DRAMA QUEEN With her long list of personal tragedies, Anne’s story wouldn’t seem amiss on even the most dramatic of soap operas
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History has rarely been kind to Queen Anne. Here ruled a woman, it is judged, whose lack of intelligence and poor health made her, at best, dependent on ministers and close friends, or at worst, entirely manipulated by them. Anne lacked the political savvy to govern independently, leaving a tainted reputation where the last of the Stuarts is portrayed as weak, fat, plagued by gout and too fond of drink. Compared to names such as Elizabeth and Victoria, her place among the nation’s female monarchs ranks pretty low down.
Yes, she was more observer than mastermind of the momentous episodes of her reign 1702 14, but Anne recognised that she lived in changing times. A revolution had ousted her father a decade earlier, and once queen, she faced a Europe at war and an untested, shifting political landscape at home. And in the midst of such turbulent times, one aspect of Anne’s reign can be, if not overlooked, at least relegated to a less important status, even though it may be the most crucial explanation of her state of mind.