The last note prompted me to examine Queen Anne's life in a little more detail. The problem is that her life was very complex and there were many factors at work with a lot of people who tried to influence her. She was born in 1665 to James, Duke of York and, afterwards, James II. Some people wanted her to be a Catholic and others wanted her to be a Protestant. It could be said about Anne that she did have a mind of her own and she was determined to be a Protestant.
When she was 18 years of age, she married George, Prince of Denmark. George's brother was king of Denmark, and instead of the marriage of Anne and George producing good feelings between England and Denmark, many people in England noted that the French had a strong influence in Denmark. Therefore, anything that came out of Denmark was bad. This was the temper of the times. Every government seemed to be busy interfering in other governments.
The marriage of Anne and George was happy and both of them liked the quiet fireside rather than the raucous crowd. She took her duties as Queen seriously and often attended the debates in the House of Lords. The sad note was Anne's inability to produce healthy children.
George was a Lutheran and he was not about to give this up for the Anglican church. He held a job in the admiralty and his later duties as the Queen's husband required him to participate in the Anglican church services. This did not bother George but it did bother some of the clerics. George merely found clerics who were not bothered by his ecumenical outlook. The Lutheran clerics which he imported set the pattern in London for a German Lutheran presence which lasted for decades.
Even though Anne was deeply committed to the Anglican church, she did have a kind regard for the German Protestants. In the Palatinate, a Catholic ruler had replaced a Protestant ruler. Though no particular oppression seemed to have resulted from this change, the English, under Queen Anne, did expression their concern for the Protestants.
It was while Queen Anne was on the throne that the great wave of German immigration to America started. How much she was behind this movement is debatable. Some of the literature which was circulating in Germany did have her picture on the cover. Though the feeling in Germany was that the Queen would help anyone who got to England, the exodus was probably launched spontaneously. Queen Anne did lend her immense power to trying to relieve the plight of the Germans who did make it to England. The groundwork was laid in her reign for the migrations of which we became a part.
[Perhaps others could improve upon this note; I invite them to send their thoughts along.]
(22 Nov 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.