Queen Anne

Description

The reign of Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, was a period of significant progress for the country: Britain became a major military power on land, the union of England and Scotland created a united kingdom of Great Britain, and the economic and political basis for the Golden Age of the eighteenth century was established. However, the queen herself has received little credit for these achievements and has long been pictured as a weak and ineffectual monarch dominated by her advisers. This landmark biography of Queen Anne shatters that image and establishes her as a personality of integrity and invincible stubbornness, the central figure of her age. Praise for the earlier edition: “A thoughtful and . . . authoritative study, easily the best thing we have on the Queen. Like Anne herself, it is eminently worthy.”—Angus McInnes, History “With the appearance of this volume, a generation of revision in Queen Anne studies comes to fruition.”—Henry Horowitz, American Historical Review “The best kind of biography, scholarly but sympathetic, as well as highly readable.”—John Kenyon, The Observer “Bold . . . startling . . . imaginative and persuasive.”—G.C. Gibbs, London Review of Books Half Title Also Title Page Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Foreword to the Yale Edition Preface Genealogy Note on Spelling and Dating 1 ‘I have a Good Heart Thank God’: Child of State, 1665–83 2 ‘Firm to my Religion’: The Revolution, 1683–9 3 ‘Never any body was so used’: William and Mary, 1689–94 4 ‘Mr Caliban’: William Alone, 1695–1702 5 ‘Thy nursing Mother’: The Role of the Monarch, 1702–14 6 ‘Unreasonableness, Impertinence, and Brutality’: The Opening Years, March 1702 – April 1704 7 ‘Soe Glorious a Victory’: The Year of Blenheim, April 1704 – April 1705 8 ‘Ye Mercyless Men of both Partys’: The Attempt at Moderation, April 1705 – December 1706 9 ‘Hector’d or Frighted’: The Bishoprics Crisis, January–October 1707 10 ‘Utter Destruction to Me’: The Failure of Moderation, October 1707 – October 1708 11 ‘A Very Disconsolate Condition’: The Triumph of the Whigs, November 1708 – November 1709 12 ‘Many Unkind Returns’: The Queen’s Revenge, November 1709 – January 1711 13 ‘Ye Peace soe much at Hart’: The Peace of Utrecht, January 1711 – April 1713 14 ‘For ye good of her Kingdome’: The Protestant Succession, April 1713 – August 1714 Epilogue Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index