First wife of James II of England
Anne Hyde
(12 March 1637 ? 31 March 1671)
[2]
[a]
was the first wife of
James, Duke of York
, who later became King James II and VII.
Anne was the daughter of a member of the English gentry?
Edward Hyde
(later created Earl of Clarendon)?and met her future husband when they were both living in exile in the Netherlands. She married James in 1660 and two months later gave birth to the couple's first child, who had been conceived
out of wedlock
. Some observers disapproved of the marriage, but James's brother, King
Charles II of England
, wanted the marriage to take place. Another cause of disapproval was the public affection James showed toward Anne. They had eight children, of whom six died in early childhood;
the two who reached adulthood were future monarchs,
Mary II
and
Anne
. James was a known philanderer who kept many mistresses, for which Anne often reproached him, and he fathered
many illegitimate children
.
Originally an
Anglican
, Anne converted to
Catholicism
soon after her marriage to James. She had been exposed to Catholicism during visits to the Netherlands and France and was strongly attracted thereto. Partly due to Anne's influence, James also converted to Catholicism, which ultimately led to the
Glorious Revolution
. She developed
advanced breast cancer
and died shortly after giving birth to her
eighth child
.
Early years (1637?1660)
[
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]
In 1629,
Edward Hyde
married his first wife, Anne Ayliffe of Grittenham. Six months into the marriage, Anne caught
smallpox
, miscarried and died.
Three years later, Hyde married
Frances Aylesbury
. The couple's eldest daughter was born at
Cranbourne Lodge
in
Windsor
in 1637. The parents named her Anne after Edward Hyde's first wife. Almost nothing is known of her life before 1649, when her family fled to the Netherlands after the execution of the deposed King
Charles I
.
During the
First English Civil War
, her father was a leading advisor to Charles I, then went into exile with his son
Charles II
in 1646. Like many refugees, they settled in
Breda
, where
Mary of Orange
offered shelter to many English fugitives.
Mary appointed Anne a
maid of honour
, apparently against the wishes of her mother
Henrietta Maria
, who loathed Hyde.
Anne became a general favourite with the people she met either at
The Hague
or at the Princess of Orange's country house at
Teylingen
. She was attractive and stylish,
and she attracted many men. One of the first men to fall in love with Anne was Spencer Compton, a son of the
Earl of Northampton
.
However, Anne quickly fell in love with
Henry Jermyn
, who returned her feelings. Anne dismissed Jermyn just as quickly when she met
James, Duke of York
, the son of the deposed king.
On 24 November 1659, two
or three
years after she first met him, James promised he would marry Anne, despite the opposition of many, including her father, who confined her to a room and allegedly urged Charles to execute her.
Charles rejected this advice, suggesting Anne's strong character would be a positive influence on his weak-willed brother.
Duchess of York (1660?1671)
[
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]
Marriage
[
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A portrait of Anne, James and their two daughters, Lady Mary and Lady Anne (this portrait is based on an earlier portrait of Anne and James.)
After Anne became visibly pregnant in 1660, the couple were obliged to marry.
Following
the Restoration
of the monarchy in May 1660, they held an official but private marriage ceremony in London on 3 September 1660. The wedding took place between 11 at night and 2 in the morning at Worcester House?her father's house in the
Strand
?and was solemnised by Dr. Joseph Crowther, James's chaplain. The French Ambassador described Anne as having "courage, cleverness, and energy almost worthy of a King's blood".
The couple's first child,
Charles
, was born in October of that year, but died seven months later. Seven children followed:
Mary
(1662?1694),
James
(1663?1667),
Anne
(1665?1714),
Charles
(1666?1667),
Edgar
(1667?1671), Henrietta (1669?1669) and Catherine (1671?1671). All of their sons and two of their daughters died in infancy.
Even well after their marriage, some observers disapproved of the prince's decision, regardless of what he had promised beforehand.
Samuel Pepys
said of the marriage: "... that the Duke of York's marriage with her hath undone the kingdom, by making the Chancellor so great above reach, who otherwise would have been but an ordinary man, to have been dealt with by other people ..."
[18]
After Anne's death, the royal court tried to find a new wife for James, but this new wife was not, under any circumstances, to be of humble birth.
[19]
As good a father as Pepys portrayed James to be, he strangely stated that Anne and James were unaffected by the death of their firstborn son.
[20]
Pepys also described Anne as "not only the proudest woman in the world, but the most expensefull."
[18]
Even in the minds of James's nephew (later to become Anne's son-in-law),
William III of Orange
, and that of her husband's cousin,
Sophia of Hanover
, the stigma of the Hydes' lowly birth remained.
Domestic life
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Anne, painted by Lely about 1670
Anne was not popular at court, although she was well liked by her brother-in-law.
Regarded as "the most unguarded ogler of his time", James had a succession of mistresses throughout their marriage.
These mistresses included
Arabella Churchill
, mother of his illegitimate son, the
Duke of Berwick
. Berwick had a highly successful career in the French army, while James secured a series of positions for Arabella's brother,
John Churchill
.
Anne was not oblivious to her husband's infidelities, Pepys recording that she was jealous and chided James. Pepys also claimed, however, that the pair were notorious for showing their affections publicly, kissing and leaning on each other. In another entry, Pepys wrote that when James fell in love with
Lady Chesterfield
, Anne complained to Charles so insistently that Lady Chesterfield had to retreat to the countryside, where she remained until she died.
Historian John Callow claims Anne "made the greatest single impact" in the process that led to James becoming a
Catholic
.
Raised in the Anglican
high church
tradition which was closely linked to the forms and practices of Catholicism, Anne stopped attending Anglican service in 1669. James converted around the same time, but at Charles' request delayed the announcement of his conversion until 1673.
Although he later converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, Charles insisted for political reasons that his brother's children must be raised as Protestants, so both
Mary
and
Anne
were members of the Church of England.
Death and legacy
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Anne Hyde's coat of arms
Anne was ill for 15 months after the birth of her youngest son, Edgar.
She bore Henrietta in 1669 and Catherine in 1671,
never recovering from Catherine's birth.
Ill with
breast cancer
,
she died on 31 March 1671.
[b]
On her deathbed, her brothers
Henry
and
Laurence
tried to bring an Anglican priest to give her communion, but Anne refused
and she received
viaticum
of the Catholic Church.
Two days after her death, her embalmed body was interred in the vault of
Mary, Queen of Scots
, at
Westminster Abbey
's
Henry VII Chapel
.
In June 1671, Anne's only surviving son Edgar died of natural causes, followed by Catherine in December, leaving Mary and Anne as the Duke of York's heirs.
After Anne Hyde's death, a portrait of her painted by
Willem Wissing
was commissioned by the future Mary II; this used to hang above the door of the Queen's Drawing Room of the Garden House at
Windsor Castle
.
[37]
Two years after the death of his first wife, James married a Catholic princess,
Mary of Modena
. Mary bore
James Francis Edward
, James's only son to survive to adulthood. James became king of
England
,
Ireland
and
Scotland
in 1685, but was deposed during the
Glorious Revolution
of 1688. The throne was then offered by the
Parliament of England
to Anne's eldest daughter Mary and her husband
William III of Orange
.
After Mary died in 1694 and William in 1702, Anne Hyde's only surviving child
Anne
became queen of the three kingdoms and, in 1707, the first sovereign of the united
Kingdom of Great Britain
.
Issue
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Media portrayals
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Notes
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References
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]
- ^
Portrait of the Duchess of York
Archived
5 September 2015 at the
Wayback Machine
. historicalportraits.com. Philip Mould Ltd.
- ^
Ward, Adolphus William (1891).
"Hyde, Anne"
. In
Lee, Sidney
(ed.).
Dictionary of National Biography
. Vol. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^
a
b
The Diary of Samuel Pepys,
Monday 24 June 1667
.
- ^
Strickland 1882
, pp. 242?3.
- ^
The Diary of Samuel Pepys,
Monday 6 May 1661
.
- ^
Willem Wissing
.
"James, Duke of Cambridge (1663?7)"
.
Royal Collection Trust
. Inventory no. 401234.
- ^
The Diary of Samuel Pepys,
Tuesday 30 April 1667
.
- ^
The Diary of Samuel Pepys,
Tuesday 14 May 1667
.
- ^
The Last King: full cast and crew
.
IMDb
.
Works cited
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]
- Callow, John (2000).
The Making of King James II: The Formative Years of a King
. Gloucestershire: Sutton.
ISBN
0-7509-2398-9
.
- Devine, Tom
(2006).
The Scottish Nation 1700?2007
. London: Penguin Books.
ISBN
0-1410-2769-X
.
- Fraser, Antonia
(2002).
King Charles II
. Phoenix.
ISBN
0-7538-1403-X
.
OL
7988338M
.
- Gregg, Edward (1984).
Queen Anne
. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
ISBN
0-7448-0018-8
.
- Henslowe, J. R. (1915).
Anne Hyde, Duchess of York
. London: T. W. Laurie.
- Holmes, Richard
(2008).
Marlborough; England's Fragile Genius
. Harper Press.
ISBN
978-0-0072-2571-2
.
- Lister, Thomas Henry (1838).
Life and Administration of Edward, First Earl of Clarendon
. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
OCLC
899249
.
- Maclagan, Michael
; Louda, Ji?i (1999).
Line of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe
. London: Little, Brown & Co.
ISBN
1-8560-5469-1
.
- Melville, Lewis (2005).
The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II
. Michigan: Loving Healing Press.
ISBN
1-9326-9013-1
.
- Miller, John (2000).
James II
. New Haven: Yale University Press.
ISBN
0-3000-8728-4
.
- Panton, Kenneth John (2011).
Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy
. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.
ISBN
978-0-8108-5779-7
.
- Softly, Barbara (1979).
The Queens of England
. Michigan: Bell Publishing.
ISBN
0-5173-0200-4
.
- Strickland, Agnes
(1882).
The Queens of England
. Boston: Easton and Lauriat.
OCLC
950726
.
- Van der Kiste, John
(2003).
William and Mary
. Gloucestershire: Sutton.
ISBN
0-7509-3048-9
.
- Waller, Maureen (2002).
Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses who Stole Their Father's Crown
. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
ISBN
0-3123-0711-X
.
- Weir, Alison
(2008).
Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy
. London: Vintage Books.
ISBN
978-0-0995-3973-5
.
Further reading
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]
- Curtis, Gila (1972).
The Life and Times of Queen Anne
. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
ISBN
0-297-99571-5
.
- Everett Green, Mary
(1857).
Lives of the Princesses of England, from the Norman Conquest
. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longman, & Roberts.
OCLC
15617187
.
- Green, David (1970).
Queen Anne
. London: Collins.
ISBN
0-00-211693-6
.
- Hutton, Ronald
(1989).
Charles II: King of England, Scotland and Ireland
. Oxford: Clarendon.
ISBN
0-19-822911-9
.
External links
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]
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
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