Page:The Queens of England.djvu/546

 ANNE. Anne was born of the same parents as Mar}' the Second, on the 6th of February, 1665, at St. James' Palace, and resem- bled from childhood, in features and person, the family of her mother Ann Hyde, rather than the Stuarts. She was bur six vears old when her mother died, and two years after her father, then Duke of York, introduced to her Mary Beatrice, of Modena, as her stepmother. While yet quite a child Anne was taught by the celebrated Mrs. Betterton the art of that graceful delivery for which she was, as queen, so much distinguished in her speeches before parliament. She had, besides, much taste for music and played well on the guitar. But, partly owing to a defluxion which had fallen upon her eyes, her early education was much neg- lected. Her faults of spelling are frequent in all her letters extant, and she acquired early a taste for the card table and minute points of etiquette instead of having her attention directed to the cultivation of those personal talents which marked her sister's career. Nevertheless, she inherited many counterbalancing qualities, which eventually won for her from her subjects the lasting name of "the good Queen Anne." The hereditary Prince of Hanover, afterwards George the First, was, in 1680, a suitor for the hand of the Princess Anne. She married, however, on the 28th of July, 1683, George, brother of Christian the Fifth. King of Denmark. He was a very amiable man and affectionate husband, of moderate abili- ties and a somewhat retiring disposition. Anne was, beyond a doubt, ambitious and vain. It is impos- sible to acquit her, as princess, of much want of affection toward her father. All the fondness which he used to lavish upon Mary before her marriage became centered in Anne from that time. He made her a very handsome provision on ascend- ing the throne, yet in 1688 she is found secretly corresponding 496