor Joseph I , died in April 1711 and Charles succeeded him in Austria , Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire . To give him also the Spanish throne was no longer in Britain ' s interests , but the proposed Peace 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 . The Whigs secured the support of the Earl of Nottingham against the treaty by promising to support his Occasional Conformity bill . Seeing a need for decisive action to erase the anti - peace majority in the House of Lords , and seeing no alternative , Anne reluctantly created twelve new peers . Abigail ' s husband , Samuel Masham , was made a baron , although Anne protested to Harley that she " never had any design to make a great lady of [ Abigail ] , and should lose a useful servant " . Such a mass creation of peers was unprecedented . On the same day , Marlborough was dismissed as commander of the army . The peace treaty was ratified and Britain ' s military involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession ended . By signing the Treaty of Utrecht , King Louis XIV of France recognised the Hanoverian succession in Britain . Nevertheless , gossip that Anne and her ministers favoured the succession of her half - brother rather than the Hanoverians continued , despite Anne ' s denials in public and in private . The rumours were fed by her consistent refusals to permit any of the Hanoverians to visit or move to England , and by the intrigues of Harley and the Tory Secretary of State Lord Bolingbroke , who were in separate and secret discussions with her half - brother about a possible Stuart restoration until early 1714 . Death . Anne was unable to walk between January and July 1713 . At Christmas , she was feverish , and lay unconscious for hours , which led to rumours of her impending death . She recovered , but was seriously ill again in March . By July , Anne had lost confidence in Harley ; his secretary recorded that Anne told the cabinet " that he neglected all business ; that he was seldom to be understood ; that when he did explain himself , she could not depend upon the truth of what he said ; that he never came to her at the time she appointed ; that he often came drunk ; [ and ] last , to crown all , he behaved himself towards her with ill manner , indecency and disrespect . " On 27 July 1714 , during Parliament ' s summer recess , she dismissed Harley as Lord Treasurer . Despite failing health , which her doctors blamed on the emotional strain of matters of state , she attended two late - night cabinet meetings that failed to determine Harley ' s successor . A third meeting was cancelled when she became too ill to attend . She was rendered unable to speak by a stroke on 30 July 1714 , the anniversary of Gloucester ' s death , and on the advice of the Privy Council handed the treasurer ' s staff of office to Whig grandee Charles Talbot , 1st Duke of Shrewsbury . She died at around 7 : 30 a . m . on 1 August 1714 . John Arbuthnot , one of her doctors , thought her death was a release from a life of ill - health and tragedy ; he wrote to Jonathan Swift , " I believe sleep was never more welcome to a weary traveller than death was to her . " Anne was buried beside her husband and children in the Henry VII chapel on the South Aisle of Westminster Abbey on 24 August . The Electress Sophia had died on 28 May , two months before Anne , so the Electress ' s son , George , Elector of Hanover , inherited the British Crown pursuant to the Act of Settlement 1701 . The possible Catholic claimants , including Anne ' s half - brother , James Francis Edward Stuart , were ignored . The Elector ' s accession was relatively stable : a Jacobite rising in 1715 failed . Marlborough was re - instated , and the Tory ministers were replaced by Whigs . Legacy . The Duchess of Marlborough " unduly disparaged " Anne in her memoirs , and her prejudiced recollections persuaded many biographers that Anne was " a weak , irresolute woman beset by bedchamber quarrels and deciding high policy on the basis of personalities " . The Duchess wrote of Anne : In the opinion of historians , traditional assessments of Anne as fat , constantly pregnant , under the influence of favourites , and lacking political astuteness or interest may derive from male chauvinist prejudices against women . Author David Green noted , " Hers was not , as used to be supposed , petticoat government . She had considerable power ; yet time and time again she had to capitulate . " Professor Edward Gregg concluded that Anne was often able to impose her will , even though , as a woman in an age of male dominance and preoccupied by her health , her reign was marked by an increase in the influence of ministers and a decrease in the influence of the Crown . She attended more cabinet meetings than any of her predecessors or successors , and presided over an age of artistic , literary , economic and political advancement that was made possible by the stability and prosperity of her reign . In architecture , Sir John Vanbrugh constructed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard . Writers such as Daniel Defoe , Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift flourished . Henry Wise laid out new gardens at Blenheim , Kensington , Windsor and St James ' s . The union of England and Scotland , which Anne had 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 ministers and exercised her prerogatives wisely . Titles , styles , honours and arms . Titles and styles . The official style of Anne before 1707 was " Anne , by the Grace of God , Queen of England , Scotland , France and Ireland , Defender of the Faith , etc . " After the union , her style was " Anne , by the Grace of God , Queen of Great Britain , France and Ireland , Defender of the Faith , etc . " In line with other monarchs of England between 1340 and 1800 , Anne was styled " of France " , but did not actually reign in France . Arms . As queen regnant , Anne ' s coat of arms before the union were the Stuart royal arms , in use since 1603 : Quarterly ; I and IV grandquarterly , Azure three fleurs - de - lis Or ( for France ) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or ( for England ) ; II , Or , a lion rampant within a double tressure flory - counter - flory Gules ( for Scotland ) ; III , Azure , a harp Or stringed Argent ( for Ireland ) . In 1702 , Anne adopted the motto " semper eadem " ( " always the same " ) , the same motto used by Queen Elizabeth I . The Acts of Union declared that : " the Ensigns Armorial of the said United Kingdom be such as Her Majesty shall appoint " . In 1707 , the union was heraldically expressed by the impalement , or placing side - by - side in the same quarter , of the arms of England and Scotland , which had previously been in different quarters . The new arms were : Quarterly ; I and IV , Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or ( for England ) impaling Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory - counter - flory Gules ( for Scotland ) ; II , Azure , three fleurs - de - lis Or ( for France ) ; III , Azure , a harp Or stringed Argent ( for Ireland ) . In Scotland , a separate form of arms was used on seals until the Act of Union .