Editing Act of Settlement 1701 (section)

== Background ==
[[File:Queen Anne and William, Duke of Gloucester by studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller.jpg|thumb|[[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Princess Anne]] with [[Prince William, Duke of Gloucester]], whose death in 1700 was the predicate for the Act|alt=Anne and her son embrace against a Baroque garden background]]
Following the [[Glorious Revolution]], the line of succession to the English throne was governed by the [[Bill of Rights 1689]], which declared that the flight of [[James II of England|James II]] from England to France during the revolution amounted to an [[abdication]] of the throne and that James's daughter [[Mary II]] and her husband/cousin, [[William III of England|William III]] (William of Orange, who was also James's nephew), were James's successors. The Bill of Rights also provided that the line of succession would go through Mary's Protestant descendants by William and any possible future husband should she outlive him, then through Mary's sister [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]] and her Protestant descendants, and then to the Protestant descendants of William III by a possible later marriage should he outlive Mary. During the debate, the House of Lords had attempted to append Sophia and her descendants to the line of succession, but the amendment failed in the Commons.<ref name=melville>{{cite book|last=Melville|first=Lewis|title=The First George in Hanover and England|url=https://archive.org/details/firstgeorgeinhan00melvuoft|year=1908|publisher=Isaac Pitman and Sons|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/firstgeorgeinhan00melvuoft/page/130 130]–131}}</ref>

Mary II died childless in 1694, after which William III did not remarry. In 1700, [[Prince William, Duke of Gloucester]], who was Anne's only child to survive infancy, died of what may have been [[smallpox]] at the age of 11.<ref>{{cite book | last = Snowden |first = Frank M. | title = Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present | place = New Haven, Connecticut | publisher = Yale University Press | year = 2019 | isbn = 978-0-300-19221-6| page=99}}</ref> Thus, Anne was left as the only person in line to the throne. The Bill of Rights excluded Catholics from the throne, which ruled out James II and his children (as well as their descendants) sired after he converted to Catholicism in 1668. However, it did not provide for the further succession after Anne. Parliament thus saw the need to settle the succession on Sophia and her descendants, and thereby guarantee the continuity of the Crown in the Protestant line.

With religion and lineage initially decided, the ascendancy of William of Orange in 1689 would also bring his partiality to his Dutch [[favourite]]s that followed. By 1701, [[anti-Dutch sentiment]] was widespread in England and action was considered necessary.<ref name="Henriq"/>