Historical and Commemorative
Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
ANNE DASSIER, Jean: England, 1731, Bronze, 41 mm Anne (1665-1727) Queen of Great Britain and
Ireland (1702-1714), was the second daughter of James, Duke of York (King
James II, 1685-1688), and Anne Hyde. Although her father was a Roman
Catholic, she was reared a Protestant at the insistence of her uncle, King
Charles II. In 1683 Anne was
married to Prince George of Denmark. Succeeding
William III, Anne was the last Stuart sovereign and, after the
Act of Union
(1707), the first monarch of the United Kingdom of England and Scotland. As
the last Stuart monarch, she wished to rule independently, but her
intellectual limitations and chronic ill health caused her to rely heavily
on her ministers, who directed England’s efforts against France and Spain in
the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). This war dominated her reign
and is often called Queen Anne’s War. Anne was the last English monarch to
exercise the royal veto over legislation, but the rise of parliamentary
government was inexorable. The Jacobite cause was crushed when Anne was
succeeded by George I. Her reign is notable for the vibrancy that party
conflicts between Whigs and Tories instilled in contemporary arts and
culture (from O’Brien and Thompson)
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