In 1683 Anne married George, Prince of Denmark. Although the couple produced several children, and Anne endured numerous miscarriages, no children survived into adulthood. Her son William, Duke of Gloucester, hung on long enough to be painted and adored, but he died at the age of 11 in 1700, so Anne was crowned queen in 1702 without any heirs. The question of the succession haunted her 12-year reign, and, along with her own ill-health, ministerial struggles and the power ceded to the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, contributed to the atmosphere of turbulence and uncertainty that characterised it.
Anne's court, at St James's, or Windsor in the summers, was both dull and tense: dull because of the Queen's reserve and lack of broad interests and Prince George's stolid inactivity; tense because Anne developed an over-reliance first on Sarah Churchill and then Abigail Masham for both company and support. Sarah Churchill — whose life has been amply documented, most recently by Frances Harris — was witty, compelling and relentlessly overbearing. Abigail Masham, altogether less remarkable, eventually took Sarah's place, though her political influence was nothing like as great.
Anne Somerset ably documents all the twists and turns of the courtly and ministerial intrigues that these friendships fed off and generated. However, as she makes clear, the real drama of Queen Anne's reign took place not in England, but on the Continent, where Sarah Churchill's husband, John, secured a series of brilliant victories on the battlefield in the long melée known as the War of Spanish Succession and thus, by effectively beggaring Britain's neighbours rather than any specific territorial gains, laid the foundation for the nation's emergence as a great imperial power. Rather than Anne herself, or any of her ministers, John Churchill, as Duke of Marlborough, became the greatest figure of the age.
Marlborough's military victories were consolidated as much by Scottish — and, later, Irish — elites as English ones. The greatest political act of Anne's reign was the passage of the Act of Union in 1707. Scottish popular sentiment was firmly against Union, but it was "crammed down Scotland's throat", as one observer put it, helped by concessions and, most probably, anaesthetising dollops of Treasury cash. Educated and wealthy Scots could see where their interest lay. They became great beneficiaries of the Union and the growth of the empire. The Scots and the Irish not only dominated the upper echelons of the army after 1763, (the navy remained more English) but provided the backbone of the colonial administration, especially in India. By the turn of the century the Scots had a considerable presence in Westminster as well. Expansions — imperial or otherwise — can often benefit enterprising minorities. Romantic nationalism, on the other hand, seldom does. The great wave of romantic nationalism that has been sweeping across Europe since the late 19th century offers a horrendous lesson that should give pause for thought for all those who view May 1, 1707, when Great Britain came formally into being, as a black day.
