- Ascended the throne as queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on March 8, 1702. She became the first monarch of Great Britain on May 1, 1707, after the union of England and Scotland.
- She was pregnant 17 times in her lifetime, and only five pregnancies resulted in live births. Her son Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, was her only child to survive infancy, but died at age 11 of an unknown illness.
- She was the only female heir apparent to the English or British throne in history, which was unusual because succession depended on male-preference primogeniture, so female heirs were usually the heir presumptive. After Anne's father, King James II, was deposed in 1688, the throne passed to Anne's older sister Mary II and brother-in-law William III, who reigned as co-monarchs -- Mary had the stronger claim as the older daughter of the former monarch, while her husband was also her first cousin and next in line himself after Mary and Anne, and Mary insisted on reigning with him. Mary predeceased William, who was allowed to continue reigning alone. Anne was the only eligible living child of the James II (Anne's half-brother James was barred as a Catholic), and had a stronger claim than William or any children he might father, so the throne passed to her on his death.
- She suffered from gout for much of her life which frequently rendered her lame, and had to be carried to her coronation in an open sedan chair.
- She is the most recent English or British monarch to deny royal assent to a bill of Parliament, when she vetoed the Scottish Militia Bill in 1708.
- She is credited with popularized the term "pretender" when referring to a person who claims a throne they do not actually hold. She would refer to her half-brother James Stuart, who claimed her throne but was constitutionally barred from it because he was Roman Catholic, as "the pretender".
- In 1701, Anne was heir apparent but had no surviving children, so Parliament chose the 71-year-old Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of King James I and Anne's first cousin once removed, as next in line to the throne after Anne. Sophia enjoyed much better health than the sickly Anne, despite being 35 years older than her, and many considered it a possibility that Sophia would outlive Anne and become queen. Anne ultimately outlived Sophia, but only by two months, and the throne passed to Sophia's son George.
- She was the first married English or British queen regnant to reign alone, as the husbands of Mary I and Mary II had been made co-monarchs with their wives. Anne's husband, Prince George of Denmark, received no special titles as the royal consort.
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