Queen Anne II (formerly Anne, Princess Royal), also known as Anne the Queen-Mother, is a senior member of the House of Windsor and the former monarch of the Kingdom of Cleveland, and currently serves as Queen Mother to her daughter, Queen Zara I of Cleveland. Anne is the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.
Early Life as the Princess Royal[]
Born Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise at Clarence House in London, Anne was second in line to the British throne.
In the 1970's, Princess Anne was the target of a kidnapping attempt by a deranged man who opened her car door at night in London. The man reportedly ordered Anne to "come with me," to which the Princess retorted "Not bloody likely," and fought back until a passerby intervened. Commentators would later say that this incident was an early example of the strong iron will and sharp-tongued wit that would later aid Anne during her reign as Queen.
Princess Anne participating in equestrian events at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, on her horse Goodwill.
Later in the decade, Anne (who had inherited a serious love of equestrianism from her mother) would compete on the British Olympic team in horseback riding and other equestrian events, becoming the only Royal Olympian.
Anne also participated in the 1983 Trooping of the Colour, just months before Doomsday.
Doomsday and aftermath[]
Survival[]
On Doomsday, Anne huddled underground with her children, until the all-clear was given. Her security detail began attempting to coordinate with the Royal Household as soon as possible.
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II[]
Princess Anne was still sheltering in place with her young daughter and a small circle of protectors when she received the devastating news of Queen Elizabeth's and Prince Philip's deaths at Loch Torridon. The Princess was heartbroken at her parents' passing, but forced herself to maintain her composure in public. Andrew was reportedly still alive in South Africa, but it was likely that surviving Britons would look to Anne as the face of the monarchy in Britain for the time being until it was possible for her brother to make a safe return to the Isles. Anne needed to maintain a quiet queenly dignity, even if she did not hold that title (and did not expect to).
Anne also decided to remain in her current location, out of fear that the difficult travel conditions could harm her daughter Zara. For the time being, the Princess Royal received news and issued brief statements, tended to her daughter, and waited to hear any new communications from her brother in South Africa.
Leadership in Cleveland[]
Anne's activities would unintentionally provoke a split in the House of Windsor. Amid her nonstop work and attention, she came to be well liked by the people of northern England. In comparison the King had not even visited the nation since his evacuation. The people of the north were beginning to sour on the King; songs of his cowardice could be heard at football games (one chant reportedly went "We have Anne! Who needs 'Drew'?"), and rumblings of disdain for the King in local councils and legislatures, with one MP pointedly commenting "We indeed have a great British monarch, but it's not Andrew. It's Anne, who has been working tirelessly among us here in Britain since Doomsday." During this time Princess Anne still held strong to the traditions of the Royal Family and asserted that Andrew was the King of these islands. She declared, 'As long as my brother is alive, there is a head of the House of Windsor'.
Accession to the Throne of Cleveland[]
Queen Anne personally overseeing the training of the Royal Mounted Corps and Royal Mounted Police, one of her favourite Royal duties, in 2005.
In 1995, Cleveland's government put the question to a referendum. The people voted overwhelmingly in favour of removing Andrew from his role as Head of State, leaving the throne vacant in the meantime. There were calls for Anne to take up the throne but she continued to insist that her brother was the head of the House of Windsor. Once Cleveland's Parliament made Andrew's overthrow official, the calls intensified. If Anne could not be the head of the House of Windsor, then perhaps she should Head a new house. After all, was not the nation of the United Kingdom defunct?
In 2001, Anne finally relented, though with some provisos. She accepted the title Queen of Cleveland, refusing to touch any previously existing titles, though she agreed to be styled as Anne II to symbolise continuity with the pre-Doomsday monarchy. She also made a statement to the effect that she would step down if her brother ever returned or were able to exercise effective rule. She ignored the suggestion that she found a new royal house, and insisted that she and Zara and any future heirs would merely be a cadet branch of the House of Windsor. It was a compromise solution, and for now it ensured that there were not calls outside of Cleveland and some other British survivor communities for her to assume the British throne herself.
Royal Schism[]
Queen Anne was eager to meet her brother for the first time in decades. King Andrew's tour of Britain in 2010 was planned to be the triumphant return of the King to his homeland, and his meeting with his sister Anne was especially hoped to be a warm reunion. Instead, Andrew's behavior threw these plans off course. His staff had inquired about a stay in Balmoral, which since had been converted into a hospice and medical school, at Anne's initiative (it was still Crown property, but Anne readily lent its facilities to these public purposes). The King had apparently been disappointed at the fact the royal castles has been turned over to public use without consulting him.
On the day of his arrival, after an uneventful public appearance, Andrew sat down with his sister to meet with Cleveland's prime minister and several members of the Parliaments of both Cleveland and Northumberland. Anne had hoped (and expected) that her brother would be warm and gracious upon sitting down with her for the first time since the 1980's. Anne's hopes would be dashed by her brother's off-putting behavior at this meeting. Andrew's tone and demeanor alienated even his supporters. He jokingly thanked Anne for "keeping the throne warm" for him, seemingly belittling the efforts of a woman who was a hero to most people in the region. Anne took it gracefully (many present at the meeting noted that Anne could have deployed her trademark snark back at her brother, but she gracefully demurred), but many officials at the meeting were outraged. Despite all his preparation, in which he was told not to imply any actual authority in the home country, Andrew blurted out that he considered himself "King of all the British, at home and abroad." At this a Cleveland MP snapped back "Not in Cleveland, you muppet." This rattled the King, who quickly went off-script (to the absolute horror of his courtiers), and the meeting descended into open confrontation. Needless to say, all of this got out to the press immediately.
The next day, during an otherwise friendly interview, the King stumbled again when he praised the Unionists in Northern Ireland for remaining loyal to his mother and the Crown in the face of "treachery." At this point the peace in Northern Ireland was fragile at best, the question of head of state deferred indefinitely. Andrew threatened to disrupt this with a single comment. Member nations of the Celtic Alliance were forced to respond with clarifying statements, putting them in the very politically-awkward position of correcting the King. Many observers urged Andrew to speak more carefully (which reportedly offended him). Tabloids denounced Andrew's commentary as "an entitled rant" and "a failed opportunity to rally the British people." One Northern Irish commentator said that "peace is earned by hard work, not by escaping to Africa."
Queen Anne II gives a speech following Andrew's visit, in which she praised all those who had worked in the peace process. Although the widely-praised speech soothed the tensions in Ireland and Britain, it reportedly offended her brother, who felt that she was stepping on his authority.
The tour of 2010 damaged not just Andrew's reputation at home, but also his relationship with his sister. The two had been corresponding regularly since reliable contact had been restored; now, they mostly sent terse messages through official diplomatic channels. Anne did what she could to contain the damage, but public opinion had undergone a permanent shift across the island. Anne herself remained steadfastly loyal to their mother's tradition of keeping a stiff upper lip in public, and trying not to show any public signs of a rift between herself and her brother. However, although she did not directly denounce his statements, she very pointedly made comments that "gently" contradicted him, such as praising the "people of good hearts on both sides of the border in Ireland" for "their hard-won work towards peace."
Meanwhile, the Queen's own health was declining. She had already suffered a riding accident the previous spring. That together with her ongoing problems caused by radiation already had led her to announce that she would abdicate at the end of the year.
Anne's abdication was marked with solemnity throughout the land. She had been a very popular monarch, and had earned a reputation as one who had stayed with the British people through thick and thin, and helped maintain stability. As Anne waved to the crowd outside the castle following her abdication, the guards (and many in the public) saluted her, even though she was no longer Queen.
But she knew that she could not remove herself fully from public life: she would need to advise and support her daughter as she dealt with a flurry of now-inevitable constitutional questions.
Anne the Queen Mother took an advisory role to her daughter, Queen Zara I.
Abdication and life as the Queen Mother[]
In the years since her abdication, Queen Anne--now formally styled as Queen Anne the Queen Mother--devoted herself to advising her daughter, the newly-crowned Queen Zara I, as well as continued charity work, and a rather avid interest in horse-breeding and racing.
The Queen Mother has also attempted to heal the rift with her South African relatives following the death of her brother Andrew. Upon the coronation of her nephew as King William V, Anne sent a message of well-wishes to the new monarch, conveying "a desire to meet someday" and expressing a hope that the two could have a good relationship. Her message included the phrase "No matter what else has transpired, I am your aunt and you are my nephew. Let us proceed in that spirit of family and goodwill."
The first step towards this was taken in 2017, when the Queen Mother of South Africa, Louisa, traveled to the British Isles for a diplomatic visit, this one going dramatically better than her late husband's 2010 misadventure. Queen Mother Louisa was invited to meet with Queen Mother Anne, as well as Queen Zara. The three Queens posed for a picture that was rapidly and widely reprinted in newspapers throughout Britain, South Africa, the Commonwealth, and the globe. One media commentator wryly noted "Where Andrew failed, his wife, his sister, and his niece are apparently succeeding, helping to ease the tensions between the different factions of the British diaspora."