Anne, Queen,
Second daughter of James II.
of
England: born at
Twickenham, near
London, Feb. 6, 1664.
Her parents became Roman Catholics: but she, edueated in the principles of the
Church of
England, remained a Protestant.
In 1683 she was married to Prince George of
Denmark.
She took the side of here sister Mary and her husband in the revolution that drove her father from the throne.
She had intended to accompany her father in his exile to
France, but was dissuaded by
Sarah Churchill,
chief lady of the bed-chamber (afterwards the imperious
Duchess of
Marlborough), for whom she always had a romantic attachment.
By the act of settlement at the accession of William and Mary, the crown was guaranteed to her in default of issue to these sovereigns.
This exigency happening.
Anne was proclaimed queen (March 8. 1702) on the death of William.
Of her seventeen children, only one lived beyond infancy--
Duke of
Gloucester — who died at the age of eleven years. Feeble in character, but very amiable, Anne's reign became a conspicuous
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one in English history, for she was governed by some able ministers, and she was surrounded by eminent literary men. Her reign has been called the “Augustan age of English Literature.”
The
Duke of
Marlborough the husband of her bosom friend, was one of her greatest
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Queen Anne. |
military leaders.
A greater part of her reign was occupied in the prosecution of the
War of the
Spanish Succession, known in
America as “Queen Anne's War.”
She died Aug. 1, 1714.
The treaty of
Ryswick produced only a lull in the inter-colonial war in
America.
It was very brief.
James II.
died in
France in September, 1701, and Louis XIV., who had sheltered him, acknowledged his son,
Prince lames (commonly known as The Pretender), to be the lawful heir to the
English throne.
This naturally offended the
English, for Louis had acknowledged William as king in the Ryswick treaty.
The British Parliament had also settled the crown on Anne.
so as to secure a Protestant succession.
The
English were also offended because Louis had placed his grandson, Philip of Aragon.
on the
Spanish throne, and thus extended the influence of
France among the dynasties of
Europe.
On the death of William III.
（March 8, 1702) Anne ascended the throne, and on the same day the triple alliance between
England,
Holland, and the
German Empire against
France was renewed.
Soon afterwards, chiefly because of the movements of Louis above mentioned,
England declared war against
France, and their respective colonies in
America took up arms against each other.
The war lasted eleven years. Fortunately, the Five Nations had made a treaty of neutrality (Aug. 4, 1701) with the
French in
Canada, and thus became an impassable barrier against the savages from the
St. Lawrence.
The tribes from the
Merrimac to the
Penobscot had made a treaty of peace with
New England (July, 1703); but the
French induced them to violate it; and before the close of that summer a furious Indian raid occurred along the whole frontier from
Casco to
Wells.
So indiscriminate was the slaughter that even Quakers were massacred.
The immediate cause of this outbreak seems to have been an attack upon and plunder of the trading-post of the young
Baron de Castine, at the mouth of the
Penobscot.
In March, 1704, a party of French and Indians attacked
Deerfield, on the
Connecticut River, killed forty of the inhabitants, burned the village, and carried away 112 captives.
Similar scenes occurred elsewhere.
Remote settlements were abandoned, and fields were cultivated only by armed parties united for common defence.
This state of things became insupportable, and in the spring of 1707
Massachusetts.
Rhode Island, and
New Hampshire prepared to chastise the Indians in the east.
Rhode Island had not suffered, for
Massachusetts sheltered that colony, but the inhabitants humanely helped their afflicted neighbors.
Connecticut, though threatened from the north, refused to join in the enterprise.
Early in June (1707), 1,000 men under
Colonel Marsh sailed from
Nantucket for
Port Royal,
Acadia, convoyed by an English man-of-war.
The
French were prepared for them, and only the destruction of property outside the fort there was accomplished.
The war continued, with occasional distressing episodes.
In September. 1710, an armament of ships and troops left
Boston and sailed for
Port Royal, in connection with a fleet from
England with troops under
Colonel Nicholson.
They captured
Port Royal and altered the name to
Annapolis, in compliment to the
Queen.
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Acadia (q. v.) was annexed to
England.
under the old title of
Nova Scotia, or New Scotland.
The following year an expedition moved against
Quebec.
Sir Hovenden Walker arrived at
Boston (June 25, 1711) with an English fleet and army, which were joined by
New England forces; and on Aug. 15 fifteen men-of-war and forty transports, bearing about 7,000 men, departed for the
St. Lawrence.
Meanwhile.
Nicholson had proceeded to
Albany, where a force of about 4,000) men were gathered, a portion of them
Iroquois Indians.
These forces commenced their march towards
Canada Aug. 28.
Walker, like
Braddock nearly fifty years later.
haughtily refused to listen to experienced subordinates, and lost eight ships and about 1,000 men on the rocks at the mouth of the
St. Lawrence on the night of Sept. 2.
Disheartened by this calamity,
Walker returned to
England with the remainder of the fleet.
and the colonial troops went back to
Boston.
On hearing of this failure, the land force marching to attack
Montreal retraced their steps.
Hostilities were now suspended, and peace was, concluded by the treaty of
Utrecht, April 11, 1713.
The eastern Indians sued for peace.
and at
Portsmouth the governors of
Massachusetts and
New Hampshire made a covenant of peace July 24) with the chiefs of the hostile tribes.
A peace of thirty years ensued.
