Anne, Queen of Great Britain

Born in 1665 during her uncle Charles II's reign, Anne was raised Anglican on royal orders despite her father James's Catholicism, a faith so unpopular it cost him the throne in 1688. She married Prince George of Denmark in 1683, then watched her sister Mary and brother-in-law William take the crown in the Glorious Revolution; the sisters grew estranged over money and status until Mary's death in 1694. Anne became queen in 1702 and steered through the War of the Spanish Succession, favoring moderate Tories until she purged Whigs from office in 1710. Her tight bond with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, curdled into enmity - the Duchess later savaged her in memoirs that shaped Anne's reputation for centuries. In 1707 the Acts of Union merged England and Scotland under her rule, making her the first sovereign of Great Britain. But poor health, obesity, and the heartbreak of seventeen failed pregnancies left her without an heir; when she died in 1714, the crown passed to her second cousin George I under the Act of Settlement, which barred all Catholics and closed the Stuart chapter for good.