Memoirs of Celebrated Female Sovereigns (Volume 2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1832 Excerpt: ...the bounds of decorum. Lord Oxford at length suddenly resigned his office of treasurer; there was a privy council held in consequence, which lasted till two o'clock in the morning, and so agitated and fatigued the poor queen, that she declared she could not survive it: this was on the 29th of July; soon afterward she was seized with a kind of apoplexy, of which, after lingering almost insensible for two days, she expired on the 1st of August, 1714, in the 50th year of her age: she had reigned twelve years and four months. Queen Anne had been rather handsome in her youth; her features were regular, and her figure well proportioned, but her countenance was without interest and her deportment without dignity. If she had lived in a private station she would have passed through the world as an amiable woman; and if the same qualities which make a good housewife would have made an efficient sovereign, she would have been exemplary. Those about her were aware of her mental deficiencies; they supplied or concealed them, and availed themselves of her weakness for their own purposes. The people at large beheld her from a distance: they regarded her with affection and reverence, as an amiable wife and mother, and a strict Protestant, who protected them from the horrors of French invasion, pretenders, popery, and wooden shoes, all of which were mixed up together in the popular imagination. They loved her for her gracious manners, her blameless life, and her merciful sway: and her subjects of all parties united in giving her the appellation of Good Queen Anne but history will pause before it ratifies that most expressive and comprehensive title. MARIA THERESA, /J' y, u.-, EMPRESS OF GERMANY AND QUEEN OF HUNGARY. Maria Theresa succeeded to the vast hereditary poss...