Queen Anne's letter to the Earl of Nottingham, year 1703

Source:

Handwriting of the Kings and Queens of England, W. J. Hardy, 1893

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.21209/page/n165/mode/2up

Above: Queen Anne, painted for her coronation by Michael Dahl.

Anne (born February 6, 1665, died August 1, 1714) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland between March 8, 1702 and May 1, 1707. On May 1, 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. Anne continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1714.

Anne was born in the reign of King Charles II to his younger brother and heir presumptive, James, whose suspected Roman Catholicism was unpopular in England. On Charles's instructions, Anne and her older sister Mary were raised as Anglicans. Mary married their Dutch Protestant cousin, William III of Orange, in 1677, and Anne married Prince George of Denmark in 1683. When Charles died in 1685, James succeeded to the throne, but just three years later he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Mary and William became joint monarchs. Although the two sisters had been close, disagreements over Anne's finances, status, and choice of acquaintances arose shortly after Mary's accession, and they became estranged. William and Mary had no children. After Mary's death in 1694, William reigned alone until his own death in 1702, when Anne succeeded him.

During her reign, Anne favoured moderate Tory politicians, who were more likely to share her Anglican religious views than their opponents, the Whigs. The Whigs grew more powerful during the course of the War of the Spanish Succession, until 1710 when Anne dismissed many of them from office. Her close and intimate friendship, which is speculated to have possibly been a lesbian relationship, with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, turned sour as a result of political differences. The Duchess took revenge with an unflattering description of the Queen in her memoirs, which was widely accepted by historians until Anne was re-assessed in the late 20th century.

Anne was plagued by ill health throughout her life, and starting in her thirties, she grew increasingly ill and obese. Despite having seventeen pregnancies, none of her children lived to adulthood, and she was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. Under the Act of Settlement of 1701, which excluded all Catholics, she was succeeded by her second cousin, King George I, from the House of Hanover.

In the following letter, written in 1703 to the Earl of Nottingham, we see Anne bestirring herself in the interests of some poor woman who on the morrow was going to pay the penalty of the law. The queen's appreciation of her Secretary of State's sound judgement is shown in this letter.

The letter:

Thursday.

The enclosed was given me to night, and I have bin soe much desired to save ye womans life, yt I can't help sending it to you to desire you would enquire as soon as it is possible if it is proper to do anything in it, for to morrow she is to be executed, but if she be one of those yt the Lords did not think a fitt object of mercy, when Mr Recorder made his report, I have nothing more to say for her.

I am your very affectionett freind
ANNE R.