Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to feel sorry for Queen Anne?

252 replies

64BooLane · 07/03/2018 13:02

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?

OP posts:
liz70 · 07/03/2018 18:04

"Im digging myself a bigger hole all the time."

That's very eco friendly of you. Just be sure to cover it over well after you've done your business, won't you?

IMightMentionGriddlebone · 07/03/2018 18:27

Does Charles get his own portaloo when he does royal visits or is it assumed no-one would want to plant hidden cameras in the men's toilets to film him?

Eltonjohnssyrup · 07/03/2018 18:35

Prince Charles and the Queen have their own toilet seats which are screwed on for the duration of their cost then taken away again. Trufax.

ForalltheSaints · 07/03/2018 18:39

To get back to the OPs question, not unreasonable at all to feel sympathy for Queen Anne, whatever the cause of her many miscarriages was. Had there not been the so-called 'Glorious Revolution' in 1688, Anne could have lived a fairly quiet life, and King James II (or VII) would have been King for longer, succeeded by Charles III (or Bonnie Prince Charlie). There would possibly not have been the settlement in the north of Ireland with the Orange bigotry that sadly still exists amongst some today.

CoolCarrie · 07/03/2018 18:56

Charlie has his own leather covered toilet seat which he takes aboard with him. I wonder who cleans it?

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 07/03/2018 19:11

Hygge 😂😂😂😂😂😂

IHaveBrilloHair · 07/03/2018 19:25

I dated someone years ago who had a padded toilet seat, it was really weirdHmm
It wasn't Prince Charles btw, or Princess Queen Anne.
Anyway, who are we discussing again?

IveGotStupidHair · 07/03/2018 19:30

Ooh, also on (vaguely) Queen Anne related facts - my mums house was where her BIL (Is that what Orange William was to her?) spent his first night on English soil. I think he then moved on to fancier premises.

Crispbutty · 07/03/2018 19:39

Most surreal thread ever 🤪😂

tiredbutFuckIt · 07/03/2018 19:44

She has a start outside St Paul’s though. I always feel like she’s literally shoved off out to the side with that, being in the City rather than Westminster

eloisesparkle · 07/03/2018 20:35

She had 17 children and, to my knowledge her sister Mary ( of William and Mary fame) didn't have any children hence Anne taking over the throne.

SteamTrainsRealAleandOpenFires · 07/03/2018 21:44

my posts would be a mixture of Hungarian, Welsh and Portuguese. Hmm

I just tried to translate "My hovercraft is full of eels" into a mix of Hungarian, Welsh and Portuguese. Grin

Loyaultemelie · 07/03/2018 21:50

I had something useful to contribute having read the op but I've since dissolved into snorts giggles and forgotten what it was. After a really shitty week this has cheered me up no end. Sorry QA (or indeed PA)

DownWithThisSortaThing · 07/03/2018 22:00

This thread is batshit 😂 and it’s made me laugh after a very dull and tedious day so thank you (PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks username being referred to as Buttocks finished me off)
But yes OP I was quite shocked to read about Queen Anne a few years ago, it sounds horrendous. I do love reading and learning about that period of history though (in fact most history I find interesting)

Japanesejazz · 07/03/2018 22:11

I’m sure I read somewhere that she was in a relationship with Marlborough? Whether this is Queen Anne, princess Anne, Katie price or Catherine parr, Kevin Peterson, Kensington palace or could be all of them on this thread!

liz70 · 07/03/2018 22:43

"Lucy Worsley did a documentary series on the BBC a while back called Fit to Rule"

You mean "Fit to Wule", surely?

(Sorry. Blush)

DieWinteresse · 07/03/2018 22:45

Sadly, as birth control was not widely practiced then in the UK, so many women with fertility issues would have gone through miscariage after miscarriage just like poor Queen Anne. I am so thankful for contraceptives.

DieWinteresse · 07/03/2018 22:47

Liz70 Don't get me started on those who did their business on the stairs (Palace of Versailles) in the 17th and 18th centuries

Graphista · 07/03/2018 22:49

Natural contraception would have been used and there were early condoms and other attempts at similar about.

But - she'd have been under pressure to produce an heir (especially with the paranoia of the throne falling to Shock a catholic! At the time)

Original poster
64BooLane · 07/03/2018 22:50

In a relationship with Sarah Marlborough? Hmm interesting - the text I’ve been working on called it a “passionate friendship”. Looking at Wikipedia just now though and the article on SM is characterising it more as a “business manager” (with boundary issues) dynamic.

OP posts:
Charley50 · 07/03/2018 23:00

This thread is so funny. Nothing else to add but it's making me chuckle Grin

ChangeyMcNameface · 07/03/2018 23:05

I'm just rereading "The Haunted Sisters" by Jean Plaids about Anne and Mary, I learned all my history from my mum's Jean Plaidy books Blush

Weird about the portaloos, I just sort of picture it plonked a bit off to one side, and everybody watches Her Maj go in it and come out.

SenecaFalls · 07/03/2018 23:09

Mary ( of William and Mary fame) didn't have any children hence Anne taking over the throne.

Interesting tidbit: Anne was the only woman in British history to be an heir apparent to the throne rather than an heir presumptive. When William and Mary took the throne jointly, it was agreed that if Mary died childless and William remarried, any children of that second marriage would be behind Anne in the succession. That meant that after Mary's death while William continue to rule, Anne was heir apparent to the throne.

I recommend the TV series The First Churchills for a lot of detail on Queen Anne's life and her relationship with Sarah Churchill. It was produced in the late 1960s but is still available on DVD and some web sources.

Moanranger · 07/03/2018 23:09

64BooLane You asked for book recommendations: I can highly recommend “The Favourite” which is a biography of Sarah Churchill, The Duchess of Marlborough. An excellent book. Queen Anne was very emotionally dependent upon her - Sarah was a lady in waiting, low-born & pretty much had to do her bidding. Sarah an amazing character, smart, ambitious, political, driven. Gives a really good perspective. I don’t think the relationship was sexual, but more intense than we think of as friendships, probably due to the Queen’s isolation, & the unequal nature of the two.

BaldricksTrousers · 07/03/2018 23:18

I always felt bad for Lady Jane Grey. Just a martyr really.

Swipe left for the next trending thread