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?

No Eloise, it's this one www.amazon.com/Down-Common-Year-Medieval-Woman/dp/0871318741/ref=la_B000AP9D12_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520798817&sr=1-2

I absolutely adore it. Possibly the most interesting account of being a woman in medieval times. I think I first saw it recommended on mumsnet a couple of years ago.

Katernine of Aragon doesn't add up as RH I don't think

Well exactly. It might have been ‘light and modern’ in the 40s. Probably less so in the 50s when she was born. Conceived in the 40s. Born Aug 1950. It became very popular in the 50s, presumably because of her.

A

One of Anne's grand-children is called Savannah, by the way. As a consequence, the Queen has a great-grandchild called Savannah.

I like to contemplate this when threads on baby names take a nasty turn.

It’s definitely Anne Boleyn who may have had the condition (Rh-) which means the first child is healthy but subsequent pregnancies fail. It was Alison Weir who came up with that theory.

There is a theory that Catherine of Aragon had a poor pregnancy history because of anorexia linked to religious mania which manifested as religious fasting.

griddlebone, I will be very interested to see what Harry and Meghan come up with names wise. Now that would be a baby names thread to see...

I can't decide whether I think Harry and Meghan are going to take advantage of not needing to keep to historic family names in the same way as his brother and SIL, or whether they're going to stick to similar safe, aristocratic names in order to soften the pill to Middle England of American divorcée Meghan.

I don’t think they will do traditional. Now William has his spare and his heir and are even going one further they know that their children aren’t going to be on the throne. My money is on Princess Ava and Prince Noah.

Hang on, "soften the pill"? I mean sweeten!

Princess Madison?

Queen Anne was a lesbian really, she had a riproaring raunchy affair with the Duchess of Marlborough. Lasted a few years, and lots of dalliances with kitchenmaids and things.

Didn’t the Duchess of Marlborough exploit her awfully and massively profit from Anne’s infatuation with her and dependence on her?

I don’t know much about this period at all. I’ve actually been doing some academic study (on history) over the last few years which (complicated by the arrival of twins) has meant that I really haven’t had time for much reading for pleasure. I’m almost finished with that, and Anne is one of the first subjects I’ll be reading up on when I’m free. Largely inspired by this thread.

I think both William and Anne may have had bisexual tendencies--wouldn't put it any more strongly than that, though. Especially in the case of William.

With William, people were a bit "huh" about the fact that he was not trying to bonk more women than anyone could count (which must have felt like a really bizarre change after Charles II and James II). He was impatient with socializing and drawing-room gallantries and was happiest on campaign and with his male favorites, most of whom were also Dutch.

The English sulked about this, and a lot of the whispering about his male favorites was fueled by xenophobia. It's possible there was a sexual element to William's close male friendships, but it may also have been the behavior of a man who had decided that friends needed to be what family should have been. Poor bloke was born after his father's death, lost his mother at 10, no siblings, no children. And then his wife died and he underwent an emotional collapse.

I'm so excited that a film about Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill (and the politics of the time) is coming out this year!! One to watch, definitely.

The First Churchills (12-part TV series) is on YouTube. It is a great series in many ways and is an excellent way to get your head round "what happened when and who was who"--but it has a strong pro-Churchill bias, so be a little careful!

I thought once Anne became queen she started standing up for herself and stopped letting the Churchills manipulate her.

"I got to meat Princess Anne once"

Was she any good?

I want to know whether the Royal Portaloo is sound-Proofed. I’d love to know what Prince Philip says on the bog.

Apparently Blackbeard named a ship Queen Anne’s Revenge. (I found this through predictive search results when googling QA.)

“The name may come from the War of the Spanish Succession, known in the Americas as Queen Anne's War, in which Blackbeard had served in the Royal Navy, or possibly from sympathy for Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch.”

ItsTimeForDuggee I've only just seen your comment.

I'm glad the budget stretched to a new seat, even if they didn't paint it gold.

They probably overspent on all the massive cakes though and couldn't stretch to paint as well.

Interesting thread. I’ve read the biography of Anne mentioned but still couldn’t get a feel for her character. I think she was probably a more interesting person than is often made out.

Loving this thread!

Charles II, Anne's uncle, had a v poor opinion of her husband George. He said 'I've tried him drunk and I've tried him sober and either way there is nothing in him'

Personally I feel v sorry for Tsarina Alix. And her mother Princess Alice mentioned above - she had a son fall out of a window (fatally) and then her whole family went down with diphtheria. Her youngest little girl died and when she told her son he'd lost his baby sister he was so upset she hugged and kissed him, exposing herself to the infection which promptly killed her, on the same day, 14 December, that her father had died on over a decade before. Queen Victoria really started taking it personally then. December had it in for the Saxe-coburg-gothas!

Thought it had also been suggested by some that Queen Anne possibly had antiphospholipid which can cause miscarriages.

Has anyone read the biography of Princess Charlotte, George IV’s daughter? Now there was a feisty young girl - a true modern Princess.

@NorthernLurker, what a heartbreaking little snapshot. That poor boy, missing his wee sister and then infecting his mother 😣 (I know similar stuff must have happened to countless others too. But still)

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, there’s an interesting link way back on this thread from Kokeshi that makes a good case for Anne having had lupus.

" I feel v sorry for Tsarina Alix"

And Ella. That was particularly heinous.

Vanilla, I’ve heard the general story of Charlotte somewhere before, I think - is she the one who died young? My memory's rubbish. Popular/tragic sort of figure? I don’t think I know anything about her actual personality though.

Charlotte was married to Prince Leopold, later King of the Belgians. She died in childbirth, her (first and last) child also died.