Anne

Second daughter of James Duke of York (afterwards King James II of England or James VII of Scotland) and his first wife, Anne Hyde; was raised as Protestant despite her father's conversion to Roman Catholicism; married (28 Jul/ 7 Aug 1683) to Prince Jørgen (George) of Denmark, son of King Frederik III; mostly remained out of politics, but approved the invasion of Willem Hendrik Prince of Orange (husband of her sister, Mary) and subsequent events known as the Glorious Revolution (1688-1689); was placed in the line of succession to the throne of England after Mary II and her heirs by An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown (Bill of Rights, 1689); became heir apparent when Mary II died without issue (28 Dec 1694/7 Jan 1695); became queen upon the death of William III (8/19 Mar 1702); appointed her husband Lord High Admiral (20/31 May 1702), giving him control of the Royal Navy; gave control of the army to John Churchill (appointed Captain General 10/21 Mar 1702, created Duke of Marlborough 14/25 Dec 1702), who won a series of victories in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), dominating foreign and domestic policy during Anne's reign; initially favored the Tory ministers, who lost their positions after 1704 over the lack of support for the war and were replaced by the Whigs, mostly due to Marlborough's influence; reluctantly assented to An Act for the Security of the Kingdom, allowing the Estates of Scotland to appoint a Protestant successor from the descendants of the Scottish kings (1704); became the first monarch of the united British nation after the passing and coming into force of An Act Ratifying and Approving Treaty of the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England (Act of Union, effective 1/11 May 1707); as the war grew unpopular in Great Britain, she dismissed the Whig ministry (1710) and overcame the Whig majority in the House of Lords by creating 12 new peers in one day (1712); encouraged the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which helped end the War of the Spanish Succession and turned Gibraltar, Minorca and various French colonies in America into British possessions. Biography source: [1]