Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne is a secular cantata composed by George Frideric Handel to a libretto by Ambrose Philips, of which the first line, "Eternal source of light divine", provides an alte
George Frideric Handel
Queen Anne
Hampton Court Palace, Chapel, by Charles Wild, 1819 - royal coll 922125 313698 ORI 2
Anne, Queen of Great Britain
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Anne was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 8 March 1702, and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707 merging the kingdoms of England and Scot
Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne
…performance having actually taken place. Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xlvi A; and HHA i/6. The cantata celebrates Queen Anne's birthday, and the accomplishment of the Treaty of Utrecht (negotiated by the Tory ministry of Anne in 1712) to end the War of the Spanish Succession…
Anne (centre) and her sister Mary (left) with their parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, painted by Peter Lely and Benedetto Gennari II
Anne, c. 1684, painted by Willem Wissing and Jan van der Vaardt
Mary of Modena and James Francis Edward Stuart, Anne's stepmother and half-brother