«Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing Fathers, And Queens Thy Nursing Mothers»: How Queen Anne’s Resilience Shaped Her Queenship

This chapter argues that Queen Anne’s personal resilience was not merely a biographical trait, but a structuring principle of her queenship, shaping both its public representation and its political practice. Taking as its starting point the coronation image of the monarch as the “nursing mother” of both her people and the Church of England, it shows how this maternal rhetoric articulated a model of rulership grounded in care, disinterestedness, and moral authority. Rather than treating Anne’s chronic illness and childlessness as purely private misfortunes, the chapter aims to demonstrate how these experiences informed her understanding of sovereignty and her persistent commitment to what she defined as the 'true interest' of the kingdom. Through an analysis of key episodes of her reign, it argues that the language of maternal care underpinned Anne’s pursuit of moderation, her preference for mixed ministries, and her resistance to party domination. At the same time, this ideal of disinterested and maternal rule generated enduring tensions with leading political figures, revealing a monarch determined to retain control over government while resisting the structural pressures of an increasingly party-based system. In doing so, the chapter reinterprets Anne’s resilience as a political trait that both sustained and constrained her exercise of power.