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Anne Hyde
Duchess of York and Albany
c. 1665 portrait by Sir Peter Lely. "Anne’s teasing playing of her hair is deliberately suggestive of a royal consort’s prime role – breeding – but also a reminder of her great wit."[1]
Born(1637-03-12)12 March 1637
Windsor, England
Died31 March 1671(1671-03-31) (aged 34)
London, England
Burial
SpouseJames, Duke of York and Albany
m. 1660; dec. 1671
Issue
... among others
Mary II, Queen of England and Scotland
James, Duke of Cambridge
Anne, Queen of Great Britain
Edgar, Duke of Cambridge
HouseHouse of Stuart
FatherEdward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
MotherFrances Aylesbury
ReligionAnglicanism (later Roman Catholicism)

Anne Hyde (12 March 1637 – 31 March 1671)[a] was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York (later King James II and VII). Originally the Anglican daughter of a lawyer, Anne became James' first wife in 1660 after she fell pregnant by him, whereas James is said to have promised to marry her in 1659. The two had first met in Holland, while Anne was living in the household of James' sister Mary. However, of the eight children James and Anne had, six died in early childhood or early infancy.[2] The two that survived to adulthood were Lady Mary, who succeeded her father after his deposition during the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, and Lady Anne, who succeeded her brother-in-law and became the first monarch of Great Britain.

Born the daughter of a commoner, Anne is primarily remembered for her marriage to James, which caused much gossip. Two months after the marriage, Anne gave birth to the couple's first child: it was obvious that the child had been conceived out of wedlock. Until towards the end of Anne's life, some observers disapproved of James' decision to marry Anne, all except King Charles II, James' brother, who wanted the marriage to take place. Another source of disapproval was the public affection James showed towards Anne, such as kissing and leaning against each other, which was improper behavior during the 1600s.

James was a known womanizer who kept many mistresses, for which Anne often gave him a hard time, once even complaining to the king, who sent one of James' mistresses to the countryside, where she remained until her death. Nonetheless, James fathered many illegitimate children. Moreover, Anne was the reason her husband became a Roman Catholic. During Anne's and James' stays in Holland and France, respectively, they had both been exposed to Catholicism. Anne was so strongly attracted to this religion that she converted quickly after her marriage. Years later, James followed her example, which was a contributing factor to the Glorious Revolution. Suffering from advanced breast cancer, Anne died after the birth of her last child.

Early years (1637–60)

In 1629, Edward Hyde married his first wife, Anne Ayliffe of Gretenham. Six months into the marriage, Anne caught smallpox, miscarried and died.[3] Three years later, Hyde married his second wife, Frances Aylesbury. In 1637, Anne, the eldest daughter of the couple, was born at Cranbourne Lodge in Windsor.[4] Virtually nothing, except that she was named after Edward Hyde's first wife, is known of her life before 1649, when her family fled to Holland after the execution of King Charles I.[5] They settled in Breda, where the Princess of Orange (and also the Princess Royal), as she had done with many English fugitives,[6] offered them a home and appointed Anne a maid of honour, apparently against the wishes of her mother and late father.[7]

Anne became a general favourite with all the people she met either at The Hague or at the Princess of Orange's country house at Teyling. She was very attractive and stylish,[8] and attracted many men. One of the first men to fall in love with Anne was Lord Spencer Compton, a son of the Earl of Northampton.[9] However, Anne quickly fell in love with Lord Henry Jermyn, who returned her feelings. Nonetheless, Anne dismissed Jermyn as quickly as she fell in love with him, when she met the Duke of York, the brother of the deposed king.[10] On 24 November 1659, two[11] or three[12] years after she first met him, James promised he would marry Anne.[13] Charles, James' brother, forced the reluctant James to marry Anne, saying that her strong character would be a positive influence on his weak-willed brother.[14]

Duchess of York (1660–71)

Marriage

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).

As Anne was obviously pregnant, the couple were obliged to marry.[15] They went through an official but private marriage ceremony on 3 September 1660, in London, following the restoration of the monarchy. The wedding took place between eleven o'clock at night and two o'clock in the morning at Worcester House, her father's house in the Strand, and was solemnised by James's chaplain, Dr. Joseph Crowther. The French Ambassador described Anne as having "courage, cleverness, and energy almost worthy of a King's blood".[16] 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) and two daughters, Henrietta (1669–1669) and Catherine (1671–1671); all of her sons and two of her daughters died in infancy.[2]

Even well after James married Anne, some observers still disapproved of the prince's decision, regardless of what he had promised beforehand.[17] 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] In fact, after Anne's death, everyone at court struggled 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 Anne's future son-in-law, William III of Orange and that of her cousin-by-marriage, Sophia of Hanover, the stigma of the Hydes' low birth could not disappear.[21]

Domestic life

Anne, painted by Lely about 1670.

Anne's married life was sometimes problematic,[22] and she was not very much liked at court[23] and James was unfaithful: he kept a variety of younger mistresses such as Arabella Churchill, by whom he fathered many illegitimate children, including two born during Anne's lifetime; thus, he was called "the most unguarded ogler of his time."[24] Anne did not turn a cold shoulder to this: Pepys wrote that she gave James a hard time because of her jealousy; but he also wrote that Anne and James were notorious for their public affections: they were kissing and leaning on each other in public. Pepys also wrote that when James fell in love with Lady Chesterfield, Anne complained to the King Charles so insistently that Lady Chesterfield had to retreat to the countryside, where she remained until she died.[25] Nonetheless, Anne was reported to have had her lovers as well, such as Lord Spencer Compton and Lord Henry Sydney (son of the second Earl of Leicester). Others, however, state that only Henry was in love with Anne, but Anne was simply nice to Henry, in "an innocent way."[26]

Anne became drawn to the Roman Catholic faith, to which both she and James had been exposed during their time abroad.[27][28] Almost immediately after the Restoration, Anne converted to Catholicism. In his biography of James II, John Callow states that Anne "made the greatest single impact upon his thinking."[29] James also converted to Catholicism, but eight or nine years after his wife; however, he still attended Anglican services until as late as 1676.[30][31] Additionally, James preferred to associate himself with Anglican and Protestant people, such as John Churchill,[32] whose wife would later become a very close friend of Anne's youngest surviving daughter, Lady Anne.[33][34] King Charles, although himself converting to Catholicism on his deathbed,[35] at the time opposed this religion and insisted that James' children be raised in the Anglican faith.[36] Indeed, both of James and Anne's surviving daughters were raised as Anglicans.[37]

Death and legacy

Anne never quite recovered after the birth of her youngest son, Edgar; she was ill for fifteen months.[38] After giving birth to one further child, Henrietta, in 1669, Anne gave birth to her youngest child in 1671, another daughter, whom she named Catherine.[39] Anne never recovered from this last birth, her eighth.[40] Suffering from breast cancer,[41] Anne died on 31 March 1671.[4][b] On her deathbed, her two brothers, Henry and Laurence, tried to bring an Anglican priest to give her communion, but Anne refused[40] and furthermore, she received viaticum of the Roman Catholic Church.[41] Two days later, her embalmed body was interred into Westminster Abbey's Henry VII Chapel (precisely, into the vault of Mary, Queen of Scots).[42] In June, her only surviving son, Edgar, died of natural causes and in December, Anne's youngest daughter, Catherine, also died, leaving Ladies Mary and Anne as the Duke of York's heiresses.[43] Two years after the loss of his first wife, James married a Catholic princess, Mary of Modena, who offered James his only son that survived to adulthood, James Francis Edward. During the Glorious Revolution, James was deposed and the throne was occupied by Anne's eldest daughter Mary and her husband.[44] After their respective deaths, Anne's youngest daughter, Anne, became the first sovereign of the Kingdom of Great Britain.[45] After Anne's death, a portrait of her painted by Willem Wissing, commissioned by the future Mary II used to hang above the door of the Queen's Drawing Room of the Garden House at Windsor Castle.[46]

Issue

Name Birth Death Notes
Charles, Duke of Cambridge 22 October 1660 5 May 1661 Born two months after his parents' legal marriage, died aged seven months of smallpox.[47]
Mary II, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland 30 April 1662 28 December 1694 Married her cousin William III, Prince of Orange in 1677. She and her husband ascended to the throne in 1689 after the deposition of her father. No surviving issue.[48]
James, Duke of Cambridge 12 July 1663 20 June 1667 Died of the bubonic plague.[49]
Anne, Queen of Great Britain 6 February 1665 1 August 1714 Married Prince George of Denmark in 1683. Successor of her brother-in-law and cousin in 1702. First Queen of Great Britain under the Act of Union of 1707. No surviving issue.[50]
Charles, Duke of Kendal 4 July 1666 22 May 1667 Died of convulsions.[51]
Edgar, Duke of Cambridge 14 September 1667 8 June 1671 Died in childhood.[39]
Henrietta 13 January 1669 15 November 1669 Died in infancy.[39]
Catherine 9 February 1671 5 December 1671 Died in infancy.[39]

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

  • 3 September 1660 – 10 April 1671: the Duchess of York[52][53]

Arms

Ancestry

Family of Anne Hyde
16. Robert Hyde
8. Lawrence Hyde, of West Hatch
17. Catherine Boydell
4. Henry Hyde
9. Anne Sibell
2. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
20. Alexander Langford, of Trowbridge
10. Edward Langford, of Trowbridge
5. Mary Langford
11. Mary St. Barbe
1. Anne Hyde
12. William Aylesbury
6. Sir Thomas Aylesbury, 1st Baronet
13. Anne Poole
3. Frances Aylesbury
28. Nicholas Denman
14. Reverend Francis Denman
29. Anne Hercy
7. Anne Denman
30. Robert Blount, of Eckington
15. Anne Blount

Media portrayals

Notes

  1. ^ All the dates in this article are Old Style.
  2. ^ England used the Julian calendar (OS) during Anne's lifetime.

References

  1. ^ Portrait of the Duchess of York. historicalportraits.com. Philip Mould Ltd.
  2. ^ a b Weir 2008, pp. 259–60.
  3. ^ Lister 1838, p. 9.
  4. ^ a b Weir 2008, p. 259.
  5. ^ Henslowe 1915, p. 18.
  6. ^ Henslowe 1915, p. 19.
  7. ^ Everett Green 1857, p. 235.
  8. ^ Melville 2005, p. 3.
  9. ^ Henslowe 1915, p. 34.
  10. ^ Melville 2005, pp. 3–4.
  11. ^ Melville 2005, p. 4.
  12. ^ Gregg 1984, p. 2.
  13. ^ Miller 2000, p. 44.
  14. ^ Softly 1979, p. 91.
  15. ^ Henslowe 1915, pp. 130–1.
  16. ^ Fraser 2002, p. 202.
  17. ^ Miller 2000, pp. 44–45.
  18. ^ a b The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 24 June 1667.
  19. ^ Strickland 1882, pp. 242–3.
  20. ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 6 May 1661.
  21. ^ Gregg 1984, pp. 3–4.
  22. ^ Melville 2005, p. 17.
  23. ^ Melville 2005, p. 19.
  24. ^ Miller 2000, p. 46.
  25. ^ Melville 2005, pp. 21–2.
  26. ^ Melville 2005, pp. 25–7.
  27. ^ Miller 2000, pp. 58–9.
  28. ^ Callow 2000, pp. 144–5.
  29. ^ Callow 2000, p. 144.
  30. ^ Callow 2000, pp. 143–4.
  31. ^ Waller 2002, p. 135.
  32. ^ Callow 2000, p. 149.
  33. ^ Curtis 1972, p. 27.
  34. ^ Green 1970, p. 21.
  35. ^ Hutton 1989, pp. 443, 456.
  36. ^ Waller 2002, p. 92.
  37. ^ Van der Kiste 2003, p. 32.
  38. ^ Henslowe 1915, p. 289.
  39. ^ a b c d Weir 2008, p. 260.
  40. ^ a b Gregg 1984, p. 10.
  41. ^ a b Melville 2005, p. 32.
  42. ^ Henslowe 1915, p. 300.
  43. ^ Waller 2002, pp. 49–50.
  44. ^ Devine 2006, p. 3.
  45. ^ Gregg 1984, p. 240.
  46. ^ Royal Collection: James, Duke of Cambridge (1663-7) by Wissing
  47. ^ Panton 2011, p. 455.
  48. ^ Weir 2008, p. 266.
  49. ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 30 April 1667.
  50. ^ Weir 2008, pp. 267–8.
  51. ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 14 May 1667.
  52. ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 19 August 1665.
  53. ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 18 June 1662.
  54. ^ Maclagan & Louda 1999, p. 27.
  55. ^ The Last King: full cast and crew. IMDb.

Bibliography

  • Callow, John (2000). The Making of King James II: The Formative Years of a King. Gloucestershire: Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-2398-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Curtis, Gila (1972). The Life and Times of Queen Anne. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-99571-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Devine, Tom (2006). The Scottish Nation 1700–2007. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-102769-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Everett Green, Mary (1857). Lives of the Princesses of England, from the Norman Conquest. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longman, & Roberts. OCLC 15617187. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Fraser, Antonia (2002). King Charles II. Phoenix. ISBN 0-7538-1403-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Green, David (1970). Queen Anne. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-211693-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Gregg, Edward (1984). Queen Anne. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-7448-0018-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Henslowe, J. R. (1915). Anne Hyde, Duchess of York. London: T. W. Laurie. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Hutton, Ronald (1989). Charles II: King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Oxford: Clarendon. ISBN 0-19-822911-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Lister, Thomas Henry (1838). Life and Administration of Edward, First Earl of Clarendon. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans. OCLC 899249. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Maclagan, Michael; Louda, Jiří (1999). Line of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe. London: Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 1-85605-469-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Melville, Lewis (2005). The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II. Michigan: Loving Healing Press. ISBN 1-932690-13-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Miller, John (2000). James II. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08728-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Panton, Kenneth John (2011). Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5779-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Softly, Barbara (1979). The Queens of England. Michigan: Bell Pub Co. ISBN 0-517-30200-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Strickland, Agnes (1882). The Queens of England. Boston: Easton and Lauriat. OCLC 950726. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Van der Kiste, John (2003). William and Mary. Gloucestershire: Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-3048-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Waller, Maureen (2002). Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses who Stole Their Father's Crown. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-312-30711-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Weir, Alison (2008). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-09-953973-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

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