I was the last of the Stuart monarchs. My reign spanned 12 years - the years of the War of Spanish Succession, and Marlborough's famous victories at Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet.
I presided over the union of the parliaments of Scotland and England, creating the parliament of Great Britain on 1 May 1707. I believed in mixed ministries, and managed to achieve that until 1708, when the Whigs became dominant. Then in 1710 there was a major shift to the Tories, which lasted until my death.
I was the second daughter of the Catholic King James II (1685-8), but was raised a Protestant under the guidance of my uncle King Charles II. I was a deeply shy, conscientious, stout, shortsighted and very small. My marriage to George, Prince of Denmark, was devoted but politically unremarkable. I was 'homely', and I did not have a particularly happy married life. My husband, was a drunk and a crashing bore! I experienced 17 pregnancies between 1683 and 1700. Only five children were born alive, however, and only one, a son, outlived infancy, but he did not survive to inherit the throne.
I was 37 years old when I became queen in 1702, and at my coronation I was suffering from a bad attack of gout, and had to be carried to the ceremony in an open sedan chair with a low back, so that my six-yard train could pass to my ladies walking behind.
It was my involvement with Sarah Jennings Churchill, childhood companion and lady of the bedchamber, that had most impact upon me. Sarah persuaded me to support brother-in-law William of Orange, Protestant stadholder of the Netherlands, when he overthrew James II in 1688. It was after William's death in 1702 that I became monarch, but prior to my succession I agreed to the Act of Settlement in 1701, signed by William, which promised the throne to the Electress of Hanover (and my heirs) as heir of James I (VI of Scotland). I had by this point abandoned the idea of producing an heir.
Despite my belief in mixed political ministries, when it came to foreign policy I was at odds with the Tories. My views were coloured by my devotion to the Anglican Church, and myself and the Whigs believed in war on the continent as opposed to a naval campaign.
Sarah Churchill's husband, the Duke of Marlborough, was a Whig sympathiser, winning notable battles as commander of British and allied forces in the continental campaign during the War of the Spanish Succession. Sarah put me under pressure to promote Whigs in her ministry, but I resisted and eventually dismissed the overbearing couple from my service.
I was further embarrassed by Sarah's successor, a confidante planted by the Tories known as Abigail Masham, a cousin of the Tory Robert Harley (who later became Earl of Oxford). In 1708 Harley also lost favour, and I was forced to admit the Whigs into my administration once again.
Leading Tories plotted the succession of my exiled Catholic brother, James the old Pretender, but before my death in 1714 I ensured the Protestant succession using the capable moderate, Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, as Lord Treasurer. He presided over the trouble-free accession of the Hanoverian prince George Louis (King George I, 1714-27). The Whigs were triumphant.
I died aged 49 of suppressed gout, ending in erysipelas, which then produced an abscess and fever, on 1 August 1714. My body was so swollen that it had to be buried in Westminster Abbey in a vast almost-square coffin.
In my reign Britain became a major military power on land, and the country became a firm base for the 18th century's Golden Age.