The Colonial Adventures of a Queen Anne Miniature

When Virginian aide-de-camp Daniel Parke delivered news of the Duke of Marlborough’s victory over the French at the Battle of Blenheim, all he requested as a reward from Queen Anne was her portrait. This paper uses the Queen Anne miniature gifted to Parke as a case study to examine how colonists understood their relationship to the Crown in the first decade of the eighteenth century when imperial policy frequently conflicted with local interest. Parke wore his miniature of Queen Anne in every subsequent portrait of himself. His portraits used the queen’s image to bolster his status as a creole, or Virginia-born colonial, emerging as a metropolitan gentleman. He had left Virginia to seek glory abroad. In the portraits Parke sent back to his daughters in Virginia, where the creole elite were at odds with the royal governor, his portrait featuring Queen Anne prominently hanging around his neck emphasized his diplomatic success and used the royal image to connect himself and his descendants to the Crown. The portraits left in England used the miniature to emphasize his military success and connection to the powerful Marlborough. As another reward for his service, Parke became the governor of the Leeward Islands. However, he antagonized the locals with his behavior and enforcement of imperial policies. They revolted and murdered Parke but the miniature, ripped from his neck, survived. This paper considers how colonists residing in England, Virginia, and the Caribbean mediated their relationship(s) to the British Empire through Queen Anne’s image.