to feel sorry for Queen Anne?

[64BooLane]

I’m reading something that mentions her in passing quite a bit.

Didn’t know a lot about her but apparently she had 17 - SEVENTEEN - pregnancies, and none of the children lived to grow up. And then she was widowed and became alcoholic, gouty and obese, for which she was widely mocked. Added to all of this, it sounds as if she really didn’t enjoy being Queen and felt a lot of guilt about the end of the Stuarts. Then she died at forty-nine.

I mean, that really just sucks so much that I can’t get it out of my head. I’m not well versed in English history though, so I’m not very clear on her other qualities, such as whether she was astute/intelligent/thoughtful etc.

Should I read more about her? Any MN historians around? Any recommendations for books about that period?

So shortly after her death all her 50something uncles (several of whom had long-standing mistresses and illegitimate children)

Yes, all those poor German princesses shipped over to get pregnant to men already in long term relationships. I do love the story about one of them, Adelaide, who married William IV. They ended up very happy and he was faithful to her. None of her children survived infancy, but she had very close relationships with his illegitimate children from relationships before the marriage.

I always felt for the mistresses & children as well- discarded just like that!

Claire Tomalin wrote a great book about Dorothy Jordan, the mistress of William IV. It's called Mrs Jordan's Profession.

It would be interesting to see who would be the descendants of these pseudo royal offspring.

One of them is David Cameron.

What, seriously??

You'd be surprised how diffused the blood of these kings gets down the years VanillaSugar. Princess Di descended from one of Charles II's bastards, which means William will be the first monarch to count him as one of his ancestors. And apparently Kate is descended from a rumoured bastard of Henry VIII so George may go one better than his father!

Seriously, Vanilla. They had ten children; they were all treated as noble, married into long established families etc. So it's not surprising.

Other 'notable' descendants (these are listed in Wikipedia) include Duff Cooper, John Julius Norwich, Adam Hart-Davis, and a multitude of titled people.

William treated her very shabbily after the end of the relationship though.

Well now, I have decided that I am a descendent of Edward II, so you may all curtesy to me from hereonin.

You may well be. If both your parents are of predominantly English heritage, the chance of you being descended from Edward III, and therefore Edward II (his father), are fairly substantial.

Some genealogists claim that all ethnically English people are descended from Edward I

Princess Di descended from one of Charles II's bastards

Two, actually. Diana was a descendant of two of Charles's mistresses, Barbara Villiers and Louise de Keroualle and their sons.

Some genealogists claim that all ethnically English people are descended from Edward I

He had something like 16 legitimate children so it's entirely possible!

I went off to look at Edward I's family just now and find that many of his children also didn't survive childhood. The 13th century was a harsher place than even the 17th but most of Edward III's children survived infancy just 50 or so years later so it's interesting. Poor Eleanor of Castile had a stillbirth, lost two children as babies, and lost two of the next three children as small children, and then lost 4 or 5 more children infancy after that.

Yes, I've always thought that a bit strange. Henry II, living 100 years earlier had several children too and only one died in childhood. I wonder if there was some congenital or genetic disease affecting some of the children.

I think Anne Neville had a fascinating life.

Was she murdered?

HM is the first since the death of Henry VI to be descended from the Lancastrian usurper Henry IV; the late Queen Mother was descended from one of his illegitimate daughters.

Wasn’t the Queen Mum descended from the cook?

I’ll take myself off to The Tower.

vanilla, that was according to Lady Colin Campbell and she talks shit. Other gems from her include Diana shagging her own brother.

Sevendown, there were rumours but I think it's more likely she died of TB.

Anne Boleyn was accused of shagging her brother and that was (Tudor) lies too.

Some contributors might be interested in Joanne Limburg's novel about the young Queen Anne, 'A Want of Kindness.'

"Sevendown, there were rumours but I think it's more likely she died of TB"

I think so too, like their son, but of course it was in Tudor interests to portray RIII as a villain, as we all know.