Queen Anne (born 6 February 1665; ascended as sovereign 1 May 1707, died 1 August 1714).

Anne was the second daughter of the Duke of York (who later became King James II) and younger sister of Mary (who later became Queen Mary II). On the express orders of her uncle, King Charles II, she was raised as a Protestant and took her religion very seriously; despite that, as a young child she went to the court in France of her grandmother Queen Henrietta, and did not return to England until 1670. In 1683 she married Prince George of Denmark, and there followed a distressing, almost annual series of 17 pregnancies, and her longest living child only survived for 11 years. During her reign an Act of Union was passed, joining England and Scotland under the name, Great Britain.

By the time Anne was England’s sovereign, much of the renewed building of Hampton Court was completed, it was not yet fully furnished and there were very large outstanding debts. War with France continued, and the country now under the control of Parliament like never before, had little money to spare. She herself preferred to live at Windsor and the function of Hampton Court devolved into a half way meeting point between Westminster and Windsor. Prince George is depicted in a mural in the Queen’s drawing room as a frolicking obese nude; prior to his death Queen Anne spent no more than three nights at Hampton Court, but following that she spent more time there, five months total over four years. Her mark was left on improvements to the Chapel Royal.

Queen Anne added very largely to the size of the house at Kensington, and also to the beauty of the gardens. The orangery, a fine detached building at a little distance on the north side, was built for her by Sir Christopher Wren (others say designed by John Vanbrugh). Wren also completed the extensions begun at the time of William and Mary, developing the now-termed Queen’s Apartment, the Wren Staircase and the Queen’s Entrance which has shallow steps suitable to a regal presence under the gaze of the crowd.

The Court at Kensington in Queen Anne’s time was not much livelier than it had been in that of King William. Swift describes Anne, in a circle of twenty visitors, as sitting with her fan in her mouth, saying about three words once a minute to those that were near her, and then, upon hearing that dinner was ready, going out. Addison and Steele might have been occasionally seen at her Kensington levees, among the Whigs; and Swift, Prior, and Bolingbroke among the Tories. Marlborough would be there also; his celebrated duchess, Sarah Jennings, had entered upon a court life at an early age as one of the companions of Anne during the princess’s girlhood.

Queen Anne died in Kensington Palace, as did her consort, Prince George of Denmark, who was carried, with difficulty considering his size, from there to his tomb in Westminster Abbey.