Queen Anne

Judged by the political and military achievements of her reign Queen Anne ranks high among England's rulers. The union of England and Scotland, which came about during her reign was creative statesmanship of the first order; the victories of her general, the Duke of Marlborough, are among the most glorious in Britain's history; and the war in which they were won secured Europe against the domination of Louis XIV. Yet the figure who presided over these great events remains curiously indistinct to most of us. Most people had little idea of her person or her style, so unlike that of her two great counterparts, Elizabeth I and Victoria. In this biography, the culmination of twenty years' research, David Green establishes her once and for all as an entirely credible and endearing human being. Of all the Stuarts she had the most affectionate nature. Yet she was too often denied the outlet for her warmth of heart. Her mother died almost before she knew her, her father made an unpopular second marriage to an Italian princess whom Anne could not like. Anne's seventeen pregnancies produced only one child who lived more than a few months, and he was deformed and had to be hidden from the public for most of his eleven years. Only with Sarah Jennings, the fascinating creature whom she had known since childhood and who was to make a brilliant marriage with John Churchill, was Anne able to establish the close, absorbing intimacy that she craved. this relationship was the sheet-anchor of her existence. Although she loved and was loved by her kindly, fuddling husband, Prince George of Denmark, it was with Sarah and Sarah alone, that passion entered in. What happened when that tigerish figure found that the Queen for all her gentleness had a will and a conscience of her own has already been described from one angle in Mr. Green's superb biography Sarah Duchess of Marlborough. Here with all the artistry that one has come to expect from David Green is a royal biography that is at once both searching and tender. Queen Anne had much to contend with in life: the bitter divisions of her family that made her father an exile and estranged her from her sister; ill-health that left her a helpless invalid at forty; not least, the relentless malevolence with which her once dearest friend poisoned the wells of sympathy as the Queen, widowed, ailing, troubled in mind and conscience, strove gallantly to do her duty to her country and her trust. It is a touching, moving and enthralling story that cannot fail to leave the reader with a clear and convincing picture of England's most neglected queen.