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Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Anne Somerset (Author), Hannah Curtis (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)

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She ascended the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1702 at age 37, Britain's last Stuart monarch. Five years later she united two of her realms, England and Scotland, as a sovereign state, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. She had a history of personal misfortune, overcoming ill health (she suffered from crippling arthritis; by the time she became queen she was a virtual invalid) and living through 17 miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births in 17 years. By the end of her comparatively short 12-year reign, Britain had emerged as a great power; the succession of outstanding victories won by her general, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, had humbled France and laid the foundations for Britain's future naval and colonial supremacy.

While the queen's military was performing dazzling exploits on the continent, her own attention - indeed her realm - rested on a more intimate conflict: the female friendship on which her happiness had for decades depended and which became, for her, a source of utter torment.

At the core of Anne Somerset's riveting new biography, published to great acclaim in England, is a portrait of this deeply emotional, complex bond between two very different women: Queen Anne - reserved, stolid, shrewd; and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the queen's great general - beautiful, willful, outspoken, and whose acerbic wit was equally matched by her fearsome temper.

Against a fraught background, the much-admired historian, author of Elizabeth I , tells the extraordinary story of how Sarah goaded and provoked the queen beyond endurance.

Listening Length

28 hours and 24 minutes
Author

Anne Somerset
Narrator

Hannah Curtis
Audible release date

September 6, 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audio
ASIN

B01JPCXE6U
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	28 hours and 24 minutes
Author	Anne Somerset
Narrator	Hannah Curtis
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	September 06, 2016
Publisher	Random House Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01JPCXE6U
Best Sellers Rank	#134,846 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #181 in Biographies of Royalty (Audible Books & Originals) #412 in Great Britain History (Audible Books & Originals) #1,349 in Biographies of Women

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4.1 out of 5

573 global ratings

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T. A.

Excellent Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2023

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A really well written account of Queen Anne of England. Compelling, interesting and enlightening. Fantastic price for such a big history book. Book arrived in perfect condition on time. Thank you!

One person found this helpful

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see above

A monarch who improved on the job!

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2014

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For a woman who was neither brought up to nor expected to ever be a monarch, Queen Anne acquitted herself "royally". She had certain goals and attributes to which she remained faithful (e.g.: devotion to and faithfulness to her loving husband, protection of royal (read executive) prerogatives and the Anglican religion) and which she followed and defended with consummate and unexpected political skill. She also chose her chief ministers with skill although, unfortunately, she failed to use the same skill in choice of friends. In addition, she never let her considerable medical illness interfere with her devotion to and her responsibility toward her duties. Most impressively, Anne was a monarch who grew into her job and, as a result, left an impressive and beneficial legacy for her country.

Although the subject of this book is fascinating, I found the "cast of characters" too voluminous for me to follow. This was particularly evident in the long history of the relationship between Anne and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, which is so detailed that it appears to be, "She said...", and then "Well, then "She said..." ad infinitum. This may be difficult to wade through but the writing style only indicates how well this book was researched. It is a monumental biography and should be read by anyone interested in European and British history.

4 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Detailed Picture of a Real Queen

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2019

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I admit I knew almost nothing about this time in English history so reading this was a learning experience. It was interesting to see the rise of the Whigs and Tories and to carry that through to the revolution. Also instructive to compare the partisan politics of the time to today. I also had no idea how England went from the Stuart's to the Germans.

I have to admit when I saw the movie The Favourite I was sure it has to be about a fictional queen and Lady in Waiting because I couldn't believe a Queen would let an underlying treat her the way she did in the movie. However, this book makes their relationship out about the same.

The book itself is written as a historical biography with lots of footnotes, quotes and sources. It is not written to mimic historical fiction or much of a story so if you don't enjoy the academic feel you probably won't like this. It is not a lyrical book but it is fairly easy to read. I would recommend to learn more about Anne a d the politics of the time.

3 people found this helpful

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Simone 08

Who was Queen Anne?

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2015

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Who was Queen Anne?

If you could answer this question off the top of your head, then "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din."

I was reading a biography of Daniel Defoe when it was mentioned that he was a spy for Queen Anne sent to Scotland prior to the melding of England and Scotland to create Great Britain. It was then that I asked myself that question. As a Canadian who had been subjected in grade school to British history, I scoured the depths of memory. The only Queen Anne I could recall was Anne Boleyn, and this was a century and a half after that poor lady had literally lost her head to the whim of an outrageously cruel king.

My next stop was to Wikipedia, where I read a short biography of Queen Anne. Then I proceeded directly to Amazon and purchased Anne Somerset's superb biography of this queen. (All in 15 minutes: don't you just adore the Internet?)

Here is what I learned. Anne reigned from 1702 until her death in 1714. She was sister-in-law to William of Orange (William III) and sister of the monarch's wife, Mary. During Anne's short reign, England and Scotland were united as Great Britain; Winston Churchill's great ancestor, The Duke of Marlborough, more or less won the battle of the Spanish Succession (it's complicated); Daniel Defoe and Jonathon Swift were active members of her team and Frederick Handel wrote the music to 2 of her birthday odes, for which she awarded him a pension of 200 pounds; Britain was triumphant in the Treaty of Utrecht, which brought a somewhat settlement after the War of Spanish Succession, and began Britain's reign of world domination; and Britain clung tenaciously to dominance of the lucrative slave trade.

Queen Anne married George, a prince of Denmark, who, unusually for those times (and perhaps even these) was a true blue husband who loved her devotedly. Anne suffered through 17 pregnancies and the only child who survived died before reaching his teens. She was ill much of the time with a combination of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus symptoms of the skin (at that time, they referred to her disease as "gout" but the symptoms were closer to what is now known as "dermatomyositis.) Many times, she could only attend functions in a sedan chair or hold court in her "closet" (her private quarters). She became dangerously obese and loved to eat and drink to excess.

In the New World (North America, (i.e., Canada and what became the United States) The Brits lost their first war in Quebec to oust the French from any North American control (they would be successful about 50 years later under General Wolf). And - there was a curious occurrence going on in Pennsylvania when one of its early governors dressed as a woman to attend balls and functions because only in this way, he said, could he fully represent the queen.

Anne was the final Stuart monarch. George 1 succeeded her, thus ushering in the House of Hanover.

That is what I learned about Queen Anne's reign. Oh - and one item more. The fighting of the Whigs and Tories in Parliament and all the back-biting and deadlocks reminded me so much of all that is going on between the U.S. Democrats and Republicans these days. How? Well, read the book and you'll find out.

23 people found this helpful

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Guillermo Ais

Lectura muy recomendable.

Reviewed in Spain on July 17, 2021

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La mayoría de las personas conocen a la reina Ana, en el mejor de los casos, por haber dado su nombre a un estilo arquitectónico y decorativo; en el peor, por haber visto la película “La Favorita “.
La biografía que escribe Anne Somerset es clarificadora. De forma muy amena describe las circunstancias que contribuyeron al desarrollo de su personalidad, muy distante de la imagen de mujer frívola, alejada de la realidad y fácilmente manipulable que se nos quiere transmitir.
Un libro bien escrito, que se lee fácilmente y que creo que refleja bien las tremendas fuerzas, fruto del egoísmo de la mayoría de los que le rodearon, a las que se vio sometida una mujer a la que no se le preparó para enfrentarlas.
Recomiendo su lectura.

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Philomena Trevor-Hunt

The Churchills are very pushy!!!

Reviewed in Australia on February 9, 2020

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Loved it and the historic details were really wonderful -I first read about Anne & Sarah in a book years ago by Jean Plaidy and loved it. My congratulations to the author.

One person found this helpful

Lukey

Three Stars

Reviewed in Canada on August 15, 2015

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Wasn't the queen anne I thought it was

Edward B. Crutchley

Mrs Morley and her constant challenges

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2013

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This is a remarkable, pacey and informative account of an overlooked life and its many challenges that leaves the reader wholly in sympathy with its subject. Privately known as `Mrs Morley', her life was dominated by feuds of the State - with her father James II and Jacobites over the Protestant versus Catholic faiths; questions of succession at the waning of the Stuart era; constant acrimony and polarisation between Whigs and Tories. The author explains how, as queen, Anne tried to avoid being perceived as settling too much in any one political camp by appointing ministers from both. She lived through the reigns of her uncle, father, and then elder sister, Mary. There was the constant potential rivalry for her throne or succession from her half-brother, living outside Paris at Saint Germain-en-Laye (under the protection of her arch-enemy in the Wars of Succession, Louis XIV). She lived in a different age, one of sedan chairs, smallpox, and military campaigns that only took place between spring and autumn, and she even used to hold sessions where she touched her subjects smitten by scrofula. At any time she could dissolve Parliament for which only 10% of the electorate had the vote, and which met only five months a year. She found she could appoint peers en masse in order to bump up her strength for a critical vote in Parliament. Her reign saw many occurrences that defined the centuries to follow - the contested union with Scotland; emergence of the Bank of England; free press; the first daily newspaper, the Courant; an emerging national debt. It saw the rise of Churchill to become the Duke of Marlborough, the Battles of Blenheim and Ramillies, and the capture of Gibraltar. On a personal level, she suffered constant bullying from Sarah Churchill (`Mrs Freeman'), for a long time her best friend and confidant. She was surrounded by never-ending public squabbles over access to her confidence and the intricacies of close relationships, especially with Abigail Masham, nee Hill, a woman of her bedchamber. She underwent seventeen pregnancies, with no issue surviving beyond ten years, and suffered from physical health problems and obesity (she loved chocolates), all temporarily abated by visits to take the waters at Tunbridge Wells or Bath. Her loves were her horticulture, hunting, horses (she had a stud at Newmarket), and not least her husband (after whose death she mourned for two years).

15 people found this helpful

J Hearn Tracy Hearn

Such a good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2022

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I really enjoyed this book,it was so well written and was really detailed starting with Queen Ann birth,lots of information about the people in Ann life like her parents and sisters,her husband and her best friend Sarah,the book was so interesting,l have previously read in Charles 11 book about Ann and thought she was lazy and that her husband was useles but this book really gets into the characters of Ann and George and l really liked them both,l love the detail in this book especially about the people,some books on kings and queens can be hard going but this was really interesting and l could not put it down,thankyou for such a good read.

4 people found this helpful

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