‘Last of all the Heavenly Birth’: Queen Anne and Sacral Queenship*

Abstract

This article considers Queen Anne in her capacity as a royal politician. In particular, it examines how she attempted to represent her political authority and how this intersected with prevailing perceptions of female rule and ideas about the sacred basis to monarchy. It analyses the iconographical meanings embedded in Antonio Verrio's decorative scheme of 1703–5 for the queen's drawing room at Hampton Court and suggests ideas behind Anne's revival of the ceremony of touching for the king's evil. The article argues that Anne used both initiatives to emphasize the sacral quality of her queenship and it goes on to explore her reasons for doing so in the context of pre‐ and post‐revolutionary projections and understandings of kingly – and queenly – authority.