Pop History Moment: The Accession of Queen Anne

Following the death of her sister, Mary II, from smallpox in December 1694, the woman then known as Princess Anne became the heir apparent (rather than heiress presumptive) of her brother-in-law William III; she should have become Queen in her own right on that day, of course, since she was a Stuart while William was both Dutch and merely the widower of the rightful sovereign. Parliament had made him co-sovereign in February 1689, though, so that was that; England would be stuck with him until it no longer was...

Anne's patience (not to mention the Nation's) was rewarded however when, on this day in 1702, she obtained her birthright - William III having contracted pneumonia after being thrown from his horse. That day she became Queen Anne in her own right, along with the usual constitutional quandary which generally accompanies the accession of a queen-regnant. Equally troubling, Anne had no heir, despite fourteen pregnancies, and was, as such, the last Protestant member of the House of Stuart who, like the Tudors before them, couldn't seem to produce a Y chromosome to save their lives, let alone their dynasty. She also inherited, along with her crown, a thorny situation regarding the Act of Settlement.

Anne's reign, though short, would prove pivotal; Scotland was brought kicking and screaming into the United Kingdom in 1707 under the terms of the Acts of Union, and Anne herself would be the last monarch to veto legislation - the Scottish Militia Bill of 1708 - an unimaginable situation today in the age of constitutional monarchy. Her reign also saw the rise of two-party politics (Tory and Whig), the "first Prime Minister" Sir Robert Walpole, as well as a burgeoning British Empire and growing influence on the Continent as well, especially after the victory of the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. Likewise, it was an age of artistic and architectural flowering that didn't end with her August 1714 death...
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