Queen Anne's lupus: phospholipids and the course of the empire.

Were it not for the antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, the United States might now have a National Health Service. That’s my conclusion from finding direct links between the most prominent victim of the syndrome—Queen Anne—and current debates over Scotland’s imminent secession from England. This September, Scots will hold a plebiscite on whether to dissolve a partnership that has lasted since Queen Anne presided over the “Acts of Union” (1707) (3). As Simon Schama quipped (4), Anne saw to it that the United Kingdom, which “began as a hostile merger would end in a full partnership. . .”. But, that was three centuries ago, and the going is tougher these days. Scotland’s prime minister has had to reassure anxious voters that a future spinoff would retain its popular National Health Service. He’s also told them that Queen Elizabeth II would remain head of state in Scotland (as she has in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). He then set Scottish Independence Day to commemorate the UK’s founding mother, Queen Anne (3). The Queen, a childless widow, died in 1714, sickened by “gout, dropsy, hemorrhage and stroke” (5). If poor Anne had produced a Stuart heir, a National Health Service in the United States today might look a lot like those in Scotland, Canada, or Australia. Queen Anne, studio of John Closterman, oil on canvas (circa 1702); © National Portrait Gallery, London. American revolutionaries toppling the statue of British King George III (engraving; later coloration)/Private Collection/ Photo © Tarker/The Bridgeman Art Library.