Queen Anne

Summary

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The History Chicks: Queen Anne

Release Date: May 14, 2026
Hosts: Beckett and Susan
Podcast: The History Chicks (AIRWAVE)

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Overview

In this richly detailed episode, Beckett and Susan set out to rescue Queen Anne’s legacy from her long-standing reputation as a “petulant, sickly nonentity.” With humor, empathy, and deep research, the hosts walk us through Anne’s turbulent life and reign, highlighting her political acumen, the enormous personal tragedies she survived, and her crucial role in guiding Britain through war and the creation of the United Kingdom. Along the way, they correct misconceptions, explore pop culture representations (including the film The Favourite), and reveal why Anne deserves far greater credit for Britain’s transformation into a world power.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Dynastic and Political Upheaval

• Background: Anne’s birth in 1665 placed her in the aftermath of the English Civil War and the traumatic execution of Charles I ("Grandpa King").
  • [04:00] Beckett: “To understand Anne and her exact world, you have to understand the emotional baggage that England will still be dealing with by the time she's born in 1665. And that trauma… starts with the English Civil War.”
• Civil War Aftershocks:
  • The brief period as a republic (Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell), followed by the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 with Anne’s “Uncle Charles” (Charles II).
• Religious Tensions: The persistent push-pull between Protestantism and Catholicism shaped Anne’s family, leading to the Glorious Revolution and her accession.

2. Anne’s Early Life

• Tumultuous Family: Parents James, Duke of York (later James II) and Anne Hyde. Eight siblings, only Anne and Mary reached adulthood.
  • Repeated Names: Royal children often received the names of deceased siblings.
  • [25:30] Beckett: “They almost ran out of time to make the child legitimate. The child in question... died in infancy.”
• Upbringing: Raised with her sister Mary in a Protestant household, set apart from their father’s Catholic leanings.
  • Limited Education: Expected to be “modest, obedient, and domestic.” Unlike male heirs, Anne and Mary received little preparation for political rule.

3. Marriage, Motherhood, and Tragedy

• Anne’s Marriage to Prince George of Denmark (aged 18):
  • Genuinely affectionate, unusual for royals. Despite George’s reputation as “milquetoast,” the marriage was notably happy.
    • [45:52] Beckett quoting Charles II: “I have tried him drunk and tried him sober, but God's fish, there was nothing in him.”
• Pregnancy Losses: Heartbreakingly, Anne endured 17 pregnancies, at least 18 or 19 children (including twins), but only one son, William, Duke of Gloucester, survived infancy—and he died at age 11.
  • [58:36] Susan: “Ultimately, Anne would have 17 pregnancies, either 18 or 19 children... and after all of that, only one child survived early childhood.”

4. The Glorious Revolution & Political Realignment

• James II’s Catholicism: Alarm, then outrage, when James’s wife gave birth to a Catholic heir, leading to conspiracy theories (baby swap rumors).
• William and Mary’s Invitation: Protestant nobles asked Mary’s husband William of Orange to intervene; Anne sided with her Protestant faith and ultimately the revolution.
  • [55:49] Susan: “This whole event afterwards ended up with the name the Glorious Revolution, which is a piece of PR as far as I'm concerned...”
• Outcome: James II flees. Anne is restored as heir presumptive after William and Mary’s childless reign.

5. Anne as Queen (1702–1714): A “Quiet Force”

• Anne Ascends: At 37, Anne becomes Queen amidst chronic illness (probable lupus and severe gout).
  • [66:33] Beckett: “At only 37 years old, Anne was chronically ill. And modern medical practitioners theorized she had an autoimmune disease...”
• Public Perception: In English eyes, she embodied Protestant, native-born monarchy. Her humility and relatable grief for lost children made her popular.
• Style of Rule:
  • Deeply involved in government, attending more cabinet meetings than any other monarch.
  • Favored stability and moderation, balanced competing parties (Whigs and Tories), and sought out loyal, competent advisors.
  • [70:56] Beckett: “A queen does not know everything. And wouldn't it be wisest to install someone as, say, the treasurer who knew something about running the treasury?”
• Major Achievements:
  • War of Spanish Succession: Supported allied efforts in Europe; architect of British victories like the Battle of Blenheim.
  • Union of England and Scotland (1707): Oversaw the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
    • [91:45] Beckett: “A big accomplishment. The Acts of Union were passed... Anne had supported the Union for years... She addressed the first unified Parliament... a complete and entire union of hearts and affections.”

6. “Frenemy” Drama: Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham

• Sarah Churchill (Duchess of Marlborough): Anne’s closest friend and confidant; dynamic, politically savvy, increasingly overbearing and critical.
  • Close, possibly “romantic” correspondence (Victorian/modern readings exaggerated their relationship). Ultimately, Sarah’s manipulations, rudeness, and threats led to a dramatic falling out.
    • [88:45] Beckett: “If this whole friendship had been a decades-old act, the cracks were showing and Anne is not a stupid person. But you do not want to believe that your friend is not true to you...”
• Abigail Masham: Sarah’s meeker cousin, entered Anne’s service and became her new favorite, providing humility and quiet loyalty.
• Pop Culture Legacy: Sarah’s later memoirs portrayed Anne as weak and suggestively accused her of sexual relationships with female favorites, coloring public perception for centuries.
  • [102:30] Susan: “…it’s from this memoir that Anne’s reputation in some ways was set for a very long time.”

7. End of the Stewarts & Anne’s Legacy

• Final Years: Last surviving child dies; Anne endures a fractured court and declining health. She nevertheless remains actively involved in government until her death in 1714.
• Succession & Impact: With Anne’s death, the Stuart dynasty ends; the House of Hanover begins with George I. Britain is now a united, rising world power.
• Personal and Political Contributions:
  • Saw the transition to a constitutional monarchy—Parliament sets succession, not the monarch.
  • Increased British territory and prestige through foreign policy (including troubling legacies like the expansion of the transatlantic slave trade).
  • Encouraged arts (horses races at Ascot, coffee house culture, landscape design) and was the subject of later pop culture inventions (Queen Anne furniture, Queen Anne’s lace).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Anne’s Reputation:
  • [00:07] Beckett: “The truth is, she steered England through war, political chaos and the birth of a united Kingdom... But history's been doing her dirty ever since.”
• On the Execution of Charles I:
  • [08:23] Beckett (reading): “…the court Being satisfied that he, Charles Stewart, was guilty... did judge him tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy... to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body.”
• On Monarchical Trauma:
  • [09:31] Beckett: “It was a little bit like a more serious version of when you tell a joke and it hasn't landed and you're a little bit like, oh, okay, I didn't read this room.”
• On Anne and Sarah’s Friendship:
  • [47:47] Susan: “It was very good for Anne to have this vibrant personality in her life. A designated extrovert in her life.”
  • [113:50] Susan: “The language was very romantic. Yeah, for sure, for sure. But that's the way that a lot of women communicated.”
• On Queen Anne’s Political Savvy:
  • [83:02] Susan: “She went to more cabinet meetings than any other royal in history. She was there all the time because she wanted to know what was going on.”
• On the Reality of Historical Fiction:
  • [112:49] Susan: “And her personality in that movie, she was nothing. She was just like a bag of potatoes. Like, she didn't come off as intelligent at all. I mean, I just thought they did her a grave disservice.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |----------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 00:07 | Opening thesis: Anne’s reputation vs. reality | | 04:00–10:00 | English Civil War, Cromwell, Restoration background | | 13:20–15:26 | Charles II’s Restoration and the family’s Protestant/Catholic tensions | | 22:51–25:30 | Anne’s parents’ marriage & struggles over legitimacy | | 31:39–32:06 | Anne’s limited education as a royal daughter | | 41:33–44:54 | Anne’s arranged marriage and the start of her family life | | 48:00–56:49 | Glorious Revolution; Anne supports William and Mary | | 58:36–62:40 | Anne’s pregnancy losses, the death of Prince William | | 66:33–68:30 | Anne becomes queen; the extent of her illness; public sentiment | | 70:56–73:44 | Anne’s leadership approach; bestowing trust and titles | | 78:11–80:51 | John Churchill’s victories, Blenheim Palace | | 91:45–92:55 | The 1707 Acts of Union: birth of UK; Anne’s support | | 92:55–94:04 | Death of Prince George; Anne’s emotional devastation | | 95:13–98:54 | Final break with Sarah Churchill, rise of Abigail Masham | | 100:43–101:17 | Anne’s health fails, final days, death, and legacy | | 102:30–103:08 | Sarah Churchill’s memoir and the historiographical smear | | 110:23–113:24 | In-depth critique of The Favourite and Anne’s portrayal | | 116:01–117:36 | Anne’s real-life legacy in British palaces | | 117:37–118:20 | Final summation: Anne as a steady, underrated monarch |

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Media & Further Reading Recommendations

• Books:
  • Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion – Anne Somerset
  • Queen Anne – Edward Gregg
  • Ungrateful Daughters: The Princesses Who Stole Their Father’s Crown – Maureen Waller
  • Queen Anne, Patroness of the Arts – James Anderson Wynne
• Films:
  • The Favourite (2018): Recommended with caveats—highly fictionalized and often misleading regarding Anne’s character and relationships.
• TV/Documentary:
  • British History’s Biggest Fibs (Lucy Worsley), Season 1, Episode 2: The Glorious Revolution

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The Hosts’ Takeaway

"Behind all that noise was a steady, determined ruler who helped shape the early modern British state. For a long time, she was dismissed as weak or dull, mostly because louder personalities wrote her story. Now we're finally recognizing that Anne was not a footnote, but a quiet force that gathered her turbulent kingdom together, preparing it for its future as a world power."
— Beckett [117:37]

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Recommendation:
For listeners new to Queen Anne or interested in revisionist women’s history, this episode abounds with insight, witty commentary, and emotional resonance, painting a portrait of a queen who steered a nation through chaos and remembrance—quietly but with great effect.

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Transcript

[Susan]

Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

[Beckett]

And here's your 30 second summary. If you know anything about England's Queen Anne, you likely know her as the petulant, sickly nonentity that her enemies painted her to be. But that version of Anne was crafted by people who had every reason to tear her down. The truth is, she steered England through war, political chaos and the birth of a united Kingdom. She helped position Britain as a rising world power. But history's been doing her dirty ever since. And it's finally time we give her the credit she deserves. The end. Let's talk about Queen Anne.

[Susan]

But first, let's drop her into history. In 1702, the first English daily newspaper began publication. Although credited in print as simply E. Mallett, the editor and creator was a woman, Elizabeth Mallet. East Jersey and West Jersey united to become the British colony of New Jersey. In North America, Tsar Peter I, who history knows as Peter the Great, was mid rain in Russia and instituting sweeping modernization changes throughout the country. Louis xiv, the Sun King, sat on the throne of France, as he had been for the previous 60 years. And in 1702, Princess Anne became Queen Anne of England and began her rule. Before we get into Queen Anne's story, we did want to give a little Anne big ears warning. This story is full of the loss of pregnancy, of infants, of children, maybe more so than any we've talked about ever since. So we just wanted to be clear about that up front before you get into this story. And now on with the show.

[Beckett]

The Lady Anne Stewart was born on February 6, 1665 at St James Palace, London, the second of the two surviving daughters of James, Duke of York, and his first wife, Anne Hyde. Anne's parents had eight children, but Anne and her sister Mary were the only ones to survive to adulthood. Her father was the younger brother of King Charles ii, who ruled the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. And her mother was the daughter of Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde, later the first Earl of Clarendon. But before we get to Queen Anne herself, we need to go into the Wayback machine for a few minutes because to understand Anne and the entirety of her family's story, you have to understand the background.

[Susan]

And we need to talk about the who's that? She came from all of her ancestors. It's going to be kind of weird not to talk about immigration, you know, like we usually do. Oh, her family came from Scotland. Well, you know what, her family did come from Scotland in a way, you may have Heard of these people. She is the great granddaughter of Mary Queen of Scots and her husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, but before Mary Queen of Scots even comes on the scene. And we have covered this in great detail in the Elizabeth I episode, Mary I episode, Mary Queen of Scots episode, and even the Tudors episodes. That's the family that she comes from. What began in the late 1400s as the dynasty of the House of Tudor had continued through the 1500s through Queen Elizabeth I, who died with no blood heir. That's when the Stuarts come in. Mary Queen of Scots and her husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, had a son, their son James, who was in this story. Anne's great grandfather ruled after Queen Elizabeth, and he was the beginning of the House of Stuart line of British royalty.

[Beckett]

So James, the son of Mary Stuart, was the papa of Charles I. We, in the interest of clarity, are going to call him Grandpa King. And that is where I'm going to take up the story. Because to understand Anne and her exact world, you have to understand the emotional baggage that England will still be dealing with by the time she's born in 1665. And that trauma, I'm going to call it trauma, starts with the English Civil War. Grandpa King Charles I believed in the divine right of kings. What I say goes. The end. Classic king behavior actually rooted in centuries of precedent, precedent worldwide. But Parliament believed otherwise, that the king should govern with them, not over them. The idea, especially in England, that the monarch was accountable in some way to quote the people rather than exclusively to God, that had existed in English law, most famously with the Magna Carta. That goes all the way back to 1215. So a committee of 25 barons ruling on what the king does is not exactly representative of the people, except geographically. But this is the beginning of representative government. It's established to ensure the king adhered to the charter so they could legally reverse the king's actions if he violated the rules. And we'll give you a link to the Magna Carta, if that's a rabbit hole you would like to fall down. But basically it was there to prevent the king from running roughshod over some basic things. And Charles seemed to want to wave all of that common law tradition away with his bejeweled hand and then add in religious tension between Protestants and Catholics, and not only that, between Puritans and other Protestants. The fact that Grandpa Charles had a extremely unpopular marriage to a Catholic French princess, and more importantly, his habit of dissolving Parliament whenever they irritated him and they annoyed him, a Lot. I am reminded of those TikTok videos where the guy has a watermelon and he keeps putting rubber bands on it. Yep. And you never know which one of these teeny, tiny, innocent little rubber bands is going to be the thing that causes it to blow up in his face. I love those videos. I do, too. And they always. They always seem so surprised, don't they? Like, didn't you set all this up yourself?

[Susan]

Okay.

[Beckett]

Didn't you Amazon all these rubber bands on purpose? Well, Charles's final rubber band happened in 1642. He tried to arrest five members of parliament for treason, he said. But these were his key political enemies, as he saw it. People that were dragging their feet about his agenda. He literally burst into Parliament with a small armed body of men. But Parliament had protected their five members and sent them over to the City of London, literally a separate legal entity. We'll have to give you a link to that. It's so fascinating. There was once a conflict between Grandpa King Charles and the City of London called the Great Refusal, if that gives you a little hint as to their relationship. But as for Parliament, this was an unprecedented event. That the King would burst in there in the first place and then that the Parliament would openly defy him. That was it. The country was now split into two camps. Royalists obviously supported the King. Parliamentarians who wanted limits on royal power. And frankly, for Parliament to be more powerful than the King. And then the shooting started. There were actually three civil wars. I don't know where you draw the line, you know, where it's completely over and then another one starts. But they're kind of.

[Susan]

Kind of a Venn diagram, quite honestly. Just think of it as 10 years of different kinds of. Of conflict.

[Beckett]

Yeah. Not just in England, but Scotland and Ireland, too. Brutal, grinding conflict. Families were torn apart permanently. The chaos devastated entire regions. Civil wars are the most uncivil. Perhaps the Queen and her daughter were actually forced to flee back to her home country of France for safety. By the end, Charles the First had lost. Lost, and Parliament had won. And the monarchy itself was on trial. Literally, the King was on trial. And we're not going to go into the whole adventure. You can kind of say it was a kangaroo court. I mean, people who weren't going to vote to convict the King were excluded. That's not a fair trial. There was a lot of chicanery. A word I think we should say more often.

[Susan]

Yeah, that's a good one.

[Beckett]

And ultimately, and inevitably, he was found guilty. This is what they said, quote, that the court Being satisfied that he, Charles Stewart, was guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused, did judge him tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy to the good people of the nation, to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body. Well, in 1649, Charles I was executed, the first and only English monarch to be tried and killed by his own government. His head came off in front of. Of a silent crowd. And I will tell you, unlike every other execution on earth, seems like people did not cheer. They didn't cheer. They just stood there like, what have. What have we done? What is. Wait, our excitement got the better of us. What?

[Susan]

Yeah, even the traditions of, you know, after an execution of showing off the head, they started to do that and then had second thoughts and sewed it back onto his body. That's how bizarre this execution was. As far as execution tradition, I guess. Wow. I never thought I'd talk about that in my life, but yeah, yeah, it's

[Beckett]

a little bit like a more serious version of when you tell a joke and it hasn't landed and you're a little bit like, oh, okay, I didn't read this room. Well, what came next was something no one had ever really seen before. England without a king or a queen. After Grandpa King's execution, England became a republic called the Commonwealth, led by Parliament and eventually by a man named Oliver Cromwell. And he is one of those figures people will fight you. People see him as either a champion of liberty or a dictator. And both can be true. And curiously, there is a large statue of him right outside of Parliament in London. So somebody, and I want to say the Victorians, thought that his basically insistence upon Parliament's.

[Susan]

Well, I mean, I can actually see that, because if it wasn't for him leading a parliamentary government, the government current would not have existed. And you know what a lot of people don't realize? They just expect change to happen in one big leap, when in reality it's going to take a bunch of steps. This was just the first step of getting to the government that's in existence now.

[Beckett]

Well, I will tell you, he did act. He acted now. The monarchy was abolished. The House of Lords was abolished. Wow. The Church of England was reshaped because Cromwell was one of those Puritans. Strict Puritan moral codes, including assorted unenforceable wars. On the celebration of Christmas. We were going to have to give you a link to that. There used to be this thing where if they smelled some deliciousness at Christmas, they would go in and take your food away.

[Susan]

Well, then they brought that over to the United States. Who are we just talking about? Beckett.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[Susan]

We told this story. Who was it?

[Beckett]

Pure Puritans did not believe in Christmas. And so when they came over here, Christmas was not necessarily a favorable holiday. Yeah.

[Susan]

Punishable by punishment.

[Beckett]

Punishable by punishment. Maybe not quite to the extreme of,

[Susan]

you know, Grandpa Charles, but.

[Beckett]

Mm. Well, the army held enormous power, and it was a republic. Yes, but it was just not a peaceful one. England was frankly exhausted by the whole thing. Scotland was resentful, which, to be truthful, was its ground state throughout history. We compared Scotland. Now, keep in mind, my husband's people are from that great land, but Scotland is always the little brother who sees the line on the back of the seat and puts their hand across it on purpose. They. They like it. Ireland, though, was brutalized. Brew to lies. Land was confiscated from Catholic landowners and redistributed Loyalists. I mean, land ownership by Catholics in Ireland went from 60% to 10%. Thousands of Irish Catholics were sent to places like Barbados as indentured servants for objecting to what was happening in Ireland. Trade was disrupted, taxes were high. People were tired of being told what they could and couldn't do. The micromanagement of civil bureaucracy reached into their private lives in a way that hadn't happened when there was a king. He pretty much let you get on with it, like, have a goose or don't. He does not give one crap. Do you know what I mean? Well, when Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, the entire system began to break down because his son Richard was not his papa. It had been held up by a cult of personality, which was broken. The army was restless. The country was really ready for anything at all that looked like stability.

[Susan]

I always think it's interesting that the experiment of the Commonwealth took about as many years as this English Civil wars did, about 10, 11 years for both of them. Right.

[Beckett]

Maybe it's a pendulum. Like, it has to swing back the equidistant before it can come back to the middle.

[Susan]

Yeah. And that's. I mean, there's a lot of cases in history where that happens a lot, a lot, even in modern history.

[Beckett]

In 1660, Parliament invited Charles II, the son of the executed king, to come back and take the throne. Now, this son, who we're going to call Uncle Charles, had four famously fled the country years before. And at one point, he hid in an oak tree right beside where the soldiers of Cromwell went by, looking for him, like Katniss up in the tree, hiding from the career pack that is right below her.

[Susan]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

He had spent nine years in exile, mostly in France with his mother, but also in various sympathetic countries on the continent, never giving up his assertion that he was the rightful king. Well, the English monarchy was restored, but it wasn't the same monarchy that had existed before, because Uncle Charles understood something that his father never did. You cannot be a divine right king. You have to negotiate, you have to compromise. You have to read the room. And this room was full of people who lived through the collapse of the traditional way of life. And also the room is full of a parliament that has tasted real power.

[Susan]

Right.

[Beckett]

And it was delicious.

[Susan]

Yeah. They're not going to go completely back. Absolutely. They're coming to the table to talk and to work together. And Uncle Charles really had to do that.

[Beckett]

So Charles II and Parliament brought back the Church of England og the House of Lords. But he also brought back something else, that unresolved question of religion. Because Charles ii, Uncle Charles had Catholic sympathies. That's what happens when you exile a prince to Catholic countries. For his formative years, though, he was wise enough to keep his sympathies on the low, low to a certain extent, because after a century of religious conflict. Thanks, Henry viii. England was not ready for a Catholic king. And that tension did simmer through Charles's entire reign. It shaped politics and alliances and public opinion. But Uncle Charles's Restoration court was glamorous, theatrical, deeply French in style. Over the top. That's what you get. In addition to a Catholic sympathy, you get the trappings of over the top monarchy.

[Susan]

If this sounds at all familiar, it's because we covered all of this, all of Charles and his reign during our Nell Gwynn episode. Nell Gwynn was a mistress of Charles ii. Uncle Charles.

[Beckett]

My favorite bit of that is he had a mistress that was unpopular with the common people. And they once surrounded a carriage thinking it was this lady. And Nell Gwynn lowered the window of her carriage and yelled at be calm, good people, for I am the Protestant whore. And everyone laughed, and she went on her merry way. Yeah.

[Susan]

Charles famously had many mistresses.

[Beckett]

Yeah. So if you would like to see the more frivolous side of Uncle Charles's life, give that one a listen. He was boisterous, popular. Once. People kind of looked at him to see if he was going to be like his papa. He was not.

[Susan]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

Because he's a smart fella. Yeah. He was a popular monarch. But underneath his glittering facade was really understandable fear, because the monarchy had been destroyed once, and it could Certainly happen again now that the seal was broken.

[Susan]

Maybe you're like me and you're taking out the shorts. I wore shorts for the first time today and when I did, I looked down at my legs and I thought, oh dear. Because I haven't really been putting lotion on them like I should all winter and now I need it. So I reached for my OSEA Anti Aging Body balm. This stuff is different than any lotion I have ever tried. It's kind of a hybrid between a serum, an oil and a lotion. When I say. Yeah, when I say oil, it's like the OSEA body oil. It's a dry. It's not like sticky or anything. It smells amazing. All of the OSEA products have that smell.

[Beckett]

It's like grape, fruity, beach salt, I don't know, pine or something. It's hard to quantify.

[Susan]

I just put it on my left arm. I know it's audio, you can't see that. But there's something sweet in there too. Or maybe that's just my natural scent, I don't know.

[Beckett]

That's just you, Susan, being sweet.

[Susan]

That's right, that's just me. I've noticed today since I put it on this morning that my legs still feel hydrated. On the back of this bottle it says glisten and glow is what it says on the back of the Anti Aging Body Balm by osea. And that's what it does. It's like a glisten and glow, which is what you want on your appendages in the summertime when you have to take your shorts out and show skin.

[Beckett]

10 points for append.

[Susan]

Thank you.

[Beckett]

So you can get a spring worthy glow with clean, clinically tested skin care from osea. And right now we have a special discount just for our listeners.

[Susan]

Get 10% off your First Order site wide with code [e-mail] that's O S E A malibu.com Use code chicks.

[Beckett]

So we know what the older son was doing. But second son James had had some turmoil of his own. Second son James, who would ultimately become Papa in this story, was captured when the parliamentarian army took over Oxford and they imprisoned him at the age of 12 in St James's Palace. It took a couple of years, but he was able to escape at 14, famously dressed as a girl. And he fled to an aunt in the Netherlands, or an aunt, as Susan would say, in the Netherlands. Therefore, he was in exile far longer than anyone else in his family.

[Susan]

James was only 16 at the time. That the family went into exile, and they lost their father, but he was never able to put down deep roots. You can't do that when you're in exile. He was in France at first. He served in the French army, but when he was about 24, France and Spain went to war. But first son Charles sided with Spain out of family loyalty. James also sided with Spain, went to fight for them, because he was pretty much kicked out of France, right? Yeah. So then he served in the Spanish military pretty much for the entire roller coaster ride of the English Civil War. He was in the military first for France and then Spain.

[Beckett]

Okay, so we've had a little background on our Aunt Papa, and now let's move on to her mother. Mama Ann Hyde was born at Cranbourne Lodge in Windsor Great park, and she was the eldest daughter of Edward Hyde, who was a lawyer and a member of Parliament, and his wife, Frances Aylesbury. And her father was a key advisor to Grandpa King during the Civil War and later to his son, Uncle Charles, in exile. He's not the Mr. Hyde of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who had the same name, by the way. No relation. When the monarchy collapsed and Grandpa Charles was executed, the Hyde family had to also flee. They fled to the Netherlands, where Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, who was Grandpa King's slightly younger sister, offered shelter to English royalist exiles pretty much across the board. And Mama Ann became a maid of honor to this Mary, Princess of Orange, which placed her directly inside of the Stuart exile circle. Anne was known for her intelligence. She was witty and had a lively personality. She was not a beauty by court standards, but she was socially adept, which was a quality that mattered enormously. In the tense world of royal exiles, being the life of a party was a good attribute. Now, Anne first met James, second son, who was known as the Duke of York, in 1656, when she accompanied her boss, Mary of Orange, to Paris to visit the exiled court of Uncle Charles. James was immediately attracted to her. It was thunderbolt city, at least from his side. And I have to say, at this point, James was a prince in exile. He had no throne, no money, no certainty about the future. So obviously his personal charms had to be large, right?

[Susan]

For sure.

[Beckett]

He had nothing else. And Anne was the daughter of his brother's most trusted advisor. So their social circles overlapped just constantly, and they began an affair. And as history turns on such things, Anne became pregnant, and James promised to marry her. But then he hesitated. Why? Because back at home, his brother Charles ii, Uncle Charles, was restored to the throne. That year, suddenly, James went from, hey, I'm a penniless exile to the heir presumptive of three entire kingdoms.

[Susan]

Another reason he had a moment to pause is that her father was not keen on this relationship at all. He literally tried to have her locked up. He even asked. I. I don' even know if this was partially joking or not. Although this doesn't sound like a joke. He wanted her to be locked up in the Tower and her to be executed rather than to marry James.

[Beckett]

I mean, that is parental love, isn't it?

[Susan]

I guess.

[Beckett]

I'd rather you be executed at the Tower of London than marry this guy. Wow. From James's perspective, the idea of marrying a commoner, like, no matter how powerful her dad pretended to be, that's politically inconvenient, right? He is now closing himself off from more advantageous marriages. While Anne was not royal, she was gentry. I guess not even nobility, certainly not royalty. Many at court thought that James should marry a European princess as tradition dictated, and that would be more useful for the country at large. Powerful women in his life were not for this marriage at all. In fact, Mary of Orange was completely angry. Anne Hyde had been her maid of honor, basically a servant who thought she could marry a king's brother. Come on. His own mother thought that aunt's papa, Edward Hyde, had never given her husband any good advice in the first place. Look how it turned out after all. And we're going to marry this man's daughter and ally our family with these randoms. And the rest of the English court thought this would give Mr. Hyde too much power to have his daughter in this position. But Anne was already pregnant. Like, very pregnant. And this added a layer of scandal and urgency. Decisions had to be made asap. And guess who came in. Like Superman. Uncle Charles insisted the marriage go forward. He thought that Anne's strong character would be good for his impulsive brother. Like, ugh, kind of gross. Like, she could fix him.

[Susan]

She's 23 at this point. James is 27, so they're certainly old enough to make this decision on their own. But, gosh, changing him, fixing him, that's not cool, no matter who's saying it, whether it's the bride or the groom's family. And I do want to point out that the chances of James actually becoming the heir at this point were looking pretty slim. Yes, he was the heir, but Charles was very young. He could easily have a whole stable of heirs give birth to them. Which bumps James back farther and farther.

[Beckett]

When the king says, you are to get married. However, you'd be foolish not to go along, wouldn't you? And James and Anne were married secretly at midnight at Worcester House, which was the residence of her family in London. Secretly performed mostly to evade her papa, who was incandescent when he found out what had happened and was not reversible. The marriage was made public two months later, after Anne gave birth. So what we are to infer from that is that that she was married at seven months pregnant. They almost ran out of time to make the child legitimate. The child in question, the one who had precipitated this marriage, Charles, the little Duke of Cambridge, died in infancy. James and Anne went on to have eight children, six of whom, including, I'm sorry to say, two more ill fated Dukes of Cambridge, died in childhood. Only two, Mary, born in 1662, and Anne, born in 1665, lived to adulthood. That is not good author odds, but it is better than Anne's future odds. Stay tuned for that story.

[Susan]

What makes this story a little more complicated is the repeat use of names. It was actually a trend at the time that if you had a child who died, you should use that name again. Which is why there were so many Charleses, for instance.

[Beckett]

Well, Uncle Charles got the reins of power back. The turbulent waters were finally settling down the year Anne was born. But as if to remind everyone that the universe has a sick sense of humor, the great plague hit England the same year. Bubonic plague killed almost a quarter of London's population, followed immediately by the Great Fire of London the next year. Over 13,000 houses, 87 churches, and incidentally, St. Paul's Cathedral were destroyed. Technically, only six people officially died in the Great Fire of London. I'm here to express disbelief about that and say the Titanic level class system being what it was, nobody seemed to count the tens of thousands of the poor that were swept up in the spreading flames. And also everyone who'd lost their homes and then froze to death in the winter that immediately followed were not included in the official count either. So disasters that are in no way under the King's control were plaguing the land.

[Susan]

As for Anne, she was not the healthiest of children. Anne had an eye disorder, she teared incessantly. Her father felt that the doctors in France were better prepared to treat his daughter. So she was shipped off to her paternal grandmother's house very young. You know, royals are not really hands on parents. Anyway, Anne's parents is, shortly after her birth took off, they went on a northern tour and they weren't even there. So Anne's time with her mother at this early juncture is limited.

[Beckett]

Do you remember that famous video of our Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth ii, who had come home from some massive tour and saw little three year old Charles at the train station and Pat basically patted him on the head and pecked him on the cheek and went about her day like, oh, hello, you. And went on about like, I know, I am just always astonished at how distant aristocratic parents have been throughout history. I, you know, I'm the one building blanket forts in the living room. I don't know anything about that.

[Susan]

Even the extended family was kind of, let's pass this baby around almost like a hot potato. Anne stayed with her Grandmaire Stuart for a while until Grandmaire's health turned and Anne was passed off to a paternal aunt in France. And it was another year before she was deemed well enough to return to her parents in England at the age of five.

[Beckett]

Now, I will tell you, her aunt, or as Susan would say, Aunt Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans, died under mysterious circumstances at only 26. The one that was in charge of her poison was widely suspected at the time. And you know what? Nope. Said the King of England, let's just bring my niece back home asap. Like, better or not? Things are raggedy.

[Susan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Beckett]

Now, I'm sorry to say that Mama Anne Hyde died right after our Ann's return of breast cancer, shortly after giving birth to her eighth child. And she was only 34 years old when she died.

[Susan]

Yeah. So Anne had very, very little memory of her mother. I mean, at a time when she might start to remember things. Age of 5, 6. Her mother was very ill and passed away, so no memories.

[Beckett]

Anne and her older sister Mary were set up with their own establishment in the palace of Richmond. And it was not unusual, in fact, for royal children to have separate establishments from their parents. But in this case, Uncle Charles had another motive, that these two nieces of his were to be raised as Protestants openly and clear to separate them from the Catholic tendencies of their father, who had officially converted to Catholicism after his marriage. Remember how intense of an education Elizabeth I got? I mean, we talked about that during that episode. She wrote letters in multiple languages. She translated classical texts for fun, like Hermione Granger, she debated theology with bishops. She was just intellectually formidable. And alas, less than 100 years later, the English Civil War and Puritan influence, maybe Restoration culture in general, had the idea that women should be modest, obedient and domestic. And intellectualness in women was now viewed with great suspicion. And so therefore Anne and her sister's education was limited, I mean, even by the standards of the time. They were taught to be pious. That's number one. Polite, socially graceful, learned and opinionated. Thumbs down. That's not ladylike. She was great in French, but also music, needlework, dancing.

[Susan]

Both of the girls had a education in theater and in dance and Anne played the guitar. These are all ladylike pursuits of the time. It's not academic. She only had enough math, for instance, so that she could do basic bookkeeping. But she had plenty of time to horse ride, for instance, and learned how to play cards, which is a social skill, right?

[Beckett]

More importantly, experts were brought in to instruct the young ladies in Protestant theology, moral lessons, Bible verses, interpretations, et cetera. That was, that was the main thing as far as the King was concerned. Neither sister received any kind of intellectual training that would have prepared them for their actual future. Their tutors were chosen to shape their faith and their behavior, not really their minds necessarily true. In contrast with male heirs, I was looking into, for example, future husband William, how he was brought up, I mean, Latin, Greek, political philosophy, history, military strategy, law, diplomacy. I mean, he read classical authors, he understood the machinery of government. But Anne and Mary were expected to be nothing more than noble ladies. Pray, behave, marry well, produce heirs. Because the fact is, no one imagined that two daughters would eventually rule back to back, so no one prepared them for it. Because even at this point, Anne and Mary were not expected to inherit. Uncle Charles had married a Portuguese princess. He was young and already had four sons. With his mistress, Barbara Villiers, the king was expected to have legitimate children. There is nothing in the air that would indicate that Anne and Mary would be anything more than an addition to a holiday party.

[Susan]

So there's still a chance that King Uncle Charles is going to have an heir. There's also a chance that their father might have an heir, a male heir who would supersede them in the line of secession. He was certainly young enough still, and it didn't take him long to get married. He cast about for a bride and reeled in a 14 year old Italian princess, Mary Beatrice of Modena.

[Beckett]

When his daughters were 10 and 7, he introduced his new wife to them by saying, and I want you to hold on to your armrests. He said, I have brought you a new playfellow. Yikes. This poor girl cried every time she saw her husband for a while. And after having one daughter named Isabel, who lived to about the age of four, this princess endured a series of nine children who died as Babies. We're jumping ahead, you know, a little bit on the timeline, but that is in her immediate future. And I'm just going to put her in here, someone that becomes extremely important later in our story. She rises to prominence here a little bit. A girl named Sarah Jennings, who had been not exactly childhood playfellows with them, but had been around since they were very, very small. She had married and was now called Sarah Churchill. And she came into court officially as a grown up, as one of the ladies in waiting to their new stepmother, Mary of Modena. So she is officially in the court now and percolating around. She's going to come into great prominence later.

[Susan]

Sarah had come from impoverished nobility. She was really at court for money and prestige. Shortly after her arrival in court is when she did meet her husband, John Churchill. He was the eldest son of a name you've heard before. I mean, this is using those names again, but his father's name was Winston Churchill. He was a member of Parliament, not that Winston Churchill, but the 1600s version.

[Beckett]

As time went on, their aunt or aunt, the Queen did not produce any children, even though Uncle Charles II ended up with as many as 15 acknowledged illegitimate offspring. Which does of course, very, very little for the succession. Woof. The, the family tree. Yeah. Has circles on it. As Papa James was still the heir presumptive, the marriages of his daughters became important to Uncle Charles, who put pressure on his brother to marry his eldest niece Mary to a man called William of Orange, her first cousin, the son of the King and papa's sister, Mary of Orange. We've met her before, who had allowed the family to be refugees in her kingdom of the Netherlands all those years ago. Number one qualification of William, he was a Protestant. Number two, he's family after all. He's the oldest legitimate grandson of Grandpa King. And I suppose if you're gonna blow by lady persons, he'd be second in line to the throne right now. So it makes a lot of sense for him to marry the actual person who's second in line to the throne, Sister Mary. That way there's no problematic other people lurking around in the ether. Hooray. Number three advantage to William of Orange is that William, a grown man of course, had gained a reputation as a courageous and risk taking soldier. And he as a husband would be a great compliment for those hard skills that a queen hadn't learned should she come to the throne. It was enough. William and Mary were married. The bride was 15, the groom was 26.

[Susan]

Papa James was not keen on William of Orange as the future husband of his daughter. He had in his mind that she should be married to a Catholic, perhaps a French Bourbon dauphin. But Uncle King Charles was going to have none of that. He needed Mary to marry a Protestant

[Beckett]

because what was all that turmoil for? What have we resolved? If you're just going to run back to the Catholics and hand our air over, he's like, have you learned nothing from the decades we just went through? Like, I can picture Uncle Charles's hands in the air pretending to choke his brother. Like, you know, like, what?

[Susan]

What are you doing?

[Beckett]

Mary was given away by her Uncle Charles rather than by her father, who was still sulking in a well bred way. And Mary left reluctantly, some say for the Netherlands to join her husband's household. Once upon a time, when I was pregnant with Jet Graham, one thing I would have enjoyed having taken off my plate when I was growing my family is having to attend or worry about what was going to happen to the litter box and the cats. Comfort. Because the cats were of course, my first babies. The whisker litter robot could have been a lifesaver. When you're getting ready for a new baby, the last thing you want to do is worry about the cat litter. People are always coming over. You don't want people walking in and going, oh, you have a cat, right?

[Susan]

The whisker litter robot takes care of all that. You don't have to scoop.

[Beckett]

There's zero contact and that's especially important during pregnancy. And and for you app nerds like myself, you will know if the litter robot needs attention. This litter robot is up to five cats worth of service. It is like the best. It's like Rosie from the Jetsons. It will handle it for you. That's right.

[Susan]

And there is a whole line of automatic litter boxes. And it doesn't even have to be a new family. It could be an established family, one that maybe has assigned cleaning the litter box to somebody and has a problem with that. Or even just if you're single and you would like more intel on your cat. The Whisker litter robots are for you.

[Beckett]

Peep and Louise are super excited that they are going to have a 100% clean environment anytime they choose to visit the little cat's room. And that is why we set it up in our house. And the bundles make it easy to set up without even really having to think about it. We love it at our house and we think that you will love it too. It is a four paws up situation.

[Susan]

Maintain your cat's litter while focusing on your growing Family. Learn more about Whisker litter robot models and starter kits today to get set up before your new baby arrives.

[Beckett]

Take an additional $50 off bundles with code Chicks when you shop whisker.com chicks.

[Susan]

That's an additional $50 off bundle with code [e-mail] chicks. With Mary and William married, they headed off to the Netherlands. But when they did, Ann had smallpox and she was in bed sick. And their father decided not to tell her that Mary had left until she was well enough to handle the news. So he had, like, fake notes delivered to her every day, supposedly from Mary, until she was well enough to say, hey, we've been lying to you this whole time. She's gone. I don't know. I thought it was sweet until I just said it out loud.

[Beckett]

No, no. You know what? I do think it's sweet. Normally, I do not have any time for Papa. I think he is a mess and a pill and not a good character in our story, but that story actually makes me feel a little more tender toward him. Okay. Smallpox, very dangerous, often fatal.

[Susan]

Mary. Something sad is about to happen to Papa. Mary of Modena, his young wife. We had already talked about how many children she ends up having that don't survive. One of those children was just born while Anne was sick. Anne went to go see the baby, and shortly thereafter, the baby died. While rumors said that Ann gave him smallpox, that wasn't the case. She was recuperated by that point. However, her governess did catch smallpox, most likely from her, and she did pass away.

[Beckett]

Shades of Marie Antoinette's sister. Do you remember her sister that was supposed to go off to be married and was told to go down into the family vault. Right. And a insufficiently sealed coffin gave her a small pride.

[Susan]

Right?

[Ad]

Right.

[Beckett]

And she died. That actually changed the course of history because, as you recall, Marie Antoinette was actually not the one that was supposed to go to France.

[Susan]

Right.

[Beckett]

So what is Anne doing with her sister gone? Taking the place of her dear departed sister who was on her way to Merrito bliss. A match, a real royal match was now being arranged for our Anne. And the first serious candidate came with a serious irony. Guess who it was. Prince George of Hanover, the future George I, who ultimately succeeded Anne as king. So he got there eventually, just not the way he thought. But an alliance with Denmark became more important. And ultimately, at the age of 18, Anne was married to Prince George of Denmark. He was also a Protestant at the order of Uncle Charles the King. Prince George's main pos attribute as far as Papa was concerned was that he was not going to be politically powerful the way his older daughter's husband was. He was medium, he was amiable. He was no threat. And it wasn't a glamorous match, but it was a very happy one. George was gentle. He was loyal in a way that most men of royalty and nobility simply were not. As far as I know. He didn't have any mistresses.

[Susan]

No, I don't think he had one at all. In the entirety of their marriage, they

[Beckett]

were devoted to each other, and their marriage was one of genuine affection. And that, I have to tell you, is the rarest possible outcome in a royal marriage. Although somebody called him a milquetoast. And that's spelled M, I, L, Q, U, E, T, O, A, S, T. And I love it so much. You're going to bring that one back. Milk toast. Milquetoast. It almost doesn't. It doesn't work unless you see it in writing, though, because it's spelled so funny.

[Susan]

Yeah. I think that if you had to search for something that was wrong with George, he was known to drink a lot, but that's pretty common at this day and age.

[Beckett]

Now, I've said this before. When your garter robe and the well are. Are drawing from the same source of water.

[Susan]

Yes.

[Beckett]

Your best. Your best avenue of defense is to drink alcohol. Yes. Not water. At least to get to boil during production, if you know what I mean. So accidentally you've sanitized your water well.

[Susan]

While Ann and George got along great, they had their personalities meshed perfectly. They both appreciated silence. But when they talked, they could talk for hours. It wasn't extraordinarily animated, but that doesn't matter. It was comfortable, like right from the get go. George, however, was not impressing anybody else around. They were happy that he was so milquetoast. Uncle King Charles said of George that he had tried him drunk and tried him sober, but God's fish, there was nothing in him.

[Beckett]

You know what? I have a soft spot for George.

[Susan]

I do, too. You know, for their honeymoon, they went to the country where they went hunting together and loved to hunt. And then they cruised on the royal yacht. Doesn't it sound like a really modern

[Beckett]

honeymoon like you do? Yeah.

[Susan]

And then when they returned back, they were settled into their new home, which was rooms in Whitehall palace called the Cockpit, which sounds really fun until you realize that originally the space was used for sport like tennis, bowling, and cockfighting. It was then converted into a place that people could live.

[Beckett]

We literally just went to a Pub called the Cockpit for the. And it was called that for the same exact reason. Yeah, it used to be the place where they would have betting on cockfighting, and now it's just a place where you can get a lovely cider made locally. It was really good. Well, maybe she liked George so much, partially because she had a sufficiently spicy person personage to cover all the extrovert necessities in her life. Sarah Churchill became Anne's lady of the Bedchamber when Anne married. Now, this relationship would become the most important friendship of Anne's life. Sarah was everything that Anne wasn't. She was good in a room number one. She was forceful. She was politically knowledgeable, and also unafraid to speak her mind. Anne adored her. Adored her. She was starting to depend on Sarah. And I get it. In a world where most people are not your equal, how nice to have a confidant, you know?

[Susan]

But even the fact that she was made lady of waiting, that was Sarah's idea. Sarah had had a child, named it after Anne, asked Anne to be the godmother. They're having this great conversation, and Sarah says, you should make me a lady in waiting. Anne's like, okay, yeah, that's a great idea.

[Beckett]

You know What? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So hooray for Sarah.

[Susan]

Yeah, it was good. It was very good for Anne to have this vibrant personality in her life. A designated extrovert in her life.

[Beckett]

But the political world around Anne was shifting. In 1685, when Anne was only 20 years old, Uncle Charles died and Anne's father became King, King James ii. His open Catholicism heightened the national tensions again. Everyone had had a little bit of a break, and now everyone's all clinched. He had even sent an envoy to the Pope in Rome. That's not a good sign. Parliament was uneasy, the public was uneasy. For a country absolutely desperate for stability and with a large dose of ptsd, this seems like a plunge back into the deep end. He began to appoint Catholics to high positions in government. Possibly more importantly, he began to ignore laws Parliament had passed that he found inconvenience. There was a loophole. This hidden power that the King had, it's called dispensing and suspending, where the monarch could technically exempt certain people or cases from laws. And there was pretty much no check on this power. Okay, some people said, let's all calm down. At least his heirs are Protestant, because as we talked about, the young queen has no living children except the daughter that died a long time ago. She hadn't been pregnant for five years. Now, maybe we can just stick this king out and then we'll have a little reset after he's gone. But wait. Surprise. James Francis Edward Stuart was born to the Queen on June 10, 1688, at St. James's Palace. And guess what? As the son of the reigning monarch, he was automatically the new heir. A Catholic heir. The rumor mill went. Absolutely. I wrote the words B A T S H I T. It did, but I'm not.

[Susan]

There was rumors flying around before she even gave birth. First that she wasn't really pregnant, she was faking it. And then wearing.

[Beckett]

Wearing a cushion.

[Susan]

And then. And then after she gave birth to the child, there was rumors that it wasn't her child.

[Beckett]

Another rumor, yet again, the Queen's child had been stillborn and that some healthy peasant boy child had been smuggled in to take its place. An imposter meant to disenfranchise the Protestant princesses. Oh, was everyone witnessing this birth, conveniently Catholic, went another line of disbelief. Another rumor, of course, went that the king had not been the father at all. He was, as people said, impotent after a bout with venereal disease. Oh, years earlier, perhaps, said people, there'd been a substitution nine months ago instead of at the birth, is what they're saying. I mean, these sentiments were not necessarily credible, but they were dangerous enough that the king took some steps.

[Susan]

James had to go and find, like, I'm just pulling this number out of my head, but it's close. 60 witnesses who would attest legally that they saw the child born from Mary of Modena. Like, you have to find witnesses. That's the level. That's. That says a lot about the level of, you know, pressure that he was put on that this wasn't. This was just the imposter.

[Beckett]

Everyone had kind of had it, you know, with the false hope and. Oh, how convenient that, right? I mean, way too late. And after so much had gone on before, suddenly you have a Catholic, he.

[Susan]

Right.

[Beckett]

When we've decided that we can hold on until you're gone because the Protestants are coming. Convenience.

[Susan]

Even Anne was leaning towards saying that, yeah, he's not. He's not a legitimate heir. I mean, she was believing all the rumors, too. I am curious how much of that was Sarah Churchill telling her. That child did not come from her. That was another miscarriage or whatever. He is an imposter.

[Beckett]

Well, I don't know. It wasn't just her, it was everyone.

[Susan]

Yeah, well, I guess I'm trying to point out that at this point, Sarah has influence over Anne, right? To a great degree. I mean, depends if you listen to her. It was probably more than she actually had, but she definitely was influencing her.

[Beckett]

Well, legitimate or not, the birth of baby James triggered panic within the country. And a group of powerful English nobles, we can safely assume they're Protestant. They were later called the Immortal Seven, secretly wrote to William of Orange, Mary's husband, asking him to intervene militarily. This is no joke. Please come save, save England's Protestant religion. Please come save us from what just happened. So if he brought troops into the country now, he could claim he was not conquering England, he was rescuing it. And incidentally, returning it back to the rightful heir, his wife, Mary. And remember, William was not just Mary's husband, he was also the grandchild of Charles I, grandpa King, making him a steward in his own right. And people might prefer a reigning king to a queen if it came right down to it, it truth. Now, here's something else. William actually had another incentive to come fight. So, yes, he was invited, yes, you know, heir, whatever. But William was already fighting Louis XIV of France in the Nine Years War. And if England stayed under James ii, who was a Catholic, a Catholic king friendly to Catholic France, William was afraid that England under James might ally with France against him.

[Susan]

Right.

[Beckett]

So that would have been very disastrous for his country, the Dutch Republic. So invading England was not just about, you know, religion and what England wanted. It was a little bit of self interest, political survival, you know.

[Susan]

Yeah. And he was a prince, he had a lot of supporters. All those people that James had let go from their positions because they didn't agree with him religiously, politically, they were all on William's side.

[Beckett]

So when William and his forces landed in November 1688, James's army began to desert almost immediately. King nobles defected, support left faster than sand through an hourglass. It vaporized. Vaporized is the word.

[Susan]

What surprised me is that he was building up an army. That was one of the things he was doing. So he had a newly formed army

[Beckett]

and fled her father's court in the night with Sarah Churchill and joined the forces supporting William. I don't mean she grabbed a sword, she went to their stronghold, you know, And I will tell you, although it was not completely Sarah Churchill's influence that caused her to do that. In fact, Anne was very, very concerned about the country being a Catholic country. She's deeply, sincerely committed to the Protestant faith she had been raised in. Honestly, there's hardly any way she could have been any different. There's been no options for branching out in that area from upbringing all the way up. So she's not explored the other options. She is a firm Protestant, and Sarah Churchill did not like Papa James or anything he was doing. And she, with her voice in Anne's ear, laid an extra layer of frosting on that cake, you know, And Papa James was devastated. And he reportedly said right before he cruised, God help me, even my children have forsaken me. If you think about it, one daughter's husband is coming to take his country, and the other one is like, yeah, that's a good idea.

[Susan]

Yeah, I know. I think that she should come and take this country. This whole event afterwards ended up with the name the Glorious Revolution, which is a piece of PR as far as I'm concerned. But, you know, who lives, who dies,

[Beckett]

who tells the story.

[Susan]

Right.

[Beckett]

James panicked, lost his nerve and fled to France two days before Christmas, taking with him his infant son and his wife. Parliament declared that by fleeing the country, James had abdicated. He was no longer the king. That was his choice. He had via condios. Goodbye. Here's the sack along with the horse you rode in on, sir. And he's gone. And in April of that year, Parliament formally made William and Mary joint monarchs, equal in power with each other and each with the power of succeeding the other. Even though this period was called the Glorious Revolution, it was more like a constitutional settlement, like an agreement between the governed and the governors, kind of.

[Susan]

Well, maybe the glorious part is that there was no bloodshed. And wouldn't that make a war glorious?

[Beckett]

We should specify that technically it was not that violent in London. Out in Scotland and Ireland, there were significant battles that caused thousands of deaths. Just. You're right. To the average public eye in England, this was like, can I have the crown? Okay. And then someone runs away. And, you know, I wondered if. Well, I'm splitting hairs here. Revolution also means things turning. Oh, yeah. Oh. So maybe it wasn't revolution like viva la revolution. It was more like I was on top and then it turned and I was on the bottom.

[Susan]

Interesting.

[Beckett]

That's more like what it was. Here's the thing that was so different about the rule of William and Mary. They agreed to these conditions that Parliament, not the monarch, would determine succession from this point on, that England would remain Protestant and that the monarchy going forward would be constitutional and never again absolute. And Anne became as she sort of already was, but officially became again the heir presumptive after them. As William and Mary did not have any children. Anne, by the way did not either. Not anymore. Her first daughter had been stillborn, and her second and third daughters were both toddlers when they both died in a smallpox epidemic the year before. And while they had been alive, Ann had suffered two miscarriages and another stillborn child. So out of six pregnancies, she now, at this point, when she again became the heir presumptive, had no living children of her own.

[Susan]

Ultimately, ann would have 17 pregnancies, either 18 or 19 children. There was at least one set of twins in that. And after all of that, only one child survived early childhood.

[Beckett]

That's Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, born at Hampton Court Palace a couple of months after his aunt and uncle had been declared the rulers of England. The sisters had become somewhat estranged, as Mary completely disapproved of Anne's reliance on the Churchills. She didn't particularly admire Anne's husband either, or the way she ran her household. Like, is there nothing that you like about me? It was really too bad, you know, they couldn't pull together.

[Susan]

But you know what? One of the first things that happened when they took the throne, because of John Churchill's support of them, they elevated him and gave him an earldom. He became the Earl of Marlborough, which meant that Sarah was Lady Marlborough.

[Beckett]

Well, there you go. So despite personal distaste for their influence, they recognized game and gave them some titles.

[Susan]

But that influence just kept growing as Anne and Mary were starting to distance themselves from each other. Anne's reliance on Sarah as a confidant grew, and Anne wanted to put them both on equal footing. She didn't like the idea that she was of a higher rank than Sarah. So she suggested, and Sarah agreed, that in their correspondences and even in their conversations, that they would go by pen name. And Anne became Mrs. Morley, Sarah became Mrs. Freeman. Even when they were talking about their husbands. George was Mr. Morley and John Churchill was Mr. Freeman, which I think this is cute. And there's all kinds of discussion about whether Sarah is being manipulative, at what point that starts. But here it just sounds like a fun friendship, something that Anne really needed.

[Beckett]

Who's to say how much of it was real? You know, I don't know.

[Susan]

Yeah. And Sarah's family was starting to grow, and Anne was really liberal about letting her take time away from court. You know, she had a position at court, but she's like, no, you go and be with your family. That's really nice. That's what a friend would do.

[Beckett]

It makes you think about had any more of Anne's children lived how they could have grown up and married little Churchills. You know, we might have a whole other branch of the family. Queen Mary ii. Sister Mary died only five years into William and Mary's joint reign. And King William, as had been the arrangement, continued to rule solo after his wife's death. He was in poor health and he was not interested in remarrying, or else this story could have ended very differently. So our Anne's son, Gloucester, he was called, became the great hope of the Protestant succession. He was intelligent, he was energetic, he was beloved. Education descended upon him as a future male heir. Anne doted on him. The entire political future of the kingdom rested on this boy's shoulders. And then disaster struck.

[Susan]

In 1700, when Anne was 35, the previously charming, spirited, intelligent son, little William, became very ill on his 11th birthday. He had fatigue and a sore throat, severe headache, rash, digestive issues. He passed away days later with his parents by his side. At the time, they thought it might be smallpox, but medical historians now believe he had a bacterial infection and possibly pneumonia. I mean, it doesn't matter what he died of. He suddenly died at the age of 11, and his parents were crushed. I mean, take. Take the whole line of succession out of it. They were parents who loved their son, were involved in their son's life, and he passed away.

[Beckett]

The national grief was overwhelming. The political consequences were, of course, enormous. With Gloucester gone, the succession became a crisis after. And then who? Certainly not King James's son, who was still lurking out there in the wilderness, having been proclaimed the rightful king by supporters of the Catholic monarchy. Well, Parliament had to act. They passed the act of settlement in 1701, the next year designating the House of Hanover as Anne's heirs, as the nearest Protestant relatives in royal service, you know, and that act specifically excluded Catholics and those in the line of succession who married Catholics, thus thus eliminating, at least legally, the threat of James II's son, who people ultimately began calling the old Pretender.

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[Susan]

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[Susan]

Now that Anne's son William had passed away, you know, every year for the rest of her life, on the day of his death, July 30, she and her Court had a day of remembrance and mourning for him for the rest of her life. I know. And more deaths are going to follow. While she never was able to reconnect with her father in 1701, when she was 36, he died while in exile in France. I found this so curious. His body was divided and sent in several small pieces and containers to two convents, two colleges and a church in France. Like his arm went to a bunch of nuns.

[Beckett]

Oh, because you know what, I wonder if it's because he was theoretically the Catholic king.

[Susan]

Oh, I see.

[Beckett]

And his body might have been a relic. Do you remember we were talking about Marie Antoinette's son's heart was in a crystal vase for a long time.

[Susan]

Oh, yeah, the jar. Yeah.

[Beckett]

And sent somewhere else. So I wonder if it's that his status in France was of a king.

[Susan]

It sounds like it. He was buried. The rest of his body was buried in a church in Paris, where it remained until the French Revolution when, like a lot of royals, his tomb was raided and his body disappeared. I mean, we've talked about that before, you know, the raiding of the tombs.

[Beckett]

Are any of the arms still around?

[Susan]

I don't know.

[Beckett]

Is that. I don't know. Because they could have saved by being out of town.

[Susan]

Yeah, maybe.

[Beckett]

Oh, my gosh.

[Susan]

Why didn't I take one more step? I don't know.

[Beckett]

I'll put it in the lounge. Yeah, that's right.

[Susan]

Okay.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[Susan]

Now, despite their relationship being very complicated, Anne did go into full mourning for him. But six months later, she had another reason to go into mourning. In March of 1702, her 51 year old brother in law, King William, fell from his horse, broke his collarbone, developed pneumonia and died.

[Beckett]

And instantly, at the moment he perished, Anne became the Queen. At only 37 years old, Anne was chronically ill. And modern medical practitioners theorized she had an autoimmune disease, which, among other things, had led to her obstetrical difficulties.

[Susan]

I love how medical historians work because they can't ever say exactly what the person had, but they can look at all their symptoms and, and come up with a probable diagnosis. And like you said, an autoimmune disease, lupus, was pointed to as being what she was suffering from. But obviously no amount of water and bath is gonna cure that.

[Beckett]

Right? She did try everything. She also suffered from gout so severely that she had to be carried in a sedan chair to her own coronation as she was unable to walk. And in an era not so sympathetic, but with grief or full of sensitivity, she was certainly what Would you call it emotionally battered, emotionally fragile? I really am in pain. It really does hurt. Yes. I'm really sad.

[Susan]

Yes, I know. Emotionally and physically, she couldn't really walk well, undated from the age of 30 on. And it just kept getting worse and worse. She had that gout. She probably also had arthritis. I mean, she physically was in a lot of pain every single day. And then all the emotional pain of all those lost pregnancies.

[Beckett]

On a more positive note, guess what else she had? She had the trust and love of the English people. She was Protestant. She was born in England. She was familiar after the foreign born, admittedly William iii. Anne seemed like one of us. You know, crowds cheered her appearance with all of their hearts. They've all lost their voices.

[Susan]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

Cheering for her, going to her coronation.

[Susan]

And she spoke eloquently, which surprised so many people, because in person, she was kind of quiet and reserved. But when she went to give a speech, I mean, she wasn't dynamic, but it was wise. And she had an excellent speaking voice. And her very first speech, she just put an emphasis on the fact that she said, I know in my heart to be entirely English. You know, I'm English. I am you, basically, is what she was saying. Now, she didn't write all of her speeches herself, but she was in on the creation of them. She did approve things that were said. She put things in that her writers had not suggested. And of course, she gave all of her speeches.

[Beckett]

Often people who don't talk a lot in a room are really good on a stage. I mean, I don't know, I guess I shouldn't say if I'm, quote, really good on a stage or not, but I find it easier to speak to 10,000 people than 20.

[Susan]

Oh, yeah, no, I don't disagree with that. I also think that there's two different kinds of people in this world. There's quantity speakers and quality speakers. And I think, you know, there's people. I'm a quantity. I'm not gonna lie. I throw anything out there. Let's just see what sticks. But my twin brother, he's a quality speaker. When he talks, you better listen because he's gonna say something interesting. And I think Ann was the same way.

[Beckett]

Right, right. What are you, though?

[Susan]

I think you're. I don't know, you're some. You're a hybrid. You could fill an hour talking about a queen that died, you know, 900 years ago.

[Beckett]

Yeah, I think I'm a Gemini. That's what I am. Well, anyway, Anne was very wise. Her her very first public acts as queen were very deliberate, quite symbolic. She confirmed the Church of England as the moral center of her reign. You know, she also restored favor to some experienced courtiers who'd been sidelined under William. And as I always say is the key to any leader. She immediately elevated to positions as senior advisors, people that she trusted the most and. Or people who had proven track records in their chosen fields, because a queen does not know everything. And wouldn't it be wisest to install someone as, say, the treasurer who knew something about running the treasury? Crazy.

[Susan]

Two of those people that she elevated were the Churchills, John and Sarah. She elevated them to Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. John was. He was already in a military position, but she added all kinds of roles and titles to him, including Knight of the Garter, Captain General of the Armies. So he was in charge of armies abroad and at home. However, she also elevated her husband to another military position just above him, which.

[Beckett]

Okay, but you know what? I think people would understand that.

[Susan]

Yeah, No, I do. She trusted George, who didn't trust George, I think.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[Susan]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

So, yes, John Churchill was her confidant's husband. That was not a coincidence. However, he had proved his valor and intelligence. Like, luckily, because Europe was already sliding toward conflict when Charles ii. Please get another name. Oh, my gosh. When Charles II of Spain had died childless a couple of years ago. Are we sensing a theme? He left his empire to Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV of France. And if France and Spain united under one dynasty, the fragile balance of power in Europe would collapse. And the danger to England and all other smaller countries in Europe was extremely apparent. Anne inherited this war that was already percolating, and she didn't hold back, you know, so she knew that it was critical for England to step in, and she declared that she would, quote, make the greatest efforts for the support of the liberties of Europe. And John Churchill, I guess we should call him now the Duke of Marlborough, took command of the allied forces. She trusted him completely. She sent him to the continent with full authority. And her Lord Treasurer was very good at managing the money. He was never short of money. She supported his campaigns with also political capital and ships and money and supplies and everything. And the supply lines were well managed, so hooray for that. She's already good at, like, installing the people that can get these jobs done.

[Susan]

Sarah Churchill was also elevated, and if she had influence before, she has even more at this point. She was appointed Mistress of the Robes, which is the highest position for a woman at court. She was the keeper of the privy purse. So she oversaw all the household spending and Anne's wardrobe. And she was appointed a position called Groom of the Stool. Which when it had originally started, was probably what you think had to do

[Beckett]

with the official wiper.

[Susan]

Yes, but it had developed into a much more respectable position. It's almost like saying, you are my work bestie. I will tell you everything. I will trust you with everything. Everybody knows it. So the Duchess of Marlborough was in a very influential position in Queen Anne's court.

[Beckett]

She also became the ranger of Windsor Great park and. Oh, yeah, hooray. The current holder of that position, by the way, is no other than King Charles III himself.

[Susan]

How about them above Apples?

[Beckett]

How about them apples? I will tell you, there's no Mistress of the Robes anymore. What was the lady's name? That was Elizabeth's Mistress of the Robes. I think she had a great name. Oh, yeah, Fortune Fitzroy.

[Susan]

Oh, that's a great name.

[Beckett]

Isn't it great? But I mean, I think she's still alive. But Queen Camilla does not have a Mistress of the Robes. They decided to phase that position out. And I think Groom of the Stool has been phased out a long time ago, which is probably for the best.

[Susan]

I mean, the role still exists, you know, whoever's, you know, closest to the royal, their closest confidant, you know, the person.

[Beckett]

Oh, right, right.

[Susan]

The public person, the public face of their work wife. You know, that's.

[Beckett]

Yeah, yeah. So Sarah controlled Queen Anne's finances and circled of friends. Most importantly, she controlled courtier's access to the Queen. Have you ever read the book Devil Wears Prada? I don't think they cover this in the movie. But Miranda's assistants were technically the least important people on. But they were the most powerful because they're the ones that controlled access to Miranda and controlled her schedule. And that's what Sarah was doing. Also, Sarah's advice was sought regarding everything. Anne was so shy in person and she found. This is like a little snippet that I found interesting. She found impromptu conversation so much of a challenge that when she found herself, I guess we'd call it out of her element in a conversation. She would sometimes just pretend to continue speaking, moving her lips as if she were an extra in the back of a scene in a movie. I myself find it easier to go into the kitchen and locate the dog or cat at a party. But that option was not available to the Queen.

[Susan]

See, the title of Groom of the Stool should really become the designated extrovert in this situation. And because that's what Sarah did for her.

[Beckett]

Sarah was quick, and she was good at pattern recognition. And so Sarah pushed, some say bullied Anne, toward wig ministers. Domineering is the word I keep reading. And we, Susan and I, are not going to get into wiggery, necessarily. The wig party at this time in England was not the same as the Whig party that emerged in America during our own revolution, although it came from the same ancestor. And as far as I can tell, the Whig Party of this time is not the same as the Whig party of today's modern Britain. And since I have so much trouble explaining the reversal of platform of our own Democratic and Republican parties to people in coherent ways, I can't possibly vent her into another country's evolution, except for the fact that during Queen Anne's time, Whigs were constantly on guard against the old pretender, and eventually his son called the young Pretender, against renewed Catholic incursion into England. And as a result, the Whigs typically favored more aggressive war strategy. So they were like the hawks. And that's the only attribute I'm going to assign to them, as I'm not willing to venture into the murky waters.

[Susan]

Well, are you seeing my lips completely closed here?

[Beckett]

Their opponents were called the Tories, and they still are.

[Susan]

So the War of Spanish Succession is not only being played out in Europe, it's also happening in the Americas. It's a global event. One of the major earlier battles was held in a Bavarian town of Blindheim, and John Churchill was sent in to lead the troops in this battle.

[Beckett]

It was one of the most decisive victories in British military history. And the outcome was not small. His winning this battle prevented the collapse of the Austrian Habsburgs and halted French expansion, and can't say better than that.

[Susan]

And when he came back, he was a war hero. He was fetted all over the place. And Anne was so pleased with his performance that they changed the name to Blenheim. It's called the Battle of Blenheim. And if that sounds familiar, it's because at this point, Anne said, you people deserve a palace, and here is some land. I will help fund it. And I would like you to build a castle, basically, is what she said at the time. Blenheim Castle.

[Beckett]

It was a monumental gift, and it symbolized her genuine gratitude. Construction began. Susan and I have just been there. It's also famous for being the home of Gilded Age heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, and, not too shabbily, also the birthplace of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

[Susan]

Yeah, this house has its own story. I mean, we could do a whole episode if it was a woman. Our house is women. I know. Ships are. Ooh, that just opened up a whole other. Sorry.

[Beckett]

If ships are women, we could do ships. We did a statue.

[Susan]

I know. Oh, I never even thought about that. Okay. Blenheim. Now it's called Blenheim Palace. It's a UNESCO world heritage site. It's gorgeous. It's huge. It is probably one of the finest houses in the country. I would say it's my favorite favorite. I'm gonna pick a favorite.

[Beckett]

They also make gin on the grounds out of things they grew. That is the souvenir I always buy when I go there. It has the also, I mean, underestimated advantage of being clear. So if it breaks in your suitcase. Merry Christmas.

[Susan]

I know you told me that after I had bought some from there. That was not clear. It was plum.

[Beckett]

I know.

[Susan]

It was purple. And you're like, oh, I never buy color. And then I started freaking out, but, man, did I wrap that thing in my suitcase. It was fine. When it came home. Fine. It was fine. Getting back to Anne, her contributions to this palace. I mean, the building of it takes years and years and years, but Sarah and John are diving into it beginning in 1705. But later, as it was getting finished, Sarah commissioned a statue of Anne that is still in the library of this home. It's a very flattering statue of Anne. It's a beautiful statue.

[Beckett]

I just want to tell you here another rare benefit that the Marlboroughs gained at the influence of the queen. An act of parliament around this time granted the Duke of Marlborough and Sarah's daughters the right to inherit his titles in their own right by blood rather than marriage after the untimely death of their only brother. So jumping ahead, following the duke's death, not until 1722. So we're jumping ahead. Their eldest daughter, Lady Godolphin, did become the Duchess of Marlborough, hero in her own right. I'm just telling you that's a rare scenario. Relatively speaking, Anne's style as a ruling queen was becoming clear. She diligently read state papers in detail. We can point to many kings who never read a dang thing. By the way, she summoned trusted advisors or experts to run her through anything she didn't fully understand. She did prefer written communication to someone coming in to convince her, her or argue with her. She felt like she was better percolating, you know, she was better pondering something and making decisions. She didn't feel like she was quick enough on the repartee, and she didn't want to look like a fool. She valued loyalty above ideology, and she tried to be fair. She tried to be fair to both wigs and their opponents, the Tories and all of their supporters, even. Even while they shamelessly tore each other up and slagged each other off. To her, you know, it's like she didn't have any children, but she had all the children. All of them were her children. But she was not a figurehead. She was. I mean, I would say she was a stabilizer. She was a queen who governed through steadiness instead of spectacle and fireworks, you know, and she was very cautious. She was very private. But she did have real political instincts. She, unlikely, like almost anyone we've ever talked about, understood the importance of balance and the dangers of factionalism. Like, she'd lived through the fracturing of both her family and her country. Right. And she understood her responsibility as queen to balance everything.

[Susan]

I was so impressed with her dedication to keeping an eye on what was going on politically. She went to more cabinet meetings than any other royal in history. She was there all the time because she wanted to know what was going on.

[Beckett]

And I also think people that are. That know you're gonna watch them, they do act differently.

[Susan]

True. They were all on the best behavior because the queen's here.

[Beckett]

Maybe, maybe.

[Susan]

And maybe that was her power right there. Oh, speculating is so much fun.

[Beckett]

Now, here we go. Here another character walks and little slippered feet into our story at this point, a woman named Abigail Hill, who was Sarah's cousin. Cousin seems like a stretch. They were, I believe, second cousins. What is it when your grandparents are siblings?

[Susan]

Yeah, I think that's right. Second cousins.

[Beckett]

Second cousins. She quietly entered Anne's inner circle. Now, for anyone who has seen the movie, the favorite. This is Emma Stone's character in the movie.

[Susan]

While they were related, they were really nothing alike. While Sarah and John's wealth and prestige and power kept growing, Abigail's families did not. Her father was a merchant. He made poor investments. They lost so much money that Abigail was forced to go to work as

[Beckett]

a servant at the age of 10.

[Susan]

She's five years younger than Anne and 10 years younger than Sarah, so she's right in the middle.

[Beckett]

So she was a servant in an aristocratic house until her cousin Sarah came to the rescue and took her into her own household. And she used her influence with Anne, you know, please, whenever a vacancy comes up, could you save it for cousin Abigail? Now, that's a move she would come to bitterly regret.

[Susan]

She would.

[Beckett]

But it does seem like. Like a lovely bit of each one. Reach down, pull one up. Yes, yes, it was a good sentence.

[Susan]

And I can see where Sarah would think she was going to get the upper hand, because Abigail was very sweet. She was not calculating or pushy or with hard edges like Sarah had. She wasn't, you know, as powerful speaker or personality, but she was very calming, she was very sweet and she and Anne got along wonderfully.

[Beckett]

Upon Anne's succession to the throne, Abigail had become a woman of the bedchamber on a salary of 500 pounds a year, which is very, very respectable for this time and place.

[Susan]

Yeah, yeah. She's pulling herself up in a way.

[Beckett]

Abigail made herself indispensable to the Queen

[Susan]

and they were very close. Abigail married in a very small, quiet ceremony attended by the Queen, Samuel Masham, who was a British courtier. So they had met at court. Sarah had no idea that they were married because Sarah had been spending more and more time away from court.

[Beckett]

Sarah was supervising construction, staying away a little bit longer every time, and genuinely not realizing that her cousin was slowly taking her place. I have to say that even just like one year after Abigail got there, people began to regard Abigail as the most influential of Anne's servants. And this is all happening on the low, low.

[Susan]

Yeah. And I think about this same time is when Anne and Sarah really started butting heads. Anne was getting her royal backbone. Sarah was having less and less influence over her because Anne was making her own decisions and Sarah was just pushing harder and harder for Anne to do things that Anne didn't want to do. Their relationship was fracturing and Abigail was there to help Anne as that was happening. You know, it's kind of slipped right into that role. And I don't think it was malicious, I don't think it was calculating. It just happened.

[Beckett]

No. Yeah. And, you know, here's the thing about Sarah. She was used to being in control and now she was basically overconfident. So Sarah had always been bold. She had always put pressure on the Queen and right now, the Whigs were putting pressure on her to put pressure on the Queen. And Anne wanted moderation. And she started to feel cornered and Sarah got overconfident. She assumed her influence was permanent, that the Queen would always rely on her. And her language became dismissive and insulting. She almost started using judgmental language in her letters. And, you know, of all the things on earth, Anne had spent her life being judged, you know, by her father, by her sister Mary, by the public, by everyone. She was not about to take it from this person. And meanwhile, here's Abigail Masham as she has become, offering something Sarah no longer did. Quiet loyalty.

[Susan]

And she took over Sarah's room. Sarah wasn't there very often, she wasn't at court. So Abigail was allowed to take over Sarah's rooms. And when Sarah realized that had happened and learned about this secret marriage that the Queen knew about and she, Sarah, cousin of Abigail, didn't know about, that's when Sarah's starting to think, I'm starting to lose it. I'm starting to lose my influence here.

[Beckett]

I have to say. Historians generally believe Sarah has had, perhaps all along used her friendship with Anne for personal gain more than anything else. Sarah once commented that she'd rather be, and I quote, in a dungeon than in a conversation with Anne, who is tedious. Now, I don't know how smart that is to say in the hearing of literally anyone at a royal court, things get around. And you know what? If this whole friendship had been a decades old act, the cracks were showing and Anne is not a stupid person. But you do not want to believe that your friend is not true to you, that someone you've relied on to help make important decisions thinks she's your puppeteer. And you're really going to give your friend a lot more chances than she probably deserves. But this is the beginning of the end. As for Abigail, this is how the writer Jonathan Swift, who was at court, described her. She was, quote, of a plain understanding of great truth and sincerity, of an honest boldness and courage superior to her sex, firm and disinterested in her friendship and full of love, duty and veneration for the queen, her mistress. And I think you'd rather have that.

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[Beckett]

Now. Long, long ago in 1689, during the time that England and Scotland were hammering out how William and Mary would rule, the idea of a union between England and Scotland was in the air. Many of the Scots nobility and gentry favored the proposal. It would be a little bit of insurance against the return of ex King James and his supporters. And at the time, England was lukewarm on this proposition. But the idea never went away, and hooray. A big accomplishment. The Acts of Union were passed by the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707, and this led to the creation of a united kingdom to be called Great Britain on May 1st of that year. Anne had supported the Union for years. She is a person who believes in balance, and she believed it would strengthen the entire kingdom economically and militarily, especially since both nations shared the same landmass, like we're all on the same island, language, for the most part, and attachment to the Protestant religion. She addressed the first unified Parliament. The Parliament of Great Britain met for the first time in October that year. And with genuine emotion, Anne called the Union a complete and entire union of hearts and affections. To her, it was one of her greatest accomplishments during her reign, and it had created a new political landscape. But guess what? It hadn't created harmony. Whigs and Tories immediately began to fight for control of the newly unified Parliament. And therefore, Ann, in the be careful what you wish for department, found herself navigating a far more complex political world than any king or queen before her. Yeah, like, oh, you wanted balance. Let me hand you 19 more plates to spin.

[Susan]

While Anne was juggling this new government, Prince George, who had not been doing well, he had never been, been, you know, the healthiest of men. He died on October 28, 1708, at the age of 55. He had long suffered from asthma. It had created some complications. Anne was at his side as he breathed his last after 25 years of a very good marriage. She was devastated. She wrote, the loss of such a husband who loved me so dearly and so devotedly is too crushing for me to be able to bear it. As I ought. Yeah, as I ought is not the way that Sarah Churchill, who raced over to be at Anne's side, decided it ought to be done. She rushed Anne out of the building. She said, you don't need to be here. Go back to your own place. And then she went so far as to take George's portraits down from Anne's room while she was in deep mourning. Sarah refused to wear full mourning clothes. And as far as I can tell, this is the last straw.

[Beckett]

So this was the moment when Anne's patience with her, I think, reached its limit, just like you said. Sarah confronted Anne publicly, like people were peeping it at St. James palace number one. She demanded that she dismiss Abigail Mash, and Anne refused. And Sarah told her queen in front of everyone to shut up. And Ann shut that conversation right down and left the room. And you gotta know if you're Sarah, and everybody didn't say out loud, but do you remember that thing from elementary school? Ooh, right. That's what was in everyone's mind, whatever the equivalent of that was in the 1700s.

[Susan]

Yeah. No, yeah. You know, Ann was trying to. To publicly just show that Sarah was still, you know, devoted to her, but maybe not to the extent it had been, but that they were still a team. And Sarah shot that owl out of the water.

[Beckett]

And her letters grew increasingly like she had learned nothing from Anne having left. She scolded Ann in letters for her choices, lectured her on policy. La, la la, la, la. Like it was the old days. And Anne didn't know what she was doing. Well, even though Marlboro had won several glorious battles, the war started going a little bit. I mean, they still technically won the battle, but the Allies started to suffer enormous casualties. And the war no longer felt like it was bringing glory. It felt like it was just something that I was rolling out. And it was time for her to maybe bring it to a close. And that meant switching her allegiance, perhaps to the Tories. And in 1710, that more than any of this personal nonsense caused Sarah Churchill to, I mean, honestly lose her mind. Sarah, the word is she begged Anne to settle their differences. But truly, she blackmailed Anne. You better settle our differences. Because she threatened that she would publish the letters that Ann had sent her. Sarah had always insisted that Anne should burn her own letters after she read them, but didn't return the favor. She had this giant box of Ann's letters. Modern historians often infer from this that there's a sexual relationship hidden in that one sided correspondence. Others, and Susan and I are among them, say that the letters were embarrassing for their indecorous commentary on politicians, on opponents, on people still in court. Perhaps the informality of the conversation would have been brought to light.

[Susan]

She went so far as to organize things and give it a title. The history of Mrs. Morley.

[Beckett]

Mm.

[Susan]

I mean, it was a last ditch effort on Sarah's part, I think, to try and bully her even more. And Anne was not gonna take it. This is where she got to flex her queen backbone. Sarah was dismissed from duty. Promised positions for her now grown children were withdrawn. Abigail was made keeper of the Privy purse, and Anne cut off the funding for Blenheim Castle.

[Beckett]

So Anne appointed a man named Viscount Bolingbroke as Secretary of state. And then a new Abigail Masham's Cousin Robert Harley, although I think again, we're not looking at first cousins. But anyway, as Lord Treasurer. And these two men would dominate the final years of Anne's reign. They fought bitterly with each other, but Harley and Bolingbroke opened secret peace talks with France. And here was their mission. They were to try to end the war quickly and favorably because their queen supported peace, because she thought if you have to pick between stability and glory, she decided to come down on the side of stability, even though her two ministers that were literally negotiating peace were having a hey ho rumbalo between themselves every day about the methodology, tattling like no tomorrow. And aunt is like, get me the duct tape and I will draw a line down the middle of this backseat frick, you know, like, can I not have peace in my peace negotiations? She's always managing people's tempers, isn't she?

[Susan]

She probably didn't have to manage Abigail's temper because she probably didn't have one.

[Beckett]

Like how refreshing that is. Like a drink of crispy Diet Coke. On a hot day In December of 1711, Anne dismissed the Duke of Marlborough from all of his offices. She cited financial irregularities, but the deeper reason was political exhaustion.

[Susan]

So after that, Sarah and John Churchill, the Duchess and Duke of Marlborough, really didn't have a whole lot of options. The two left England, they self exiled, and they would never return in Anne's lifetime.

[Beckett]

I mean, talk about burning bridges.

[Susan]

Yeah, she blew that one up.

[Beckett]

Yeah, she blew it absolutely up. Two years later, the Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession. Austria, among other places, came out of this with some increased acreage, as did Britain. They also got trade concessions among them, I'm sorry to say, the exclusive right for Britain to supply enslaved people from Africa to Spanish territories. We don't like that from here. More importantly and happily, Philip V remained King of Spain, but renounced any claim to the French throne, the issue that had caused all this stress in the first place. And possibly even more important than that, the King of France agreed he would stop supporting the pretenders to the throne, ex King James's son, grandson and all their followers, which took the power out of any simmering resistance movement of theirs. So it no longer had any chance of gathering, at least not until further decades. But we're not talking about that here. So the treaty reshaped Europe and brought it back from the brink of disaster, some say, and marked Britain's emergence as a global power, a global player in the game of allies. And Anne considered it one of the greatest accomplishments of her reign, well, it

[Susan]

lasted her entire reign. I mean, she inherited this war and it's lasted the entire time that she's been on the throne.

[Beckett]

Right.

[Susan]

I'm glad that she could find pride in. However, her health began to deteriorate. She couldn't walk on her own at all, but she still attended parliament meetings and Privy Council and cabinet meetings trying to keep up. But on July 27, 1714, she had a stroke and could no longer speak. She was taken to bed, where she died on August 1, 1714, at the age of 49. She was buried with George in Westminster Abbey.

[Beckett]

Her coffin was covered in purple velvet and carried in a procession featuring hundreds of attendants in mourning. This was seen as a small, private affair, and I guess in contrast to that of Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth ii, which I actually stood in my living room and watched, all of it was significantly more private. She's not one of those queens that have the elaborate tombs with effigies inside Westminster Abbey. She's buried in the Stuart vault under the floor floor with all of her children and her husband. And there's just a simple square floor tile that just says Queen Anne 1714. The Crown immediately passed to George I, who became king the same day. With Anne's death, the Stuart dynasty ended and the Hanoverian era began. And it would be another 46 years and another 2 Kings before a ruler whose native language was English would be on the English throne. That ruler would be George iii, husband of Queen Charlotte, villain of the American Revolution and main character of the musical Hamilton. Anne's legacy was far greater than her reputation suggested.

[Susan]

28 years after Anne's death in 1742, Sarah Churchill did write those memoirs. They're called An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, which makes it sound like it's all about her, but in reality, it's all about Anne. It's from this memoir that Anne's reputation in some ways was set for a very long time. It's in this memoir that Sarah suggests that Anne and Abigail had a sexual relationship. Anne does not come out good in this at all. And Sarah comes out as the smart, wise one one. It's her book.

[Beckett]

Well, and then, you know, to the victor go the spoils or whatever. She lived longer and was able to leave the last word, which coming from someone who had been so publicly dismissed from her duties and embarrassed and had to self exile, et cetera, she was bitter, so.

[Susan]

And it showed in that. And it took a very long time for historians to dig into the real story of Anne for A long time. And even if the only thing you ever knew about Anne was from the movie the favorite, that might have been what you thought, too. Chances of that are highly, highly unlikely. You know, Anne and George had an amazing marriage, and while they didn't have any living children, they certainly had plenty of pregnancies. And I think I should just leave it there. So Sarah thought that she was getting the last word, But I know our reach isn't that broad, but we can kind of get the last word about Anne's legacy. And while she wasn't a dynamic and exciting ruler, she did a lot. And she can be given credit for turning Britain into a military power, creating the kingdom of Great Britain. She attended more meetings than any other ruler, and she was a frequent attendee of debates at the House of Lords. She encouraged art, science, and literary advancement. In 1711, she took one of her interests in life, horse racing, and created a course near Windsor Castle that she could easily get to. Now, 315 years later, Ascot is still going strong. She invested in landscape design and formal gardens at, among other places, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. Beckett, you and I did that maze at Hampton Court. Yeah, that was Anne's project. Had that maze put in. Her reign brought about London's coffee house culture. Anne loved coffee. She had a special room in Kensington palace just to serve it. During her reign, there were more than 500 coffee houses in London where every day, all day, social, political, economic, and intellectual conversations were being had. Deals were being made at these coffee houses. You may be thinking, oh, the architecture and the furniture, unfortunately, those are just marketing named after her. She had nothing to do with it.

[Beckett]

Yeah, that was a, like a Victorian emergence of a, like an elaborate style. It came over a hundred years after. After she died. And I don't think she had anything to do with it at all. The. The Queen Anne that we know doesn't really have a lot to do with the architecture that emerged during her actual reign.

[Susan]

So, no, the last thing that Queen Anne always brings to mind is Queen Anne's lace, the flower. The origin of it is really unspecific. There are several legends that kind of attribute it to Queen Anne. The idea was that Queen Anne liked making lace, and one day she pricked her finger and a drop of blood fell in the center. If you've ever looked at a Queen Anne's lace the flower, there is a drop of red in the very middle of it. Another legend was that she would have contests for her ladies in waiting to create a lace that was as pretty as Flowers. I cannot verify either of these stories, but I like them.

[Beckett]

And now, as usual, it's time for media. And we'll start with books I loved. Well, there's no children's book. I know.

[Susan]

I was so upset. There's no small book either.

[Beckett]

This was a heavy bookload. Let's start with Queen Anne, the Politics of Passion by Anne Somerset. And I will say this one, it has a lot in it about her personal life, including Sarah Talk Churchill. So that's amazing. And then Queen Anne by Edward Gregg. More scholarly, I think. And he sides with us in that Anne was an effective, proactive, and in fact, tenacious ruler rather than the weak monarch that she has been portrayed in history. So hooray. He highlights her role in major political endeavors. I liked that book a lot.

[Susan]

Yeah. I don't think Anne Somerset said she was an ineffective leader. I just wanted to get that out there. But that was a deep dive. The Ann summer. It's like 550 pages or a 28 hour audiobook. It's a deep dive. So there was so much in there. I was like, oh, I would have loved to said that, but I can't.

[Beckett]

There's not enough time.

[Susan]

It's a 28 hour podcast.

[Beckett]

There's a book that is written almost in a conversation, I think in a conversational tone that I liked, called Ungrateful Daughters, the Princesses who Stole Their Father's Crown by Maureen Waller. And obviously that's Mary and Anne.

[Susan]

There was one book I used, it was looking at her life from a art perspective. And it has the actual art that has music in there. There's like sheet music in there and lyrics. If you're into music. That might be the way to get into her life. I don't quite understand it all, but I was fascinated by it. And it is called Queen Anne, Patroness of the Arts by James Anderson Wynne.

[Beckett]

There's a couple of rabbit hole books that I went into. William and Mary, Heroes of the Glorious Revolution by John vanderkist. And then 1688, the first modern Revolution by Steve Pincus that talks about how transformative that particular revolution was, the whole change from monarchy as obeying only God and monarchy as subservient to a parliament. Hmm.

[Susan]

I did start to read a Sarah Churchill book, a biography, but I'm not gonna talk about it because I put it down. I need a palette cleanser before we talk about Sarah Churchill. We will cover Sarah Churchill at some point, so I'll save it for that.

[Beckett]

What's really sad is I have A large stack of. I mean, the stitching has come out in my library bag because of my habits lately. I have so many Sarah Churchill books right here. And I'm of course, like, okay, we are gonna save those for another episode. Because I thought, you know, we held back and didn't go into that particular tangent as much as I thought we would.

[Susan]

No, she took the spotlight from Anne for too long, and I didn't want her to sully Anne's story.

[Beckett]

Well, and it was also kind of the same thing where we talked about Alice Paul and then Carrie Chapman. Catt was like the villain, like the Cruella de Ville of the story. But then we actually took the second to be like, actually, she did some good things, but for the purposes of this story.

[Susan]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

She has to be the bad guy. So we're not going to talk very much about her. I'm not going to make any value judgments on Sarah Churchill's actions, but I think it would be very interesting to talk about.

[Susan]

Oh, yeah.

[Beckett]

Talk about them. You know, and so let's for sure hold that back.

[Susan]

Yeah, for sure. Okay.

[Beckett]

Okay. So we got to talk about this. This is literally the Elephant in the Room. It is a movie called the favorite from 2018. And I love every single cast member. I'm just telling you right now, my objection is not there. I loved the filming locations, a lot of which were at Hampton Court Palace. If you ever go there, watch that movie beforehand. Because the kitchens in that movie are Henry VIII's kitchens, the ones that keep roaring fires in. And you walk in and break into a big sweat, and you're like, ahaha. And that's only one of six fires. So. So I love everything about that. The Fountain Court was in there. The cartoon gallery has a major role. Like, who are you looking at? Or whatever.

[Susan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Beckett]

So I loved that. The costumes are great. I can't tell you how much I love Rachel Weisz. Love her so much.

[Susan]

That said, Olivia Colman won an Oscar for this movie. She was.

[Beckett]

I'm not on the Oscar committee.

[Susan]

I know. I'm just saying I'm agreeing with everything you said. Olivia Colman, Rachel Bice, and Emma Stone as Abigail. You know, they were fantastic. I had to do a dive into the costumes because I don't have an eye for it, but apparently they're just meh. But that's fine. They looked good to me watching it. I loved the grittiness of this movie. Like how it looked. Right. The dirt was really dirty.

[Beckett]

Right.

[Susan]

You know, if they had to be grungy. They looked grungy.

[Beckett]

The whole concept, though, is problematic. And you know, I don't like spiciness in anything. I can. I fast forward through Bridgerton every single time. So I'm not the one necessarily that is going to be able to be an expert commentator on the effectiveness of these scenes or whatever. And you know what? I'm. Even for the fact that they took what was giant rumors even during Ann's time.

[Susan]

Right.

[Beckett]

And this is. If you look at it as a what if, like in an alternate universe look, what could have been going on behind the scenes. I can buy that it's like science fiction, but with, like, different kind of tracks. What I don't like is them presenting the love triangle as fact. And so if the only exposure you have to Queen Anne, you think, oh, she was having an affair with Sarah and. Or having an affair with Abigail. And I have to tell you that the more we dived into this, the less people really believe any of that actually happened.

[Susan]

And her personality in that movie, she was nothing. She was just like a bag of potatoes. Like, she didn't come off as intelligent at all. I mean, I just thought they did her a grave disservice. I get it. Historical fiction, accent on fiction. And I love the way you just said that. You know, look at it as alternative history, if you have to look at it as history. But, yeah, I was very disappointed. And quite frankly, I had to watch the ending twice. Cause I didn't quite get it the first time. I'm like, what is going on? This is not the. I wanted some conclusion that was not. Not quite there.

[Beckett]

Well, and we talked about. Ann and Sarah were inseparable. They were devoted to each other. I mean, however real it was on Sarah's side, functionally in the open air, they were devoted. I mean, letters she wrote would say things like, if I wrote whole volumes, I could never express how well I love you. Unimaginably, passionately. Affectionately yours.

[Susan]

Oh, the language was very romantic. Yeah, for sure, for sure. But that's the way that a lot of women communicated.

[Beckett]

Yeah. So, you know, you have to bear in mind in that era, there's passionate friendships with just nothing of the spicy going on at all. But I will tell you this. As things started to go south, we talked about this a little bit. Not only did Sarah come in after Anne's death with a biography that slayed the character of the. The person that she pretended to love or did love once upon a time,

[Susan]

owed her life to the lifestyle that she had, the position she had in society, she owed everything. Money, home, everything. She owed it to Anne.

[Beckett]

But during Ann's lifetime, when things started to go south but they had not experienced the final break, a writer friend of Sarah Churchill's, a politician named Arthur Mainwaring, I hope I got his pronunciation right, wrote a poem, and I'm not going to read it all, but I am going to read two stanzas. When, as Queen Anne of Great Renown, Great Britain's scepter swayed beside the church she dearly loved, a dirty chambermaid, her secretary she was not because she could not write, but had the conduct and the care of some dark deeds at night. Ooh. And then Sarah would come, show them to Anne. Look what people were writing about you.

[Susan]

Yeah. As if that was everything that people were writing. I don't want this to come off like there was no lesbians in history. There was the whole time. It's just the way people are. And I would love to say that they were, but I can't, based on the facts that I saw. I did write a really good sentence in my review of it. The lack of accuracy and the perpetuation of the propagandized image of Anne took even me out of it.

[Beckett]

Well, I think it kind of does everybody a disservice, but as alternate fiction, I think it's fine.

[Susan]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

The end. I guess that's all I know.

[Susan]

The last five minutes were for nothing.

[Beckett]

Right. Well, okay. Now, as to Hampton Court Palace, I do want to say Anne herself commissioned the ceiling. In the drawing room, there is a big picture of herself and an homage to her navy, the fighting force that after the Treaty of Utrecht, she thought, what this army and navy have become are one of my greatest accomplishments. And so they are immortalized on the roof of that room at Hampton Court Palace.

[Susan]

We mentioned in talking, a bunch of things we're going to link you up to, so I'm not going to mention them here. But I do want to say, if you ever plan a trip to the uk, you could do like a whole week visiting royal palaces and just Anne's. You can visit Hampton Court, Windsor Castle on select days. You can get into St James Palace, Kensington adjacent, there's Ascot, and of course, Blenheim. Those are like. That's like five days right there.

[Beckett]

And I will say, speaking of palaces, on the historic Royal Palace's website, they actually have Queen Anne filed under Kensington Palace. So if you go there, there are a lot of rabbit holes to follow about Queen Anne. Anne. And then the last link, I think I'm going to Give. Since we have a lot of links we talked about before. The famous Lucy Worsley. Once upon a time. Gosh, how long ago was this? I want to say it might have even been 2011. Something like that. In the Wayback Machine was on a series called British History's Biggest Fibs. And season one, episode two is about the Glorious Revolution, which of course just preceded and but will nevertheless give you some background.

[Susan]

And that's all I have.

[Beckett]

And in closing, Queen Anne spent her whole life in the violent storms of other people's ambitions. Her family, politicians, and yes, one very dramatic friend who made sure her reputation took a beating for centuries. But behind all that noise was a steady, determined ruler who helped shape the early modern British state. For a long time, she was dismissed as weak or dull, mostly because louder personalities wrote her story. Now we're finally recognizing that Anne was not a footnote, but a quiet force that gathered her turbulent kingdom together, preparing it for its future as a world power. Thanks for listening.

[Guest/Outro Singer]

Bye.

[Beckett]

If you learned something today, please. Why don't you tell a few friends about us or give us a review on Apple podcasts or on your favorite podcast? Believe it or not, we still have a few spots, not very many left for both of our upcoming trips. In August the 23rd to the 31st, we are going to the Loire Valley, where we're going to visit castle after castle. We'll have private dinners, we'll sample local wines and fromage and build even greater friendships on our travels. We're going to be based in Tours. I'm very excited about this. It's a town I've never been to. And then later in the fall, October 7th through the 16th, we are going to go back to Italy. Where are we going to go? We'll be in Rome, Florence, Venice. And we have a private dinner at a castle, like you do. And we're going to sample Parmesan cheese at the Source in Parma. To check out these itineraries and to reserve your spot, go to likeminds travel.com links and photos to go along with today's episode will [e-mail] and the song the end is a girl, a woman by a band called Windshield. See you next time.

[Guest/Outro Singer]

I was a girl with your eyes. Inside A place to. Ran through the days in the sunset. But somewhere along the road I felt the shift the days turn happy like an unseen rift the girl that I was began to fade. And in her place a new self was made. I'm in between I'm not quite all a girl I want woman both in my soul Learning to balance Learning to be in the struggle I find the real me I feel the p of who I should be Caught between the past what I can see the weight of the change rest on my chest. Questions that made no sense. I was a girl with dreams so wide I is full of wonder heart open time the world seems soft a place to play. Ran through the days in the sun's war in the sun's war. The days turned heavy like an. The girl that I was began to fade and in her place I knew southw was made. Learning to balance.

[Beckett]

A woman.

[Guest/Outro Singer]

Learning to be Find the real me. In the struggle I fine

[Beckett]

I'm in

[Guest/Outro Singer]

between I'm not quite not quite girl. I'm learning I'm learning to find the real. Learning to balance I'm learning I'm learning in the struggle Find the real me A girl a woman Learning to balance Learning to be.

[Beckett]

J.