The dowdy Queen Anne is back in fashion. Anne Somerset’s new biography of Queen Anne, that most enigmatic of monarchs, is published today. It is nearly 300 years since Anne’s death, and a popular account of her life is well overdue. She assumed the throne of a frankly second-rate power and left it a dominant force in global politics and commerce. That transformation is hugely important to the history of Britain as a nation state; and it merits widespread discussion because Anne’s crowning achievement, the Union of Scotland and England, is under threat.
The book is timely; and it is also exhaustive — covering both the general political picture and Anne’s intimate history. In today’s issue of the Spectator, the historian and author Maureen Waller has reviewed Somerset’s general account of Anne’s reign. You can read Maureen’s piece here. And, on the other hand, here is the historian Daisy Dunn’s take on Anne’s personality, as described by Somerset:
An unfortunate queen
When Queen Anne sought Union with Scotland, Daniel Defoe slipped into Edinburgh in disguise in an attempt to muster support for the cause.
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