Lewis XIII. died in 1643, Anne, as mother of the infant monarch, was appointed regent, and displayed no ordinary political tact in making Cardinal Mazarin her minister. The Parisians, however, were uneasy: Mazarin was a foreigner, his financial policy was unpopular, and an insurrection arose which might have assumed fearful dimensions. It is known in French history as the war of the Fronde. The queen, the cardinal, and their partizans, were opposed to the nobility of the kingdom and the citizens of the capital. The former finally prevailed. The higher and middle classes were thoroughly humiliated, as the result of Anne's administration. She died at the age of sixty-four in 1666. She was beautiful in person, had much of German phlegm and Austrian pride, yet she was amiable and forgiving.—T. J.
ANNE of Beaujeu, the eldest daughter of Lewis XI. of France, was born in 1462. Her father, jealous of her talents, married her to Pierre de Bourbon, sire of Beaujeu, a prince of quiet manners and dull understanding. But on his deathbed, Lewis acknowledged the claims of Anne, by appointing her governess of the kingdom, during the minority of her brother, Charles VIII., who at that time was only fourteen years of age. John, duke of Bourbon, the brother of her husband, and Lewis, duke of Orleans, heir presumptive to the crown, disputed her claims to this pre-eminence; but such were her tact and influence, that the States-General decided in her favour. Lewis XI. had a deformed daughter, a younger sister of Anne, whom the duke of Orleans was forced to marry. He was but a sorry brother-in-law; and having insulted Anne, she ordered him to be arrested, but he shut himself up in his fortress on the Loire. Being pressed by her forces, he speedily fled, and sought refuge in Brittany. Anne, pursuing the favourite policy of her father, was not reluctant to find an excuse for annexing that country to the French crown. She attacked the Bretons, and routed them; took the duke, their leader, prisoner; and by the politic marriage of the young king of France to her namesake, the youthful duchess of Brittany, who had just succeeded her father, Francis II., she fulfilled all her wishes. She retained her rank and influence after Charles VIII. had ascended the throne, and when, dying childless in 1498, he was succeeded by the duke of Orleans, that prince respected her claims and position, and said, "that it did not become the king of France to avenge the feuds of the duke of Orleans." Anne died November 14th, 1522, leaving one daughter, Susanne, heiress of her magnificent possessions, who married her cousin, Charles de Montpensier, constable of Bourbon.—T. J.
ANNE of Bohemia, first queen consort of Richard II., king of England, was the eldest daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. and his fourth wife, Elizabeth of Pomerania. She was born about the year 1367 at Prague, and married in the year 1380 to the unfortunate Richard before he attained his majority. She may justly be entitled one of the nursing-mothers of the great Reformation, for she protected Wickliffe towards the close of his life, when threatened by the council of Lambeth in 1382. She was a diligent student of the Holy Bible. It was she who obtained an amnesty for the multitude who had become involved in the insurrection headed by Wat Tyler. This mediation, and her conspicuous virtues, acquired for her the title of the "Good Queen Anne." She died without issue, on the 7th July, 1394, at the royal palace of Shene, now Richmond, and was buried at Westminster abbey. Her husband, inconsolable for her loss, buried her with splendid obsequies. There is reason to believe that the broad doctrines of the Reformation found their way through the influence of her court to Bohemia, and led to the rise, in her native country, of the Calixtines, and other bodies like-minded, whose influence yet survives. Jerome of Prague and John Huss, Ziska the blind general, and some of the most important leaders and movements of the Thirty-Years' War, would probably never have excited attention, had it not been for the marriage of good Queen Anne with Richard II.—T. J.
ANNE of Brittany or Bretagne, only daughter of Francis II., duke of Brittany, was born at Nantes, January 26, 1476. When a child five years old, the family of Edward IV. of England had caused her to be betrothed to the young prince of Wales, and it was not until his untimely death that the contract was dissolved. Lewis of Orleans, heir presumptive to the French throne, when he fled to Brittany to avoid the anger of Anne of Beaujeu [see article, Anne of Beaujeu], became deeply enamoured of her; and Anne, not yet fifteen, gave him in return her first love. She was soon after married by proxy to Maximilian of Austria, whose high-sounding titles are said to have dazzled her ambition; but her clever namesake of Beaujeu had other intentions. Anxious to attach Brittany to the kingdom of France, she demanded Anne in marriage for Charles VIII., and encircled the duchy with her armies to secure the accomplishment of her desires. Anne of Brittany resisted with such means and as long as she could: nor did she yield until the duke of Orleans, her favoured suitor, advised her to give way. Married to Charles, December 16, 1491, she acted with fidelity and discretion, and at his death displayed deep grief. But her old lover, now Louis XII., divorced the deformed lady he had been compelled to espouse, and soon persuaded Anne to forget her sorrow by marrying him at Nantes. It is said that as queen of France she exercised unbounded influence over her husband, and her detractors affirm that she sacrificed France to the petty intrigues of Brittany. She died in 1514.—T. J.
ANNE of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII. of England, was the second daughter of John III., duke of Cleves, surnamed "the Pacificator." She was born 22nd of September, 1516, and educated in the Lutheran religion. Holbein painted a matchless miniature of the princess, which charmed the uxorious Henry; but when she arrived in England, and met him at Rochester, he recoiled from her in bitter disappointment. The portrait had evidently been flattered, for Holbein had omitted the marks of small-pox which disfigured her face. The amiable and unfortunate lady did her best to propitiate her brutal bridegroom, acting with singular courtesy and forbearance. She was married on the 6th of January, 1540, being the feast of the Epiphany; attiring herself with elaborate splendour, and gratifying all by her gentleness and dignified modesty. Perceiving that Henry's dislike to her was insurmountable, his parasites proposed that she should be divorced; a measure which was adopted by convocation and parliament in July; and Cranmer, who "had pronounced the nuptial benediction, had the mortifying office of dissolving the marriage." She soon became a convert to the Roman catholic church, stayed in England, survived Henry, and died peacefully at Chelsea palace on the 17th of July, 1577. She was magnificently buried in Westminster abbey, near the high altar, at the feet of King Sebert, the original founder. To Miss Strickland's "Queens of England," the reader is referred for ample particulars concerning her daily habits, costume, and mode of life.—T. J.
ANNE of Cyprus, married in 1431 to Lewis, duke of Savoy. She died in 1462, celebrated throughout the country of her adoption for prudence in the management of public affairs.
ANNE, Queen of England, second daughter of James II. by his first wife, Ann Hyde, daughter of Lord Clarendon the historian, was born in the year 1664. When she was five years old, her father, then duke of York, joined the church of Rome; nevertheless, both she and her elder sister Mary, who afterwards married William of Orange and became queen of England, were educated as protestants. In 1683 Anne married Prince George of Denmark, brother of the king of that country. He was a well-meaning, inoffensive man, but intellectually a mere cipher. He went by the nickname "Est il possible," a phrase which was continually in his mouth. Several children were the fruit of the marriage; but all save one, the duke of Gloucester, of whom we shall speak presently, died in infancy. It was not long after their marriage that both Anne and her husband fell under the commanding influence of the Churchills, afterwards duke and duchess of Marlborough. It was by means of the ascendancy which Lady Churchill—the famous Sarah Jennings—had obtained over the mind of the princess, that she was induced to persuade her husband to imitate Churchill's treachery, and desert to the camp of William, on the very same night that he had supped with his father-in-law. Nor did Anne herself act a less reprehensible part. Her father had always treated her with the utmost indulgence; yet, at the very crisis of his affairs, she left London clandestinely with Lady Churchill and the bishop of London, and proceeded to a meeting of William's adherents at Northampton. James seems to have felt her desertion more keenly than that of any other person. On the receipt of the intelligence he burst into tears, and exclaimed, "God help me! my very children have forsaken me." By the Act of Settlement, passed after the expulsion of James, the crown was settled upon the Princess Anne and her heirs, should her sister Mary die without issue. For several years after the accession of William, Anne lived in retirement at Berkeley House. Her private character was in
