Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange
Anne | |
---|---|
Princess consort of Orange | |
Tenure | 25 March 1734 - 22 October 1751 |
Born | (O.S.: 22 October 1709) Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Electorate of Hanover, Holy Roman Empire | 2 November 1709
Died | 12 January 1759 The Hague, Dutch Republic | (aged 49)
Burial | 23 February 1759 |
Spouse | |
Issue | Carolina, Princess of Nassau-Weilburg Princess Anna William V, Prince of Orange |
House | Hanover |
Father | George II of Great Britain |
Mother | Caroline of Ansbach |
Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (2 November [
Early life
Anne was born at
She learned German, French and English,
Anne contracted and survived
On 30 August 1727, George II created his eldest daughter Princess Royal, a title which had fallen from use since its creation by Charles I for his daughter Mary, Princess of Orange in 1642.[citation needed]
Marriage
In 1725, a potential marriage contract between Anne and
On 25 March [
Nassau Street, Soho, London (renamed Gerrard Place in 1910) was named in honour of the marriage.[16]
William suffered from a spinal deformity, which affected his appearance, but Anne said she would marry him even "if he were a baboon".[17] Her reason for being so insistent upon this marriage was reported to be simply that she wished to be married, to avoid a life as a spinster at the court of her father and her brother, with whom she did not get along; and as the only match considered suitable for her was with a monarch or heir to a throne, William was essentially her only remaining Protestant choice, and when questioned by her father, she stated that it was not a matter of whether she should marry William, the question was rather whether she should marry at all.[18] She quarreled with her brother, the Prince of Wales, about her choice.[clarification needed]
William and Anne sailed to Holland after a honeymoon at Kew. In the Netherlands, they resided at Leeuwarden. Anne soon felt homesick when William went on campaign in the Rhineland, and she travelled back to England, believing herself to be pregnant, Anne thought she should give birth to the child in her homeland as the child would be in the line of succession to the British throne.[19] However, this decision was not well received with her husband and her father, who both commanded her to return to Holland after a brief stay.[20] By April 1735, it was clear that Anne was not with child after all.[21] In 1736, she did become pregnant, but the child (a daughter) was stillborn.[22]
Anne was not well liked by the Dutch people and did not get on well with her mother-in-law Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel.[19] However, Anne was considered to have a regal essence but seemed to have a belief in British superiority over the Dutch; she was also thought to be neglectful of her duties and seemed to isolate herself in her interests in music and literature; and she was accused of displaying little consideration for her courtiers, for example by forcing her ladies-in-waiting to read for her for hours, ignoring their fatigue.[18] Her relationship with William, however, which was at first distant, eventually developed into harmony and intimacy, which is displayed in their correspondence.[19] In 1747, William became stadtholder of all the Seven United Provinces, and this was followed by a constitutional reform which made his new wider authority hereditary.[19] William and Anne moved to the Hague, where Anne introduced Händel to the Netherlands: he accepted her invitation to her music life at the Hague in 1750.[19] The composer Josina van Aerssen was one of her ladies-in-waiting.[citation needed]
Regency
William IV died on 22 October 1751, at the age of forty, and Anne was appointed as regent for her three-year-old son, William V. She gained all the prerogatives normally held by a hereditary stadtholder of the Netherlands, with the exception of the military duties of the office, which were entrusted to Duke Louis Ernest of Brunswick-Lüneburg.[19] She was hard-working, but arrogant and imperious, which made her unpopular.[23] The 1750s were years of increasing tension and commercial rivalry between Holland and Great Britain, which placed her in a difficult position.[24]
Anne's interior policy focused on defending the authority of the central hereditary stadtholder government over the traditional rights of the Dutch states.[19] The reform of the hereditary post of stadtholder had been introduced during the reign of her late husband; it was new and controversial and was questioned after his death, but Anne effectively defended the centralized government.[19] In the conflict with the city of Haarlem, for example, she prevented the city from holding its election by refusing the release of its list of candidates.[19] Her harsh rule was resented, but her consolidation policy effectively secured the new hereditary Stadtholder rule in the Netherlands.[19]
In her foreign policy, Anne favored the British alliance with the Emperor before the French, a policy which was not popular in the Netherlands, and her fortification of the southern provinces against the French Netherlands was met with great opposition.[19]
Anne continued to act as regent until her death from
Works
The princess took drawing and painting lessons from Herman van der Mijn and made a self-portrait in 1740 that is in the collection of the House of Orange-Nassau Historic Collections Trust. She also made a portrait of van der Mijn himself while he was at work making portraits of other family members.[26]
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Portrait of Herman van der Mijn by Anna van Hannover
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Self-portrait of Anna van Hannover in 1740
Legacy
Princess Anne, Maryland, is named for her.[27]
Arms
On 31 January 1719, as a grandchild of the sovereign, Anne was granted use of the arms of the realm, differenced by a label argent of five points, each bearing a cross gules. On 30 August 1727, as a child of the sovereign, Anne's difference changed to a label argent of three points, each bearing a cross gules.[28]
Coat of arms from 30 August 1727
|
Issue
Name | Birth | Death | Notes[29] |
---|---|---|---|
Princess Carolina | 28 February 1743 | 6 May 1787 | married 5 March 1760, Charles Christian, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg; had issue |
Princess Anna | 15 November 1746 | 29 December 1746 | |
William V, Prince of Orange | 8 March 1748 | 9 April 1806 | married 4 October 1767, Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia; had issue |
Ancestors
Ancestors of Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange Johannetta, Countess of Sayn-Altenkirchen | |||||||||||||
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References
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68369. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Princess Mary (born 1631), the daughter of Henrietta Maria and Charles, became the first Princess Royal in 1642.
- ^ "Yvonne's Royalty Home Page: Royal Christenings". Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 24
- ^ a b Van der Kiste, p. 84
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 85
- ^ Vickers, David. "Programme Notes for "Parnasso in Festa"". Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 73
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 83
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 78
- ^ Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: La duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs, Paris, 1906
- ^ Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: La duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs, Paris, 1906
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 132
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 133
- ISBN 978-0-486-29227-4.
- ^ "Gerrard Street Area: The Military Ground, Gerrard Place Pages 411-412 Survey of London: Volumes 33 and 34, St Anne Soho". British History Online. LCC 1966. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 131
- ^ a b John Van der Kiste, The Georgian Princesses
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k djr (20 March 2017). "Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland". Retrieved 13 January 2014.
- ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 135–136
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 136
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 150
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 198
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 209
- ^ Frans Willem Lantink, Carolina van Oranje-Nassau, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/CarolinaWilhelmina [19/08/2017]
- English female artists, volume 2 (London, Tinsley brothers, 1876) p. 81 ff.
- ^ "Heritage – Areas of Interest". Town of Princess Anne. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
- ^ Velde, Francois R. "marks of cadency in the British royal family".
- )
- ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 55.
- ISBN 0-7509-1321-5
External links
Media related to Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange at Wikimedia Commons