Anne Stuart (1665-1714), Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, succeeded William III to the throne in 1702. She was the daughter of the deposed Catholic king, James II, but was of the Anglican faith. Liberal, Irish member of Parliament, Justin McCarthy, writing in 1902, creates in sparkling, uncluttered prose a panoramic canvas of Anne and her times. In the second of the two volumes, McCarthy describes the Battle of Malplaquet, where Marlborough meets the French in “a contest of hand-to-hand fighting on a gigantic scale.” Then follows “the darkest chapter in the record of Queen Anne’s reign,” as a parliamentary conspiracy, headed by Bolingbroke, topples Marlborough from power. From Parliament we move to London’s coffee houses where Londoners gather to read the “Spectator” and where, in 1714, they anxiously await news of the dying Queen. Scarcely has George I ascended his throne, when Jacobites at home and abroad begin to plot a Stuart Restoration under the son of the ousted James. (Pamela Nagami)     [chương_files]  

Justin McCarthy (1830-1912), liberal member of Parliament and historian. He brings the great 18th Century personalities to life: Walpole and Swift, Bolingbroke and Mary Wortley Montagu, the Old Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the four King Georges. This second volume brings us the terrible death of Queen Caroline, Swift and Stella, the Jacobite rising of 1745, the Wesleyan Movement, Clive’s victories, and the struggle for Canada. – Summary by Pamela Nagami     [chương_files]  

Anne Stuart (1665-1714), Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, succeeded William III to the throne in 1702. She was the daughter of the deposed Catholic king, James II, but was of the Anglican faith. Liberal, Irish member of Parliament, Justin McCarthy, writing in 1902, creates in sparkling, uncluttered prose a panoramic canvas of Anne and her times. In the first of the two volumes, the brilliant commander, the Duke of Marlborough, defeats the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim, while the flagship of the admiral of the fleet, Sir Cloudesley Shovell, strikes the rocks near the Isles of Scilly and is lost with all eight hundred hands. We are at street level in rowdy London with its aristocratic bully boys, the Mohocks, its coffee houses, and its theaters. We meet the great Tories, Harley and Bolingbroke, and encounter the satiric spirit who haunts it all, Jonathan Swift. (Pamela Nagami)     [chương_files]