Lady Anne Bowesley
Sobriquet: Your Majesty.
Appearance: Anne is a petite woman, but her five-foot-two stature seems dauntingly energetic. She still dresses in the power suits of the 1980s, but she operates like an empowered 1990s woman at her peak, so though her actions may be controlled, her explosive emotions radiate intensely nonetheless.
Background: Lady Anne Bowesley, now Queen (Prince) of London, learned from her father at an early age that life gives you only what you squeeze out when you take it by the throat. Her father failed in his bid to throttle life when Oliver Cromwell died, but Anne was influencing Parliament a mere hundred years later.
Anne's father, one of the most prominent men in Warwickshire in the early 17th Century, not only bequeathed his attitude to Anne, but as importantly, he arranged a fine marriage for her. The arranged union was passionless, as such affairs tended to be, but Anne's husband received a well-bred wife, and Anne received a wider circle of contacts and continued access to wealth.
After the death of her husband, Anne fell in with a group of noblemen who dreamed the same kind of dreams as her father. However, instead of seeking someone strong enough to make himself king and then hold the position (as was Cromwell's aim), the group merely sought a king who would submit to the control of Parliament. Anne's work was critical to the execution of the plan, and it was this time spent with Parliamentarians which sowed the seed for her continued reliance on that malleable institution.
In 1688, Anne's life changed. Her group's plan succeeded, for William of Orange invaded England, wrested control of the throne and married the king's daughter so as to produce an heir with indisputable divine right; of greater personal impact, though, was another kingmaker, the Ventrue Valerius. He played the role of a noble in the secretive group Anne joined, and he was very impressed with her. After Embracing her, he brought her to the attention of the Ventrue Prince of London, the powerful Mithras.
After proving herself to Mithras on a number of lesser maneuvers, Anne accrued a significant influence over Parliament. She wielded it to superb effect for two-plus centuries until the onslaught of the Great War. By then, Parliament was everything the Ventrue required. For years, the clan placed its stock in the monarchy, but the rise of the middle class and coincidental losses to the English Ventrue's political enemies, the Tremere, forced them to change tactics. Anne fashioned Parliament into the ruling force of England, which dealt a serious blow to the Tremere, but also served to make her prince and her fief the strongest on the Sceptered Isle.
The years between the World Wars were ones of great danger and little gain. The Ventrue held their superior position, but did not strengthen it. Then, as the bombs rained upon London during the German raids in World War II, Anne found an opening she seized at once. Mithras' haven was struck repeatedly one night, gravely injuring the Methuselah. Anne was one of the faithful Ventrue who carried Mithras from the remnants of his devastated haven that night in 1941, and after the prince, deep in the clutches of torpor, was tucked safely away, Anne proclaimed herself Queen of London.
Anne took the title of queen because she disliked the masculine sound of "prince," even though numerous other female princes around the world had accepted this Kindred custom of titles. The reasons for this decision are twofold. Anne is approaching 400 years of age, which makes her old enough to have a substantial appreciation for the monarchy and its dressing despite her reliance on Parliament. More importantly, she believes this demand of hers is viewed as a sign of weakness by others. It reminds Kindred that she is a woman, and despite the change she wrought in 1918 when women gained the right to vote in England, Kindred old and young still view women as a secondary species.
But she likes to make clear to anyone who broaches this subject to her face: Mithras is dead, and she is queen. Who is the impotent one?
Anne did not make this brazen claim until very recently, however, after suspicions of Mithras' Final Death became common knowledge. For years, no one but London's Ventrue elite knew the fate of Mithras. Some thought the incendiaries had destroyed him that night in 1941. Others, particularly the Tremere who found themselves too often outsmarted by the wily prince, insisted that he was playing dead and that his faked death was merely an invitation for them to reveal themselves and their schemes.
As recently as a few years ago, Queen Anne's position was tenuous. Despite decades of nominal prominence in London, Anne was unable to deal decisively with the Tremere threat. So, in the end, it was Anne herself who, through various agents, caused the Final Death of Mithras to become general knowledge among Kindred. Then the Tremere did exactly what they had so patiently forestalled for 50 years - they acted quickly, believing that Anne's control was teetering.
But Anne's understanding of Kindred politics and power plays had grown dramatically, and the Tremere fell directly into her trap. For the first time, Anne did not rely on her knowledge of kine institutions to make her bid for power. Her plans and traps and counter-attacks played out exclusively behind the veil of the Masquerade, which - much to the relief of the Camarilla - has been strengthened in recent years after wearing thin for so many years of vulgar Kindred manipulation of English politics.
Now, Anne is Queen Anne, undisputed Prince of London. Only she seems to know her next moves.
Personality: As her power base is more secure than ever, she no longer needs to show her control as openly as she once did, but it is in her nature to be demonstrative. Anne does not hesitate to cut another off in mid-sentence if she does not like what they are saying or if they bore her. Of course, she does not do so to those of higher station than herself, but that group has diminished since she has gained dominion over the domain of London. Beyond the necessary show of power, she has not let her position go to her head. She knows that she does not possess the personal power of Mithras, and an organized attempt to overthrow her could certainly succeed. As such, she watches over her fief like a hawk....
Current Events: For reasons as yet unknown, Queen Anne has finally appointed a seneschal in the form of her most recent childe and begun to cut back on her public appearances. Some speculate, that she is finally succumbing to the centuries long ennui that afflicts all immortals eventually; Anne Bowesley is unique among the Ventrue of London, in that that she has never entered torpor voluntarily or otherwise.
