Ward's Book of Days.
Pages of interesting anniversaries.
What happened on this day in history.
AUGUST 1st
On this day in history in 1714 died Queen Anne.
Queen Anne was the last of the Stuart monarchs. She was famous for presiding over the War of the Spanish Succession, and for overseeing the Union of England and Scotland.
Anne was married to Prince George of Denmark with whom she had seventeen children, making her the most prolific monarch in British history. Sadly, many of Anne’s children died in their first few days of life, some survived a few months but only one, William, Duke of Gloucester, survived infancy. When William died in 1704, Anne was left without a successor to the throne, and a constitutional crisis ensued.
The English Parliament chose the Electress Sophia, a descendant of Charles I, as the next monarch. The Scottish Parliament decreed that whoever became monarch of England should not be ruler of Scotland. The crisis was eventually settled by The Act of Union 1707.
At the age of 49, worn out by ill health and childbearing, Anne succumbed to gout and died. She was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside her children. Her body was so swollen with the gout that she had to be buried in a square coffin.
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