Stuart upbringing
Anne was born at St James's Palace in February 1665, the younger sister of Mary and the second surviving daughter of James Duke of York and his first wife Anne Hyde. Her childhood unfolded inside a restored Stuart court still haunted by civil war, religious suspicion, and the question of succession. Although her father later converted openly to Catholicism, Anne and Mary were raised Protestant at the insistence of Charles II, who understood that monarchy depended on more than bloodline: it had to be acceptable to a Protestant political nation. Childhood eye trouble sent Anne to France for treatment, but her deepest loyalties remained Anglican and domestic. Her friendship with Sarah Jennings, later Sarah Churchill, began before either woman held real power. That bond gave Anne emotional intimacy in a world of ceremony, and later gave politics a route straight into her private life.
