Anne Hyde

Anne Hyde
Duchess of York
Duchess of Albany
Spouse James, Duke of York
Issue
Charles, Duke of Cambridge
Mary II of England
James Stuart, Duke of Cambridge
Anne, Queen of Great Britain
Charles Stuart, Duke of Kendal
Edgar Stuart, Duke of Cambridge
House House of Stuart
Father Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Mother Frances Aylesbury
Born 22 March 1638(1638-03-22)
Windsor, England
Died 10 April 1671(1671-04-10) (aged 33)
London, England
Burial Westminster Abbey

Anne Hyde (22 March [O.S. 12 March] 1638 – 10 April [O.S. 31 March] 1671) was the first wife of James, Duke of York (the future King James II of England and VII of Scotland), and the mother of two monarchs, Mary II of England and Scotland and Anne of Great Britain.[1]

Prior to her marriage she served as a Maid of Honour to Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange.

Contents

Early years

She was born on 12 March 1638 (Old Style) or 22 March 1638 (New Style),[2] at Cranbourne Lodge, Windsor in Berkshire, to Frances Aylesbury, daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, and to Sir Edward Hyde (later 1st Earl of Clarendon) of the Hyde family from Norbury in Cheshire.

In 1659, at Breda in the Netherlands, she allegedly married James, then Duke of York, in a secret ceremony. The royal family at this time remained in exile following the English Civil War, and Anne's father served as the loyal Royalist chief adviser to the prospective King Charles II of England, James's elder brother. Anne was Maid of Honour to Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, sister of Charles and James. It was during this time that James seduced Anne while she was in his sister's service and Charles forced the reluctant James to marry Anne, saying that her strong character would be a positive influence on his weak-willed brother.[3]

Duchess of York

The couple went through an official but private marriage ceremony on 3 September 1660, in London, following the English 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. Anne was not a beautiful woman; in fact, Samuel Pepys slights her as being downright plain; however the French Ambassador described her as having "courage, cleverness, and energy almost worthy of a King's blood".[4]

Anne and James' first child, Charles, was born less than two months after their marriage, but died in infancy, as did five further sons and daughters. Only two daughters survived: Mary (born 30 April 1662 O.S.) and Anne (born 6 February 1665 O.S.). According to the Dictionary of National Biography, she gave birth to "her eighth child, a daughter, on 9 February 1671 (O.S.), but by now her fatal illness, probably breast cancer, was in an advanced stage".[5] On 10 April 1671 (31 March O.S.), about seven weeks after the birth of their youngest child, Anne died, aged 33, at St. James's Palace and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 15 April 1671 (5 April O.S.).

Catholicism

Late in her life, the Duchess of York secretly converted to Catholicism, much to the horror of her staunchly Anglican family. After her death, sometime about 1672, her widower also converted to the Roman Catholic faith. At the order of James's older brother King Charles, however, James's and Anne's daughters received a Protestant education.

King James was overthrown in a revolution against his Catholic rule in 1688, and Anne Hyde's daughter Mary and her son-in-law, William of Orange, jointly assumed the throne. After James, no British King or Queen has affirmed belief in the Catholic faith.

After Anne Hyde, no other English woman would marry an heir presumptive or heir apparent to the British throne until the marriage of Lady Diana Spencer to Charles, Prince of Wales in 1981.

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.
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.
James, Duke of Cambridge 12 July 1663 20 June 1667 Died in infancy.
Anne, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland 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.
Charles, Duke of Kendal 4 July 1666 20 June 1667 Died in infancy.
Edgar, Duke of Cambridge 14 September 1667 8 June 1671 Died in infancy.
Henrietta 13 January 1669 15 November 1669 Died in infancy.
Catherine 9 February 1671 5 December 1671 Died in infancy.

Ancestry

Media portrayals

Sources

  1. ^ Anne Hyde in National Dictionary of Biography
  2. ^ http://www.Worldroots.com
  3. ^ The Queens of England, Barbara Softly, p. 91
  4. ^ Antonia Fraser, King Charles II, p. 202
  5. ^ "Queen Anne". English Monarchs - Kings and Queens of England. 2004. http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/stuart_8.htm. Retrieved July 12, 2011. 
  6. ^ Maclagan, Michael; Louda, Jiří (1999). Line of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe. London: Little, Brown & Co. pp. 27. ISBN 0-85605-469-1