Somerset, Anne, 1955-
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
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Notes:

• This is a Borzoi book –T.p. verso.
• Originally published: London : HarperPress, 2012.
• Includes bibliographical references (p. [583]-597) and index.
• But a daughter — Religion before her father — Sure never anybody was used so — We are now in a new world — These fatal distinctions of Whig and Tory — The weight and charge of a kingdom — Nothing but uneasiness — Entire and perfect union — Guided by other hands — Passions between women — Making the breach wider — The heat and ferment that is in this poor nation — I do not like war — The great work of peace — The last troublesome scene of contention — Not equal to the weight of a crown?
• The much-maligned Queen Anne (1665-1714) was never expected to reign. Her father, James II, was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and succeeded by his daughter, the childless Mary, and her husband, William of Orange. Anne’s 17 pregnancies before her accession produced only one child, who survived only to age 11. Her devotion to her friend and First Lady of the Bedchamber, Sarah Churchill, was a most unfortunate liaison. Sarah treated Anne as an uninformed fool, unable to form opinions of her own. However, Anne blossomed when she became queen, a situation that Sarah never accepted. Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1702, at age thirty-seven, and five years later united two of her realms, England and Scotland, as a sovereign state, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. Sarah’s husband, the Duke of Marlborough, and Lord Treasurer Sidney Godolphin, were Anne’s primary ministers many thought they completely controlled her. Anne’s correspondence shows just how malicious and even criminal Sarah was. Today’s reader will easily recognize the rancorous party politics, obstructionism and inability to enact laws that existed in that period. Anne’s natural reserve and her instinct for discretion has led historians to believe that she was weak and dominated by women of stronger character. Somerset’s impressive scholarship debunks that belief and shows Anne as a masterful, even authoritative, queen who survived the influence of her friends. At the core of Anne Somerset’s fascinating new biography is a portrait of this fraught, complex bond between two very different women: Queen Anne, reserved, stolid, shrewd and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the Queen’s great general–beautiful, willful, outspoken, whose acerbic wit was equally matched by her fearsome temper.
• But a daughter — Religion before her father — Sure never anybody was used to — We are now in a new world — These fatal distinctions of Whig and Tory — The weight and change of a kingdom — Nothing but uneasiness — Entire and perfect union — Guided by other hands — Passions between women — Making the breach wider — The heat and ferment that is in this poor nation — I do not like war — The great work of peace — The last troublesome scene of contention — Not equal to the weight of the crown?.
• An assessment of the short twelve-year reign of Britain’s last Stuart monarch recounts how she united England and Scotland as a sovereign state, offering additional insight into the military victories that laid the foundations for Britain’s future naval and colonial supremacy.

Subjects:

• Anne, Queen of Great Britain, 1665-1714.
• Queens — Great Britain — Biography.
• Great Britain — History — Anne, 1702-1714.

Requested by Doonan, T