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WHAT HAPPENED TO QUEEN ANNE’S CHILDREN? Stuart history documentary | Royal history | History Calling
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- čas přidán 17. 12. 2020
- WHAT HAPPENED to Queen Anne's children by her husband, Prince George of Denmark and why? Queen Anne of Great Britain had 17 PREGNANCIES, but no surviving heir to the throne. Her last child, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester died aged just 11. So why did Queen Anne miscarry so many of her children and why did those who survived birth die? Discover the tragic tale in this Queen Anne Stuart documentary from History Calling. You’ll hear about Queen Anne’s medical history, what modern doctors think the problem was and the reproductive difficulties faced by some of the other women of the British royal family in the mid to late seventeenth century, including her mother Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, sister Mary II and step-mother, Mary of Modena.
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Why do you think Queen Anne lost so many of her children to miscarriage and stillbirth? Let me know in the comments below and check out my Patreon site for extra perks at www.patreon.com/historycalling
Having had one miscarriage and 4 live births after, I know there are SO many things that can go wrong. I'm O neg and my husband was A pos so I had to have that shot every birth thereafter to prevent antibodies. I. Wondering if that might be part of it, and I think it would depend on the blood type of the baby? There's So many things that can go wrong with the mother and the baby. Poor lady! How heartbreaking to hold a baby for two hours to have that baby die in your arms.
So many possibilities! Close family marriages over the time, like the Pharos lead to birth defects & illnesses. So very sad for her!
Endometriosis? Diabetes?
She looks as if she has thyroid problems. It caused me 7 miscarriages.
It could have been the constant pregnancies robbing her of the ability to have them?
I'm amazed she didn't go mad. Somehow she kept it together and pushed herself through all of those pregnancies. Her legacy for me is her strength and determination.
The fact her body actually managed to have 18 pregnancy’s back then without giving out after then 5 or 6th child is amazing
She was incredible. She and Queen Charlotte (15 children off the top of my head, 13 of whom lived) were amazing.
Lots of people had just as many children. My gt grandmother had 11 pregnancies in rural Ireland. 8 survived infancy. I have nursed elderly ladies who had 13, 14 and 15 children or were one of these huge families. But then they were only working class people so not important enough to be recorded. These were not unusual during the 19th century. Many infants died but without effective birth control pregnancies following one after another were normal.
Theold grave yards are full of childbrides who perish edin child bith.
@@helenamcginty4920 My great grandmother had 12 and they all survived 😳
Large families were the norm before
the 20th century (When birth control
became available to the masses)
Also most people felt the need to
reproduce because of the
high
death rates. These high death
rates began to decline in the
later part of the 19th century
(i.e. late 1800's) in Europe
Prior to that only the elite and the
well-to-do had access to condoms
(often called "French envelopes")
that were made out of sheep's
intestine (expensive/labor intensive
to produce)
Just picture this poor woman, heartbroken beyond anything I could ever imagine, but instead of being able to properly mourn her last lost child, back into the marital bed, pressuring herself into getting pregnant over and over again, just because she was the queen and needed an heir. It squeezes my heart.
I know. She had an awful time of it. She wasn't actually Queen yet during her pregnancies, but she was the only one who was expected to be able to produce an heir for the Stuart dynasty for most of the 1680s and 1690s (and she didn't appreciate it when her step-mother suddenly had a boy and displaced Anne and her children, but that's a story for another time).
My heart breaks for her ... I just wonder if her pregnancies may have fared better if she hadn't been pressured into conceiving and had more time to recover between the pregnancies.
@ Laura Blues
It is heart-breaking.
That sort of thing was common
for people who owned property
in particular the aristocracy
(needed an heir) Before the
industrial revolution most
families wealth was tied up
in land that was supposed
to be given to one's children.
The poor? The need to
reproduce was just as
important because in
one's old age, one was
provided for by one's
children/grandchildren.
Vast numbers of farmers
were needed to produce
the food for the nation.
@@HistoryCalling uh if she had a new baby brother who survived into adulthood that would be good news for her. She doesn’t have to take on the burden of being Queen and keep being pregnant just to produce an heir.
😪unusual or not, this woman must have been....miserable.
You dont have 18
pregnancies and that many deaths ...
and live any other way.
♥️💜♥️
I'm so sorry!
It is almost unthinkable mental and physical torture to lose 17 babies.
Poor woman!
I know, I can hardly bear to think of her anguish.
So Sad
To prove how virile the king was you had to constantly be pregnant.
Lucille Ball had 15 miscarriages. 17 pregnancies all together. Women are amazing!
Her losing two pregnancies, as well as her daughters, dying within days of each other in the same year, is horrific. :-( Poor Queen Anne.
I know, she really had the most awful time of it.
Margaret of Scotland was married at thirteen and lost all of her children but 2.
@@HistoryCalling Yes. According to Wikipedia, Anne’s first child was stillborn and the fourth and twelfth
Were miscarriages. Was that true?
@@juliecopelandbarrows2971not everything needs to be a comparison. Both women suffered. Millions of women suffer. One's suffering doesn't negate the other.
Miscarriages and infant mortality may have been common for the time, but I’m sure the heartbreak is no less painful.
I found out 3 years ago that that is what caused my 9 miscarriages, it was a relief and a curse at the sametime, I feel for the Queen in those days no matter who's fault it was, it was always the woman's fault, the guilt is real and sometimes debilitating.
Oh Kathleen, I'm so sorry to read that you've gone though that. Obviously we don't know each other, but it nevertheless breaks my heart to hear what you've endured. Please never feel guilty (easier said than done I know). This was no more your fault than it was Anne's, or any other woman who's suffered such a loss. I hope life is being kinder to you these days.
Very sorry. God bless you.
I am so sorry. Seven years of no pregnancy and 4 IVF attempts here. The guilt and sadness are overwhelming. Sending you love and hugs.
❤️🙏🏾❤️
*hugs*
Somewhat off topic, but Mary Stuart Queen of Scots, an ancestor of Anne, executed 1587, When her tomb in under floor of Westminster was opened in Victorian times, her casket with it's lead seals intact after over 300 years, was found to be surrounded by the tiny caskets of many of Anne's dead or miscarried babies-
I'm 81 now but in my work in UK as a young woman I visited old people a lot, and was amazed at how many of the old ladies used to tell me that they had 4 or 5 children 'but only raised nn ' (less than the birth number) - that told me how common it was to lose a child in those days...it was very sad, and that is right up to WW2 I am talking about. So we must never take for granted how lucky we are to live in modern times & have a lot of the issues that took children at an early age now prevented .....all the childhood diseases were common before the max vax era. Some of those antivaxers out there need to be educated on what the situation used to be before such things were globally available ! And those poor women of the previous centuries had to endure so much heartbreak !
Oh absolutely. It's actually amazing that she survived so many births and miscarriages herself, regardless of what happened to her children. Some women, like Queen Jane Seymour, or Princess Charlotte, died their first time out of the gate.
Wow your amazing I truly mean that. 😀😀
That's very sad indeed. I am sorry for those ladies.
Both my grandmother, and my husband’s grandmother (not the same person, promise) died about 10 days after our respective fathers were born. The weird thing is he’s American and I’m from the U.K. does the 10 days point to infection?
@@HistoryCalling My Irish Grannie gave birth to 11 children. She ost one, aged 11 months, her first child. theothers al survived into adulthood. the next chld she lost was my uncle who died aged 22 heroically stopping a horse galloping towards children. he died instantly. When my brother was a baby, my Mother and Father were visiting with us and went out for the evening. Dad forgot his wallet, so they doubled back to her cottage to find her sitting in front of the fire, my infant brother on her lap, singing to him, the bottom of his nightdress. it was the 50s.. and playing with his toes and singing to him 'My baby John'.. that was his name and the name of the son she lost aged 22. Dad told me it was so touching he hurst into tears. She noticed my parents had come in and swiftly said.. Oh.. the MOMENT you left he started to cry (he had been fast asleep), the little DIVIL so I had to bring him down not to wake the girl up (th was me, 2 years older.) Aah. bless those women and what they went through. I know my Dad was brought up, second youngest of the 11 chldren remembering the infant who died aged 11 months.. and so was I years and years later. He was never fogotten in our family. I am talking about him now. He died in 1911.
As a retired Maternal-Child RN with 34 years experience in the field, my first thought was Queen Anne's body was exhausted and didn't have time to recover between miscarriages. Couple that with the "sticky blood" theory, it's surprising that she had the 3 children who survived as long as they did.
The sticky blood theory, now treated with aspirin or heparin, also fits into lupus.
As she was listing them that was what I was thinking. They sounded so close together, I doubt her body could keep up
Factor V Leidon maybe?
@@marydlutes1792 very likely. I also think something like von Willebrandt's disease is possible. Most likely it's because poor Queen Anne fell on her head in the shallow end of the gene pool.
I agree..
17 pregnancies the poor woman,she must have spent the whole of young years being pregnant with nothing but heartbreak. I don't think being a queen back in those would have been much of a life,so much expectation and pressure to create the next king especially when she was supposed to be at fault if no son was produced. Great video
Hi Alice, thanks for watching and commenting. Yes she was pregnant a huge amount of the time and constantly heartbroken I should think. Being royal certainly had its downsides.
Yes, very sad for Anne, indeed..Women,whether Queens or Commoners suffer so much to produce Children..and, in the era Anne lived in, pregnancy and childbearing was extremely dangerous, as I'm sure You're aware. R.I.P to Anne and Her Babies 🕯
She may have had great wealth and privilege and she may have been better nourished, or not, than poor people of the time but she had a life no better than that of a battery hen
My husband's grandmother, born in 1900, had an Rhneg. blood type and lost five of her 9 children. She had three boys, lost 5 children as infants or toddlers, and happily, the ninth, a girl, survived. She spoke of her deep, deep sorrow every time she recognized the signs in another child. One evening, she was holding her sick child and feeling that she couldn't bear it any more. She felt a presence in the room, and looking up, she saw Jesus with her other children. You may not believe that, but it gave her strength to trust that her babies were safe. When she was very old, she would talk about her future hope of being "with Eli (her husband) and the little ones".
Please accept this heartfelt cyberhug, you and all your husband's family.
What a strong lady! Yes, I know she is with her husband and her babies. Sometimes little lives are just not meant to walk this earth for very long (if at all).
I one hundred percent believe that Jesus visited her or gave her that vision to comfort her. He knew she couldn't bear the great loss alone 💔✝️
There is no reason to believe that she actually saw a 2,000-year-old dead man, but I'm still glad that her brain was able to conjure the image she needed to see to find peace.
I am the same blood group, and of Irish descent via my Dad. In earlier times I may have been like those grieving women.
I don’t think it helped that her body wasn’t given time to heal between pregnancies and miscarriages was partially responsible.
Absolutely. I'm sure a modern doctor would have told her to take a year off and just rest.
This is simply a sign of the times. It is amazing she lived long enough to have conceived so many children.
Poor Queen Anne........😢 I can't imagine losing ONE baby, much less SEVENTEEN OR EIGHTEEN! That must've been torture! Lucy Worsley describes her perfectly, theologically fit to rule, but biologically cursed. 😢 Just heartbreaking! 😭 I wish I could hug her. ❤
To think that Queen Anne lived near 50 after 17-18 Pregnancies is a miracle during in the early 1700s
My cousin's wife had a divided uterus of unequal sizes, she gave birth to a healthy boy without knowing there was an issue.
Tragically their next child a daughter was born prematurely at 7 months and was stillborn.
This was when they discovered the problem.
Doctors believe their first child was conceived in the larger side while the girl was in the smaller side and possibly did not get the right amount of blood flow, nutritional value needed.
It was never repaired however once aware they monitored following pregnancies carefully to ensure feotus was growing on the bigger side.
Oh, that's so sad. I'm glad she has the children she has, but that's just tragic about her little girl. Perhaps Anne had something similar.
I can’t imagine losing 17 children. Anne had to have been horrified with the loss of so many children. May those children Rest In Peace
I started listening to the birth and losses and my first thought was I can’t believe there is another woman out there who is like me. I stopped counting at 12 miscarriages. I also had 2 sets of twins that only one survived. I still ended up with 9 children. I can get pregnant so easily, but holding onto them is not so easy. I wonder about her recorded stillbirths. I wonder if she miscarried but the baby was so developed they counted it as a still birth. The fact that they saw the babies sex means she was at least 4 months. So devastating. She didn’t have any little one to hold in the end.
I’m so incredibly sorry for your losses 🙏🏾
Queen Anne’s story is definitely a sad one. Yes infant and childhood mortality was a lot higher then but it’s hard to imagine as a parent myself the pain Anne and George must have experienced losing all 18 of their children. The oldest one only lived to be 11. I honestly think that if she had any other titles other than heir presumptive and Queen, her and her husband would have stopped trying to have children at some point because it was too painful. But being as she was the Queen and last surviving Stuart I’m sure the pressure of duty to produce a living heir was immense.
I have had 13 pregnancies ...(5 still living) ....I cannot imagine her pain , loss, and utter sense of hopelessness and loss of meaning and fulfillment........so many prayers for this tragic figure
Besides losing her children, her hormones must have been fluctuating like crazy. Plus add in post-partum depression.
I can clearly remember a history lesson in which our teacher told us that Anne had had 17 pregnancies. I was astounded, as at that time I had a strange belief that women couldn’t get pregnant more than twice (🤣🤣🤣🤣).
Can you imagine conceiving time after time, and yet still leaving no living child when you died? Awful for any woman, but especially for a Queen.
I had a stillborn boy in 2001 , and I was so shocked and devaststed. I always thought this happenend mor than 100 years ago, like before the 1850s, or in the 3 rd world , but not
in western Eirope
in the 21th ct. I was literally shattered. Obly later I found out that yes there are still many babies stillborn, but that it is not diacussed in society
@@catherinehengen4604 *hugs* one of the folks in my ppd group knew from about the 5th month that her pregancy was going to end in sorrow, too. There was a good chance the baby would be stillborn. He lived about a week, if memory serves.
@@catherinehengen4604 I hope you are able to have healthy children in the future.
Didn't you know anyone who had more than two kids? Where did you think they got the extras from?
@@catherinehengen4604 I am so sorry for your loss. Sadly, you are not alone. Three of my neighbors lost babies late term or at birth. One had a genetic defect and they knew that the girl would be stillborn or live only a few hours. The second neighbor lost her pregnancy on an international flight and there was nothing that could be done. It turned out her 1st child was 4 wks early and her cervix was impaired. With her third pregnancy she had the shoestring technique down to keep the baby safe inside. The third neighbor had already lost their infant son by the time they moved in so I don't know the circumstances. One of my dear friends also had a stillborn daughter in this same time frame due to a kidney defect that the doctor missed diagnosing. My point is this is a very small street not in a development. All of these things happened in the early 2000s.
I’ve read she could have had lupus which does fit many of her other ailments (butterfly rash, joint pain, fatigue) and her pregnancy losses.
“Pregnancy in lupus is prone to complications, including flares of disease activity during pregnancy or in the postpartum period, preeclampsia, miscarriage, stillbirth, intrauterine growth retardation, and preterm birth.”
I'm no medical doctor but that definitely looks like a possibility based on what you say. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)
i was going to suggest endometriosis, but given the above, i'm guessing no
@@HistoryCalling For anybody who may be interested as background information.
After I had miscarried 3 times I was tested for APS (Hughes Syndrome). The test covers 3 sets of antibodies one of which is the lupus anticoagulant. My results showed 2 raised levels but the LA was almost off the charts. When I became pregnant again, literally before I missed my period, I had to inject myself twice daily with heparin, later replaced once daily with clexane and also take aspirin daily. Despite all that I still bled and thought that baby had died too, but my daughter was tough and I carried her to full term, she'll be 24 on Monday. I didn't try to get pregnant again.
Although they don't know what causes APS as it is autoimmune and they think may be triggered by a viral infection and antibody levels can fluctuate during a lifetime.
My brother had a pulmonary embolism 5 years ago. Earlier this year my sister caught covid and then a couple of months later almost died of blood clots after taking the covid vaccine (I had told her that is wasn't a good idea with our family history) afterwards the doctors tested her and she was LA (lupus) +ive.
Tests showed my antibody levels are now within the normal range, although my lupus is still at the top of the normal range.
Cutting to the chase, it is possible that Anne didn't originally have APS, hence the 2 successful female pregnancies but there was a genetic predisposition in the family which was triggered by some infection, with her antibody levels fluctuating over the years.
As a side issue, today they tell you to wait at least 3 months after miscarrying, having a stillbirth before trying to conceive again, this gives your body time to recover its strength, Anne didn't and this could well have added to her woes.
I have a relative who had 9 miscarriages, a still birth of twins after a lifetime of other terrible gynacological disasters, after having a successful birth, she was done. But it was then discovered she had lupus. And she is always sick now.
My aunt said my mother had 10 miscarriages before finally carrying to full term. She had the first full term baby when she was 30 and had the last baby when she was 39. She died at 46. I remember, being only 8, that she was always sick monthly. I retrieved her medical/death records when I was 36 and it stated "Negro woman is again complaining of extreme pain and bleeding with menstrual cycle. She was given a blood transfusion last month. She will have a hysterectomy." The records said test show the kidney and liver functions are good. Hysterectomy went well, did a posterior repair." My mother complained for 4 days of extreme pain after the hysterectomy. The doctor finally went back in and she had urine and fecal matter in her stomach. They were able to get a catheter in her right kidney, but not her left. She died 4 days later. The doctor wrote, "apparently the patient had Kidney Cirrhosis." I guess I will never know. I guess Endometriosis and the doctor committed malpractice when he did a posterior repair. It was 1970.
My great-grandmother had 18 pregnancies and was blessed to raise 13 children to adulthood without doctors, nurses or inoculations!
Wow.
I am genuinely surprised poor Anne didn’t have a complete mental breakdown. I think the few successful pregnancies would have added to her heartbreak. They seem to have happened in the middle, as it were, of several miscarriages, and so would have given her false hope after those isolated “successes” I honestly cannot even begin to imagine how she must have felt. She must have been amazingly brave and probably very religiously devout. I say devout because her faith would have been her main comfort, although personally I’d be really angry with the Big Guy!
I’m also surprised she didn’t have a physical collapse too. It was probably unfortunate that she was so remarkably fertile, as her body had no time to heal after a miscarriage.
As Lizzy number One said, “the meek and feeble body of a woman” was regarded as no equal to a man’s. I wonder if many men could go through what Anne did with such bravery and resilience.
I feel so bad for her. Losing child after child must have been heartbreaking.
Pregnancy complications not recognized include the Rh blood factor, a reasonable consideration for Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn as noted in this video. Jane Seymour's postpartum infection is frustrating thinking simple hygiene could possibly have prevented her death. Child bed fever also called puerperal fever origin is attributed to Ignaz Semmelweis (b. 1818 - d. 1865), an Austrian-Hungarian physician known for his research into puerperal fever and his advances in medical hygiene. Semmelweis is said to have championed hand washing and changing bedding or mattress (linens were sometimes not used) immediately following birth. Women often remained in the bed, on the linens and mattresses with blood and fluids of the birthing process, a feast for bacteria and exponential growth, systemic sepsis, and death within seven to 10 days on average.
Well also far as far as I recall pregnant when also were 'to bed' lot of inactivity around & after sure the heck would help either.
It would definately allow "Stick blood " to be an issue
someone has already mentioned lupus, which does seem to be a good fit. Both for her tragic obstetric history as well as other symptoms she had throughout her life. Love your channel, looking forward to more!
Hi Jennifer, thank you so much. Yes, lupus does seem possible (based on my limited medical knowledge). Poor Anne. If only she'd been born 300 years later, I think at least some of her children could have been saved with more modern treatment.
One of my best friends has lupus and she's had two miscarriages (she's only 25), so that seems entirely possible. Luckily my friend finally had a successful pregnancy and her daughter is 1 now :)
Poor,poor,lady...
Having suffered a stillbirth I can't imagine her anguish....Even giving the times....
I have worked in radio for several years you have a voice and dictation that is so easy to understand as a musician I can haar the lliltt in your voice
Thank you :-)
@@HistoryCalling You have a slight accent that really throws the closed captioning hilariously off. Thanks for the unique take on history.
A lovely voice to listen to !
What is this curious accent, way words like “state” and “pain”? It does not sound like any of the UK accents.
@@montaraful It's a gentle Northern Irish accent, and yes, it is lovely, isn't it! Some Northern Ireland accents can be very harsh and difficult for the untrained (ie not Irish!) ear to decode/translate/understand.
The amount of time and studying that has given us this insight into this tragic Queen is phenomenal. Thank you. Having read most of the comments I have nothing more to say, everyone of them is enlightening. Once again a terrific listen to historical facts I would never have known and enjoyed thanks to your knowledge.
Thanks Gloria. I'm really glad you enjoyed the video :-)
So sad. I’ve had a few miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy and that was hard on my mental state. I couldn’t imagine going through that, on top of the added pressure of her status and expectations of producing a healthy heir.
Thank you for this video. Queen Anne is actually a 1st cousin albeit so many times removed..we have also had twins in the family since that didn't survive. I've always felt such deep sympathy for her. Poor woman how devastating life must have been for her.
Awesome! I agree 100% that usually, having several miscarriages, stillbirths & deaths in infancy didn't indicate anything out of the ordinary, very sadly. I also agree that Anne's history *was* out of the ordinary tho, & might not just be the Stuart bad luck. I love historical "diagnosis" (ie, speculation!) & Anne appears in a book I have about historical people's health. The author suggests placental insufficency causing intra-uterine growth retardation, & notes that it's often associated with high blood pressure, which fits with Anne's later health problems... Who knows, but it must've been beyond horrible for her & George :(
Yes, I'm sure it must have been hideous for her between the physical pain and the emotional trauma. I think she'd definitely be having therapy if she was alive today (and so too would George, most likely).
That poor dear soul. I think I would have gone stark raving mad!!!!! Nobody deserves that. She could have had any number of things.
There's no words for that. Sometimes our society teaches a romanticized nostalgia under the guise of history (or doesn't teach history at all). If given the choice, I wonder if she would rather haven been Queen (which did generally mean you'd have food, clothing, and shelter unless you were deposed), OR to have been able to see her children thrive and grow up? Of course, some people lived in grinding poverty AND lost their children. Whether people back then were honestly tougher than we are, drawing on deep faith and a resilient spirit, or just so traumatized and shell-shocked by constant death, suffering, and tragedy that they disassociated from themselves or cut off their emotions and just got by the best they could, I don't know.
People were physically
stronger in those times
than in our era. There
were no labor-saving
devices (machines)
Also, the death rates
created a situation
whereby only the
healthiest, and the
strongest survived
to reproduce. [Only
1 of 4 people born
lived to adulthood]
I'm convinced that everyone was living in a constant state of trauma in those times. People must have had very different relationships to love and attachment. It's probably no coincidence either that decreases in child mortality have coincided with more cultural sentimentality about children.
@@Jemini4228
I agree regarding attachment
of family members and also
of society as a whole.
It wasn't until the mid- to late
Victorian era that both death
(at least mourning) and
childhood and were
sentimentalized
What we view as trauma
was daily life back then.
Death was a norm that
occurred frequently.
"Trauma" was famine (not
an infrequent event -- food
insecurity was the norm
for many) war and/or
pestilence in your
location.
Such a glorious sweet lady who took her title seriously but suffered from a physically strained body!
Thanks for sharing! Poor woman, I can only imagine the pain! 💔
You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Yes, she had a terrible time of it.
That was Beautifully Presented, and Informative!! I look forward to hearing from you again! 👏👏👏✨💗
Thank you so much. That's really kind of you to say and I'm glad you enjoyed the video (even though it is one of my more depressing ones given the subject matter!) :-)
@@HistoryCalling Because of this video, some people have had a chance to unburden themselves of their sorrows. I can only hope that it has helped them to share their grief.
Thanks, I feel for the poor woman, queen or not, no one deserves so many lost births
I can't imagine her suffering.🌹
I know. She really went through a lot. I'm sure she was emotionally scarred from it.
Thank you for a concise but moving video of Queen Anne off horrific loss of so many babies; totally heartbreaking. Thank goodness the Duke of Gloucester survived. Xxxxxx
I've never heard discussion on theories of Anne's horrific losses. I think the Hughes Syndrome theory sounds likely. Even for the times her track record of loss is extremely high. I cant even imagine enduring what she did. Very interesting presentation. Thank you!
I wonder whether she may have had a weak cervix and maybe that contributed to the issue of carrying to term. So tragic to experience that much loss.
Possibly. A number of her children had apparently been dead inside her for some weeks before she gave birth to them, so I don't think it would account for everything, but perhaps it was a contributing factor.
I agree
@@HistoryCalling Oh wow. Where did you come across that fact? That on top of the loss is incredible.
I have wondered if so many women lost children due to having so many pregnancies too close together
Apart from the blood clotting theory, my mother is RH Negative and gave birth to 6 children, one of whom died at 10 days. Two of her children were also RH Negative (including myself) and therefore helped with the pregnancies she had after. The Rhogam shot came out in 1965 (I believe, the year her last child was born). My husband is B+ and I am A-. With my first child I had the Rhogam shot at 27 weeks pregnant but didn’t have to have one after she was born as it was determined she was also A-. This surprised me but the doctor said my husband has a recessive gene that caused this. Anyway, whether or not this played a factor in her pregnancies, what a tragic life she had.
This is the 1st time I've heard her story. And my heart is breaking. She tried her best. What she did was almost superhuman. RIP dear lady. I'm sure she's happy with her children now.💕
I do enjoy your posts but the talk is hyper fast and not so easy to follow , apart from Anne’s tragic loss of children I believe she started a lovely design in houses and interiors , would be nice to hear about that side of her life.
Who knows what treatments she may have been receiving to help her have children... they could have been doing something which was poisoning them.
I just found this channel, and love it!! Thank you so much for all the info, and for going in-depth with the topic. Most other people just breeze by things that some of us would really like to know more about. So i like your style. Keep'em coming, and I'll keep on watching!!
Hi Michelle, thank you so much for your very kind words. I'm really glad you like the videos. :-)
The infant mortality rate used to be so high I kind of feel lucky to even be here. I also can’t help but feel for the women throughout history that have had to suffer through such losses and be blamed for it.
To make things worse from modern point of view, women of those times were taught to accept the loss, and try again as soon as possible and hope for the best.
Years ago I read Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman. It’s an excellent read. But she had so many miscarriages before her first daughter. And the author really makes you feel how sad and guilty and so many other emotions that Georgiana went through those first ten years of her marriage. You hear the numbers but when detail is given on how she felt each time and all…it’s just so sad. One miscarriage is unbelievably difficult. These poor women had so many.♥️
As a descendant of the Stuart line I found this quite interesting. Sharing this with my relatives, will add it to our family history.
Didn't anyone stop to think that her husband may have the problem... I has 3 miscarriages and 1 in the second trimester... had my obgyn never told my ex-husband to get checked I would have always thought I was the one with production issues... Too bad couldn't check now...
Regarding your question, I’d say that your video sets out very clearly the possible causes of such a catastrophic series of child deaths. Queen Anne is, as you truly say, deserving of deepest sympathy. What I find astonishing is how she managed to rule so competently. Other rulers with better luck were less able. Historian R J Unstead compares the reign of Queen Anne against that of her contemporary, Louis XIV of France. Louis had vibrant health and every other attribute, yet, by the end of his reign, France was on track for the French Revolution. By the end of Anne’s reign, by contrast, Britain was on track for the British Empire. Louis ended up losing all his battles, whereas Anne’s general, the Duke of Marlborough, fought successfully for her. She was the first to be titled monarch of Great Britain. She gave her name to a famously elegant and cultured age. Nobody seems to have had a bad word to say about her. How such a suffering, ailing lady could be a strong, successful ruler is a conundrum of history.
Hi Harriet. I know. I think history has vastly underestimated her, partly because her reign was comparatively short and partly because her terrible childbearing history overshadows so much else. Anne Somerset's book on Queen Anne is more sympathetic. As for why she was a good ruler, she'd had a long apprenticeship before she got there and plenty of time to see what worked for her uncle, father and sister and brother-in-law and what didn't. I think she also had a good work ethic and was prepared to listen to advisors.
She turned her sorrow into strength and wisdom. What an amazing woman.
My first baby a son only lived 3 days, named Robert. The next year another son who we also named Robert. My mother wasn’t happy about that, I still don’t see the problem. One was here one wasn’t. We love them both the same, a name is just a name.
I'm so sorry about your little boy. I don't see any problem with the reuse of names either. It's just not as popular a practice today as it was in the past, but it's a lovely way to remember your first baby (in addition to all the other ways I'm sure you remember him too).
@@HistoryCalling thank you for your thoughtfulness.
One theory about the high incidence of stillborn and feeble births to the upper classes in England was their drinking of wine. It was not the wine that caused the problem, but the lead that was used to seal the bottles. This allowed lead to leach into the wine and caused low level lead poisoning in pregnant women, leading to the termination of pregnancies. It was postulated that this was why "high born" women suffered from this excessively as opposed to lower class women, who tended to drink ale, not wine. It seems plausible to me, but I never saw any data supporting the hypothesis.
Being an lover of history, I find this very edcational. Thank you.
Yes indeed very interesting
i like these kind of stories about different people who are royals and another lifestyle.
Really quite astonishing how the Stuarts were infertile in comparison to the Hanoverians.
Yes, the Hanoverians were two a penny by comparison, but then again the Hanoverians had Queen Charlotte who was like the reverse of Anne - lots of children but the vast majority lived.
George III and Queen Charlotte did have all of those healthy children, but his son's tended to be neer-do-wells. George III also reportedly took no mistresses. The eventual George IV was forced to marry a coarse, unkempt cousin rather the woman he really loved. They eventually had a daughter who ended up as George III's only legitimate grandchild. She was very popular among the people, who were looking forward to the reign of Queen Charlotte (named after her grandmother). She made a love match with a prince from Belgium, then died in childbirth of a stillborn boy at age 21.
@@marysanders9461 Charlotte was the only legitimate grandchild while she was alive, but five followed subsequently.
Queen Katherine of Aragon had many pregnancies and deaths of children in the 1500s. We jump to the mid 1700s with Queen Charlotte and she had 15 children with only 2 dying very young. Of course Queen Victoria roughly a century later having 9 successful pregnancies in the mid 1800s. There must be more examples throughout Royal European History since it would of been documented because of their positions. This would be a fascinating documentary subject.
A friend of mine in Australia was born in Greece. She told me her grandmother had 13 children. All but 2 daughters died as infants. They lived in a village, the time period would have been early 1900s. My friend stated they died after been given the evil eye
This poor woman!! The physical and mental anguish she must have gone through. Her poor body must have been done. I cannot imagine her anguish.
Great narration and explanations on the the loss of Queen Anne's children.
Omg wat she went through x bless her ♥️ I do agree if they had the care then like we do today it would of been a different outcome 🙂awww and about the rabbits that is lovely 🙂as always another brilliant video 👍👍
Sounds kinda like my mother's medical history (and mind, her first was stillborn about 1975) All 3 of her children who survived to be born are still alive, but then, small pox went extinct about the same time her eldest surviving was born. Both my sibs were the sole survivors of multiples, and then there were the entirely lost.
I just gave birth to my 3rd child 4 days ago.
I cant even fathom 17 pregnancies and losing every single child.
Congratulations!!! :-)
@@HistoryCalling thank you!!!!
Blessings on you and your family.
i dont know why i watched this, ever since i first herd this i weep uncontrollably every time i hear about it. this poor womans life is heartbreaking
When I heard that the number of followers was so important to your success, I started going back to hear all the posts from before I found you. Wishing you continued success with this endeavor. Such possibilities weren’t available for my generation and, as a trailing spouse and young mother, I struggled for many years to get an academic career underway.
Thanks Ann :-)
Never heard of her. Heart breaking, Thank you for sharing. 🇬🇧
Great video!
Great content.
Thank you.
Wow…very sad. She must have suffered terribly from it all.
How terribly devastating for ANY woman. 💔 Then, if you add in the reality of her being a Royal female during that time period (where producing an Heir to the Throne was pretty much an absolute necessity), it's a recipe for disaster. Just my opinion, but perhaps the continuous "back to back" pregnancies, without allowing suffucient time for her body to recover from the previous one, was a huge factor in the majority of the losses. It's just so very sad. 😢
This was such an interesting and sad video.
I was like wow for the first few but it just kept coming. That poor woman.
Love your videos
We will probably never know for sure. It could be a medical reason, a stress related problem or some other cause. What is for sure is the medical care in those times couldn't identify the reasons or help in any way, so poor Anne had to go through the trauma of all those pregnancies.
I know, it's tragic to think that had she been alive now instead of then, many more of her children would likely have survived. I'm always so grateful I was born in the modern era as what passed for 'medicine' up until the early 20th century would often be defined as torture or even attempted murder nowadays (I'm thinking of blistering and bleeding, which were popular 'treatments').
@@HistoryCalling Too true.
I am a descendant through the Hyde line. So glad you posted this!
The story of her children breaks my heart, how mentally strong must have she been to keep trying!
There's a statue of her as a princess in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. 😊
What a tragedy. Poor woman.
Gosh that list 💔 so many little souls not Given a chance
I'd like to hear about King James and Johanna de Beaufort please.
Queen Anne had a very tough life. The death of her mother at such a young age, estrangement from her father, living in the shadow of her older sister from whom she also became estranged, having to step aside for her brother in law to reign as King following the death of her sister, and enduring 18 doomed pregnancies. The impact of all those births, coupled with severe depression, caused her to overeat to the point of morbid obesity. Toward the end of her 49 years, her legs literally gave out, and she had to be carried around in an ornate stretcher. Some historians claim that her condition was worse than that of Henry VIII. (At least he was very tall, and of course, a man).
Good lord. Poor woman needed a rest/break.
Yes, I've often wondered if she had tried to space her pregnancies out more, if more of them would have been successful. She usually just went straight from one into the next, with very little time for her body to recover.
She was a queen and her duty was to have as many children as possible, in hopes that at least some would live into adulthood. And well if her husband wanted to visit her bed...
*I see two possible causes for Anne's tragic losses.* One is her persistent determination to provide an heir. Perhaps she had a delicate physique that would have benefited from considerably longer pauses in between pregnancies. The other possibility is the tendency of royal families to draw from a limited gene pool with frequent inter-familial marriages. I am not sufficiently versed in her life's choices to know if these facts would apply to Queen Anne.
She and her husband were 2nd cousins, once removed, and George had a fair number of overlapping relations. However, Anne herself did not have that background. So while inbreeding could have been involved, there are certainly even more closely related couples who produced living children. She was so unfortunate about the three who lived, but died of unrelated causes--she had very bad luck on top of whatever else was going on.
My grandfather was named after an older brother who died during the 1918 flu pandemic. Recycling of childrens names still happens
I also think it was something with blood cludding. For her sister Mary who wasn t conceiving after some miscarriaged it can be Ashermans syndrome, uterine scarring that makes sterile
I am so happy that you stress that any diagnoses of people so far removed by time, are only a hypothesis.
Retrospective diagnosis seem to be all the rage right now, and so many CZcamsrs (and even documentaries!) present their findings as facts. And then the comment section runs wild with it.
Interesting history story. 🤔
You mentioned the recycling of names and I wondered about this for a long time. I found that my G- G-Grandparents recycled the names of their first two sons and found it odd or perhaps a mistake in the family Bible, however, now (thanks to your video) I know it wasn't terribly unusual. I've learned a lot from your work & appreciate your fine efforts! Thank you!
You're very welcome :-)
I’ve found name recycling quite often whilst researching my family tree, at first I thought they were mistakes, but they were not. It mostly happened in branches of my family that had a large number of children, and certain names recur over and over.
WHY do people keep bringing up the Rhesus-negative theory for Catherine of Aragon??? Mary was her 5th pregnancy, & the other child who was born alive & healthy, Henry Duke of Cornwall, was her 2nd pregnancy. It COULD fit Anne Boleyn, but only based on 3 pregnancies, & I personally don't think there needs to be any specific medical condition! As you say here, miscarriages & stillbirths were incredibly common, & I'm sure no-one would bat an eye at Catherine's or Anne's obstetric history in any other scenario, even as queens- had Henry Duke of Cornwall lived, I don't think anyone would even wonder why Catherine lost 4 other babies. My opinion only tho!
I agree. It's a tired old theory for Catherine of Aragon which needs to be retired and an interesting, but unprovable theory for Anne Boleyn.
But wouldn’t RH sensitivity only attack the fetus if the baby inherited the positive blood type of the father? If the child inherited the mother’s possibly negative RH factor (if RH sensitivity was the cause) then the child could carry to term. If I remember correctly, the mother’s immune system only attacks the RH pos fetus after sensitization occurs after the first birth (or exposure to pos RH factor like in placental abruption). So it technically could be possible she was RH neg but not nearly as likely as perhaps her having Lupus (the butterfly rash is universal to lupus) or a gynecological issue like incompetent cervix, preeclampsia or issues with the placenta developing properly. With 16 pregnancies they could have all been factors. Some of physical complaints also sound like gestational diabetes or non preg related diabetes. I can’t imagine the level of Postpartum Depression she must have developed. Someone in a previous comment said her husband should have left her alone but they were desperate to secure the monarchy with an heir. Royal women rarely breastfed their babies so they returned to fertility within 2 months. My great grandmother had 13 children over 18 years. I’m a NICU RN and while looking at their birth dates, I noticed that as soon as she began introducing foods at 6-7 months, she would fall pregnant again almost immediately after. They were poor sharecroppers and her husband wanted more boys to work the farm. In the end she had 13 (my Papaw was number7) babies and they all lived. But my great Grandfather didn’t get his wish. There were 9 girls and only 4 boys who all survived to adulthood despite rarely having the money to be seen regularly by the Dr. They all lived to between 87-102).
@@aliciahowell9617 Wow, such interesting info! I didn't know that about lupus... I was only talking about the Rh-negative theory for Catherine of Aragon & Anne Boleyn, tho. For Anne Stuart, a book I read made a similar suggestion about placental insufficiency, leading to intra-uterine growth retardation, & noted that it's often associated with high blood pressure, which fits with Anne''s later health issues. But very good point- there may've been different factors or combinations of factors in different pregnancies, not one simple answer to solve the whole mystery!
I agree that "George should've left her alone" is way off-track. They *were* desperate for an heir, & as I said about Catherine of Aragon, if she'd had a healthy heir, no-one would even notice things like how quickly she got pregnant again after she gave birth. Look at other queens- a lot had a baby virtually every year, & before reliable contraception, a lot of non-queens like your great-grandmother did too. One of my great-great grandmothers had 16 children, & one of her sisters-in-law had 20!! And while it's good to recognise that women had a lot less rights in the past, it's wrong to assume that every single thing they did was because a man ordered them to. Sometimes they even *disobeyed* men! They might've really wanted another baby straight away, & unless they tell us, how do we know? It's a pretty good guess that Anne DID want to have an heir asap tho, whether or not she liked the idea of pregnancy or babies per se.
Just on the basis of a psych degree tho, I'm not sure we can say she definitely had post-partum depression. It sounds reasonable, but as you'd know, there's a huge difference in susceptibility between women, as with depression generally, & it's not only tied to emotional or physical trauma; there are hormonal factors. And trauma, even pretty severe trauma, doesn't always lead to PTSD, which people often assume- for example, not everyone who's seen active combat develops it. And while depression etc may be triggered by stress or trauma, it *can* occur without any obvious stress in a person's life... but we can definitely say Anne experienced a LOT of emotional & physical trauma, over a very long time, & even if she didn't meet the requirements for a formal diagnosis of any mental illness, she would've been dealing with endless grief & emotional pain.
@@aliciahowell9617 you know, nobody’s mentioned one other obvious problem in royal families. They were almost always fairly closely related to the person they married, at least in this case. Which would cause genetic problems, and the body normally will miscarry in the first trimester when this happens, but not always. We know full well some do survive, but never very healthy and if they themselves reproduce, even if they’re not closely related to their spouse, can still have children with problems.
And I agree with the why didn’t they leave them alone remark. They seem to forget that until very recently, people had very little understanding of reproduction. Children rarely lived past ten and women were just as guilty of getting pregnant again and having lots of them for this very reason. To have all or most of your children live to adulthood was almost unheard of.
I have explained in detail above about the number of children and the rhesus factor. In short, it depends on whether the babies had positive or negative blood.
The poor woman, it must have been awful, her mental health must have suffered, she was able to conceive, but the problems started after the birth we know they knew nothing about germs, so what was it after she gave birth? They never washed their hands, I know that, so what could have caused the babies deaths? I don't know lack of knowledge and poor hygiene springs to mind
I think a lot of them were premature. There wouldn't have been adequate hygiene either, however many of them were born dead or died so quickly that I don't think there would have been time for an infection. I suspect their lungs weren't developed enough for breathing. Poor Anne really went through the wringer.
I always felt sorry for Queen Anne, she really suffered with her health and didn't seem to get much of a break and to lose all those children as well must have been heartbreaking. It's also likely she was blamed for it which can't have been easy for her.
Oh my heart💔❤️🩹
The poor lady, that’s simply heartbreaking, I think it would be easier if she couldn’t conceive 🥺 falling pregnant was just cruel, I can’t imagine the hope, then devastation, then the questions that were never answered, how very cruel 🥺💔
That was fascinating, thank you.
That poor woman losing all of those babies so heart breaking for her