/J (

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY Gift of
T, Dwight Collection

L I YE S

QUEENS OF SCOTLAND

ENGLISH PEINCESSES

connected with the REQAL SUCCESSION OF GREAT BRITAIN

^gn^s Stricitlanti
AUTHOR OF
'LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND"

"The treasures of antiqaity laid up
In old historic rolls I opeoed.*^ — BaAU»(tKT

VOL. VIII.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDOCCLIX

CONTENTS

THE EIGHTH VOLUME

ELIZABETH STTJART, fikst princess royal of great dritain — Page
CHAP. I.  1
II  36
III.  67
IV  95
V.  133
VI  163
VII.  202
VIII  226
IX.  255
SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER-
CHAP. I. ....... 285
II  314
in  350
IV  387

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE EIGHTH VOLUME

FRONTISPIECE— PORTRAIT OP SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER, from
a fine Mezzotint by Pfalz. (.See Pages 393-4.)

VIGNETTE—" ELIZABETH SERVED BY THE TABORITES." (See Page 110.)

¦WOODCUTS— AUTOGRAPH OF ELIZABETH STUART. (See Page SLS.
AUTOGRAPH OP SOPHIA ELECTRESS OP HANOVER, from
Aysoougli MSS., Brit. .Museum. (.See Page 416.)

THE
QUEENS OF SCOTLAND
AND ENGLISH PEINCESSES

ELIZABETH STUAET
THE FIRST PRINOESS-EOTAL OJ GREAT BRITAIN
CHAPTEE I.
SUMMARY
Purpose of the Koyal biographies — " Queens of England," and "Queens
of Scotland and Princesses connected with the Regal Succession of
Great Britain " — Birth of Elizabeth Stuart, granddaughter of Mary
Queen of Scots, eldest daughter of James VI. and Anne of Denmark —
Named by the Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth — City of Edinburgh her
godmother — She is nursed at Dunfermline — Guarded by Lord Living
stone — Objections against Lady Livingstone — Lady Ochiltree appointed
her governess — Elizabeth's early playfellow is afterwards her biographer
— James VI., her father, succeeds Queen Elizabeth on the English throne,
and becomes King of Great Britain as James I. — Elizabeth enters Eng
land with her mother — Her beloved governess superseded — Her grief — •
Romantic encounter with her cousin, Lady Arabella Stuart, who is
appointed her State governess — Meets her father, James I. — Her progress
diverges to Combe Abbey — Witnesses the festival o£ the Garter at Windsor
Castle — Project of her marrying the Dauphin — Shown his picture — Her
mother's preference for a Spanish match — The king arranges her edu
cation — Placed in the care of Lord Harrington — Sorrowful parting with
her brother Henry — Departs with her young maids of honour — Arrives
at Combe Abbey — Her island — Her wilderness — Happiness in Lord Har
rington's tuition — Disturbed by the Gunpowder Plot— Dangers from
Catesby — Taken to Coventry — Illness — Reminiscences of her Erskine
maid of honour — Routine of education — Religion — History — Astronomy
— Her cottages for the poor — Aviary —Miniature farm — Her lavish
expenditure of her allowance — Pecuniary troubles — Advice of her tutor
thereon — Adult establishment — Visits to her brother at Ham House —
He frightens her with ghost-stories — Traditions of her terror — Marriage-
treaty for her with the Elector Palatine — His position in Europe.
The great tragedy of the hapless island heiress, Marv
Stuart, has been delineated from its commencing to its clos-
VOL, VIII. A

2 ELIZABETH STUAET.
ing scene. Our occupation is almost, but not quite, gone.
It has been but the development of one purpose unswervingly
pursued — that of tracing, by means of two series of royal
female biographies, the progressive march of civilisation and
the interior life and domestic history of our country. Com
mencing with the Queens of England at the earliest period
when female influence was acknowledged in the govern
ment of a courtj our first series was brought down to the
reign of the last monarch of the elder line, and the acces
sion of the present dynasty, whose hereditary claims to
the succession are derived from the two Princesses whose
lives occupy this volume, namely, Elizabeth Stuart, Princess-
Royal of Great Britain, afterwards Queen of Bohemia, and
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the granddaughter and great-
granddaughter of Mary Stuart : with their lives, this, the
second series of our royal biographies, will close.
Elizabeth Stuart, the eldest daughter of the marriage of
James VI. King of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, was
born at the beautiful little palace of Falkland, August 19,
1596. Her mother had a well-beloved sister Ehzabeth,
Duchess of Brunswick ; but of course the powerful Queen
Elizabeth received the compliment of naming the infant of
her heir and dutiful godson. King Jamie. Yet there was
no special embassy from England, no rich presents, as in the
case of the king's inauspicious baptism. The child was
presented at the font in Holyrood Chapel, by Mr Bowes,
lieger-ambassador from the Court of England, who acted as
godfather, and named her Elizabeth. The godmother of the
young Elizabeth was the good town of Edinburgh, stoutly
represented by her Provost and Bailies, who promised and
vowed that the catechumen should be brought up in the
Reformed faith. And truly this mural godmother was very
likely to keep her word by the aid of the swor,d-militant.
In times when there was some probability that the god
child might suffer pains and penalties not a few for the faith
professed, an embattled city, with all its men of might, was
the most responsible of sponsors. Neither did Auld Eeekie
forget her duty in a handsome propine ; for a rich box
heaped with gold pieces was her gift, which was duly added

ELIZABETH STUART. 3
to the treasury of the Lady Elizabeth's grace, who was
about four months old, her baptism taking place December
28, 1596.
In the course of a few raonths after ber baptism, Eliza
beth's mural godmother made herself heard in angry tones
touching the creed of the Lady Livingstone,' although that
lady had no charge about the person of the Princess, but
King James had made her husband. Lord Livingstone,
captain of her guard. His Scottish Majesty was very poor,
but at the same tirae willing to show grateful remem
brance to those who had been faithful to his mother; for
he never forgot her friends when he had a modicum of cash
or a household appointment to bestow. Lord Livingstone
was a Protestant, and the son of a Protestant ; his wife had
turned Roman Catholic. It was in vain the King affirmed
that Lady Livingstone had nought to do with the defence
of his girl, and that she could not interfere with her
husband's office to watch all egress and regress to the
Princess's tower at Dunfermline, were she twenty times a
Papist. The " guid town's" preachers were not satisfied,
although, as the baby could not speak, her theological prin
ciples were not liable to be tampered with. At last the
heart-burning was appeased by the appointment of Lady
Ochiltree to the chief office In the Princess-Royal's nursery ;
— ^reminiscences of the connection of the Ochiltree family
with John Knox being popular, Auld Reekie relaxed frora
her wrath and anxieties. Some trifling entries In James
VL's Compotus show that he expended cash to buy brushes
to " straik the Princess's" hair withal ; likewise to " dress
babies to play her," which. In English, means dolls for her
to play with.
The infant Princess was perraitted to remain with the
Queen, as sorae compensation for her Majesty's maternal
sufferings in being deprived of her eldest son Prince Henry,
who was enclosed for safety In the strong fortress of
Stirling — a proceeding passionately resented by Queen
Anne, but Indispensably necessary for the well-being of the
whole royal family, as tbe factious party in Scotland had,
^ Spottiswoode.

4 ELIZABETH STUART.
In several preceding reigns, set up the infant heir of tbe
realm in rivalry to his parent, the actual monarch. Brought
up apart, and only meeting at stated Intervals, Elizabeth
and Henry formed, as they grew up, the most tender friend
ship for each other — as when they met, each hour was a
long-looked-for festival, and the short sweet holiday was too
precious to be wasted In wrangling and contradiction, often
arising when familiar intercourse leads to contempt. To
this separation may be attributed the early correspondence
by letter that constantly passed between this pretty pair —
he enclosed in his castellated rock, and she In the towers
of Dunfermline, the last buildings added to this palace by
Anne of Denmark being especially for her daughter's
nursery. Notwithstanding the anger and jealousy with which her
mother. Queen Anne, regarded the Earl of Mar, for his
sedulous performance of his duty in denying all unauthorised
access to Prince Henry at Stirling Castle, her wrath did
not extend to the whole family of Erskine ; her Majesty was
pleased to patronise and tolerate a young lady of that illus
trious house as the early playfellow and maid of honour of
her daughter. The pen of this lady left a pleasant record of
her Princess, revealing, as an eyewitness, that familiar and
interior life to which It is pleasant indeed for a biographer to
gain access.1 She tells us — and indeed all portraits prove
that her evidence was not too flattering — that the young
Elizabeth was one of the loveliest and most promising of
children. So excessively attached was she to Lady Ochil
tree, that her first sorrow, in being separated from her, had .
a visible effect on her health and spirits.
With the hour of her father's accession to the throne of
1 The Reverend and Honourable T. Erskine, Vicar of Beighton in Derby
shire, uncle to the Eari of Mar, lent us a very curious privately-printed
historical work being a fragment of a Life of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia,
by one of his female ancestors who had been attached to her service from
childhood; edited by his grandmother, who was granddaughter to that
lady. It IS a thm duodecimo volurae, containing only 162 pages which
comprise the history of the childhood and education of this itlistrious
daughter of the royal house of Stuart, who was interesting no less for her
virtues and heroic qualities, than for the misfortunes which made her
married life resemble the events ofa romance.

ELIZABETH STUART. 6
England the public life of the young Elizabeth In some
degree began. Although the contumacious behaviour of
Anne of Denraark to her lord and master, on this and other
changes connected with his accession to the sovereignty of
the whole Island, really amounted to household rebellion,
yet she was not absurd enough to communicate any of her
tactics to her young daughter of seven years old, the cora
panion of her southern progress, or to her daughter's maid
of honour. They only knew that the Queen and court were
journeying to King James, who had preceded them, in
England — that It was proper that Elizabeth, now Princess-
Royal of England, should be given to the care of an English
lady of rank. It was nevertheless very hard for the Princess
to relinquish the maternal friend, whom she loved as much
as, and perhaps a little more than, she did her own raother,
as may be gathered from the Erskine narrative.
Indeed, the heart of the young Elizabeth clave to her own
country and her own people. She was then scarcely be
yond infancy, but of precocious Intellect and strong affec
tions, and she could not bear the thoughts of being separated
from the corapanions of her Infancy, and those who had
been accustomed to wait upon her. " As the Princess,"
says our authority, " had always honoured me with greater
familiarity and friendship than any other of her playfellows,
the Queen allowed her to take me to England with her ; and
as I loved her better than I did anybody, I obeyed with
cheerful readiness, and never left my dear mistress after
that. We set out with the Queen and Prince Henry, and
a great train of Scots nobility, who attended them as far as
Berwick, where the Earls of Sussex and Lincoln, the Lords
Compton and Norris, and their ladles, with the Countesses
of Worcester, Bedford, and Kildare, Lady Anne Herbert,
the Ladies Scrope, Rich, and Walsingham, and raany
more, carae to raeet the Queen." Lady Kildare, daughter to
Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, Admiral of England,
and widow of the Earl of Kildare,^ brought a letter from
the King, desiring the Queen " that that good and virtuous
' As wife of the King's kinsman, Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, and a near
relative by birth to Queen Elizabeth, this lady had claims to an appoint-

6 ELIZABETH STUART.
lady might Instantly attend their daughter;" — a very wise
and popular measure, alike as regarded the important ser
vices the Lord- Admiral had rendered to the realm of Eng
land by the destruction of the Armada, the expediency of
conciliating the powerful connection of the Howards, and,
above all, the personal accomplishments ofthe Lady Kildare,
who was, besides, nearly related to Queen Elizabeth. The
little Princess, however, who had not yet recovered the
grief of parting with her former governess, was greatly
moved when the Queen her mother told her " she had
named a successor whose raerit and good-nature would
soon comfort her for the loss she was laraenting." "Oh,
Madam ! " answered the little Princess, bursting into tears,
" nothing can ever make rae forget' one I have loved so
much." " I would not have you forget her, child," replied the
Queen, " but I would have you love Lady Kildare as well
in time, who, I dare say, will deserve it by her fondness for
" My young mistress," continues the noble biographer of
Ehzabeth Stuart, " sobbed out sorae pretty corapliment to
Lady Kildare, which I have now forgot, and dried up her
tears as well as she could. Not being of an age to retain
grief long, she soon became sensible of Lady Kildare's merit,
and was at last very fond of her."^ But Lady Kildare was
not at the head of the Princess's establishment. Her state-
governess was her father's cousin-german, the Lady Ara
bella Stuart, to whom the reader is introduced in a raode
perfectly new to any of her biographers, but at the same
time perfectly consistent with the curious half-theatrical
fashion of the times, carried to excess by Queen Elizabeth,
and then at its height.
ment of consequence about the royal family. James I. complied with the
English customs as far as possible, to obviate the strong jealousy arising
even then between his southern and northern subjects. The anger and
violence with which his Queen, Anne of Denmark, received the individuals
of the new household, sent to the Borders for herself and children, and
the odd way in which she behaved, have beeu mentioned iu her Life. —
Queens of England, Anne of Denmark.
1 Life of the Queen of Bohemia, by one of her ladies ; in possession of
the Hon. and Rev. T. Erskine, Vicar of Beighton, Derbyshire ; pp. 40-16.

'" ELIZABETH STUART. 7
" One day as we were coming down a hill In Nottingham
shire, we perceived a great company, which, as we drew
near, appeared like what you have read of the shepherds
and shepherdesses of Arcadia. One band was of young
woraen dressed all in white, with garlands on their heads,
and on their ai-ras baskets of flowers, which they strewed
along the road, followed by young men clad also in white,
and playing on the tabor, pipe, and all kinds of rural instru
ments, leading a flock of sheep, whose wool was white as
snow. Cornucopias, and other emblems of peace and plenty,
were carried by several of the party, singing choruses In
praise of the royal family, and of the blessings of peace,
which their accession was to secure to the whole Island.
" A troop of huntsmen arrayed In green and silver came
next, conducting a herd of tarae deer, with their horns
tipped with gold. These swains told us that Diana, hearing
of the Queen's approach, was coraing to invite her to repose
herself in one of her retreats. They hardly ended their
speech, which was In verse, when we heard the sound of
bugles from a neighbouring wood, out of which we saw
several beautiful girls advance, attired like nymphs ; and
last of all appeared Diana — that Is, a lady representative of
the goddess, who proved to be the Lady Arabella Stuart,
daughter to Charles, Earl of Lennox, younger brother to
the King's father. She had more than once been Imprisoned
by Queen Elizabeth, out of jealousy to her proximity to the
crown, and was found In strict confinement by King James,
who had just released her from durance, and taken her Into
high favour, appointing her his daughter's state-governess,
according to the ancient custom of England, which required
that office to be filled by the lady nearest in blood to the royal
family." The Lady Arabella now came to show her gratitude
for this happy change In her fortunes, and by meeting his
Queen after the fantastical fashion so truly to her taste, she
won her favour directly. Moreover, she caused great admira
tion In the eyes of the youthful Princess, her kinswoman and
nominal charge,^ who was, with her childish maid of honour,
' It is certain that Lady Arabella Stuart was a Roman Catholic, which
explains many mysteries in ber life.

8 ELIZABETH STUART.
just of the age for appreciating stags with gilt horns, Diana,
and her troop ; the wonder Is how they could have been
relished by children of larger growth.
" The Queen could not go so far out of her road as Chats
worth, the old Lady Shrewsbury's seat, to which she had
desired her granddaughter. Lady Arabella, to Invite her
Majesty. Probably neither James nor his consort felt dis
posed to pay any particular mark of respect to one from
whom the hapless Mary Queen of Scots had received such
injurious treatment. Queen Anne, however, accepted with
pleasure an Invitation to Holme Pierrepont, where Sir
Henry Pierrepont and his lady,^ aunt to the Lady Arabella,
had the honour of entertaining the Queen for some days,
during which time the Lady Elizabeth became extremely
fond of her kinswoman. From thence we went to Walbeck
[meaning Welbeck Abbey], where we met and were enter
tained by Sir Charles Cavendish, son to old Lady Shrews
bury, and uncle to Lady Arabella. Lady Arabella attached
herself to the royal progress, and ray young raistress,
although so rauch younger, was never happier than when in
her company ; and her conversation rendered the rest of the
journey less tedious to the Queen, whom the King advanced
from Windsor to meet, at Holmby Palace or Castle."
Elizabeth, according to her father's plans, diverged with
her train of attendants from the progress, to rest and re
fresh at Combe Abbey, about two miles from Coventry,
then possessed by Lord Harrington, to whom the charge of
her person, and the care of her board and education, were
afterwards consigned. The time was high Midsummer, the
weather furiously hot.- Combe Abbey, situated In the
loveliest scenery of England, its bowery demesne having
been cultivated to the greatest perfection Its late monastic
possessors could effect, struck the young Princess as In
strong contrast to the wild beauty of her native country.
King James thus presented the future residence of his child
to her at the most favourable time of the year, when her
^ The father and mother of Bessy Pierrepont, the young favourite of
Mary Queen of Soots. See Vol. VII., Queens of Scotland, &c,,— this series.
' Lady Anne Clifford's Journal, and the Erskine Biography.

ELIZABETH STUART. 9
toilsome travel through the raid-counties made rest In the
cool shades of this ecclesiastical paradise raost welcorae.
" King James had been anxious to see his wife and chil
dren once more ; and as for my young mistress," says her
early companion, " her father was exceedingly beloved by
her. The endearing manner in which she expressed her
joy at seeing him again, gave him the utraost pleasure.
He had had prepared for her at Windsor a thousand pretty
toys suitable to her age. At last he showed her the
Dauphin's miniature picture, and asked her ' how she
would like hira for a husband?' She raade him no answer,
but coloured (as you must have observed girls generally
do, though ever so young, when you talk to them of being
married), and ran into the next room, where I was in wait
ing with some of the Queen's ladies. She whispered to
me 'that she had a great secret to tell me;' and when
we were alone, she told me what the King had said to her,
and that the Dauphin's picture was the prettiest face she
had ever seen : she charged rae not to tell her brother
that she had said so. Prince Henry, who had been shown.
In like manner, the picture of the French Princess, was
equally pleased at it, and with the thoughts that he and
his sister were to marry the children of that great man,
Henry IV., for whose character he had the utraost vene
ration." Sully ,^ who had been despatched by Henry IV.
on a congratulatory erabassy, had presented these rainia-
tures to Jaraes I. One of Sully's missions was to repre
sent to Jaraes the good measure of supporting the still
strugghng republic of Holland against her oppressors.
James adopted this course, but concluded at the same tirae
a profitable peace with Spain, to the great satisfaction of
the people of Great Britain, but rather to the disappoint
ment of the great Sully and his greater master.
Between jest and earnest. King James had much to say
in his own family on the marriages of the royal children
of Great Britain and Erance; but the Queen, to whom
great court was at the same time paid by a very foppish
' He was then Marquis de Rosny, but as his title SuUy is his historical
name, it is used here to spare confusion of ideas.

10 ELIZABETH STUART.
ambassador -extraordinary from Spain, Count Aremberg,
preferred the idea of alliance with Spain, to the extreme
tribulation of her children. The nursery-tales of Elizabeth
as well as of Henry had been replete with the cruelty and
horrors perpetrated by Spain In Holland and wheresoever
her despotism, armed with the fiery scourge of the Inquisi
tion, could extend Itself. These terrors, founded on unde
niable facts, clung to the minds of the brother and sister so
as to influence Elizabeth's future life, and that of Henry,
as long as It lasted.
" Soon after our arrival," resumes her raald of honour,
" Prince Henry, the Duke of Lennox, Lord Southampton,
Lord Pembroke, and Lord Mar, were installed Knights of
the Garter. The Queen, to show her resentment to Lord
Mar, refused to witness the ceremony ; her daughter, how
ever, with the Lady Arabella, occupied a recess in one of
the windows of St George's Hall. Her Majesty held a
drawing-room after the ceremony, where all the ladles of
the new court, and great numbers of the nobility, were
admitted to kiss her hand. Her gracious reception gave
the utmost satisfaction, and her Scottish subjects observed,
that she never had looked so handsome as that day. King
James hiraself, who did not often now take notice of her
appearance, called Lord Southarapton and some others whom
he had brought, and asked them " if they did not think his
Annie (as he generally called her) looked passing well ; and
my little Bessie too," added he, taking his daughter up in his
arms and kissing her, " is not an ill-fared wench, and may
outshine her mother one of these days." " That Is more,
sir," replied Lord Southampton, bowing, " than the Prin
cess need desire : if she equals her Majesty some years
hence, it will be more, I will be bold to say, than any other
princess on earth will do ! " Pity that this well-turned
piece of flattery, adroitly administered by the friend of
Shakespeare, was thrown away. But the harmony of that
joyous evening was broken soon after. The Queen's
temper became exasperated ; probably too much respect
was paid to the Earl of Mar. A general quarrel ensued,
and the complimentary Lord Southampton was handed oif

ELIZABETH STUART. 11
to the Tower for — Impertinence to the Queen. With true
Scottish caution, the Erskine maid of honour ignores all
reminiscences of this fracas.
Sully, it seems, had privately and mysteriously insinuated
ideas of the mai'riage of Elizabeth and the Dauphin, on
condition that King James joined with Henry IV. and all
the Protestant princes — among whom, by the way, the
Elector Palatine, afterwards her husband, was especially
naraed^ — In a war against the House of Austria. But
that great and rather prudish statesman never Intended,
or even Iraagined it possible, that the Insular raonarch
could think of joking about It with his little children and
their attendants, and, still worse, giving jovial healths
concerning the same when dining at Greenwich Palace,
In wine which he had omitted to dilute with water !
Now, even In these times of temperance, English gentle
men must laugh at being expected, by any French ara
bassador, to drink healths in weak wine and water, to
which wholesome potation, we are grieved to acknowledge,
Elizabeth's royal sire was by no raeans addicted. So
Sully tells^ his friend, Roi Henri, In a most arausing letter,
the crabbishness of his remarks on the want of reserve
regarding the marriages of the four royal infants raaking
It, unconsciously to hiraself, very humorous. The great
French statesman was withal rauch annoyed by the per
versity of Queen Anne, who made no secret of the good
understanding she had come to with the Spanish ambas
sador, d'Aremberg, concerning the marriage of his young-
King, Philip III., with her Elizabeth, and of her Prince of
Wales with his Infanta. " I told King Jaraes, at dinner,
that the Spaniards were notorious for offering their Infanta
to all the princes npon earth merely to delude them," writes
Sully to Henry IV.^
The Duke of Lerraa then proposed to the English ambas
sador a design of giving this Infanta to the Prince of Wales,
and demanding the Princess Elizabeth for the Prince of
' CEuvres de Sully.
'^ Ibid.— Letter to Henri Quatre, i. 131, 1 32. ' Ibid.

12 ELIZABETH STUART.
Piedmont, first cousin to the young King of Spain, who
had been brought up in his court. The young Elizabeth
heard this proposal discussed between her parents with
terror, owing to the probability of her being sent to Spain
for education, if it had been accepted. A different course
of education was, however, soon resolved on by her father,
and Elizabeth had once more to break the ties of affection
she had formed with the lady In charge over her. 'Lady
Kildare was dismissed, and the Princess was consigned
wholly to the care of Lord and Lady Harrington : the home
Intended for her during her education was their seat of
Combe Abbey.
Lady Kildare was relinquished by her royal pupil with
out great demonstration of regret, but the parting with the
dear cousin, Lady Arabella Stuart, although that lady's state
functions, as first governess, were to be resumed at all vaca
tions allowed the Princess, was something tragical. As for
her separation from the Prince, force was required to effect
it, for his sister hung about his neck, exclaiming, " No, I
can never leave my dear Henry ! " The fear of dis
pleasing the King and Queen put an end to the lamenta
tions that ensued when her arms were unclasped from her
brother's neck ; and the Lady Elizabeth was forthwith con
signed to the keeping of her new guardians. Finally she set
out with them to Combe Abbey, with as much coraposure as
could be expected. Several young ladies, about her own
age, attended her thither ; they were to share her education
In the retirement of that Warwickshire Elysium. Some of
their names are of historical note, and will be remembered,
as the Erskine maid of honour thus enumerates them.
" There were," she says, " the Ladies Dorothy and Lucy
Percy,^ daughters of the Earl of Northumberland"- — the last
became afterwards the notorious Countess of Carlisle; "then
there was the Lady Frances Devereux, daughter to the un
fortunate Earl of Essex, and Lady Elizabeth Hume, and
Lady Chariotte Bruce, one the daughter of the Earl of
' Their father was an ultra-Papist, and these children were most likely
brought up Protestants perforce. He was deeply involved in the Gun
powder Plot.

ELIZABETH STUART. 13
Dunbar, and the other of the Earl of Elgin, two of the
King's Scottish favourites. I need not name myself, for I
had never left her."
It may surprise our readers to find that King James had
a very great dislike to pedantry in man or woman ; and,
though his saying has been turned against hiraself, was
wont to observe—" That even a man who was vain and
foolish, was made more so by learning ; and as for women,
whora he deemed to be all naturally addicted to vanity, where
learning did one good It did twenty harm." He therefore
charged Lord Harrington not to atterapt to make the
Princess a Greek or Latin scholar (as had been usual for
women of high birth in the last century), but to make her
truly wise, by Instructing her thoroughly in her religious
duties, and by giving her general useful information, and,
withal, sound knowledge of history. " Truly his Majesty
could not have pitched upon a properer tutor for his daugh
ter, than Lord Harrington, who had studied both mankind
and books. He was at once a sincere Christian and fine
gentleman ; learned without pedantry. He knew that
amusements were necessary for young people ; he therefore
procured for her and her young train all that the country
could afford ; yet, at the sarae time, contrived to Intermix
thera with something useful and estimable. In order to
raise her above all that was trifling and childish, he culti
vated her taste for the liberal arts. Masters for music,
dancing, and painting, were soon provided and pensioned,
to attend on and instruct the Lady Elizabeth and her little
court." " The first days after our arrival at Combe Abbey were
spent in admiring the beauties of the place, which made so
great an impression on me that I still remember it well
enough to give you ^ some account of it, which will amuse
me, I am sure, as the recollections of our infancy always do,
and 1 hope they will not tire you. The house stood rather
low, as most old ones do — had a pleasing though not exten
sive prospect. Under the window of our Princess's apart-
1 The lady, narrating these reminiscences of the Queen of Bohemia's
education, evidently addresses them to her children or grandchildren.

14 ELIZABETH STUART.
ment was a parterre filled with the greatest variety of
flowers that ever I saw. Beyond, a lawn of beautiful ver
dure, peculiar to this country, relieved the eye, fatigued with
the dazzling colours of the flowers. The view was termi
nated by a cascade falling into a canal, that looked a river,
which seemed to lose itself in a fine wood on the right hand;
this wood circled round from the other side of the house.
We could go through It, in the shade, all the way to the
park, which was a very fine one. Through the park were
many gravelled paths, which made walking very agreeable
in winter. In summer every part of It was delightful, and
throughout the year you might have shade and shelter in
your walks, with some prospects, whichever way the wind
blew or the sun shone.
" Nothing took the fancy of the Princess so much as a
little wilderness at the end of the park, on the banks of a
large brook, which ran winding along, and forraed in one
a large Irregular basin, or rather a small lake. In which was
an Island covered with an underwood of flowering plants
and trees — so well chosen, that for nine raonths in the year
It presented continual spring. The wilderness and the island
my young mistress begged to have the disposal of, which
was granted with great pleasure by the noble owners. My
Princess was fond of all animals, especially of the feathered
kind. She never heard or read of any bird, rare for its
beauty or curious qualities, but she wished to possess It, or
at least to see it. As she was much beloved, every one who
knew her tastes brought her creatures of various kinds."
The odd angle of the park, over which Lady Harrington
permitted her to reign, formed a horae for her animals ;
concerning the welfare of which she had experienced, now
and then, the anxieties that a good mistress, however young
she raay be, must feel occasionally for those looking up to
her for comfort. " Lord Harrington, who wished for her the
wisdom of Solomon — and indeed she was In a fair way of
knowing all that grows, from the hyssop on the wall to the
cedars that were planted under her Inspection — was pleased
to find her genuine delight in the inanimate as well as the
animate creation. The private garden and greenhouse were

ELIZABETH STUART. 15
as well stored with exotic plants as her aviary and mena
gerie were with happy living creatures. Lord Harrington
never missed any opportunity of raising her mind to the
Creator of all. If she admired a bird or a flower, she was
taught to thank and to adore the goodness of Almighty
God, ' who so clothes the grass of the field,' ' and without
whose permission not a sparrow falleth ;' ' who feedeth the
young ravens,' and ' who raade every tree and every herb
to bear seed after Its kind.' If a butterfly or a glow-worm
took the eye of the young Elizabeth, some account was
given her of Its nature, and of the wonderful changes most
of them go through ; and she was shown these and smaller
insects through the microscope, which had been very lately
Invented by DrlblU, a Dutchman. A very frequent and
favourite entertainment was this to us all."
Such Is the meraorial of the first three years of Elizabeth
Stuart's life in the Happy Valley, kept by the Pekuah of
the party. For who can doubt that the original idea of the
charming tale of Rasselas arose from recollections of the
education of Elizabeth Stuart, which must have been rife
in the mid-counties when Samuel Johnson was a boy ; for
he was born within a few miles of the Happy Valley of
Combe Abbey, where the King's daughter, sometimes visited
by her beloved brother, was enclosed, with her juvenile
court, from the world — a world in which the Princess and
her fair-faced maids, Lucy Percy, with the fascinating
Dorothea, her sLster, were to play such remarkable parts.
Before they left Combe Abbey there was evidence enough
that they longed to rush into the world of action and of
pleasure. Yet before ever it had done with them, we can
answer full well that one, and she the principal of the bright
group, vainly wished to rest her aching brow and wearied
raind in that English Elysiura of her youth, to which there
was no return, as in the Abyssinian apologue.
There are many corroborations extant of the exactitude
of the young maid of honour's memoir. Just when Eliza
beth was ten years old, a portrait was painted of her, quite
unaccountable without the hint given of her aviary and
menagerie at Combe Abbey. She has a monkey and a dog

16 ELIZABETH STUART.
at her feet, a love-bird In her hand, a macaw on one shouK
der, and a parrot on the other.^ It became a fashion thus
to paint children, and raany portraits occur in the galleries
of the old English nobility and gentry of children surrounded
by birds.^
When the alarming autumn of 1607 arrived, the Happy
Valley of Combe Abbey was nearly frighted from its peace
and propriety, like the rest of the Island, by the astounding
plot that was meant to deprive Great Britain, at one fell
blow, of King, Queen, Prince, Peers, and Parliament.
Robert Catesby, Esq., one of the accorapllces in this plot,
a landed proprietor of ancient family, and Papist to extre
mity, lived within a few miles of Combe Abbey, and in
vited all the gentlemen of the mid-counties round to a great
hunting-match on his property, which was to corae off the
first days of November 1607. A rising-ground on the Combe
Abbey estate entirely commanded the view of Catesby's
heath, where the hunt was to meet. The Lady Elizabeth and
her train of nymphs, being exceedingly addicted to the old
savage propensities of feraale life In the British Islands,
reckoned excessively on viewing the sport from their own
domain. We do not find that hunting was especially re
commended araong the educational exercises allowed by
Lord Harrington ; yet the whole bevy were anxious to
have a peep at the pleasure about which their fathers and
mothers, from the King and Queen, the peer and peeress,down
to the simple squire and dame, talked perpetually. An adven
ture occurred the preceding day, November 4, which, how
ever seriously related by the writer of the Erskine memoir, we
cannot help thinking was a contrivance to keep the Princess
and her young ladles within the safe precincts of their
Happy Valley. As they were all walking to the Princess's
farm, which they visited every day at recreation-time, they
heard the voices of men outside the park-fence. The
Princess being named, the whole fair bevy Inside drew up
^ Rolls MS., for payment ofthe painter.
" At Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, the seat of Walter Strickland, Esq.,
two children of Sir Thomas Strickland, whose portraits occur at the same
period, are painted surrounded by birds in an aviary.

ELIZABETH STUART. 17
to listen to the dialogue.^ Why the men persisted In It
when so many female tongues were on the other side of the
park-pales, Is not satisfactorily explained. Perhaps the
plotters were deaf, although it seems they were not dumb ;
for " voice the first" said to " voice the second," " that he could
easily get in at the neighbouring gate, and, with the aid
of a dozen men, carry off the Princess, while the rest
caught her attendants." There Is no historical record of
the alarm which first impelled Lord Harrington to retreat
with the Princess and her household behind the walls of the
neighbouring city of Coventry, but thither they went, vacat
ing Combe Abbey but two hours before Catesby, at the
head of an insurgent band of Papists, came In search of
thera for the purpose of seizing the Princess, and proclaim
ing her Queen, by the style of Elizabeth II.
The civic force of Coventry turned out to guard the Prin
cess, the day she becarae the guest of their municipality,
November 7, 1607.^ Lord Harrington, when he had placed
his charge, her train, and the helpless ones of his own
family, in the " safe harbour of Coventry," went with the
posse comitatis to hunt down the insurgent Roraan Catholics,
who stood at bay, coraraanded by Catesby, at Holbeach
House, where their defence was raost desperate.^ Catesby
was killed. No notice exists of the date of Elizabeth's re
turn to Corabe Abbey, unless that of Lord Harrington's
well-known letter may be taken.* The Princess and her
preceptor had both been 111, as he expressly says: —
" I am not yet recovered from the fever occasioned by these disturbances.
I went with Sir Fulke GreviUe to alarm the neighbourhood aud surprise the
^ The anecdote is detached from the narrative, and appended to the end
of the volume, as the first alarming incident that befell Elizabeth Stuart iu
the course of her adventurous life.
^ The date of the city-book for giving out the arms is supposed to be
that of her arrival.
^ The Digby pedigree claims for John Digby of Coleshill th(3 credit of
carrying from Lord Harrington the news to King James of the intended
insurrection of the gunpowder conspirators, most of whom were his relatives
and friends ; for which service the King made Digby one of his carvers, and
gentleman of the privy chamber, aud finally Earl of Bristol. This com
mencement of life casts a new and strange light on the character of this
eccentric personage, when his career is historically considered.
* January 6, 1605-6. It is possible the date in the Niigie is wrong.
VOL. VIII. B

18 ELIZABETH STUART.
villains who came to Holbeach — was out five days, in peril of death, and in
fear for the great charge I left at home. Winter [one of the conspirators]
hath confessed their design to surprise the Princess at my house, if their
wickedness had taken place at London. Some of them say shoTvould tave
been proclaimed queen. Her Highness doth often say, ' What a queeu
should I have been by this means ! I had rather beeu with my royal father
in the Parliament House than wear his crown on such condition !' This
poor lady hath not yet recovered the surprise, and is very ill and troubled."
The poor lady was only in her tenth year.
Many of Elizabeth's letters are preserved of a date pre
vious to the Gunpowder Plot, but not one worthy of quota
tion, being bad imitations of the scholastic performances of
Queen Elizabeth and Edward VI. One, written In French,
to her brother Henry, about this alarming time, expresses
with simplicity natural feelings of thankfulness, although
clothed in a foreign language : ^ " I doubt not you have given
thanks to the good God for the deliverance He has vouch
safed us, and still do so : for my part, I wish to join my
prayers with yours, and say with you, ' If our God be with
us, who can be against us ? In His keeping I will not
dread what man can do.' "
Frederic V., Elector Palatine, then in his tenth year,
brought up a Calvinist by his guardian, was pursuing a
theological and controversial education at Sedan, with the
view of one day heading the Calvinist League, and esta
blishing that bi-anch of Protestantism from the mouth to the
sources of the Rhine. A letter penned by this juvenile
potentate was sent to James I., congratulating him on his
escape from the " wicked conspiracy," which he expresses a
firra conviction proceeded " frora the direct agency of Anti
christ." ^ The letter proved the first step to Elizabeth's
future union with this young prince.
A little time afterwards, her household was extended and
enlarged, and Lord Harrington's allowance for her enter
tainment and that of her household was increased frora the
sum of ,£1500 per annum to ^£'2500. She was permitted.
In the ensuing summer, to stay with her mother at Green
wich Palace during the visit of her uncle, Christian IV. of
1 Harleian Collection, quoted by Miss Benger.
" Miss Benger's Memoirs of Elizabeth Stuart.

ELIZABETH STUART. 19
Denmark. There she had the pleasure of association with
her brother Henry, Prince of Wales ; and after their part
ing, once more their correspondence was renewed : little
billets in all the languages they studied, constantly tra
velled between Ham House, the residence of the Prince of
Wales, and Corabe Abbey. Elizabeth's were fantastically
knotted with floss-silk, often sorae of its threads were en
twined among the wax with which the epistle was sealed,
and the name of Elizabeth was thus wrought.
After returning to Combe Abbey, Elizabeth's studies
proceeded, with the assistance of masters, on a more
extensive scale. Writing-masters were elaborate artists
In those days, retaining, by their skill in flourishes, some
of the Importance the art had lost since printing had super
seded the conventual Illuminations. Flourished angels'
heads, adorned with elaborate wings, floui'Ished swans, all
the beasts and birds of Noah's ark, and the ark itself, were
often executed by these artists, and impertinently Intro
duced into deeds and papers where they had no possible
business. But while disliking the nuisance of these super
fluities. It Is but justice to observe, that this skill in flourished
penmanship must have greatly facilitated the higher picto
rial art by boldness In sketching, and the declension in
pictorial art from the seventeentii century has perhaps
been occasioned by the cessation of the works of these
pen-delineators. One of them, Mr Beauchamp, " that teach-
eth her Grace the Lady Elizabeth to write, was paid
for gilt paper, ink, vellum skins, and paper books for her
Grace's service, ^1, 9s. 8d.^" Dr Bull, a celebrated
sacred composer, or rather perhaps editor, of the earlier
strains of the Church, received ,£'40 per annum for in
struction given the Lady Elizabeth, who performed on vir
ginals and lute. The household was amplified, and some
of the young corapanions enuraerated by the Erskine me
moir gave place to others, as the niece of Lord Harrington,
Anne Dudley, afterwards the principal friend and favourite
of the Princess. This young lady was the daughter of the
deeply- impoverished Lord Sutton, and Theodosia, sister
1 Lord Harrington's Accounts, Rolls MS. Records.

20 ELIZABETH STUART.
of Lord Harrington. Lucy Harrington, the daughter
of Lord Harrington, was considerably older than the Prin
cess. She was one of the most accomphshed and learned
young woraen in England, but fantastic, affected, and
extravagantly profuse in expenditure. It is to be feared
that she imbued the Princess with no little of the latter
ill quality, notwithstanding the earnest manner in which
it will be found that Lord Harrington laboured to eradi
cate this dangerous tendency frora the mind of his royal
charge. It is very clear that Lord Harrington took for
his model of tuition the plans of Sir David Lyndsay of
the Mount, when he formed the mind of James V. ; and in
detailing his course of instruction, it is needful again to have
recourse to the contemporary narrative written by the
Erskine lady, who thus describes the raanner In which
knowledge was comraunicated by Lord Harrington to the
young Princess and her youthful train of noble atten
dants : —
" I raay perhaps sometiraes misplace the time of Lord
Harrington's instructions, but I remember very well that,
before we left Corabe Abbey, Copernicus's system of our
world's diurnal and annual motion round the sun was quite
familiar to us, though he surprised us all very much at first,
when he told us that the sun stood still, and that It was the
earth that moved : we all thought that he was laughing at
us. Yet Lord Harrington soon proved to us, by various
demonstrations, that such was fact. He told us that our
not perceiving the earth's motion was no reason against it,
since to people in a boat it is the shores that seem to move.
And though Moses and the other sacred writers mention
the sun as moving, and the earth as standing still, nothing
contrary to Scriptural truth need be inferred from those
modes of expression, which were merely used as accommo
dated to people's perception."
Effects visible and present were mentioned, without going
back to the hidden causes— just as we, to this hour, use the
terms " sunrise " and " sunset." All languages would have
to be pulled to pieces if Scripture were blamed regarding
such expressions. Voltaire, wiio was certainly the loudest

ELIZABETH STUART. 21
if not the first wrangler against Holy Writ on account of
" the sun standing still," would have written a folio in de
fence of the pretty French phrases descriptive of the return
and withdrawal of light, as apparent to the human eye ; yet
his diurnal, " coucher de soleil " is far more unphllosophical
than the Scriptural term for rairaculous prolongation of light.
We see, in the foregoing passage, there were, even in the
first years of the seventeenth century, scientific pedants who
carped at Scripture because it does not leave its higher
spiritual purposes to analyse the arcana of the chemist's
laboratory, the dissectlng-table, the observatory, or the geo
logical museura. The benevolent sage of Corabe Abbey
foresaw the hard attacks which the Christian belief of his
auditors would raeet, and prepared them with the shield of
liberal good-sense to interpret, not according to the mere
" letter which kills," but according to the spirit which
vivifies. And his righteous way led to good results. Eliza
beth Stuart, in all her trials, never lost sight of her Scrip
tural and Christian hope, whilst her daughter and her
granddaughter, bewildered and obfuscated with the atoms
of Descartes and of Leibnitz, lived and died in search of a '
religion. " There were stated hours," resumes our Erskine memoir,
" for the different raasters to give their lessons to the Prin
cess and her little court. No partiality was allowed to be
shown to her above the rest ; nor was she ever told,
although it was quite true, that she excelled all the children
of her age In quickness of comprehension in whatsoever she
was taught, which was everything that a great princess
ought to know. To make the study of history more agree
able to her. Lord Harrington had first begun by showing
portraits of all the sovereigns that hSd reigned in Europe,
with their wives and descendants ; little maps of their do
minions were annexed to the groups of portraits. Often
prints or drawings, representing the chief occurrences and
actions of their lives, were laid before her, when explana
tions were given by oral relation, or by reading amusing
narrations of thera from the best historians. The chrono
logy relative to each other was always very carefully

22 ELIZABETH STUART.
marked on each parcel, which were kept In packs like cards" — ^
we may suppose for the lack of the Invention of portfolios.
" The Princess, and all of us together, by way of play, used
to mix them, and then earnestly to go to work in the
arrangement of all of them in their right chronological
order, always beginning with the kings and queens of
Great Britain, north and south, and then we placed In due
order all who had been cotemporaneous. Often our draw
ing-master came and drew under our eyes little historical
pieces from the Scriptures, and In the sarae way from other
history, if our readings had greatly delighted us with some
particular passages. I remember one that will give you an
idea of the rest : It was the meeting of Henry VIII. of
England with Francis I. near Calais. Anne Bullen was
made a conspicuous figure among the attendants of that
celebrated Queen of Navarre, sister to the French king.
Henry VIII. seemed looking towards Anne while compli
menting with the King and Queen of France. The Em
peror Charles V. we placed in a corner frowning at the
meeting ; and we set up separately King James V. of Scot
land, taking leave of his mother. Queen Margaret, on the
banks of Tweed, when she was coming to visit her brother
Henry VIIL, bringing her infant, the Lady Margaret
Douglas, with her."
Geography was taught in the same amusing and com
prehensible manner.
" There was one of the best telescopes at Combe Abbey
that had yet been made ; It was little more than fifty years
since they were generally known," says our author. " Look
ing through It at the raoon and stars was always a great
entertainment to us, permitted by Lord Harrington, when
requested, rather as 11 favour, but never pressed upon
us. Lord Harrington, who was a good astronomer, rea
soned often on the folly of astrology, convincing us that
God had created His stars for nobler purposes than to
dance attendance upon any single human creature. You
may think that all this was above the capacity of children,
yet they are capable of understanding, at a much eariier
age than Is generally supposed, facts more difficult of

ELIZABETH STUART. 23
comprehension than these." The long hard words in which
information used to be conveyed to children were incom
prehensible to them, not the information itself Lord Har
rington was Indeed In advance of the greatest persons of
his era when he threw deserved scorn on astrology. Do
we not remember La Brosse, the astrologer of Sully, by
whose advice he attached himself to the fortunes of Henry
of Navarre? Then the Great Henry himself, who, just at
the time when Harrington was weeding this noxious and
paralysing superstition from the mind of the royal child
whora James I. had given to his tuition, was shuddering
at his foretold fate, and listening for the supernatural sounds
of the assassin's steps " seeking hira in his Louvi'e."
As for Wallenstein and his little grey Seni, the astrologer
who always travelled in his military train, Seni was
then learning the abracadabra of his gibberish in sorae
conjuror's booth as lad-of-all-work, and Wallenstein was
cadet in the Imperial Guard of Honour. Far far advanced
before his era was the sage of Corabe Abbey. Again, the
effects of his tuition were practically shown In the character
of the Princess, although she was not always proof against
that shuddering fear of comraunion with the Invisible,
which seeras an original sensation Iraplanted In the human
mind ; yet she was above the low superstitions of en
couraging fortune-tellers and horoscope-mongers such as
we have quoted against the greatest of the world's favourite
great men. By no chance have we found that any of the
noxious predicting crew who swarmed In her century gained
Influence over her clear mind.
" The routine of the day at Combe Abbey," began with
family prayer, short, plain, and impressive.^ The chaplain
read the lessons for the day, and expounded any difficult
passage, and never failed giving useful instructions on
some essential point of Christianity, represented to us in
Its true colours as tending to promote peace and happi
ness here and hereafter. At the time I am speaking of,
my Princess enjoyed perfect peace and tranquillity ; part
of the day was always spent out of doors, the utmost
1 Life of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, by one of her Ladies.

24 ELIZABETH STUART.
care being taken of her health, not to hurt it, as Is too
often the case with princes, and lately with herself, hy
too great delicacy. On the contrary, at Combe Abbey
she was by degrees accustoraed to air and exercise in
all weathers, and to rise early. The evenings were gene
rally occupied with music and dancing. Twice every
week the children of all the neighbouring nobility and
gentry were admitted to her company. She went to visit
all the young ladies who lived within reach, and was taken
to see everything worth seeing in the county."
Many indications reraain, among the existing accounts of
Lord Harrington, of the menagerie, which was one of his
royal pupil's delights ; charges are entered " for cotton to
make her monkeys' beds, and for joiners who made her
parrot-cages, and for shearing her great rough dog, and for
the sustenance of an Irish wolf-hound, all belonging to her
Grace." When the Princess visited her father's palace of
Nonsuch In 1612, she killed a doe, and paid, it seems, her
fee to the keeper of the Great Park there of twentypence,
and to his man, who brought her prey to Kew, another fee
of five shillings.
It is easy to trace. In the memoir left by Elizabeth's early
friend and companion, indications of the falling which beset
her almost through life : this was reckless expenditure, with
constant propensity to anticipate her Income, whatsoever
that might be. Lord Harrington exerted all his energy to
suppress Itj yet was perhaps unaware that his own daughter
at Corabe Abbey, likewise the royal mother of his pupil,
when she was with her at vacations, encouraged the evil
more than he could keep it down. Let no persons look
for esteera or respect araong their contemporaries, or peace
and independence in this world, who contract such a vice.
" The first wishes the Princess had expressed concerning
the wilderness and island given to her control at Combe
Abbey," says the Erskine memoir, " were to have a little
thatched building, which she found upon it, rendered habit
able for a widow and her children, recommended to her as
fitting recipients of her charity ; but she meant besides to
give them employment in the care of her fowls. In course

ELIZABETH STUART. 25
of tirae this cottage was new-fronted, and given the appear
ance of a herraitage ; adjacent was a grotto, the adorning of
which with shells and moss occupied many of the leisure
hours of our Princess. In all this, as In everything else, she
showed taste above her years. In the wood on the other
side of the brook she had had her aviary made like that
which she had heard,'' no doubt, frora Lord Harrington,
" that Queen Elizabeth adraired at the late Earl of Leices
ter's,'^ in Imitation of which the top was made round, with
raasses of coloured glass set in it, that looked like rough
eraeralds and rubies, the natural product of the rock which
forraed the back and roof of the aviary. The rest was en
closed with a net of gilt wire ; within were raany bushes for
the birds to perch upon, and water was falling continually
from the artificial rock for her pretty feathered creatures to
drink and bathe in at pleasure. Recesses were likewise made
for their nests In the rock when they chose to build. Near
the aviary was a cottage which she had repaired for an old
man who had the care of the birds. Little wooden buildings,
models of the orders of architecture which Lord Harrington
thought a princess ought to understand, were designed by
her, and served to enclose sorae stuffed skins of those birds
too tender to live In this country, as the Bird of Paradise
and humming-birds. Adjoining to the wood were some
raeadows, afterwards added to the grounds, which our Prin
cess used to call 'her territories,' and soraetiraes 'her fairy
farm,' frora Its being stocked with the smallest kind of
cattle that the islands of Jersey, Shetland, and Man could
furnish. The children of a neighbouring farraer had the
management of It under their father's direction. The
Princess had them clothed like shepherdesses in dresses
of her own providing, and sufficient salaries were allowed
all eraployed in this manner from her revenue for their
comfortable subsistence. ' My amusements,' she used to
say, ' give me double pleasure. If they prove beneficial to
ray fellow-creatures.' These sentiments of humanity and
benevolence had been Inculcated, from the first dawning of
' The "late" Earl of Leicester means Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
Elizabeth's favourite.

26 ELIZABETH STUART.
reason, into the mind of this lovely child. The King made
a great allowance for her expenses, and a certain part of it
he left wholly at her own disposal for ker charities, pre
sents, and pocket-money, in order to give her practical
Ideas of econoray. I was to keep her accounts, which
Lord Harrington insisted on her exaraining every month."
By this we find the Erskine lady was the keeper of the
Princess's privy purse.
" For a great while the Princess spent the money long
before the next quarter was due — nay, sometimes before
the first week was out. Once, in particular, I reraeraber she
laid it all out, within three days after it was paid. In a heap
of trinkets, which she divided among us, but chiefly between
Lady Lucy Percys and rayself Lord Harrington observed
It all in silence, but took his measures. One morning soon
after, some young ladies of the county were to be presented
to our Princess : previously Lord Harrington brought her
some pretty curiosities, which were to be purchased at a
moderate price ; some of thera he advised her to distribute
to her guests ; and, moreover, he brought her a stateraent of
distress and undeserved misery that had befallen a family of
respectability, whom he thought it would give her pleasure
to relieve. Our mistress was forced to own that her money
was all gone. Then Lord Harrington represented to her the
ill effects of profuseness, which leaves nothing wherewith to
answer the calls of true liberality. He repeated to her
what Cardinal Ximenes used to say to Queen Isabel of
Spain, and afterwards to her grandson Charles V., ' It is
becoming for princes to give, and to give much, but that
It must not be without discretion, for sovereigns with the
largest revenues could never do anything great without
order and economy In their finances.'
" The Princess owned to Lord Harrington that she had
acted foolishly, but begged him not to reject the petition of
the decayed faraily, to advance out of her next quarter's
allowance sufficient for its relief, and to purchase the pre
sents he deeraed necessary for the young ladies. < No,'
replied Lord Harrington, ' I will do no such thing ; it is a
1 Afterwards the Countess of Carlisle.

ELIZABETH STUART. 27
bad and ruinous custom for you to begin anticipating your
income. I will myself assist the distressed faraily, since
your Highness cannot afford It. As to the young ladles, you
can wait to give them presents until the tirae for New
Year's gifts comes round.' The Princess was deeply mor
tified. Lady Lucy Percy and I asked her leave to return
what she had so lavishly purchased for us, and then she
would have wherewithal to bestow, as Lord Harrington
had advised. But she answered with some scorn, ' That
she never took back aught that she had once given ! '
Then recollecting that our offer proceeded frora affection,
she burst Into tears, and added, ' that she would do any
thing that such friends requested, but indeed she believed
those baubles would be despised by the persons her tutor
wished to be propitiated; yet if Lady Harrington would let
her have them, she would devote some of her jewels to that
purpose.' Of course, Lady Harrington, in whose care the
jewels were deposited, would not hear of any such inten
tion. Just then the Queen happened to send her daughter
some trinkets, which she was allowed to give away. Not
withstanding, she thought the time very long till her next
quarterly payment, as her greatest pleasure was to give, and
she had to put off or refuse all petitioners and cases of dis
tress for want of funds. Lord Harrington observed her
embarrassment with the utraost satisfaction, and irapressed
on her raind, that to do good by fits and starts was of little
use. He recommended her to determine what part of her in
come ought to be appropriated to charity, and having fixed
the sum, to separate it from the rest, and religiously devote
It to the service of God, hy benefiting in the best possible
manner our distressed fellow-creatures. Not only ought we
to give, -but to give well. When the Princess wished to
know the most useful charities. Lord Harrington replied,
' schools.' The Princess asked him eagerly, 'What schools
were the properest ?' ' Such,' he replied, ' are the most
beneficial which at the sarae time instruct the poor and igno
rant In their duties to God and man, and in the means of
gaining an honest livelihood.' "
Lord Harrington well knew the expense- and difficulties

28 ELIZABETH STUART.
of an industrial school ; the one thing needful, we may see,
then as well as now. A coramon school, for turning the
children of hardy peasants Into defective and discontented
clerks, by penning them into unhealthy rooras, with un
wholesome leaves of the tree of knowledge, to worry their
minds eight mortal hours, while their poor bodies were ener
vated for manly toil, was cheap enough then as now. But
our English sage Insisted, that if "good" was not done well,
people had better let it alone. Lord Harrington repre
sented to his pupil " that she must not undertake raore ex
pense than she could afford ; he advised her to distribute
araong poor families short catechisms and other good books,
and then Institute rewards to parents for every child who
could answer pertinently when questioned on thera. Like
wise other rewards [or prizes] for girls that could knit, and
sew, and clothe themselves and families. These had re
wards [prizes] of suits of clothes given ; they were further
required to exert their skill by making them, and this se
cured another reward or prize. Further, he advised her to
put sorae children out every year, some to handicraftsmen,
and others to farmers to learn tillage."
" ' Even these benefactions,' said Lord Harrington, ' will
sometimes exceed the sum you set apart for charity.' 'Then
make up the deficiency, my Lord,' replied the Princess,
' from the cost of that appropriated for dress and personal ex
penses.' Lord Harrington commended much her generous
intention, but told her that every rank in life required a
suitable appearance, of which her Grace would be a better
judge when grown up ; that she would then do well to re
gulate her expenses by the rules of discretion, and to set
proper bounds to the magnificence of her apparel, which
would set a good example to those ladies of lower rank
often inclined to transgress the limits of good sense in that
particular. Such ought to be her constant care. ' He
hoped,' he said, ' to see her united to some Illustrious
prince of the same generous disposition with herself, that
would listen to her good counsels, and join with her not only
in discouraging all excesses, but in encouraging virtue, pro
moting every good work, and the happiness of their subjects.'

ELIZABETH STUAET. 29
We saw the cheeks of our Princess glow and her eyes
sparkle as if her heart burned within her when prospects
of doing good were set before her."
The subject of Elizabeth's tuition must not be dismissed
without quotation^from some devotional lines, written while
at Combe Abbey. They were preserved araong the Har
rington Papers, and published in the Nugce collected in the
last century. There is something of strength and vitality
in the lines, which show that Elizabeth Stuart shared the
poetical genius of her race, and was a worthy descendant
of the national poets, Jaraes I., Jaraes IV., and James V.
Unfortunately, an ambitious desire of surmounting difficul
ties has caused her to write in quadrupled rhyme, which
has injured the pleasing simplicity of the strain of thought: —
" This is joy, this true pleasure,
If we best things make our treasure.
And enjoy them at full leisure.
Evermore in richest measure.
God is only excellent,
Unto Him our love be sent ;
Whose desires are set or bent
On aught else, shall much repent.
What care I for lofty place,
If the Lord grant me His grace.
Showing me His pleasant face
When with joy I end my race.
This is only my desire,
This doth set my heart on fire.
That I might receive my lyre
With the saints' and angels' quire.
Oh my soul, of heavenly birth.
Do thou scorn this basest earth ;
Place not here thy joy and mirth.
Where of bliss is utmost dearth.
To me grace, Oh Father, send,
On Thee wholly to depend ;
May I to Thy glory tend,
So to hve and so to end." '

There are more verses, but they have been irretrievably mangled in

printing the Nugm.

30 ELIZABETH STUART.
When the Princess entered her fifteenth year, residences
were appointed for her at Kew Palace, and at the Cock
pit. Lord Harrington, his wife, and their niece and
daughter, were given the first places In her household.
The Cockpit, her London residence, was the theatre of
Whitehall in the time of Henry VIII. It Is well known, in
the domestic history of the royalty of England at the end
of the same century, as the residence of Anne, Princess of
Denmark, the youngest daughter of James IL, and sub
sequently as the Treasury, and as the site of the present
Treasury. When fresh air was needed during the stay of
the Princess In the neighbourhood of London, Kew was
the place of her abode ; whether in the present palace is
dubious, yet the lower rooms present many features of the
era in fluted oak panneling, which, though afterwards painted
white, cannot date much later than the times of James I.
Kew has for several centuries been the residence of the
younger branches of English royalty. In this Instance,
the near neighbourhood to Hara Palace, the favourite abode
of Henry Prince of Wales, and the easy access by means
of the river, raade an occasional sojourn there very delight
ful to the young Elizabeth. The brother and sister used to
exchange visits frequently in summer evenings, and some
times remain days together as each other's guests. These
visits are still preserved in the traditions of Ham House,
which is the most curious historical palace in the envi
rons of London. The principal state-chamber was hung
with tapestry from the long-forgotten factory at Mortlake,
which tradition attributes to James I.'s patronage, with In
tention of rivalling the famous one established by Gilles
Gobelin in France under Francis I. The wonderful car
toons by Raphael, now at Hampton Court, served for the
patterns of the Mortlake tapestry.'^ The state-chamber in
1 It is certain that the expenses of the Mortlake Gobelins were defrayed
from the revenues of Henry Prince of Wales during the minority of his
brother Charles. We have not found auy other particular of its existence,
excepting in Manning's Surrey, which attributes the foundation to James
I., who granted £2000 to Sir F. Crane in 1019 — the Harleian says, from the
revenues of his deceased son Henry. That the cartoons at Hampton Court
have been worked, is known by the marks of stitches on them.

ELIZABETH STUART. 31
Ham House, though now modernised, was, when we saw It,
about eighteen years ago, warranted to be In the same state
as when Elizabeth slept there, and terrified at the ghost-
stories which her brother Henry so Inhospitably told her,
forsook the room the first night, and took refuge in the
ante-room, where her maids slept on pallets, and passed the
night in their company. Henry Stuart, adored as h/j was
by his family, had a propensity of teasing and trying the
tempers of his sister and brother Charles. Lord Har
rington, who had with benevolent foresight taken care to
guard his pupil frora the vulgar and selfish forms of super
stition, was doubtless grieved at her courage breaking
down In a haunted Tudor chamber.
Ham House was one of Henry VIIL's hunting-palaces ;
some remnants of his arms and emblems are still to be
seen. A beautiful silver grating in a fireplace of his tirae
is there; the silver fire-irons and dogs, or andirons, are
said to have belonged to him. Such were used in the
chamber where the princely merchant Fugger welcomed
his sovereign lord, Charles V., to his magnificent abode
at Ghent. When the host conducted his Imperial guest to
his chamber, he lighted a pile of cinnamon (then costly
beyond calculation, which was heaped on a similar grating),
with a bond for a large sura of raoney the great Charles
had borrowed of hira. Never before was chamber warmed
and perfumed with such costly fuel ! Henry VIII. was
given to imitate his greater neighbours ; he could coraraand
silver decorations and utensils for his fireplace, but the
poetical devotion of such merchants as Fugger he did not
deserve, as his dying coramerce and depreciated currency
prove with all the silent power of facts. There is nothing
definite in the traditions of the personages figuring in the
ghost-stories with which Henry Stuart frightened his guest
and sister; yet, by an odd sort of poetical justice, the
comraon people about Hara and Mortlake, retaining a
vague idea of his narae and early death, now suppose that
he haunts Ham House. Perhaps it was he who originally
Invented the Ham House ghost-stories.
Many proposals of marriage were made from the earliest

32 ELIZABETH STUART.
period of the existence of the young Princess. There was
not an unmarried prince 'in Europe who did not. In some
tiresome treaty or other, sue for her hand. Unfortunately
{here was as great difference of rank among these princely
suitors as in the degrees of the nobility and squirearchy of
a county ball-room, and as much narrow pride displayed in
the "selection of partners. England had in the previous
century mated its daughters with the heirs or the sove
reigns of France and Spain. Now the island thrones were
united, how could a lower wedlock be looked upon with
patience ? Anne of Denmark desired her daughter to
wed the heir of Spain; and although she was herself the
descendant of an elective prince raised to the throne of
Denmark by the expulsion of a Roman Catholic King and
a Spanish princess, she despised the sovereigns of the Pro
testant north, who were, nevertheless, her near kindred,
and brought up the young Elizabeth with the expectation of
wearing the crown-matriraonial of Spain, despite her educa
tion, and sincere profession of the Reformed faith. The cold
ness of Spain. regarding this marriage, which had never heen
entertained for a moment excepting to gain the Queen's
assistance in some ambassadorial intrigue, caused the ut
most mortif,cation to the English royal faraily. Perhaps that
feeling occasioned the marriage which eventually took
place in the year 1613, between the young Elizabeth and
the Elector Palatine of the Rhine, Frederic V., whose
political position was that of the greatest enemy In the
world, civil and religious, to the two branches of the family
of Ferdinand and Isabel, then established on the Imperial
thrones of Germany, and of Spain.
The various and ambiguous titles of the monarch of the
rejoicing and abounding Rhine, did not express his real
power and wealth. He is called Palsgrave or Palace
Count, or Count Palatine, and Elector Palatine and Prince
Palatine, — all of which titles signified his office in the Im
perial Diet as the first in rank among the princes who
elected the emperors of Germany, rather than the fair and
fertile dorainions over which his soraewhat despotic sceptre
extended, from the sources of the mighty river to its

ELIZABETH STUART. 33
delta. In everything but the mere airy sound of title,
Frederic was the greatest prince In wide Germany. The
brotherhood of Rhenish princes had been foremost In
Luther's Reformation, and in the first religious war of
Germany the whole Palatinate had been Lutheran, the
people following the religion of the temporal ruler just as
sheep are driven by the shepherd's dog. But the exi
gencies of policy, which showed how much raore Inde
pendent of the Emperor the cities and princes along the
borders of the Rhine would be. If they were of the same
party of religion with the republic of Holland, caused matri
monial alliances to be forraed with the reigning Palatine
faraily and the Huguenot and Calvinist princes in the north
of France, and with the relations and allies of William of
Nassau, the liberator of Holland. Frederic IV. married Juli
ana of Nassau, a daughter of the Liberator by Charlotte of
Bourbon, the last but one of his many wives. Frederic V.
was left a minor In 1610, and was brought up a rigid
Calvinist, being educated at Sedan, the very focus of con
troversy, the city of his mother's sister's husband, the Duke
de Bouillon. Thus his grandfather by the raother's side
was Wilham of Nassau, the first stadtholder of Holland ;
his half-uncles the celebrated sons of that t ^ro. Prince
Maurice of Nassau and Frederic Henry, successively
stadtholders and great generals in the Calvinist cause
against the whole weight of Spain and Austria The
whole of the Palatinate dominions had three times alter-
natedi from Lutheranism to Calvinism, the latter being
the bias of the regents during two minorities, those of
Frederick IV. and his son Frederic V. : In the last, the
university of Heidelberg, the capital of the Palatinate, had
to become Calvinist. But, submissively as the people had
obeyed the spiritual orders of their ruler, that something
was adverse and unsound may be surmised by the educa
tion of the young Elector being transferred to the focus of
Calvinism at Sedan. The violent party-tendency of his
great uncle Cassimir, Duke de Deuxponts, who caused
' CEuvres de Due de Sully, Amsterdam ; aud Atlas Geographicus.
VOL. VIIL C

34 ELIZABETH STUART.
Lutheranism to be proscribed throughout every part of the
Palatinate during the two minorities of his nephews Frederic
IV. and Frederic v., was probably the reason.^
When marriage began to be considered for the young
Elector Palatine, Frederic V., his mother and guardians
were desirous of obtaining foi; his party, by its means,
political and religious support from Great Britain, similar
to that which had backed the Protestants In France and
Holland in the days of Queen Elizabeth. During two years
the marriage-treaty progressed through negotiations of
unexampled dulness, enlivened solely by the housewlvely
anxiety of the Electress Juliana that the lovely and high
born lady she was desirous of winning for her son, should
not despise the simple habits of German fraus and frau-
lelns. Every effort having proved unavailing to induce the heir
of th^i^anish empire to propose for the Princess Ehza
beth, her mother, being greatly piqued by the neglect,
unwillingly withdrew her opposition to the German match.
Henry, Prince of Wales, did his utmost to marry his sister
to the head of the Calvinist Protestants. Matters pro
gressed so favourably that Count Meinhard Schomherg,
mayor of the palace to young Frederic V., (called his
steward in the letters of the times), came to London as the
bearer of love-letters to the Princess Elizabeth, and letters
of fraternity to her brother. But the German noble deli
vered the love-letter to the brother, and that of fraternisa
tion to the lady-love, a mistake which greatly amused all
concerned in the affair, excepting the unfortunate perpe
trator. Queen Anne would not give any reception to
Count Schomherg ; she repented her of her extorted consent
to the marriage, and vented her spleen by calling her daugh
ter " the Frau Palsgrave." Meantime the EngHsh popu
lace showed detestation to a Spanish alliance. The Spanish
' Yet a vast number of the subjects of these Electors Palatine must have
been discontented with such despotism— the more to be regretted, because
the Lutherans were the most liberal of any Protestants, excepting in Swe
den, where the struggle with the Roman Catholics had been long and very
bitter ; but they had not disgraced themselves by murdering any sectarians
who, like themselves, had seceded from the Roman Catholic''

ELIZABETH STUART. 35
ambassador, Don Pedro Zuniga, in his coach drawn by six
mules, being impeded on Holborn Bridge, his hat, with a
rich jewel In It, was stolen off his head, and messieurs the
raob openly encouraged the fellow who ran off with It, be
cause It was stolen from a Spaniard, so that it was never
seen agaln.^ This, though an evident performance of a
swell mob, was taken by the Court as a political indica
tion. So the young Count Palatine's proposals were ac
cepted, and his arrival In England appointed for the ensuing
Michaelmas of 1612. All matters went well, excepting
Count Schomberg's ralsgivings respecting the fine dancing
at the English Court, with which he was convinced his
young Prince could In nowise corapete, for his educational
exercises at Sedan had all been of a controversial and
polemic nature, elaborate caperlngs being considered any
thing but orthodox.^ The faithful Schomherg, on his re
turn, communicated his apprehensions of his Prinj is defi
ciencies In this all-important accomplishment ; whereupon
his mother, the Electress Juliana, held a faraily conclave,
with guardians and uncles, on the subject of a dancing-
master. Application being raade, by her desire, through
the Duke de Deuxponts to the friendly Duke of Wurtem-
berg for the loan of his dancing-raaster for a month, and
the negotiation proving successful, we will leave the princely
suitor practising his steps, and return to his bride.
^ Chamberlain to Carlton — MS. News-letter, British Museum.
^ Ibid., MS. News-letter, British Museum.

ELIZABETH STUART

CHAPTEE II.

STJMMAEY

Elizabeth's first appearance at Court celebrated by Sir H. Wotton— Arrival
of her intended husband the Count Palatine — Coldness of the Queen-
First meeting of Elizabeth and Frederic — Illness of the Prince of Wales
— Play and supper given by Elizabeth at her Palace of the Cockpit—
Her father removes her from her brother's deathbed— Her brother calls
for her — She disguises herself to see him— Is prevented — Her brother
dies — Elizabeth visits Westminster Abbey with her lover — Her betrothal
— Married on Valentine's Day — Mirth of the bride — Beaumont's masque
of the Thames and the Rhine — The bride remains with her mother at
Greenwich Palace — The King takes Frederic in progress — Elizabeth visits
the Tower with her husband and his uncle — Their petition to James I—
Hia displeasure — Her mother makes her promise to give precedence to
no one in Germany — Her father enjoins Elizabeth not to communicate
with other religion than the Church of England — Their parting — The
bride, her husband, and Charles, Prince of Wales, detained by adverse
wind — Long sojourn at Canterbury — Troubles of Count Schomherg con
cerning Elizabeth's attendants — Elizabeth's letters — Her brother Charles
takes leave of her at Canterbury— Stadtholder Maurice sends a skilful
Dutch pilot for the bridal party — Elizabeth's arrival at Flushing — Meets
Prince Maurice — Wins his friendship — Left under his care by her husband
— Dutch festivals and rich presents to Elizabeth — Her progress up the
Lower Rhine, accompanied by the Princes of Orange — Met by the Elector
of Brandenburg — Her husband boards her galley — Welcomes her in his
dominions — Her father ceases to pay her expenses — Her husband advises
economy — Her extravagance — Runs in debt — Arrives at her dower castle
of Frankenthal — Enters Heidelberg, her husband's capital.
The appearance of Elizabeth Stuart in the courtly world
of that day was the theme of raany versifiers, and one. poet,
Sir Henry Wotton. The elegant lines with which he cele
brated the " coming out " of the royal Stuart beauty are

ELIZABETH STUART. 37
esteemed among the choicest gems of that really Augustan
age of England. " Ye violets that first appear,
By your pure purple mantles known.
Like the proud virgins of the year.
As if the spring were all your own ;
What are ye when the rose is blown "i
Ye meaner beauties of the night,
That poorly satisfy our eyes.
More by your number than your light ;
Ye common people of the skies !
What are ye when the sun doth rise 1
So when my mistress shall be seen
In form and beauty— of her mind
In virtue first — by choice a Queen !
Tell me if she were not designed.
The eclipse and glory of her kind 1" ^
The royal family raet at Whitehall after their summer
progresses. In the auturan of 1612, in the expectation of the
arrival of the young Count Palatine to claim the hand of
Elizabeth; but the changed appearance of Henry, Prince of
Wales, struck sorrow and alarm through the hearts of all
to whom he was dear. After taking violent exercise in the
tilt-yard or tennis-ground at Ham or Richmond, he had
imprudently bathed in the Thames, and even swum to
Richmond after supper, on the evening of a hot summer
day spent in violent exercise. The tirae was extremely
sickly, and the prince had far out-grown his strength. Oue
of his Scotch doctors remembered that he had never shed
his first teeth, and that at the time he had dreaded a very
short life for him ; but as he grew tall and handsome, and
seemed full of activity, that fatal prognostic had been for
gotten.^ Every one who saw the Prince of Wales at the
period of the arrival of his Intended brother-in-law, noted
in his altered countenance that some strange blight had
«
' The verses were afterwards set to music, and presented to Elizabeth,
by Sir Henry Wotton, at a time when her disastrous queenship was chang
ing her fortunes. To this the last verse seems to refer ; but the whole
teuor shows they were written for her appearance at court, perhaps even
previously to it.
' News-letter, time of James I. — Harleian MS.

38 ELIZABETH STUART.
fallen on his health. At present all his anxiety seemed to
be for the completion of the Protestant alliance which, owing
to his influence, had been accepted for his sister.
Frederic V. had set out on his wooing and wedding
expedition from his capital city of Heidelberg as early as
September 17. His progress down the Rhine with his bridal
train was magnificent. At his arrival at the Hague, the
States deputies, delighted at the alliance with Great Britain,
which they expected would give their religion and politics a
mighty preponderance In Europe, made him a present of a
purse of 16,000 guilders towards the wedding expenses.
After a long detention from contrary gales, Frederic set
sail, in corapany with his uncle. Prince Henry of Nassau,
the youngest son of William of Orange the Liberator, the
Count de Solms his Grand Chamberlain, and Count Schom
herg his Mayor de Palais. He was attended by six counts,
his gentlemen of the bedchamber, mostly his near relatives.
So violently did the winds fight against his nearing the coast
of England, that the whole flotilla, consisting of eight little
barks, was blown back into the ports of Holland, not with
out damage. Jaraes I. was forced at last to send three of
his great ships to bring in his son-in-law, who safely arrived
at Gravesend, the 16th of October. Tradition says he was
received there at the Ship Inn, by Sir Lewis Lewknor,
Master of the Ceremonies, and the King's barges came with
the Duke of Lennox, by whom he was brought up the river
to Whitehall. The princely bridegroom, although it was
one of the most wintry evenings an English October ever
sent forth, opened all the windows of the barge to greet
the people, the watery highway being covered with boats
crowded with Londoners. At the Watergate of Whitehall
stairs he was received by Charles, the young Duke of York,
with his attendants, and conducted by him through the hall
of the palace, along the terrace. Into the banqueting-room,
where the rest of the royal family were assembled to meet
hira. Although the Prince of Wales had been restlessly anxious
for the arrival of the Protestant wooer, yet it excited great
astonishment that, while his young brother, but a child, waa

ELIZABETH STUART. 39
attending the princely guest with much suavity, he reraained
silent, and stirred not a foot to meet him. But In fact the
Prince of Wales, who had concealed or denied his Illness
until the last extreraity, was suffering extremely from the
rigour of the weather. It was observed that the Queen
received her intended son-in-law with a cold fixed counte
nance. He bowed before her, and evidently expected her
to salute him, but he was disappointed. The Princess Eliza
beth did not even turn a glance on him, till he presented
himself before her, which he did with the raost hurable ges
ture, stooping to take up the hera of her robe, that he might
press It to his lips, thus offering her the reverence with which
the Queens of France were always approached by their cour
tiers.^ The young Elizabeth curtsied very low, and gracefully
complying with the cereraonial of the French Court, took
the robe from the Prince, who kissed her as she rose from
her deep curtsy. All this was very well perforraed, to the
approbation of the beholders ; but It can be Imagined that
the least blunder or symptom of awkwardness manifested
by either party would have given a turn of extrerae absur
dity to these courtly manoeuvres. By some contretemps,
the lover had the great misfortune of being separated from
all his fine clothes, which had not arrived; therefore he was
obliged to be introduced in his travelling-dress. To be sure
this accident was soraething to talk of, and his apologies in
French were very elaborate on the subject. King James,
who had welcomed his guest with his usual bonhommie, led
him to his own charaber, where he pressed on his finger a
ring worth £1800.^ From the palace he was then conducted
through the privy lodgings, galleries, and water-terrace,
frora whence he again embarked, and was rowed to Essex
House, the place appointed for his residence while in Lon
don. The Prince of Wales, in the succeeding days, reco
vered sufficiently to share in the exercises of riding at the
ring, and other chivalric diversions, with Prince Henry
of Nassau, and the foreign noblemen ; but Frederic devoted
^ Reception of the Count Palatine, in a letter from Sir John Finett to
Mr Trumbull — NichoU's Progresses.
' News-letter, British Museum — Chamberlain to Carlton.

40 ELIZABETH STUART.
himself entirely to improve his acquaintance with the Prin
cess, whom he visited every day. She Invited him to an
entertainment given at her maiden palace, the Cockpit,^ at
Westminster, where there was a play performed in the
evening by her servants. One would like to know whether
Shakespeare assisted ; but all that can be elicited of the
entertainment Is, that the tapestries in her drawing-room
at the Cockpit were of the story of Cain and Abel
Meantime the Roman Catholic party in England raised
a cry against the match ; several scornful libels were pub
lished, detracting from the Palatine family, and Star-
chamber displeasure was manifested towards the offenders.
The least observant might behold fast- approaching death
reflected in the features of the heir-apparent, and that Eli
zabeth Stuart would soon take rank as the second in the
succession. The mortal Illness of Henry, Prince of Wales, interfered
with the arrangeraents for the betrothal of Elizabeth and
Frederic. Henry had gone through all the stages of what
Is called a galloping consuraption — he had battled with
the disease to the last moment, but succumbed to a violent
attack of fever on the 20th of October, fainting at table;
the King and royal family dining privately, with Frederic
as their guest,^ who had received general Invitations to
partake of their meals in home-privacy. But the Illness of
the Prince of Wales being supposed to be merely quotidian
ague, in which form typhus fever often appears, he was
nursed at the palace of St James, his town residence. His
sister and her lover were obliged to appear at festivals, and
to make a state visit to the city on Lord Mayor's Day,
October 28th. Sir John Swinnerton presented the bride
groom with a silver basin, ewer, and cups, to the value of
£500. The day was furiously stormy, so that the extra
ordinary water-pageants prepared for the delectation ofthe
princely stranger were shipwrecked on the river, the alder
men's barges driven on shore, and the whole expedition
^ News-letter, British Museum — Chamberlain to Carlton.
'^ Chamberlain to Carleton, November 4, 1612— British Museum, MS.
News-letter.

ELIZABETH STUART. 41
discomfited by the furious elements ; — a diversity In a Lord
Mayor's show most acceptable. If not to the beholders and
sufferers, at least to the narrator. From the tirae of the visit
of Elizabeth and Frederic to the civic f^te, the state of the
Prince of Wales grew worse. Low typhus fever, pronounced
infectious by his physicians, left no hope. At last his reason
succurabed. King James, who had braved all threats of
Infection, sat by his son's bedside until recognition entirely
left the poor sufferer. The King then gathered his remain
ing children together, and, treating young Frederic as one
of thera, took them all in his coach to Holland House at
Kensington, where he could hear every half-hour of the
state of his expiring son. It was needful to use parental
authority to keep Elizabeth from her brother's infected
chamber. For the last words that Henry spoke — words
which bore any sign of reason — were exclamations of " Oh,
where Is ray sweet sister?" She had twice disguised herself
to visit him, but his physicians guarded his door too sedu
lously. These attempts, It is apparent, caused the retreat
of the King to Kensington, where he guarded from the
Influfence ofthe low typhoid his remaining treasures. This
Is the simple narrative of the facts of the case. History —
If we may call party libels history — has disgraced and de
graded itself by accusing two of the merabers of this attached
family of poisoning Henry, Prince of Wales ; not only the
father who had loved and reared him in all the simplicity
of home affections, but the brother, the young boy Charles
Stuart, not yet thirteen !
Throughout the period of seclusion observed after the
death of Henry, Prince of Wales, Elizabeth was either
dompsticated with her lover or received daily visits from
him unencumbered with state etiquette. The result was
that he gained far raore Interest In her affections while
soothing her passionate sorrow for the loss of her beloved
brother than in the usual mode of courtly wooing. After
the funeral of Henry, and during the recess of mourning,
the Princess and her lover visited Westminster Abbey,
the place of her brother's interment. It seems the lov
ing pair examined the monuments there — a pastime to

42 ELIZABETH STUART.
which no one could object as unfitting for a .season of
sorrow. Lord Harrington entered in his Compotus of her
expenses that he paid for her twenty shillings " for the barge
that did carry the Palatine and her Highness by water
when they went to see the monuments at Westminster, and
twenty shillings given by her Highness' coramand to the
keeper of the monuments." Just before occurs a present of
five pounds to the poet Sylvester for his elegiac verses on
the death of the Prince. As notices of gifts made at Kew
are mentioned at the same period, there is reason to sup
pose that the Princess retired thither from Kensington
when her father left the mansion now called Holland House,
and that the barge voyage to Westminster Abbey with the
Palatine was from Kew, or from her brother's palace at
Ham. Notwithstanding the dread of infection, the apart
ments of the deceased Prince of Wales at St James's Palace,
where he died, were prepared for her use before her mar
riage.^ The Intercourse of the princely pair, and the Introduction
of Elizabeth to German usages, is shown by the rewards
she ordered to various of her lover's messengers sent to her
when it happened that he was absent.^ One day she ordered
" a gratuity of ten shillings to be given to the Prince Pala
tine's cook who brought her Grace a pike dressed after the
German mode." Twice she gave fees of twenty shillings to
his, footmen who brought her Rhenish wine and his love-
letters. The English custom of exchange of extravagant New
Year's gifts lard very heavily on the Impoverished resources
of the German prince. His presents to Elizabeth consisted
of a rich set of some ofthe family jewels which he had inhe
rited from the emperors and chiefs of his line. These were a
coronet, chains and earrings of diamonds, the latter finished
with two pendant pearis, the value of which was near £4000.
But when he commenced the same outlay of money and plate
1 Lord Harrington's Compotus. Tho Princess took possession of them
early in February.
2 Lord Harrington's Compotus of the Expenses of the Lady Elizabeth's
Grace.

ELIZABETH STUART. 43
expected from an English prince. King James considerately
forbade it. Nevertheless he gave to the favourite lady of his
Princess, the Lady Anne Dudley or Sutton, a beautiful car-
canet of diamonds and pearls; and to Lord Harrington, plate
to the value of £2000, and many costly presents to his
fiancee's immediate attendants. To the King and Queen he
presented a bottle and cup, each formed of an entire agate.
At a festival held at Whitehall Banqueting-house on the
evening of the New Year, the King drank to the happiness
of his daughter and her lover. Although by James's express
commands the gifts of Frederic were limited to those of the
household of bis fiancic, his actual outlay on this occasion
exceeded £12,000. Much reviling takes place in party
histories written for the business purpose of calumniating
James I. and his successors on the cruelty and barbarity of
the marriage, or rather the betrothal, of Elizabeth follow
ing the funeral of her brother within a few weeks ; but the
Prince, her intended, was importunate for the wedding-day
being fixed, as his subjects, discontented with the enormous
cost of his absence, were listening to the seducements of his
Roman Catholic kinsman, the Duke of Neubourg. The
return of the princely Palatine was imperative, as he pleaded
to King James. The marriage-day was fixed for the an
niversary of St Valentine ; and meantirae the Prince
received the Order of the Garter at a grand chapter and
festival ofthe sarae held at Windsor, February 7. The only
remarkable incidents were, that the rich jewels of St George
and the Garter were those once worn by his lost friend
Henry, Prince of Wales; and likewise that the Prince
Palatine made a reservation on administering the oath In
favour of his duty to the Holy Roman Erapire. So little
did he foresee his future efforts to overthrow the same,
spiritually and temporally.
The death ofthe Prince of Wales had been very injurious
to the princely wooer ; it had Involved him In the enormous
expenses of a royal mourning, including his participation,
personally, in the funeral ceremonies, and had, withal,
trebled the length of his visit, to the utter exhaustion of his
own finances and those of his numerous followers. In con-

44 ELIZABETH STUART.
sideration of these inconveniences, an early day was appointed
for the betrothal, although every one was still enveloped
in deep mourning. The Queen was too III and sorrowful to
be present at the ceremony of affiancing Elizabeth and Fre
deric, which took place in the newly-built Banqueting-house
at Whitehall, Deceraber 27th. The youthful pair were in
mourning for Henry — the Princess being robed in black
velvet, ornamented with silver quatrefoils. Pearls of great
value were wreathed in her black hair, and she wore one
little white plume. The simplicity which the mourning
had imposed gave such elegance to this costume, that
black velvet and little white plumes becarae the universal
fashion in Court for a long time, worn both by cavaliers
and belles.^
The ceremony of the betrothal, which Included reading
and signing the marriage-contract, besides a religious ser
vice, was going on sadly and solemnly enough when the
droll pronunciation and queer mistakes of Sir Thomas Lake,
whose office it was to read the marriage articles in French
to the bridegroom, threw both the Princess and her betrothed
Into irresistible fits of laughter. The merriment extended
to the friends and attendants of Frederic; and when the re
ligious part ofthe ceremony coraraenced, Archbishop Abbot
could not command decent gravity from his congregation;
he therefore finished as quickly as possible with these words,
pronounced in a loud voice, " The God of Abrahara, Isaac,
and Jacob, bless these nuptials, and make them prosperous
to these kingdoms and to His church." 2
The bans of the princely pair were soon after asked in
Whitehall Chapel during three Sundays. The Queen re
mained ill and in close retirement throughout the early part
of the winter ; but when she at last appeared at Court, it was
observed that she received the Palatine with kindness. She
was no doubt softened by the memory of her beloved son,
on whose deathbed he had been in close attendance, and had
followed him to the grave as a true mourner.
Elizabeth's marriage took place on Valentine's Day, Sun
day, 1612-13. The cereraony was performed in White-
1 MS. Chamberlain to Carleton — News-letter. ' Ibid. '

ELIZABETH STUART. 45
hall Chapel-' The Queen sat on a chair of state on the
left side of a platform raised in the midst of the chapel ;
she was dressed in white satin embroidered, and " most
gloriously adorned," for she bore on her person jewels
to the amount of four hundred thousand pounds. The
king, as better able to stand under the weight of such
barbarian magnificence, had contrived to load himself
with six hundred thousand pounds' worth of jewels. The
bride sat near her royal mother on a tabouret, with her
fine hair flowing over her shoulders, her head encircled with
a coronet raade of pinnacles of the finest diamonds and
pearls; her robe was white satin, embroidered with pearls and
gems. She was attended by fifteen young ladies, the flower
of the English nobility, as bridesmaids or train-bearers.
Her bridegroom was led from the new Banqueting-house
by the Duke of Lennox and Lord Admiral, dressed splen
didly in white satin and pearls. He was seated on a
tabouret near the King, but below the sword of state. The
Princess, a lively girl of sixteen, on the point of being united
to a spouse of suitable age who had won her heart by a long
series of personal attentions, was In the highest spirits, and
broke into a fresh fit of laughing as fast as one was sup
pressed by the exhortations of Lady Harrington, who
stood by her with her train on her arm. Much evil was
predicted on account of the bride's Incorrigible rairth,
which burst out even during the sacred ceremony. Sorae
girlish joke connected with the anniversary of St Valen
tine had probably overset her gravity : for, of course,
her whole train of bridesraaids were looking out for Valen
tines among the array of the Palatine's bridesmen, Dutch,
Gerraan, and English, who were arranged In formal order
along the opposite wall of the chapel. The Palatine's
right-hand man of business. Count Meinhard Schomherg,
was known to be deeply in love with the fair Anne Dudley;
a circurastance which contributed to the mirth ofthe princely
pair. This was the first royal marriage that had been celebrated
according to the ritual of our Church, as ordained in the
' Afterwards pulled down.

46 ELIZABETH STUART.
Common Prayer-Bookandthe Liturgy. The bridegroom had
carefully conned his part In English, and pronounced it as
well as could be expected, as his contemporaries assure us.'
The pageantry pertaining to the bridal was of the most
elaborate and tedious kind. The quaintness and absurdi
ties of the past centuries are not only very comic, but their
detail Is often mixed up with curious traits of the manners
and customs of people whose domestic habits have vanished
from all other written record ; therefore It is often full of
information as well as amusement; but after the period of
the renaissance of the classical lore. Imitations and allusions
are faded and tiresome to a degree that makes their repeti
tion intolerable. One strange freak was practised among the
evening fireworks at one or other of the pageants connected
with the marriage of Elizabeth. A comet rose out of a
cave on the opposite bank of old Father Thames, and soar
ing In air, let fall a liberal shower of rockets and Roman
candles ; then an illuminated hunt rushed from the cave,
the unfortunate stag and pursuing dogs being strung all
over with lamps, which defined their shapes and showed
their motions. The terrified, and perhaps tormented, stag
rushed into the waters ofthe Thames, the illuminated dogs
followed his example, and began tugging and pulling their
prey. A great explosion of squibs and crackers took place,
and the Thames put out all the creatures' unwelcome har
ness of lighted lamps j but what became of the hunt no one
could tell among the dark waters. The device was a cruel
one, but that circumstance rendered it not the less success
ful. The day after the wedding the King came to St James's
Palace in state, to visit the bride and bridegroom. The
principal morning amusement took place In St Jaraes's Park,
riding at the ring in the Mall. The King had In his early
days excelled In this sport, to which he now Introduced his
youthful son-in-law. King James bore away three rings him
self ; the bridegroom,^ who was mounted on a high-bound
ing steed, won two ; his horsemanship was exceedingly ad-
1 Chamberlain to Carleton — MS. News-letter, British Museum, February
18, 1612-13. 2 Ibid.

ELIZABETH STUART. 47
mired by the English populace. The apparatus for the sus
pension of the rings, which were carried off on the point of a
lance as a horseman careered below, remained In the Mall
until after the reign of James 11.^ It was the last shadow
of the chivalric sports of England. The royal bride, with
the Queen her mother, sat In the upper windows of the new
Banqueting-hall to see the courses at the ring, which they
could easily coramand over the low turrets of Wallingford
House, which then held the place of the Horse-Guards.
The noblemen of the Court gave a masque on the evening
of the raarriage. It was pronounced to be dull as a sermon,
for which, indeed, the evening, being Sunday, was more
fitting. The masques of the Inns of Court were among the
choicest amusements of this festival time; that of Lincoln's
Inn and the Middle Temple was performed on the Monday
night. The procession came frora the Rolls Court In three
open chariots, each drawn by four steeds abreast, lighted by
torchlight. The populace were exceedingly delighted by
the tricks of the little boys on hobby-horses, dressed as
monkeys for the anti-masque.^
The poetry was by Campion, and had great success ; but
expectation was mostly bent on a masque written by Beau
mont for the gentlemen of Gray's Inn and the Inner Tem
ple, got up under the superintendence of Sir Francis Bacon.
The King, however, was, by the third evening of the wed
ding, so thoroughly and utterly overcome with fatigue, that
when the gentlemen of Gray's Inn, who came by water,
arrived In their illurainated barges at the Privy Stairs,
Whitehall, on Tuesday evening, he was obliged to crave
quarter, declaring he could not keep his eyes open, and must
go to rest. Sir Francis Bacon, who Introduced his pro
teges, was extremely disappointed, and ventured to remon
strate, hoping "the King would not bury them quick."
The King replied, " That if they kept him up any longer,
they must bury him quick, as he was already dead asleep,
having sat up for two nights together, and truly he could
'^ A sketch of the post and suspended ring is preserved in the last edition
of Sturt's Sports— Library of Entertaining Knowledge.
2 Chamberlain to Carlton — MS. News-letter.

48 ELIZABETH STUART.
remain out of his bed no longer. He gave the gentlemen of
Gray's Inn and the Inner Temple very great thanks, hut
requested them to bring their masque on Saturday evening,
when he should be able to enjoy It." What could induce
the quaint oddity King Jaraes to inflict on himself the per
sonal fatigue of two sleepless nights because his daughter
was married, it is difficult to form a reasonable surmise.
But the legal gentlemen, all dressed In character according
to their masque, which was accompanied by the usual
caricature of the serious and elevated part, called the An
ti-masque, had to re-embark, and return In their barges
down the wintry Thames to Winchester House just as
they came. Many reports were prevalent that they had
misbehaved or offended the King, or learned the lesson
they had to recite before the fair bride incorrectly ; yet
their pageant gave great delight to the people, who were
glad to see its water -procession and progress rehearsed
again, as it was, without dispute, the most attractive spec
tacle in the whole circle of Elizabeth's bridal festivities.
English literature was, at that era. In an unusually fecund
state ; therefore the pouring forth of odes, verses, and epi-
tiialamiums in celebration of this marriage was beyond all
precedent. Yet to load the page with lame and tame lines
destitute of historical allusion, would be merely exemplify
ing the well-known proceedings of an antiquarian maga
zine, " as bottling up dulness in an ancient bin." Beau
mont's Blasque i contains the only beautiful lines suggested
by Elizabeth's marriage — beautiful despite of Mercury and
Iris, who contrive, notwithstanding the heaviness of then-
heathen divinityships, to be piquant and picturesque. The
King sent his state barges for the gentlemen performers to
Winchester House on the Saturday evening. The bride
and bridegroom, with the rest of the royal faraily, seated
theraselves in the privy gallery at Whitehall, which com
manded a fine view down the reaches of the Thames.
Here they sat neariy in the dark to enjoy the sight of the
illuminated pageant coraing up the river, and the landing
1 Chamberlain to Carlton— MS. News-letter.

ELIZABETH STUART. 49
of the characters all in their appropriate dresses at Privy
Stairs. They then adjourned to the Banqueting-hall, King
James having ordered proclaraation against farthingales,^
which he declared " took up an unreasonable portion of the
room in his court." The proclamation was really needed; for
in one ofthe preceding masques in honour of this raarriage,
the ladies had stuck fast in the galleries, and could not enter
the hall. The interdict caused by this coralcal Incident, which
occurred more than once in the reign of James I., is gravely
quoted as one of the King's tyrannical laws. However, by
favour of the royal forecast, the passages of Whitehall were
on this occasion kept clear of these formidable circles of stif
fened brocade. Our Templar authority says, " there was
choice roora reserved for the gentieraen of both houses, who,
coraing In troop about seven of the clock, received that
special honour and noble favour as to be brought to their
places by the Right Hon. the Earl of Northampton, Lord
Privy Seal, and thus set forth their device and argument.
Jupiter and Juno willing to do honour to the raarriage
of two faraous rivers — the Thames and Rhine ; employ
their messengers severally — Mercury and Iris. The fabric
or scene was a mountain with two descents, and severed
with two traverses. At the entrance of the King, the first
traverse was drawn, and the lower descent ofthe mountain
discovered, which was the pendant of a hill to the life, with
divers boscages and grovets upon the steep or hanging
grounds thereof, and at the foot of the hill four delicate
fountains running with water, and bordered with sedges and
water - flowers. Iris first appeared, and presently after
Mercury, striving to overtake her. Iris, apparelled in a
robe of discoloured taffeta, figured in variable colours like a
rainbow, a cloudy wreath on her head and tresses. Mer-
1 The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn, presented before his
Majesty, the Queen's Majesty, the Prince Count Palatine, and the Lady
Elizabeth, their Highnesses, in the Banqueting-house, at Whitehall, on
Saturday, 20th day of Feb. 1612. This masque was the production of
Beaumont alone, without the aid of Fletcher. Dedicated to the worthy
Sir Francis Bacon, his Majesty's Solicitor-General, and to the Grave and
Learned Bench of the anciently allied Houses of Gray's Inn and the Inner
Temple. VOL. VIII. D

50 ELIZABETH STUART.
cury, in doublet and hose of white taffeta, a white hat, speak
ing to Iris as follows : —
' stay — stay !
Stay light-foot Iris ! for thou strivest in vain.
My wings are nimbler than thy feet.
lEis. — Away,
Dissembling Mercury, my messages
Ask honest haste, not like those wanton ones
Your thundering father sends.
Meb. — Stay, foolish maid,
Or 1 will take my rise upon a hill
When I perceive thee seated in a cloud
In all the painted glory that thou hast.
And never cease to clap my willing wings
Till I catch hold of thy discoloured bow.
And shiver it beyond the angry power
Of thy curst mistress to make up again.
' I only come
To celebrate the long-wished nuptials
Here in Olympus, which are now performed
Betwixt two goodly rivers, which have mixed
Their gently-rising waves, and are to grow
Into a thousand streams great as themselves.
I need not name them, for the sound is loud
In heaven and earth.
' Thou shalt stand
Still as a root whilst I — to bless this feast
Will summon up with my all-charming rod
The nymphs of fountains, from whose watery locks
(Hung with the dew of blessing and increase)
The greedy rivers take their nourishment.
Ye nymphs, who bathing in your loved springs.
Beheld these rivers in their infancy.
And joyed to see them, when their circled heads
Refreshed the air, and spread the ground with flowers.
Rise from your wells ! '
" Four Naiades rise gently out of their several fountains,
attired in long habits of sea-green taffeta, with bubbles of
crystal Intermixed, with powdering of silver resembling
drops of water, bluish tresses, garlands of water-lihes on
their heads :
' Iris. — Is Hermes grown a lover ? By what power
Unknown to us calls he the Naiades ?
Mer. — Presumptuous Iris — I could make thee dance
Till thou forgottest thy lady's messages

ELIZABETH STUART. 51
And ran'st back crying to her. Thou shalt know
My power is more, only my breath, and this,
Shall move flxed stars, and force the firmament
To yield the Hyades, who govern showers
And dewy clouds, in whose dispersed drops
Thou formest the shape of thy deceitful bow.
Ye maids, who yearly at appointed times
Advance with kindly tears the gentle floods.
Descend and pour your blessing on these streams,
Which, rolling down from heaven-aspiring hill.
And now united iu the fruitful vales,
Bear all before them ravished with their joy.
And swell in glory till they know no bounds ! '
" Then five Hyades descended softly in a cloud from the
firmament, apparelled in sky-coloured taffeta spangled like
the heavens, golden tresses, and each a fair star on her
forehead ; at whose sight the Naiades, seeming to rejoice,
met thera and joined In a dance :
' Iris. — Great wit and power hath Hermes, to contrive
A lifeless dance which of one sex consists ! '
" Enter four Cupids from each side of the boscage, attired
In flame-coloured taffeta close to their bodies. Mercury
then charms into life four golden statues frora Jove's altar.
These were attired in cases of gold and silver close to their
bodies, faces, hands, and feet, nothing seen but gold and
silver, as if they had been solid Ira9,ges of that metal ;
tresses of hair as If metal embossed, girdles of oaken leaves
carved or raounted, but of metal. At their coming, the
music changed from violins to hautboys, and utterly turned
Into a soft time with drawn notes. The statues were placed
In such postures, sometimes all together in the centre ofthe
dance, and soraetiraes in the four angles, as was very grace
ful, besides the novelty.
' Ibis. — I now must strive
To imitate confusion. Therefore thou.
Delightful Flora, if thou ever felt'st
Increase of sweetness in those blooming plants
On which the horns of my fair bow decline.
Send hither all the rural company
Which deck the Maygames with their country sports.'
" The Anti-masque at this rushed In to dance their mea
sure, and as rudely departed ; they consisting of a Pedant,

52 ELIZABETH STUART.
a May-lord, a May-lady, a Serving-man, a Chamber-maid, a
Clown, a Wench, a Host, a Hostess, a he-Baboon, a she-
Baboon, a he-Fool, and a she-Fool, ushering them in. All
these persons attired to the life, the men issuing out of one
boscage, the women from the other. The music was ex
tremely well fitted, having such a spirit of country jollity in
it as can hardly be expressed ; but the perpetual laughter
and applause was above the music. The dancers, or rather
actors, expressed their parts naturally, that no one's eye
could satisfy which did best. It pleased his Majesty to call
for it again at the end, as he did likewise for the first dance
In the masque ; but one of the statues by that time was
undressed." ^
The marriage pageants ended with a pretty festive pro
gress down the Thames of the young bride, who, after
standing godmother for the daughter of the Earl of Salis
bury, at Whitehall Chapel, assisted by Frederic, carried the
babe home to Cecil House. Their barge was surrounded
by those of all the guests who accompanied the princely
pair to the christening banquet, where the revel continued
far into the night.^ Notwithstanding the impoverishment
of his finances by his long sojourn in expensive aud extra
vagant London, the Palatine bestowed on his bride a
costly gift. During their ensuing promenade in Spring
Gardens, then the pleasance and aviary of Whitehall
Palace, looking into St James's Park, a triumphal chariot,
blazing with gold and embroidery, drawn by six white
horses, and surrounded by attendants in the livery of Ehza
beth, carae glittering in view. It was the new carriage
which the bridegroom had ordered frora Paris,^ for her
entrance into the Rhenish cities and her own capital. It had
1 Gifford's edition of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher. The apparel
for the masquers was at the expense of the Society. The Readers being
assessed each man at L.4 ; the Ancients, aud such as were at that time
called Ancients, at L.2, 10s. a-piece ; the Barristers at L.2 a man ; and
the Students at L. 1. Which being perforraed, there was an order made
ou the 18th May following, that the gentlemen who were actors in that
masque should bring in all their masquering apparel provided at the charge
of the House.
^ Chamberlain to Carlton — MS. News-letter, Feb. 25, 1613.
^ Ibid., and P. M. Records.

ELIZABETH STUART. 53
been kept as a surprise to the youthful bride, and apparently
gave her great delight.
At the conclusion of the marriage festivities, the King set
out on progress to Theobald's, towards Newmarket, raean
ing to visit Carabridge, and cross the country to Oxford ;
his son-in-law, accompanied by Prince Charles, followed
him, leaving the bride with her royal mother at Greenwich
Palace. The progress was for the purpose of showing the
young German potentate the spring sports at Newmarket
and Royston, and the seats of learning in South Britain. The
bride reraained with her dejected mother at Greenwich Pal
ace, preparing her for the approaching parting. The royal
family reassembled for that parting at Whitehall on Easter
Sunday, when the Palatine, to their great satisfaction, took
the sacrament according to the rites ofthe Church of Eng
land.^ The Queen exacted a proraise frora her son-in-law
that he would always give precedence to Elizabeth as a
king's daughter and his superior In rank, wheresoever they
might be, at home or abroad. This mischievous piece of folly
did not originate with Elizabeth's father, but with her
mother, as all corroborating circurastances prove. It would
have utterly destroyed her wedded happiness, if both herself
and Frederic had not been truly good-natured.
The rendezvous for Elizabeth's departure for Germany
was the naval palace of Greenwich. She previously took the
opportunity, one morning In the Easter week, of showing
her spouse the lions of the Tower of London, historical and
zoological, and amazed him with her own valour by taking
a match from the gunners and firing off one of the cannons
prepared for saluting her barge when issuing out of the
Watergate. She was girlishly fond of such display.
The King and Queen accorapanied their daughter and
her husband, April 1.3,^ in the usual state, down the Thames
from Greenwich Palace to Gravesend, and finally to Ro
chester, where they were entertained at the Bishop's palace.
The whole ofthe morning of April 14 was passed by King
James, his son-in-law, his daughter, and the Prince of Wales,
^ Howe's Chronicle.
' Chamberlain to Carlton, March 11.

54 ELIZABETH STUART.
in the examination of various ships and galleys constructing
at Chatham. That afternoon, the last farewell took place
between the parents and child. Queen Anne's grief was over
powering. Insomuch that she was forced to be carried from
the presence of her weeping daughter. The King blessed
his daughter solemnly, and laid his injunction upon her to
communicate with no church but her own. He reiterated,
as his parting command, that she should give precedence to
no one, her mother's low ambition regarding her queenship
being the prompting motive. Young Frederic promised
that she should retain her precedence as Princess-royal of
Great Britain In Germany, over himself, his mother,i and
every other mortal, to his own future discomfort. The
Prince of Wales accompanied bis sister and her spouse to
Canterbury. They were received by the mayor and his
train with the usual forms, and conducted at once to the
glorious cathedral, and feasted In the fine ancient hall
of St Augustine, having for their private abode, like all royal
personages, the Dean's house. There they remained wait
ing for a fair wind to waft them from Margate, where their
naval escort was long detained by one of those obstinate
" sets in " of easterly gales, which so often characterise our
wayward English Aprils.
At Canterbury, while Elizabeth, her spouse, and her
young brother, were detained by the friendly wind which
delayed their last parting, not caring if easterly winds
blew strongly the remainder of the year, her faithful maitre-
d'hotel, Meinhard Schomherg, suffered the most harass
ing tribulation concerning supernumeraries in the service
of his illustrious mistress. This estimable officer had early
discovered that the royal lady had never learned how to say
"no;" and the absurd consequence was, that from a too
araple train of forty-nine servants, the nuraber of attendants,
Including those of her husband, had swelled to nearly seven
hundred, two-thirds of whom were intruders, and withal
clamouring and greedy place-hunters, all urging claims and
promises old and new. The disturbances, before the bride
' State-Paper MSS. Many letters from Schomberg, to whose infinite
embarrassment this absurd promise greatly contributed.

ELIZABETH STUART. 55
and bridegroom left London, totally reversed the tranquil
lity ofthe royal family; and the chief part, of the calumnies
on James I., as the most unnatural and neglectful of pa
rents, were gathered by political historians from the angry
expressions of these disappointed gentry. Dire was the toil,
and awful the responsibility, of the luckless Schomberg, both
before he left Whitehall and afterwards at Canterbury, when
sorting the turbulent pretenders to office from the men and
women good and true, who were the real servitors of the
Lord and Lady of the Rhine ; but many a black sheep the
hapless maitre-d'hStel retained, to his after tribulation, as
his letters, still in our archives, fully prove. At last the
household of the Palatine was arranged and conducted to
Margate by the indefatigable Schomberg, where they were
erabarked on board the British ships of war there lying
under saifing orders, whenever it pleased the perversity of
the ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess-fiend, yclept" Easter, to
permit their departure.^
Even as lately as the early part of the present century,
biographers who alluded to Elizabeth, found it Indis
pensable to mention her as the object of her father's hatred,
neglect, and persecution. Because the easterly wind detained
her a few days, she was, by an odd perversion of speech,
termed by the sapient historians from whom modern writers
have copied, an outcast. And this was done in fear of the
abuse of the critical press, knowledge of history being limited
to the assertions of Interested politicians, who said just what
they pleased, unrestrained by the diurnal notitia of a public
press. The simple facts of the case were, that no princess
had ever left England or Scotland so nobly provided for,
present and future. Her father, besides the dower men
tioned, allowed her an annuity of £4000 per annura, besides
paying the salaries of her English attendants — a stipend
surpassing the provision of any English Queen, being more
over sent out of the country, while our Queens were always
forced to spend their incoraes in England.
The authorised train of the Princess, when she left Eng
land, consisted of her lady of honour, Anne Dudley; three
1 Miss Benger.

56 ELIZABETH STUART.
maidens, Mrs Dean, the keeper of the linen, three English
laundresses, and a damsel, office unknown, called Maria
Smith. Sir Andrew Keith, master of the horse, is at the
head of the list of Elizabeth's officers. Mr Elphinstone was
her secretary, Thomas Livingstone her treasurer, James
Livingstone her cupbearer, Mr Bringel her carver; Dr
Chapman, chaplain; Dr Christian Rumpf, physician; Mr
Gray, quartermaster; John Spence, tailor; Lazarus Terence
and Winiam Short, helpers.^
From Canterbury Elizabeth wrote an affectionate giriish
note 2 to her indulgent sire, April 18, rather more remark
able for Its euphuism than for Its wisdom, calling him " the
flower of princes," as well as " the king of fathers," tropes
and figures which raay be forgiven a loving daughter of
sixteen, whose judgraent was not quite so strong as party
eulogists have pretended. Two days afterwards she wrote
to Sir Julius Csesar,^ her father's Master of the Rolls, to be
stir himself concerning a very extensive order for jewellery
as wedding presents on taking leave of her friends.
" Good Sir Julius Ca3sar, — If you be remembered, I did send you a note,
signed with my own hand, ou the 10th of September, containing the num
ber and prices of rings which, as tokens of my affection, I have bestowed on
my friends. Now I do send you another bill [list], which shall show you
the number and prices of rings distributed amongst those who, taking their
leave, did require some token which I could not deny, and having nothing
to confer [bestow] was constrained to make Jacob Harderet, my jeweller,
furnish me with these rings, which I do acknowledge by my signet apposed
to this last bill, to have received and given away. You know that it is fit
ting my quality, at the time of my parting from my natural country, to leave
some small remembrance of me among my affectionate friends ; but that
anything employed for my use should rest unpaid, doth not well become
my quality." 4
This was an undeniable truth, and the feeling regarding
It was a foretaste of that life-long embarrassment of debt
and difficulty which Elizabeth suffered, owing to her impru-
1 German Quarto of the Marriage Fdtes, published at Frankenthal.
^ MS. British Museum, in Add.
" Ibid. This legalist, whose classical name bas caused the most absurd
mistakes, belonged to an Italian family naturalised in the palaces of tbe
Tudors since the days of Katherine of Arragon, whose physician was by
name Antonio Caasar.
•> At Canterbury, April 20.

ELIZABETH STUART. 57
dence In supplying the expectations of others by exten
sive orders which she had no iraraediate raeans of liquidating.
She concludes by urging Sir Julius Csesar to see her jeweller
honestly paid, and that she had her royal father's leave
for the same.
The new honours and duties which had devolved on the
Prince of Wales since his succession to his deceased bro
ther's dignity of heir-apparent, obliged him to bid farewell
to Elizabeth and her husband at Caliterbury, 21st April,
and hasten to London to prepare for his recognition at the
festival of St George, April 23. The day they parted with
him, Elizabeth and Frederic went to Margate, and embarked
In the " Prince Royal," the flagship of Lord Effingham, the
aged hero of the Armada victories. Scarcely were they on
board when storras arose, which tossed thera up and down
many hours on our dangerous eastern coast. At last the
sea-wearied bride, her lord and attendants, were glad to
find themselves blown back into the friendly port of Margate.
So loth seemed the Island gales to waft away the Princess
to fulfil the career she subsequently pursued. A skilfulDutch
pilot, called " Professor More," came over from Maurice,
Prince of Orange, in his pilot cutter. This navigator,
taking advantage of a tempest which blew the right way,
steered the bride-princess and her spouse swiftly and safely
to Flashing, where they arrived on the morning of April 28.
Instead of landing, the bride received visits from the
Stadtholder, Maurice Prince of Orange, who was regaled
with a fine supper on board the flagship of the English
Admiral. This celebrated raan was her husband's eldest
uncle on the maternal side : he was accompanied by her
old acquaintance the younger Orange prince, Henry, who
had been so long In England with her husband ; but,
more fortunate than herself, the vessel In which he had
embarked had gained his native coast some days previously,
and he was there ready to welcome her, and to superintend
the Dutch festivals with which It was the intent of the House
of Orange to greet her. If the bride and her party remained
on board ship until the 29th of April, in expectation of sorae
uncommon display of magnificence from Maurice the Stadt-

58 ELIZABETH STUART.
holder, they were disappointed. The astute soldier-states
man did not waste his means on such follies as pageantries.
All his grandeur consisted in a very well appointed admiral's
barge, indicative of his rank, being the sea-soldier as well as
land-general of the alluvial republic. In this vessel he
brought his new niece on shore. But not a velvet cushion
or a gay flag had been added on her account ; and when
she stepped on the pier at Flushing, no gilt litter or richly
caparisoned palfrey awaited her, — not even a matted footway.
She had to place her dainty feet on the bare earth, and walk
without even a canopy borne over her to. the place of her
destination : a deafening discharge of artillery from the
fortifications of Flushing, emulated by the admiral's ship
she had 'quitted, being the only royal compliment allowed
to her.i
When her husband had consigned her to the care of his
uncle Maurice, at Flushing Castle, he sailed to the Hague,^
to prepare a reception for his bride more in coincidence
with the tastes in which she had been nurtured, and for
which it raust be owned that, with the exception of her
mother, she had the most unbounded passion of all her race.
However, the natural Influence of the most original genius
of his day, Maurice of Orange, in whose guardianship she
was left, caused her to take all in good part. She was al
ways sweet-tempered, and thus she won the heart of her
uncle Maurice, as well as by her youthful charms and graces,
as she found to her pecuniary benefit years afterwards. His
friendship, moreover, proved a stalwart bulwark to her and
hers, when most that she relied on in this world failed. The
portrait of this distinguished relative, with whom she was
left to be escorted to the Hague, is drawn by the faithful
and graphic pencil of a contemporary.
Maurice, like most of the house of Nassau, was low in
stature, but, unlike many of thera, neither crooked nor lean.
On the contrary, he was rather Inclined to corpulence ; his
coraplexion, naturally very fair, was now tinged with yel
low, no marvel to those who knew his style of diet ; his
brow and head mighty enough to atone for his lymphatic
1 Carleton Harleian MS. 2 Ibid.

ELIZABETH STUART. 59
temperament and sandy hue ; his eyes light grey, with a
singular expression of fun and sagacity enlightening them.^
He was noted for his wit and dry humour, and was the
raost successful land and sea soldier, statesman and financier,
of his day. EUzabeth had sufficient information to know
that this great man had nobly continued the work that his
father, William of Orange the Liberator, had begun. She
treated hira with the respect and attention due to the hero
of his country, and thus gave the best proof of mind per
haps she ever displayed : for the outward appearance of
her new uncle was not such as ireually pleases girls of
seventeen. Maurice of Orange received Elizabeth as a
pledge strangely thrown into the hands of the Calvinist
party by the youthful enthusiasm of her dying brother,
Henry Prince of Wales.
Although the head of the Holland republic was econo
mical to parsiraony, such was not the case, he very well
knew, with his constituents, their High Mightinesses the
States-General In order to meet them, Maurice and his
fair niece, with her train of ladies, set out betimes on a land
journey to the Hague. The party took their way through
Middleburg. Elizabeth met her husband at Rotterdam,
who conducted her to Scheveling, near the Hague, where
there was an attempt made to amuse her with the perforra
ance of sorae flying chariots worked with sails like wind
mills ; but the wind refused to blow, and the chariots refused
to fly. At the Hague commenced the splendour of Eliza
beth's bridal continental progress. Here .she met a congress
of her own cousins of the line of Brunswick, with many of
her husband's German relatives, most of whom were vassals
of the great Palatinate, and some of them, as the members
of the Solms and Nassau Dietz farailies, were to fill offices
of state about the Elector Palatine, her lord.
The merchant princes of the Hague had done their devoir
nobly at her reception, having expended the sura of £20,000
1 The accuracy of this sketch must be acknowledged by every one who
has beheld that marvel of Dutch portraiture, the likeness of Maurice of
Orange, in Lord Northwick's, Northwick Hall, in Gloucestershire. The life
like expression of the countenance is such, that the Stadtholder can never
die while that portrait exists.

60 ELIZABETH STUART.
OU entertainments. In sundry dull f^tes during her sojourn
of a few May-days. As for Prince Maurice, she supped and
dined at his table when nothing public was going on. The
bill of fare of one of Prince Maurice's entertainments must
not be omitted. At the head of the supper-table was placed
a roasted sucking-pig, and at the bottom another sucking-
pig, but boiled ! Eels and boiled pork were the entrimets
of this truly original supper.^
When the day of the bride's departure drew near, their
high mightinesses the States-General, after many civil
speeches, introduced to her attention a cushion finely per
fumed, on which reposed a corbeille of gold tissue, and that
being uncovered, displayed a number of rich gifts peculiarly
acceptable to brides in their teens, being a string of twenty-
five great oriental pearls, forming the throat necklace so
famous in the annals of costume In that century, as the
readers of Madarae de Sevigne very well know. Two great
pendent pear pearls ; a carcanet collar or necklace of em
bossed gold, set with thirty-six diaraonds ; a large hair hod-
kin with a great table diamond set at the end, with diamonds
richly embossed, pendent therefrora. To these costly gems
the munificent Dutchmen added valuables of their own
manufacture, or products from their trade with China and
Japan.2 There were sixty beautiful pieces of Dutch damask
for table linen, exquisite tapestry from the looms of the
famous Francis Spiring, which rivalled or surpassed the re
nowned Gobelins, and a whole chamber furniture of black
and gold, called China work by the memorialist, but certainly
from Japan, consisting of a bedstead, several chests, cabi
nets, fruit-dishes, plates, and trays, too numerous to men
tion. Her bridegroom again left Elizabeth to the care of
1 Letter of Hay, Earl of Carlisle, who married Lady Lucy Percy. He was
one of James the First's most dainty favourites ; he had been regaled, to
his great disgust, with the same kind of supper when negotiating the mar
riage. Every one knows for whom King James thought a roasted sucking-
pig and a pipe of tobacco was a suitable regale ; but it does not seem that
such a dish as a hoiled sucking-pig had ever entered the royal imagination.
Yet Maurice the Stadtholder was a very great man, notwithstanding his
taste in sucklings. But eels and pork, the favourite dainties in Holland,
are even now little pleasing to Scotch palates.
2 Additional MS., British Museum.

ELIZABETH STUART. 61
his uncle Maurice,i and departed for his dominions of the
Palatinate, from whence he had been long absent, it being
necessary that he should make some exertions, to provide for
her reception soraething in the ostentatious raode to which
she had been accustoraed, and in which she took raore de
light than was consistent with the greatness of raind attri
buted to her. She left Leyden in her splendid French
chariot, already mentioned at her marriage fetes, drawn by
four white horses ; by her side was seated the Princess of
Nassau Dietz. She was escorted by Maurice, and many
Dutch and German cavaliers, to the Stadtholder's private
residence at Leyden, where she stayed a week, and from
whence she made excursions to all the rich cities around,
then ill the very pride and glory of their commercial weal.
Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Haarlem, were explored by
her, and many rich presents she received frora their citi
zens. Above all she astonished the Stadtholder when he
took her to hunt, by her skill and activity in slaughtering
deer. Under the care of her warlike uncle, Maurice the Stadt
holder, the Princess traversed the Dutch and Flemish cities,
until she reached, on her course to the Palatinate, pleasant
Utrecht, and halted at the faraily hunting-seat of Rhenen,
which was afterwards to prove to her a place of refuge for
many a season when her fortunes changed. Here she lodged
among a convent of nuns,^ to whom she was very generous
at departure. As she approached, escorted by the Orange
princes, Maurice and Henry, her husband's uncles, guarded
by a powerful squadron of Dutch cavalry, the frontier of
the Spanish Netherlands, the Governess Isabel, Princess of
Spain, sent her a courteous invitation, which was declined
by her Dutch guardians, in jealous apprehension lest sorae
mischief was meditated by their enemies. The Roman Ca
tholic cities of Dusseldorf and Cologne were entered cau
tiously by Maurice and his fair charge, who, however, was
indulged by viewing the curiosities of Cologne, and being
Introduced to the relics of a former British princess, St
Ursula, with her eleven thousand Christian virgins, the
' Benger. 2 Mercure de France.

62 ELIZABETH STUART.
whole of which fair bevy, it is to be feared, were a female
tribute extorted by the powerful pagan chiefs of Germany
from a British Christian king, when British Christianity
waxed weak and Saxon paganhood strong.
At Cologne Elizabeth made some stay, long enough to
sit for her miniature portrait, so small that it was set in a
ring, for the painting of which she paid seventy-seven dol
lars to an artist afterwards celebrated, Michael Jansen.2
Her stay at Cologne drew rather deeply on her privy purse.
Among her expenses, however, was a benevolent item of
nearly thirty pounds In alms to the poor of Cologne and
Dusseldorf. These bounties Increased her train somewhat
Inconveniently ; before she reached Cologne her followers
amounted to raore than three thousand persons.
The Stadtholder Maurice did not conclude his escort
until her arrival at Bonn. There he parted from his niece,
apparently with no better token of remerabrance than kind
ness of manner ; but he sent after her a costly present of a
diamond chain, worth one thousand pounds, which he had
purchased for this purpose when he showed her the curiosi
ties and wealth of Amsterdam, then the richest coraraercial
city in the world. She presented the officer who had charge
of this magnificent jewel with twenty pounds, and the stew
ard of the Prince was given by her order a donation of two
hundred pounds. At Bonn her husband's kinsman, the young
Elector of Brandenburg, welcomed her to an al fresco col
lation, which his attendants had spread on the grass at one
of the raost beautiful bends of the Rhine. Before Elizabeth
now appeared a little gay flotilla of highly ornamented
barges, which her absent husband had forwarded to receive
her, and bring her by the highway of the glorious and
abounding river, of which he was sovereign, to his domi
nions. This arrangement may be considered a very needful
movement of econoray to save Elizabeth from the enormous
rabble of devourers which were besetting every step she
travelled on land.
The principal vessel of this pretty fleet bore her fiag, and
1 This idea is confirmed by Roger of Wendover.
2 State Papers ; Winwood and Wotton's Letters.

ELIZABETH STUART. 63
was as gaudy as paint, gilding, and red and blue-coloured
velvet, could make it. Elizabeth was at first excessively
delighted with her gilded saloon, in which she floated down
the exquisite Rhine at her ease in the warmth and beauty of
sunny May. The bride was suffered to land for the nights
at sorae friendly ports for repose. She slept at Oberwinter
In a nunnery, and rested a whole Sunday at St Gear, under
the protection of her husband's relative, the Landgrave of
Hesse. Elizabeth, despite of the lovely views which opened
theraselves at every turn of the Rhine, coraplained of the
weariness of her voyage, when she found several towns
were passed by; but on her entreaties to land, she heard the
towns bore a bad reputation regarding the plague. Thus
she sailed by ancient Baccarach discontentedly, when a
swift little 'galley shot frora Its bay, and rowed after her
flotilla. Elizabeth found to her delight that It contained
her husband, who came on board, having arranged all mat
ters to give her a fitting welcorae In his Palatinate, which
was now close at hand. In the afternoon the flotilla anchored
off Gilsheira, the first town in the Palatinate that raet the
eyes of Its new mistress. Throngs of her subjects, and many
carriages, appeared at the quay and Watergate to escort
Ehzabeth to the banquet prepared for her welcorae at the
Hotel de Ville. Firing of guns, shoutings, and bonfires,
announced the raoment when her foot had touched her
lord's dominions.
Among the other Inconveniences which Frederic had
sought to obviate by providing a passage down the Rhine,
was the extravagant custom of giving presents at the cities
through which Elizabeth passed. Hitherto she had travelled
at her father's expense. The Peers he had commissioned to
escort her safely to her husband's dorainions, Lennox,
Arundel, and Harrington, had defrayed all cost ; but as soon
as she arrived on her husband's land that supply ceased.
Here Elizabeth betrayed the great weakness of her charac
ter, which was always running her into debt and difficulty.
Instead of learning her husband's directions, and acting
according to the customs of his country, she chose to
give as profusely as before. As she had no funds in her

64 ELIZABETH STUART.
privy purse, .she drew on her jeweller in England, Jacob
Herderet,-' for sums to keep up this munificence, adding to
the account she had already run up with him. Rarely after
wards was Elizabeth Stuart clear of the -world. The Bishop
of Mayence, Roman Catholic although he was, sent a kind
invitation to the English princess and her lord. They em
barked again, and floated up the Rhine to that ancient
Roman city, where Elizabeth occupied the Emperor's suite
of apartments.
The bridal party now passed on to Oppenheim, which, in
the first days of blossoming June, almost turned itself into
a city of flowers to welcome her. Among the triumphal
arches of this Rhenish city, the first band of music was
heard by her since she left England, worthy to greet her
musical ears. The next place to which they proceeded
was Frankenthal, the principal town of Elizabeth's dower
Extraordinary demonstrations were of course made to wel
come her ; the city and castle were covered with flowers
by day, and with fireworks at night. Elizabeth made her
entry in her famous chariot, drawn by the white horses; and
being met by the warlike burghers of Frankenthal, in a
livery of blue and gold, grey hats and green plumes, they
fired a feu-de-joie, and formed her guard of honour to her
dower-palace, where, from the balcony, Elizabeth and
Frederic beheld all the quaint doings the citizens had in
vented to do her honour. Just opposite, the goldsmiths of
Frankenthal had built a stage where pageants were enacted,
but which poured forth the sweetest strains of original and
well-executed music, to the delight of the Princess, who was
now convinced her subjects, unlike the Dutch and the in
habitants of the Lower Rhine, were a musical people. The
entertainments were representations of the throne of Solo
raon and the city of Troy ; the Queen of Sheba, seated by
Soloraon, being a caricature of Elizabeth In her bridal dress.
But as the shades of evening advanced, both the city of.
Troy and the throne of Solomon exploded in such magnifi
cent fireworks, that the English attendants of the Princess
shouted for delight, and their national huzzas greatly pleased
1 State-Paper MSS.

ELIZABETH STUART. 65
the good folk of Frankenthal as well as the Palatine him-
selfi Elizabeth was for the third time left by her husband, who
speeded forward to Heidelberg, his capital, in order to see
that all things were arranged for her solemn entry, and
meeting with his kindred assembled there to be introduced
to her. This time Elizabeth was left at horae, since Frank
enthal, her dower-castle and town, had been soleranly sur
rendered to her father's coraraissioners for her use. She
remained there for a day and night In the guardianship of
her own burghers.
The English nobles had dropped some hints to the
Palatine that they were disappointed at the absence of
military force since they had entered his dorainions ; he
therefore chose to give his wife's entry into his capital the
character of a review, as he had a little army of six thousand
raen at Heidelberg, and great stores of cannon and other
artillery. It was June 7th when Elizabeth set forward with
all her ladies and English friends towards that romantic
Heidelberg, which has since undergone such strange muta
tions. She was dressed in a robe of cloth-of-gold, a high-
crowned hat of red velvet, with white plumes and a standing
ruff and collar. She travelled in a close carriage until she met
her husband ; who, after having drawn up his little force on
an elevated plain some distance from Heidelberg, advanced
to meet her, riding by the side of his Regent, John, Duke
of Deuxponts, his young brother the Palsgrave Louis Philip,
Duke of Sirameren, and at the head of a vast train of
German princes and counts, some his vassals, and all his
kinsmen and allies. When Frederic reached his wife's
procession, he presented himself to open the door of her
coach ; but she sprang out, and, forgetful of all ceremonial,
threw herself Into his arras. After their loving greeting
was over, and she had been forraally presented to his regent-
cousin, she ascended a grand canopied car, with open pillars,
a sort of travelling-throne. In which she raade her entry into
the capital of the then happy Palatinate.
^ Benger, from a German Journal. Stowe.
VOL. vill. E

66 ELIZABETH STUART.
Taking her way to Heidelberg, her cortege turned from
the left bank of the Rhine, and wound its way among hills
and valleys so fair, fertile, and smiling, that the English
guests— although used to a beautiful land, yet not ac
custoraed to the delicious climate which matures the grape
— with one consent affirmed that It seemed as if the
garden of Eden lay before them, as they descended to the
valley of the Neckar.^ ' Stowe. Benger.

ELIZABETH STUART

CHAPTEE III.

SUMMARY
Elizabeth's palace at Heidelberg — Her entry — Fishers' tournament — She
arrives at the Silver Hall — Her husband's female relatives — Her
reception by the Electress-mother, Juliana — Sports and pageants —
Long preaching — Elizabeth retires to her hunting-seat — Astonishes
the German Princesses by killing deer — Alarming quarrels of the Scotch
and English in her household — Fight in her presence — Lord Harrington
leaves her to return home — Diet at Worms — Elizabeth insists on her
precedency — Troubles in consequence — DiSereuces with the Electress
Juliana, who retires from court — Is invited by the latter to a farewell
feast — Rural day spent by Elizabeth and her ladies — Her debts and
disquiet — Birth of her eldest sou — Count Schomberg withdraws from
her court — Her consort attains his majority — German Protestants place
him at the head of the Calvinist League — He shrinks from the Civil war
— Ambition of his consort — His mother recommends peace — His health
gives way in the struggle — Elizabeth's letter to her father — She per
suades Schomberg to return — Arranges his marriage with Anne Dudley
— Recovery ofthe Elector — Increased happiness of Elizabeth's wedlock
— The Elector erects an arch in her honour — Makes her an English
garden — Schomberg's wise rules for her household — Ehzabeth's letter to
her father ou the death of Countess Schomberg — King James appoints
Lord Harrington's daughter as her first lady — Birth of Elizabeth's second
son — Lord Dorchester sends her two monkeys — How she spends her
mornings— Plot revealed to her by Captain Bell — How the Empress
means to murder her and her babe — The Empress's invitation — Bell
alarms James I. — Death of Elizabeth's mother. Queen Anne — Germany
ready to break into war — Crown of Bohemia offered to Frederic — Eliza
beth urges his acceptance — Her letter to her father — Her husband's
vacillation.
The Castle of Heidelberg, which Elizabeth entered as a
bride, surpassed In magnificence and extent any palace that
her father possessed in either of his three kingdoms. It has
withal a most remarkable history. It was founded in 1346

68 ELIZABETH STUART.
by the great ancestor of Frederic V., Rupert the Red,
Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria. On the side
of a mighty precipice it rears itself, terrace over terrace,
towering from a vast height over the beautiful river
Neckar. A mountainous chain circles round the castle
with a close embrace, but opens where the Neckar rushes
Into the srailing plain beyond the gorge. Our Elizabeth was
little longer there than as guest, although she brought on
luckless Heidelberg Its centuries of sufferings and final deso
lation. In 1622 the vengeful Austrian general Tilly took
It by storm, and permitted his soldiers to stain every saloon
of Its magnificent structures with atrocities such as ought to
make Christians ashamed of war, and disgusted with glory.
The spoiler seized upon the library, the finest in the world,
and carried off the books, the delight of Elizabeth and
her learned Frederic, to Vienna. The University of
Heidelberg had a great loss In this library : that grand
Institution was likewise founded by Rupert the Red ; and
whensoever the professors or students needed references,
they had always free access to the Palatine Library. It
was a barbarous deed to rob a university of Its books. The
Moslems burnt books ; Tilly only stole them.' Four tinaes
In forty years did this unfortunate palace suffer siege and
sack. Massacres were perpetrated therein too numerous to
recapitulate. At last nobody, victor or vanquished, cared to
remain there ; and the repeated desertions of Heidelberg, of
which there were three decided ones, resemble those of some
defunct cities in the East. Of course it was reported to be
fearfully haunted by wicked spirits. How any could be
raore atrocious than those inhabiting the huraan forms which
had worked their wicked wills there, may be reasonably
questioned. The last siege of Heidelberg is unexampled In the his
tories of battles and sieges, occurring in the Palatinate wars
of Louis XIV. It was, as before, deserted, after means of
access had been cut off, and left perfectly desolate; but so
imposing in appearance, so commanding in site, and so gay
1 Polnitz.— The Emperor sent all the duplicates of these books to Rome,
where they are in the Vatican.

ELIZABETH STUART. 69
and riant with Its commanding fa9ade, that the French
Marechal L'Orge, never supposing It was uninhabited,
sumraoned it to surrender. The lone castle replied not ;
indeed It could not. L'Orge finding it was not a castle
" qui parle," besieged it ; but Its grand site mocked his
cannon, and Its altitude his ladders. Lights were seen
glancing by night through its vast galleries, and from win
dow to window, but those, the good burghers of the town
below averred and believed were carried by its espe
cial garrison of ghosts and Jack-o'-lanterns. The French
Marechal sat down to starve out the castle, losing rauch
time In the endeavour. How he discovered his mistake is not
told ; but the French people, who in their joyous days made
songs on everything, celebrated his coralcal siege of nobody
in a ballad, the refrain of which Inforraed the world that
"L'Orge would have taken Heidelberg had he found the door
open." 1 Yet all the slaughterings, plunderings, burnings,
raines, sacks, and sieges, did not destroy the love of the old
Protestant line ofthe Palatine to Its princely eyry. But when
the inheritance fell, at the death of the son of Charles Louis,
to the Eoman Catholic line of Neuburg, the Duke had the
palace grandly repaired, yet he wished to keep the cathedral
wholly for the use of his own religionists, instead of being
shared amicably ; the nave for the Protestants, the chancel
for the Roman Catholics, as allotted at the peace of West
phalia in 1660. A rebellion was threatened, on which the
Elector Palatine transferred his residence and courts of jus
tice to the next city, Manheira. From that time, and for
that cause, Heidelberg Castle has remained deserted, as now
seen and marvelled at by every curious traveller.
But when the triumphal chariot ofthe English bride paused
on the bridge beneath Its gates, the palace-castle of the
Palatinate was in its very glory, the pride of Germany for
science, arts, and arras. Immediately before the ambulatory
throne rodeher husband, his cousin the Regent, John of Deux
ponts, and their kinsmen the Margrave of Anspach and
the Duke of Wurteraberg. The little army of the Electorate
preceded the car In their national uniform, one of the tri-
^ Polnitz.

70 ELIZABETH STUART.
colors of Germany, of white, green, and red. As for the
discharge of the cannon from the walls of Heidelberg, an
swered by the musketry of the men-at-arms, all that need
be said is, they made as much din as their knowledge ofthe
science of destruction permitted. And great was the satis
faction of Elizabeth and her English followers In conse
quence. The bridge over the Neckar had been made a very her-
ceau of flowery arches, under which the procession moved
to the approaches of the castle, which were only gained hy
steep ascents. The sports In honour of the day commenced
with a water tournament, perforraed by the fishermen of
the Neckar, who aimed with poles at a revolving turret
fixed in the river, as their boats were rowed swiftly past
it, a pastime Elizabeth had frequently seen on her own
Thames. She paused awhile to look down and to laugh
at the various immersions of the unlucky water-tilters, and
then entered the lower gate of the castle nearest to the
river. Here an artificial angel extended its wings over
the Princess as she entered. She pursued her way through
flowery arches, welcomed and harangued In turn by the
professors of the famous university, which the palace-castle
sheltered and protected amidst the circles of its fortifica
tions, for both town and colleges were embraced by the
walls. The citizens lowered a golden crown on the canopy
ofthe car; It was meant for her brow had she made her
entry, as was hoped, on horseback. Compliraentary In
scriptions in Latin met her eyes at every turn ; the most
appropriate of these was from the Psalms : " The King's
daughter Is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought
gold ! "
Before the entrance of the palace, Frederic had placed
a pageant representing the Danube and the Thames, with
effigies of all his ancestors, among whom the English
princesses who had wedded German potentates — as Matilda
the daughter of our Henry II., the wife of Henry the Lion,
and Blanche, daughter of Henry IV., the spouse of Louis
of Bavaria — had conspicuous places. Frederic performed
the classic ceremony of taking his bride in his arms and

ELIZABETH STUART. 71
lifting her over his threshold. The female relations of
the husband stood in a double rank from the hall-door
to the Silver Chamber, for Castle Heidelberg had then,
as well as the Old Palace at Berlin, rooms furnished with
solid silver ; we hope they were brighter and better
cleaned than the costly furniture of which the Margravine
of Baireuth (Elizabeth's clever great-granddaughter) gives
so dismal a description. Twelve German princesses stood
according to their proper precedence ready to receive
Elizabeth, among whora was the aged raother, the two
young sisters of Frederic, Charlotte and Catherine, and
the young wife of the Regent John. Before all the intro
ductions and ceremonials were accomplished, the illustri
ous Juliana of Orange, the Electress-Dowager, rushed from
her place of dignity at the door of the Silver Saloon, and,
clasping Elizabeth to her bosom, expressed the delight that
the day had arrived when she could welcome her as her
daughter at Heidelberg.^
Unfortunately the castle-palace of Heidelberg was too
near Its protegee, the University, for the festivals to Illus
trate the natural customs of the country ; but all the inter
ludes were classical ; so Venus, Apollo, Cupid, Hymen, and
Diana, held forth In most elaborate tediousness, which we
wholly decline inflicting on our readers. The best part of
Elizabeth's diversions was the sight of all the citizens, all
the scholars, and all the soldiers, dining in public in the
meadows of the Neckar. The great tun of Heidelberg, a
German marvel, holding an Incredible number of bottles
of Rhenish wine, was stationed on the terrace of the
castle; and, according to the veracious Stowe, open to
all the population, and was twice drunk dry In the course
of the wedding festivities.^ The next day thanksgiving
sermons of enormous length were preached by Abrahara
Scultetus, Frederic's Calvinist tutor, and a tournaraent was
proclairaed for the next day. Elizabeth sat in state both
days, taking precedence at the head of the banquet-table of
' Stowe, and State-Paper MSS. — Carlton's Despatches.
* Every day twenty feeder of wine was drunk. Each foeder contained
1020 bottles.— Ludolph's History of the World.

•72 ELIZABETH STUART.
her husband and of every one, as if she had been the reign
ing sovereign, at Heidelberg. Such was the consequence
of her husband's promise to her parents. Even then It began
to excite unpleasant comments among the kindred princes
assembled for the marriage rejoicings. Emperors' daughters
had been the wives of the Palatine Electors, and even the
daughters of mighty kings of England ; but none had ever
before been seen to take precedence of their lords and
masters. However, brides were usually much indulged,
so the Innovation passed at that time uncontested. As
for the Heidelberg tournament, nothing remarkable is
recorded concerning it, excepting that, to the great scandal
of the English lords and cavaliers there assembled, the
prizes, instead of being armour or gems, were sums of
money, as at the English races of Epsom or Ascot. Very
eager the German princes showed themselves, contending
for prizes of fifty ducats and other such small gains. Fre
deric himself, who appeared in the character of Jason arriv
ing on dry land In the Argo, with a Golden Fleece, won a
prize of a hundred florins from the Margrave of Anspach.
Duke Christian of Anhalt carried off most of these rather
ignoble rewards. Frora the golden mast of Jason's ship
was proclairaed an oracle by sorae viewless speaker, in
Iraitation of the style of Nostradamus, to this effect : —
" When the young Lion, descended from the race of Lions, shall carry
from her native isle the Royal Lamb over sea to his own sylvan lair, then
shall the glory of the new Jason eclipse that of all the heroes of the
earth." ^
Jason likewise sung a very pretty nawe German song to
his princess frora the deck of his Argo ; but It was suddenly
recollected that Jason was a most unlucky hero to personify
at a wedding ; which, of course, in superstitious Germany,
threw a dampen all the evolutions of the young Elector
Palatine's navigation on dry-land.
The marriage festivities, on which it would be tedious
further to dwell, were, in the succeeding days, interspersed
with several long sermons from Frederic's fanatic theolo
gian, by narae Abraham Scullhead, which name, translated
' Ludolph's History of the World.

ELIZABETH STUART. 73.
and modified with the classical terraination usual to the
learned in Gerraany, is known in history as Scultetus.
Elizabeth departed, soon after this course of entertain
ments commenced, to a hunting-palace belonging to her
lord not far frora Heidelberg, where she astonished hor
new subjects, by shooting twelve deer with her cross
bow. One of these beautiful creatures, a noble stag of five
years, she wounded so as to hamstring it, and brought It
down with a bolt from this cruel weapon. The Rhenish
Germans mentioned these exploits as favourably as they
could, and lauded the fair young Amazon as " the Diana
of the Rhine."
The three English nobles, the Duke of Lennox, Lord
Arundel, and Lord Lisle, who had, under the commission of
her royal father, accompanied the bride for the purpose of
seeing her put in possession of her dower-estates, and paying
her expenses, now took leave of her. Lord Harrington, her
preceptor, remained a while longer, and received great
vexation from some of the turbulent and incongruous
persons who composed the new household of his Princess.
When the happy and well-ordered arrangements of Eliza
beth's early paradise at Corabe Abbey are remembered, it
may easily be supposed what a contrast was a scene like this,
which took place on a journey to Manheira, whither Eliza
beth was accorapanied by Lord and Lady Harrington,
Colonel Count Schoraberg, and Sir Andrew Keith, her
Master of Horse. On the road a dispute, concerning the
performance of some of the horses, occurred between Sir
Andrew Keith and Mr Bushell, the squire of Lord Har
rington. In his passion Sir Andrew came up to the coach
wherein the Princess was with Lady Harrington, and, in
the presence of all her suite, accused Lord Harrington of
wronging her Royal Highness in the exchange of some
horses. Lady Harrington fired up in defence of her lord,
but Keith contradicted her without ceremony. Lord Har
rington replied sharply ; as for Bushell himself, he defied
the uncourteous Master of Horse to Instant and raortal
combat ; so, rushing to a convenient spot at a little distance,
the EngHshraan and the Scot drew their swords, eager for a

74 ELIZABETH STUART.
hot encounter, under the very eyes of the young Princess,
who screamed to Colonel Schomberg to part them. For
the present he succeeded in preventing the combat; but
nothing was gained by the delay, for Sir Andrew Keith
having partisans among his countrymen In her Royal
Highness's service, and Bushell bringing up his friends on
Lord Harrington's side, a general engagement took place,
when Bushell was left for dead with fourteen wounds, and
several of the combatants were seriously hurt. Elizabeth
complained to her husband of the ferocity of her Master of
Horse, and the Elector ordered Schomberg to arrest him,
and his aiders and abettors.
Thus Sir Andrew Keith, though he remained victor in
tho fray, which is evident from the list of the killed and
wounded, was not altogether triumphant.-^ Not long after
this outrage. Lord and Lady Harrington bade farewell to
their Princess, and commenced their journey to England.
Lord Harrington had suffered far more serious uneasiness
than what arose from the appeal to arras of these fiery
young men, for his honour was concerned in the charge of
pecuniary wrong blurted out by Sir Andrew Keith ; and
there is reason to suppose that his mind was much wounded
by the whole affair. Lord Harrington, it Is said, had been
left by King James In arrear for the cost of the education
of the Princess, money being very short at the Court of
England after the funeral of the Prince of Wales, and the
marriage of the Princess-Royal. So the King gave him,
by way of corapensation, the profits of a coinage of brass
farthings. It is declared by political historians, that these
farthings broke his heart, but It was more probably the un
toward affair of the fracas among the officers of the Princess
that grieved hira mortally, for he fell III at the city of Worms,
not long after he parted from Elizabeth, and there expired.^
> Harleian Collection, and State-Paper MSS. August 1613.
^ Letters of Sir Dudley Carlton to Mr Chamberlain. His only son did
not survive him many months ; his daughter Lucy, Countess of Bedford,
became the heiress of the great wealth in church lands that centred in
Lord and Lady Harrington. Lady Bedford was with the Princess at Combe
Abbey. She was undeniably an accomplished and learned woman, but not
a Uttle fantastic in taste. As for her extravagance, it was considered ex
traordinary in a most extravagant era.

ELIZABETH STUART. 75
The furious outbreak that had taken place between Sir
Andrew Keith and the followers of Lord Harrington, proved
but the commencement of a long series of disorders aris
ing from the turbulent conduct of Elizabeth's household.
There was a little army of adventurers to the amount
of thrice as many, who had quartered themselves on the
hapless citizens of Heidelberg, and daily petitioned Eli
zabeth to be Inducted Into places at her court, or demanded
to have some created on purpose for thera. Daily they
quarrelled with each other ; riots in the city were of frequent
occurrence ; and when Inquiries were made as to who were
the disturbers of the public peace, the English of Madame
la Princesse were always declared to be the delinquents.
Besides their turbulence, these supernumeraries were un
bearable in another respect; they boldly presented themselves
at table when the household of the Princess were served,
and devoured what was provided for the regular officials.
W^hen Schomberg laboured to reduce all to proper order, he
found an opponent start up In Mr Elphinstone, the Secre
tary of the Princess, who seems to have been the leader of
the Scottish faction of the regular household. The com
plaints of Schomberg in his letters to King James and his
ministers, are truly comic concerning his perplexities,
although that faithful functionary never considered the
matter with the least tendency to mirthfulness. In the inter
vals of his negotiations with the troublesome followers of the
Princess, Schomberg was called on to arrange the knotty
points concerning the question of her precedence as a King's
daughter over her husband and all his connections. Ger
man notions touching etiquette of the kind yielding only to
those of the Chinese, the unfortunate minister of Frederic
surely had enough on his hands. So he thought, and thus
wrote of his afflictions to James I. : " Your Majesty must
consider that I have a young Prince and Princess, an adminis
trator, the Regent John, a mother-in-law, sisters, aunts, and
every one of these has their trains. Everybody wishes to
govern. Everybody believes I do more for one than the
other ; " and he adds, " Ara I not a miserable man ?" ^
' State-Paper MSS.

76 ELIZABETH STUART.
Such a State of affairs. It may very well be anticipated,
could not continue very long. The Electress-Dowager
Juliana resolved to retire with her daughters, Catherine
and Charlotte, to her dower- castle of Kaiserslautern,
a curious old castle, built by the Emperor Frederic Barha-
rossa, but previously withdrew to her seat of Neuburg.
Here she gave a family festival In honour of the bride,
where the Regent John assuraed the office of mattre-d'hStel
on this occasion.^ The old Electress brought out to do
honour to It two ancient welcorae-cups, one inthe form ofa
raonk, and the other In that of a nun. The company drank
the health ofthe Princess in the latter, and that ofthe Elector
In the other. Then Elizabeth, after dinner, wandered all
over the domain, visited the raills, the fountains, and the
dairy, which the old Electress had arranged with Dutch pre
cision and attention to cleanliness, the very cowhouse, with
the beautiful sleek aniraals therein, being shining and pol
ished like a parlour. Elizabeth delighted in giving the
gentle cows grass to eat with her own royal hand, a
circumstance which shows, that even then the creatures
were fed on the stalled system, as neat cattle are on the Con
tinent at this day. There was a table in the dairy set out
with nice little dainties prepared from milk and cream, at
which the Princess and her ladies feasted. Anne Dudley,
with the other young ladies who served the Princess, were
heard to laugh quite joyously ; raistress and raalds all gave
tokens of great pleasure throughout this happy country day.
Insight into the domestic life and manners of Elizabeth
Stuart as the Electress Palatine is to be derived from the
despatches of that man of many tribulations, Schomberg,
to King James and his cabinet, while he was arranging the
unruly household of his Princess. Unfortunately the. cus-
toras of Gerraan palatial economy did not harmonise with
those of the English. It was usual at Heidelberg Castle to
allow neither lodging nor board to those officials of the Court
who received pensions ; therefore Elphinstone and all the
individuals of Elizabeth's paid household, were expected to
board themselves — proceedings very opposite to thehospitable
1 French Ambassades, September 3, 1613.

ELIZABETH STUART. 77
bouche of court and the bounteous tables of green cloth at
Harapton Court and Whitehall, now, alas, with other old
English hospitalities, defunct ! Another grievance was,
that when the young Electress Palatine sat down in public
with twelve princes and princesses of her husband's kindred
to dine with her, the English officials positively refused to
hand cup or viand to their serene highnesses.
On very grand occasions Frederic and Elizabeth were
waited on by the nobles of the country; but when this
species of feudal service was offered by ladies of the lines
of Nassau, Solms, or Harrach, to the Illustrious consort
of their suzerain and cousin, again the English train were
up in arras. They would serve no one but their lawful
lady, and their lawful lady should be served by none but
them. " Such are the little dissensions which are hardly
worth troubling your Majesty about," writes Schomberg to
James I. " As to my lady's meat, she always has it prepared
by her own cook, being served up at table at every meal.
I ask her always what she wishes for, and she tells me
freely. There is now no table but hers, where there are
only princes and princesses." ^
Elizabeth becarae the happy raother of a healthy son,
born at Heidelberg, January 2, 1613-14, neither of its
parents having seen their eighteenth year. The child
was named after Elizabeth's deceased brother, Henry Fre
deric, but the actual baptism did not take place until
several weeks afterwards. The presents and prepara
tions, and the numbers of godfathers and godmothers usual
at a German baptism, could not all be in readiness be
fore 6th March. Iraraediate heirs to the Crown of Great
Britain had become so few, being liraited to Charles, Prince
of Wales, and Elizabeth herself, that the news of the birth
of this infant was received In England with rauch satisfac
tion. The boy was Iraraediately granted the privileges of
naturalisation by the English Parliament, and was declared
heir and successor to the mother, in her reversionary rights
to the throne, a recognition which was extended to all
Elizabeth's future offspring. Those who reraeraber the
^ State-Paper MS.— Schomberg to James I., October 3, 1613.

78 ELIZABETH STUAET.
artful exclusion of James V., on pretence of being an alien,
by Henry VIIL, will see the great Importance of this mea
sure to the Palatine family.
The journals of the houses of Parliament, at that date,
will, without a moment's argument, overthrow all the
vituperations of political history regarding the cruel neglect
of Elizabeth.^ James I. now Increased his daughter's allow
ance i?2000 per annum, the patent for which was placed
in a golden siphon and basin, sent as a grandsire's and
godsire's gifts. Never was an English prince more bounti
fully endowed at his baptism than the babe of Ehzabeth.
Prince Maurice gave him a crystal ship worth £900 ; the
States-General of Holland, who were reckoned among the
boy's sponsors, two gold cups ; and, with a provident care,
which seems almost like foresight in regard to the future
necessities of Elizabeth's children, endowed their little
neophyte with the magnificent grant of a pension of £400
per annum. The Duke of Deuxponts, the late Regent,
gave a rich silver basin and ewer ; and the grandmother, the
Electress Juliana, a curious nest of twenty-four silver cups,
fitting one within the other. The younger maiden aunt,
Catherine, Princess Palatine, carried the babe to the chapel,
where the Prince of Anhalt, as proxy for the monarch of
Great Britain, presented him at the font. A princely crowd
of godfathers and godmothers was there, each of whom,
according to the national custora, received him by turns
In their arms.
The year that followed this happy event was naturally
a joyous one ; to Elizabeth, as a wife, her felicity was
unclouded. Fortunately she loved her husband sincerely.
His plain person and saturnine temperament, which his most
Intimate friends did not scruple to call deep melancholy,
Impaired not her conjugal affection. The marriage of her
sister-in-law, Charlotte, Princess Palatine (for all daughters
of the electoral family of the Rhine claimed that appefla-
tion), took place in 1614, with George William, Elector of
1 Likewise Drake's Parliamentary History. Miss Benger, who views the
whole history of Elizabeth by the false light of Winwood and Wilson,
was utterly unconscious of these facts.

ELIZABETH STUART. 79
Brandenburg. Great discontent was manifested by the
Electress Juliana at the precedence her daughter-in-law
continued to take and claim on all occasions; and If Schom
berg's evidence Is to be credited, the old Electress manifested
malignity against Elizabeth little consistent with the saintly
character^ given her by her co-religionists, and her biogra
pher Spanhelra. As for Schomberg, his miseries approached
their climax, his love affairs being In a most unprosperous
state with the friend and confidant of the Princess, Mistress
Anne Dudley. Fair Mistress Anne, although she had
been long courted, was very coy. Her friends did not deem
the match good enough. Young Lord Harrington, and her
aunt, his mother, wished to recall her to England, to which
her illustrious raistress and the hapless Schomberg were
naturally averse. The Inamorato at last withdrew himself
from the Court of Heidelberg, to the infinite detriment of the
affairs of Elizabeth. To soothe the pangs of unrequited
love, Schomberg plunged into Dutch garrison service, under
the command of Prince Maurice. Elizabeth then rushed
Inextricably Into debt. A few weeks previously, Schom
berg had left his post only for a fortnight, and went to
Frankfort fair, for the purpose of expending money for
her thriftily, according to the Gerraan custom of laying in
stores at these great marts, buying every kind of goods,
from broadcloth to papers of pins. While absent on this
good errand, peculators had Involved the Princess in gifts
and promises to a ruinous amount. King James, finding
the really noble pension he allowed his daughter swallowed
thus uselessly, deraanded what had 'becorae of Schomberg,
to whora he gave an annuity for taking care of her interests.
The consort of Elizabeth attained his majority of eighteen
In August 1614, and forthwith took on his own shoulder
the weight of government resigned by his cousin. Regent
John of Deuxponts. Frederic and Elizabeth made a tour
through their dominions, hunting as they went with the
pertinacity of North American savages. Elizabeth that
summer had nearly caused the deaths of her husband, and
of a relative of his, the Landgravine of Hesse-Cassel : while
1 Benger is most sentimental on her love for Elizabeth.

80 ELIZABETH STUART.
following on her daring chases, Frederic was thrown from
his horse, and nearly broke his neck, while the Landgravine
fractured her arm.^
Congresses of the German Calvinists now drew the Elector
Palatine Into their vortex, and to his consternation began to
discuss the plans of placing him at their head In the tremen
dous war preparing against the Empire. Frederic, soon after
this revelation, was seized with a terrible nervous fever,
which struck hira even while sitting In the diet at Heilhrun,
when this fearful destiny was announced to hira. He must
have known that he was neither fit In mind or body for a
part so onerous. At the same time, he knew the ambition
of his young partner to bear the rank and title of a Queen.
The religious liberty of the Reformed Church of Germany
was no motive with Elizabeth, as she never communicated
with It, being under promise, she pleaded, to her father
that she never would, although she began to consider the
political expediency of so doing at this juncture. On
the other side, the heart of Frederic yearned after his
mother's peaceful advice. The Electress Juliana was of
a very different spirit from her brother Prince Maurice,
who, professing small belief in any religion but that of
the sword missionary, was to be the military champion
of the Calvinist League. The old Electress, on the con
trary, was of that best bias of puritanisra which endea
voured to practise the good simple life of the primitive
Christian.^ Thankful for the spiritual liberty gained by her
father, the Illustrious Williara of Orange, the Liberator, she
seeraed strongly averse to any warlike demonstration while
that liberty could be enjoyed. Of course she Impeded the
personal aggrandisement on which her girlish daughter-in-
law was so strongly bent. The struggle in the mind of
Frederic was too much for his health and strength. The ill
ness which had stricken him when presiding in the diet of his
confederate princes redoubled its attack, and delirium ensued.
After a sharp crisis he recovered, and returned to Elizabeth/
at Heidelberg, it is true, yet only as a blighted and melan-
' Harleian MS., Brit. Mus. 2 Spanheim's Life of Juliana.

ELIZABETH STUART. 81
eholy Invalid. He had not amended when his wife wrote
the following letter : —
Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, to Secretary Winwood. ^
" Sir, — The Elector sending this bearer to his Majesty, I was desirous
to let you understand something of his state, and of this place. Himself,
at the last assembly, got an ague, which, though it hath held him not long,
yet it hath made him weak, aud look very ill. Since his fits left him, he
is very heavy, and extremely melancholy, as I uever saw in my life such
an alteration in any. I cannot tell what to say to it, but I think he hath
so much business at this time as troubles his mind too much. If I may
say the truth, I think there is some that doth trouble him too much ; for
I find they desire he should bring me to be all Dutch, and to their fashions,
which I neither have been bred to, nor is it necessary in every thing I
should follow, neither will I do it, for I find there is what would set me in
a lower rank than them that have gone before me, which I think they do the
Prince wrong in putting in his head at this time when he is so melancholy."
Elizabeth here coraplains of her mother-in-law, and her
party, Juliana being now declaredly of the adverse or peace
faction, and the heart of the affectionate Frederic was torn
in the struggle between the wife and mother. In the con
clusion of her letter, she entreats Winwood to induce the
return of Schoraberg, as the only person capable of drawing
her husband frora his morbid state. As to her aversion to be
coming "all Dutch," that expression must not be taken liter
ally. It raerely raeans the entire adoption of German habits.
When Schomberg was called for, he refused to come ;
but Sir Henry Wotton, being fortunately at the Hague,
used his utmost skill in the art of pleasant persuasion
to entice hira back to the Court where he had been
treated with capricious coquetry on one side, and un
thankful folly on the other. But the young Electress
proraised and vowed that she would be entirely guided by
his advice in raoney matters ; hinted that she would afford
him her interest in his untoward love affairs ; and perhaps
sent hira a little encouragement from the perverse fair one.
Mistress Anne. So the brave German count was at last
induced to leave the side of Prince Maurice, and return
to his forraer station, without which the dejected Elector
Palatine could never be brought up to martial intents, as
' State-Paper Office MS.
VOL. VIII. F '

82 ELIZABETH STUART.
Prince Maurice very well knew. Before Schomberg went
to Heidelberg he opened his mind to Sir Henry Wotton, ex
plaining to hira " the difficulties he encountered In managing
between the reserve of the Elector's character, the ill-humour
ofthe Electress Juliana, and the baseness ofthe ecclesiastical
Influence,"^ probably pointing atthe gloomy and superstitious
fanatics Scultetus and Horneck, whose absurdities regard
ing fortune-teUing, witches, and astrology, surpassed any
thing recorded of the superstitious seventeenth century.
All was In confusion when Schoraberg returned. The
Elector would not see, speak to, or receive any person,
whatsoever raight be their rank ; ^ Indeed, the syraptoms
described by Schomberg tended strongly to raental disease.
The old Electress was on bad terms with the young Elec
tress, on account of the absurd precedence she claimed as a
king's daughter ; but perhaps it was still more absurd for
the ascetic Juliana to resent it as she did. Yet the cause of
contention went deeper than even Schomberg knew, being
the great point, whether Frederic should, young and feeble
as he was, plunge into an ambitious war, in order to give
Elizabeth the title of Queen or Erapress. The household
of Elizabeth was misgoverned ; she gave to every one that
solicited her, patronised every complainant, right or wrong;
" the very stable-boys run after her Highness," says Schom
berg, " to importune her, and make her believe they are ill-
treated ; nor could any explanation prevent her from taking
their parts." The dismissal of Elizabeth's Secretary, Elphin
stone, and the resignation of her Master of the Household,
went far to rectify existing abuses. Schomberg then drew
out regulations, to which Elizabeth set her hand, and he
was at once installed as Comptroller.
Notwithstanding Elizabeth's most earnest endeavours,
the family of Anne Dudley still opposed the union of their
kinswoman with Schoraberg. However, in the commence
ment of the year 1614-15, King James inquired of his
daughter whether it was the custom among the German
princes for the first lady attendant to be a married wo-
1 State-Paper MSS.— Wotton to Winwood, Nov. 18, 1614.
2 Ibid., Schomberg to Wotton, Dec. 1, 1614.

ELIZABETH STUART. 83
man ; to which Elizabeth replied. In rather broken Eng
lish " Touching my dame d'honneur, I can assure this
truth, which I beseech your Majesty to believe, that she
hath ever been careful for my good, and hath most faith
fully served me, without ever having taken present of me,
since I carae into Germany, and I shall even be ungrateful
when I do not witness this same ; and since your Majesty
desires to know if it be the custom [here] that the dame
d'honneur should be raarried, to this I can tell your Majesty,
Yes ; that it is the fashion, and that the Elector, his coun
cil, and all here, have often desired me to forward their
marriage — your Majesty yourself having written rae word
that you wished it, and should like she were married to
Schomberg."^ Elizabeth added some commendations of
hira, which reraoved from her father's mind the absurd
gossip sedulously spread by the discharged officers on their
return to England, that Schomberg only permitted the
Princess to buy five robes in a year, and all on account of
sparing the purse of his master, her husband. James, who
had heard that one of his daughter's ladles, lately dismissed
from Heidelberg, had been seen in the possession of ruby
studs which had belonged to the Crown, sent his pursui
vants to hand the rubies before his Privy Council, and
Mrs, or, in present parlance. Miss Tyrwhitt, to account for
them ; on hearing of which tragical circumstance, Eliza
beth found it needful to corae to confession concerning a
little transaction between herself and the Queen her mother,
of which the gossip-loving raonarch had been kept In igno
rance. Until this was done, Jaraes had every reason to
suppose the rubies had been stolen from his Queen by Mrs
Tyrwhitt. Elizabeth explains,'-' that when she was at York
with the Queen (and this must have been at her first en
trance from Scotland), the King sent her a present of a fair
pearl chain, which the Queen her mother desiring, exchanged
these unlucky ruby studs for It. She added, that Mrs Tyr
whitt had served her long, and received nothing — that is,
nothing by way of benefaction, for which the servitors of
royalty were in that age as greedy as Arabs for backshish.
^ State-Paper MS. ' Ibid., Jan. 1614-15.

84 ELIZABETH STUART.
She finished her memorial of the transaction by giving Mrs
Tyrwhitt an order for £300 on arrears of her own pension in
Englan d , and requesting her honoured sire to keep the rubies ;
declaring withal, there never were more than twenty-two of
thera. James raurmured much at the whole affair, and sent
an agent to Heidelberg to make inquisition as to what had
becorae of his daughter's jewels, in the course of which he
contrived to affront Schomberg ; for the King asked his
daughter " who had the care of her jewels, and whether it
was not Anne Dudley?" This the Princess declared was
not her office.^ At last James, being satisfied, removed all
faraily interdicts to. the union of the faithful friends of his
daughter. Schoraberg and Anne Dudley were wedded, to
the great joy of Elizabeth, in March 1615. She composed a
ballet to celebrate their nuptials, ^ and danced at It herself,
according to the custora of that and the preceding century.
The return of Schomberg to his forraer influence at his
raaster's court was raost propitious to the wedded happiness
of the young Electress. Relieved from the heavy cares
which had overwhelmed him, her husband partially recov
ered his health and spirits, and then the bonds of affection
became pleasantly reunited, and their conjugal friendship
too strongly cemented for this world's direst storms ever to
overthrow. Perhaps the happiest portion of Elizabeth's life was the
period of the forraation of an English garden, which her
fine taste had devised among the broken cliffs of Heidel
berg. Her lord's desire to please her caused hira to incur
the expense. Leading to it was a triuraphal arch, built in
one night, as a surprise to his wife.^ Forming the entry
of the new garden he had inscribed thus : —
FKEDERICUS V.
ELIZABETH
CONJUGI CAEISS.
A.C.M.D.C.X.V.F.C.

1 State-Paper MSS. ^ i^id — Letter to Winwood, March 30, 1615.
Description of the English Garden of Heidelberg Castle, by Solomon
Caves, the designer of it.

ELIZABETH STUAItT. . 85
An old ruinous turret, coeval with an older castle of Heidel
berg, had been the habitation of a prophetess called Jetha
Bethel, " who told fortunes in a holy manner," and was so
much venerated by the people that it was suffered to re
main in memory of their sybil. Both Frederic and Eliza
beth had sufficient love of the picturesque to make this
tower a point of sight. Besides the plantations of English
orchards, evergreens, flowers, and shrubs, water was col
lected In basins and fountains ; the lovely Neckar below was
shown in many a varied view through the trees. Gravel-
walks were achieved, too, and those who are familiar with
Continental gardening know the want of these useful acces
sories. Combe Abbey grounds had been the raodel, but
diversified In bolder style on the roraantic locality of Heidel
berg. Elizabeth's English garden is still shown among the
beauties of this grandest of palatial ruins.
Schoraberg now having set his mistress's household in
order, coraposed these wholesome rules, which the Princess
promised to observe : —
" Tour Highness should ever seek to please God and the Prince, and
reprove those who try to sow dissensions between you. Never grant any
thing on the firet request, but answer, I will consider — 1 will think of it —
I will see ; then, if you find it reasonable, grant it of your own accord, as
from an heroic liberality. Have a wardrobe in which to put all your old
dresses, and every year examine them ; those you will not wear again give
them as you please, but have a list kept of all, with the names of those to
whom you give ; the same with tapestry and furniture. Let the same be
done with your linen. You brought two thousand pounds' worth from
England, and have bought one thousand pounds' worth here ; yet Mistress
Dean complains you are ill provided, which makes one think there is some
abuse somewhere. Have all the plate, gold, and silver weighed afresh and
enrolled ; the same with your jewels, and all little boxes and pretty baga
telles, and let all be deposited in presses and cabinets in your closet, with
inventories, one of which you should keep. Those jewels you wear daily
to be intrusted to Mademoiselle Apsley. The jewels should be carefully
inspected every six months. You know what fault my wife and I have
often found on this point."!
This sensible though quaint meraorial, it is thus evident, was
corapounded after he had married Anne, whose authority,
as darae d'honneur, he is exceedingly firm In raaintaining
1 State- Paper MSS.

86 ELIZABETH STUART,
throughout a pendant paper, which was Intended to impress
on the raind of the Princess the urgency of reducing to
obedience her men and maids. Schoraberg is no flatterer,
or he would not have placed under her ken sorae of his
sentences, which show at a glance the lawless state of her
people. But she was only a girl in years, whose love of
approbation had really been unduly cultivated in the happy
Eden of her childhood. Out of the retreat of Combe Ab
bey, she issued with capabilities more fitting to pet parrots,
dance with dogs, play with monkeys, and kiss kittens, than
to govern the rabble rout that followed her to Germany.
Schoraberg, in his advice regarding the government of her
servants, says : —
" Generally they must receive orders from the Marshal of the Court,
the maids must obey the dame d'honneur, the men the -niaUre-dhStel,
according to the order approved by the King [James] when I returned
from England. Your Highness should never be teased into countermand
ing an order given by these officers, for this makes you constautly teased.
You must never allow reports of one about the other, nor importunate
solicitations, nor care when they take offence, for that is giving yourself up
to be tormented. Prevent gossiping between servants of all grades ; they
only combine together to resist your commands, and let order and reason
govern your Highness, not the prattle of maids or valets, to whom you are
now enslaved ; and while they thus abuse your goodness, you will always
be despised, aud lose control over your people."
This is strong language, it must be owned, but not more
strong than wholesome. Elizabeth raade the first advance
towards that sterling excellence of character (for which she
is praised by her undiscrimlnating biographers long before
she deserved It) , when she listened mildly to this true friend,
and acted on his counsels.
" Let it be known," continues her wise monitor, " that you will be ruled
by reason ; that you abhor flattery and lying ; that you will hear no tales or
importunities ; that you will have no coquetry iu your presence ; that the
men-servants shall keep their places at the door, so that, when you want a
little private conversation, you may not be obliged to retire to your bed
room or dressing-room ; also, that you will not allow private individuals to
bring in persons unknown, nor even ambassadors, unless when you are
attended as becomes your quality."
The recommendation of all this theory of right leads to
the natural calculation of how much practical wrong was

ELIZABETH STUART. 87
actually established. Nevertheless, the faithful adviser,
pursuing his reforras. In a few months was enabled to pay
her London jeweller £50 as part of payment for a pair of
diamond spurs, costing £100, with which she had presented
her dear Frederic. There was likewise cash in hand for
Schomberg to purchase her next year's stores, at Frankfort
fair ; among which were " a thousand pins in a paper." i
The young Electress took with her lord a tour of pro
gress to view the beautiful new palace he was erecting for
her, on her dower-principality of Frankenthal. During the
summer they visited the Upper Palatinate, one of the most
picturesque and roraantic districts In Germany, abutting on
the kingdora of Boheraia. The old Electress Juliana carae
to Heidelberg to take care of the infant hereditary prince.
In the absence of his parents. This worthy Dutchwoman,
who was not, by the way, disliked by Elizabeth raore than
she was by Schomberg, conducted herself as a loving grand-
dame to the little Henry Frederic, and wrote a pleasant re
cord of his infantine charms to James I. " He grows as tall,
fine, and pretty as possible. I often wish he could have
the honour of being seen by your Majesty ; I am sure he
would soon get Into your good graces.'' After the return
of the princely pair to celebrate the birthday of the Elector
Palatine In August, Juliana, announcing the health and
happiness of the Princess to her father, observes, that " she
loved her husband better than ever, and that she was at
that very moraent playing with and caressing her infant
prince." Nothing now interrupted the married happiness of Eliza
beth, excepting the absurd precedence over her husband,
which her father, and above all, her raother, had Insisted
upon In her marriage articles, and which, if we raay judge
from analogies, she herself stickled for earnestly. All the
wiseacres in the councils at Heidelberg and St Jaraes's sat
In solemn disputation on points for and against it, which
broke out ever and anon, until the cause of controversy
vanished among the shadows of Elizabeth's subsequent fatal
1 State-Paper MS.

88 ELIZABETH STUART.
queenship. So unpopular was this precedence among Fre
deric's neighbours, allies, and relatives, that Elizabeth gave
up many a family festival of gay christenings and marriages,
rather than go where it must have been acted upon to the
indignation of the kindred potentates of Deuxponts, Brand
enburg, Wurteraberg, and Baden.
The halcyon days of Elizabeth's married life were clouded
very mournfully by the death of her friend the Countess of
Schoraberg in childbed, of puerperal fever, a few days after
she had becorae the happy mother of a boy. The fatal disease
did not affect the reason of the poor sufferer, who tenderly
exhorted her weeping mistress to live so that they might
renew their friendship In Paradise, and then she bade
the Elector and her loving husband, and unconscious babe,
a solemn farewell.'^ Elizabeth, whose personal conduct
expressed raore affectionate concern than her letter,
thus raentions the death of this faithful friend to King
James : — Elizabeth, Princess, to James I.2
" SiB, — I have not written to your Majesty for a long time for want ofa
subject. Now I have to tell you, with much regret, ofthe loss of my lady
of honour, Dudley, for she died of high fever in her confinement, on the
Sth of December, for whieh I am very sorry, since both in her life, and
when dying, she testified the respect and friendship she bore me, and her
sincere fidelity. She has left a son. She is a great loss to me, for she was
very careful in all that concerned me. Your Majesty will perhaps be teased
by one or another for her place ; but I intreat you to consider that it is
not every one that is fitted for it in this country, and in this place. I in
treat your Majesty, therefore, to let me know who are solicitous for it, and
I will write you word whom I judge [to be] most suitable ; or perhaps in
two months I may send Colonel Schomberg to determine with your Ma
jesty on this point, and divers others of importance. For the rest, all is
as usual in these parts. The Elector and my little black baby are very
well, thank God— to whom 1 heartily recommend you.
" I ever remain, Sire, your most humble and obedient Daughter and
Servant, „ TT . , „ „ ' " Elizabeth.
"Heidelberg, Dec. 14, [1615]."
The motheriess babe of her departed friend was reared
up in her own nursery, with her " black baby," as she
called her own little son, who had very dark hair and
' Harleian MS., Brit. Mus. » State-Paper MS.— Royal Letters.

ELIZABETH STUART. 89
eyes like his father. The Infant Schoraberg, naraed Fre
deric, after his loving sponsor and sovereign, was soon
rendered entirely an orphan by the death of his noble
father, who did indeed visit England, as the Princess an
nounced to King Jaraes, but died directly he returned to
Heidelberg. Young Frederic Schoraberg was brought up
a soldier, among all the hot strife of the Thirty Years' War,
following the fortunes of his princely patrons. He is well
known in our history as Field-Marshal Duke of Schomberg,
who fell, as the general of William IIL, at the passage of
the Boyne Water.^
The appointment of the lady of honour who was to suc
ceed her deceased friend, was the chief subject of Ehza
beth's correspondence and thoughts. She was to be an
Englishwoman, sent and paid by the King her father, and
of course was rather chosen according to his fancy than
hers. Elizabeth petitioned for a young lady like her lost
Anne, who would be companionable to her, especially in
following the chase. Since the broken arra of the Land
gravine of Hesse, the Gerraan ladies had shrunk frora
partaking her dangerous sylvan sports. James I. Inti
mated that a woman of staid years would suit her best.
Elizabeth petitioned for her forraer guardian and early
friend. Lady Harrington, then a widow. Sir Henry
Wotton was sent to negotiate the iraportant matter. His
observations on the young princely pair at Heidelberg, in a
letter to his royal master, are given graphically. The
smallness of Frederic's stature. In which he reserabled his
Nassau kindred, had often been discussed when he carae
to wed Elizabeth. The King thought his son-in-law would
grow, and had evidently set Sir Henry Wotton to send hira
Intelligence regarding his height. " I do not find the Pala
tine," writes Sir Henry Wotton to King Jaraes, " in the
judgraent of ray eye, rauch grown since your Majesty saw
him, either in height or breadth, though there be a com
mon opinion of the first. Par boutades (literally, by sud
den kicks) he Is merry, but for the raost part cogitative, or
as they here call It, melancollque. The Palatine and my
1 Burke's Peerage. Benger's Life of Elizabeth of Bohemia.

90 ELIZABETH STUART.
Lady [Elizabeth] adopt kind rather than amorous deport
raent, according to the sober manners of the country."^ He
mentions the differences between them at first, which
threatened to cause lasting disunion, owing to the raischief-
raaklng of servants, but now happily settled. " My lady,
your gracious daughter," he Informs King James, "re-
taineth still all the former original verdure [freshness] of
her complexion and features, though she be now the mother
of one of the sweetest children that I think this world can
yield." 2
It was settled between Elizabeth and Wotton, that Lady
Harrington was to be the first lady ; King James allowing
her the munificent stipend of .£'700. Many complaints did
Elizabeth pour Into the ear of her countryman concerning
the old Electress Juliana, who, she said, would have cer
tainly succeeded In depriving her of the contested prece
dence, but for the firm support of Schomberg. Elizabeth
and Frederic made a series of progresses among the Ger
man principalities, as far as the Calvinist stronghold of
Sedan, close to France. The Princess returned to Heidel
berg for her second confinement. She became the mother
of a second son, on Christmas Eve. The very same day
arrived a great relay of English nurses, cordials, and con
fections, which the coddling propensities of James I. had
provided for his dear chlld.^ It is very probable that my
Lady Harrington formed part of this caravan, because she
was early employed in announcing the happy event.* The
young Prince was brought to baptism by such a nuraber of
sponsors or witnesses, according to the customs of the coun
try, that the enumeration of their titles only would fill a
dull page or two. He was named after his maternal and
paternal uncles, Charles, Prince of Wales, and Louis, Duke
of Sirameren, his young father's younger brother. He was
the Charles-Louis Elector, too well known In history.
The years rolled on at this happy period of Elizabeth's
life with few troubles, excepting those arising from her
1 Wottou's Despatches, April 1616.
" Ibid. 3 MS., edited by F. Devon, Esq.
* Carlton Correspondence — State-Paper MS.

ELIZABETH STUART. 91
mania concerning precedence. She meant to visit her
father, but probably her funds were not araple enough.
However, her children, her English garden, her aniraals,
and her hunting, wiled ,away her youth at Heidelberg
pleasantly. The friendship of Lord Dorchester enabled
the Princess still further to cultivate her taste for monkeys.
Hitherto she was the possessor of only one monkey, but
Lord Dorchester sent her two which he had recently re
ceived from some Indian correspondent at the Hague, in the
spring of 1618. The new monkeys were consigned to the
care of mistress Elizabeth Apsley. The young lady ac
knowledged the addition made to her charges, and her illus
trious raistress wrote the address thus : " To Sir Dudley
Carlton, from the fair hands of Mrs Elizabeth Apsley, chief
gouvernante to all the monkeys and dogs." Elizabeth
Apsley 's letter contains a sketch of the manner In which her
mistress passed the first hours in the morning. It appears
that her children and her monkeys were brought to her
bed, and all recreated themselves with a game of play before
the labours of the toilet commenced. " The monkeys you
sent hither carae very well," l wrote the fair governess of
the raenagerie, " and are now grown so proud that they
will corae to nobody but her Highness, who hath them in
her bed every morning, and the little Prince. He Is so fond
of them, that he says, he desires ' nothing but such monkeys
of his own.' They [the monkeys] be as envious as they be
pretty, for the old one of that kind, which her Highness had
when your lordship was here, will not be acquainted with
his countrymen by no means. They do make very good
sport, and raake her Highness very merry." Lady Harring
ton thought these important newcomers of sufficient conse
quence to assure his lordship, " that her Highness esteemed
them as jewels."
Her Highness's attention was, however, drawn from the
contemplation of these esteemed animals to the important
revelation of a most horrible and bloody-minded plot, con
trived by the dying consort of Matthias, Emperor of Ger
many, against the harmless lives of herself and her eldest
' State-Paper MS., April 1618 — Carlton Despatches.

92 ELIZABETH STUART.
babe. But wherefore her Imperial Majesty should have
plotted murders so utterly useless to herself, no one but a
plot-monger In the seventeenth century can Imagine. The
Empress expired of a lingering malady, about the same
time that the plot was Introduced to Elizabeth and her
anxious friends and parents, probably in happy un
consciousness that such an undertaking had ever been
attributed to her ; for she was well respected by her con
temporaries, and enjoys the rare historical distinction of
having had a huisband who died of grief for her loss.^ As
for the plot itself. It indubitably belongs to the class and
order called In political, though not natural history,
" mares' nests." Any fortunate finder who could light on a
feasible one at this period, was pretty sure to enrich him
self, and rise to place and power. Such was the case with
Captain Bell, whose rigmarole in our archives is one of the
many prototypes of the last of this class, got up by Titus
Oates, only it is raore cunning, and not invested with the
terrible interest of wholesale horaicide.
Like most figments of the kind, it had a slender peg or
two of fact to hang upon. When George Williara, Elector
of Brandenburg, married Charlotte, Princess Palatine, he
changed his Lutheran creed, to the extrerae indignation of
his subjects, for that of the family he had raarried into, and
became forthwith as thorough-going a partisan of the Cal
vinist League as his variable nature would let him he.^
In the midst of his proselyte zeal, the declining Empress
of Germany had courteously invited the young Electress
Palatine to visit her at Ratisbon, where the Imperial Diet
met that year. The infant, her eldest son, then little
more than two years old, was invited to accompany his
mother. The least observant of persons might have guessed
from the two principal defects In Elizabeth's character,
personal arabition and vanity, that both would have been
wonderfully gratified at this grand ceremonial, where the
Erapress would probably have persuaded her to keep her
1 Atlas Geographique,
2 Histoid of House of Brandenburg, by Frederic the Great, his great'
grandson, who gives him a wretched character.

ELIZABETH STUART. 93
loving spouse out of the calamitous war she actually
goaded him Into. Their brother-in-law, George WiUiam,
perhaps acting on his knowledge of her character, sent
for one of Elizabeth's countrymen, of the narae of Bell, an
English diplomat seeking employment in Germany, and
condescendingly informed him, according to this veracious
person's ex parte evidence, that, to his certain knowledge,
if his Princess accepted the Imperial invitation, she and her
baby would be raurdered by the Erapress. On the Em
press, In the year 1618, renewing the invitation. Bell took
upon himself to discover the plot, and Elizabeth being
appealed to In corroboration, took the Empress's letters of
kindness " out of her pocket," and acknowledged that she
had been so much deceived by them that she had intended
to go to Ratisbon. Transported with gratitude at her
miraculous preservation by means of Captain Bell from the
designs of the Empress to destroy herself and little boy,
Elizabeth presented him with a rich diamond ring. Further,
she recoraraended him to be rewarded by her father, as
the vigilant guardian of her life. Bell posted to Eng
land with this marvellous news, armed withal with the
letter of the Erapress, " written In Dutch," as he says.-^
Singular enough, as such letters were invariably written, if
private, in French ; If state circulars, in Latin. However, It
had better have been written in Arabic than German, for the
comprehension of Jaraes and his ministers. Therefore the
ingenious bearer had It all his own way when he translated
it at Theobald's Palace for the inforraation of the King and
Charles, Prince of Wales, who gave hira an Interview in the
garden.^ King James, born and reared as he was amidst
plots and counterplots, relished a spice of the sarae kind
of adventures for his daughter. Whether George WiUiara,
Elector of Brandenburg, took Captain BeU for rogue or
fool, or whether George William's part in the business was
all sheer Invention, it is certain that for a time the matter
was profitable to the ingenious plot-finder, who obtained,
either from the King or Prince, a lucrative place in the
1 State-Paper MSS. 2 Ibid.

94 ELIZABETH STUART.
Cornish mines. The whole affair was well worthy the
sardonic pen of Ben Jonson, who drew the characteris
tics of the age he lived in with hideous truthfulness.
Elizabeth's Captain BelF might have figured with Captain
Face and Dr Subtle.
Ehzabeth's eldest girl was born Noveraber 18, 1618,
and christened Elizabeth. Anne of Denmark never knew
that the queenly rank she desired for her had devolved
on her daughter ; she died in the succeeding March, just
before that calamity befell Elizabeth. A cold commonplace
letter of condolence to King James, little worth quoting, is
all that remains to mark the feelings of the daughter.^
There had been little friendship between the Queen of Great
Britain and her daughter. Indeed they had been very litfle
In the society of each other. Not long after this event, the
Lady Harrington craved leave of absence, and departed to
England. There were signs in the times portending severer
1 He must have been a most inventive person, for he is chiefly known by
having made himself the hero of a ghost-story. Aubrey, who identifies onr
man closely enough, tells us that Captain Bell, the translator of Luther's
Tahle-Talh, had been a diplomatic agent of Jaraes I. iu Germany. In the
introduction to that work, puolished during Cromwell's domination. Cap
tain Bell indulges in so many figments as positively to raise doubts of the
authenticity of Luther's work itself. Many literary persons set it down as
a forgery altogether ; and no wonder ; for, though racy and brilliant in
style and ability, it contains some very odd passages. The veracious Cap
tain's mode of introducing his translation, precedes and surpasses, as a
bookselling pufij Defoe's celebrated introduction to Drelincourt on Death,
with the Narrative of the Ghost of Mistress Veal Captain Bell had,
years before, undertaken the translation of Luther's Table-Tali:, and
brought a copy with him in German to England ; but he found no
leisure. One night, his wife being sleeping by his side, he awoke trembling
with horror, and saw stand by his bolster an old gentleman of foreign
aspect, with a venerable white beard reaching to his girdle ; if he meant
him for Luther, the description is by no means a likeness. The spectre,
with most courteous mauuer, said to Captain Bell, " Will you find time to
translate that book? Well, then, I will provide you with leisure anon !"
Theu the shape vanished. Soon after Bell was handed before the Privy
Council, and committed to the Gatehouse prison, for discrepancies un
known to Aubrey, but not difficult to surmise from the apocryphal appear
ance of some of his " plot " documents now extant in the State-Paper OfBce.
During his long imprisonment he found leisure to translate Luther's work,
and, above all, to concoct the audacious untruths iu the introduction.
Captain Bell gave out that he was committed for no offence excepting
asking for the arrears of his sinecure. Moreover, the dominant fanatics
were wonderfully gratified with his ghost-story ; so his publication turned
out a better hit than his plot.
« State-Paper MS.

ELIZABETH STUART. 95
service than suited her. She never returned to Heidelberg
again. A few hours after the death of Elizabeth's mother, occurred
the death of the Emperor Matthias,^ which hastened the out
burst of the religious civil war in Germany. The successor
to his hereditary dominions, his cousin Ferdinand, had, in
hopes of preserving the kingdom of Bohemia, gone through
the ceremonial of being elected king during the life of the
Eraperor. But Ferdinand, being the sourest of fanatics as a
Roraan Catholic, coraraenced a furious persecution of the
Taborltes and other wild sectaries in his new kingdom.
They, being wonderfully like him in temper, threw his
ministers out of the council-chamber window at Prague — •
that being the most approved way of showing political
difference In the seventeenth century. Usually the per
sons thus ejected were cut to pieces — as in the cases of St
Maigrin and Concini — by men-at-arras below. Fortunately
the diploraatists of Ferdinand alighted on a friendly dung
hill, and were neither harmed by the fall nor by anything
else. The Bohemian Insurgents declared their throne va
cant, and ready to be fiUed up by any one eligible. All
Europe knew that one was to be the Elector Palatine, their
neighbour. If he could be induced to accept it. The diffi
culty was to persuade hira to decide. August arrived, but the
Elector Palatine was still in a state of uncertainty regarding
the crown of Boheraia. When it seemed to draw back, he
eagerly watched for Its next approach ; and when it cast
itself at his feet, he avoided it with tears and sighs. Ac
cording to the following letter he was at Amberg, the
capital of the High Palatinate, close to the Bohemian
border. It is the first of an Interesting series which he
addressed to his wife, written In very easy French. In
their course we shall see thera unveil all the feelings of
the husband and father's heart. Each letter commences
with the stiff conventional "Madarae," but invariably finishes
with the adoring phraseology of the lover-husband. One
grieves to find a heart so fit for just and peaceful govern-
' New style, March 20, 1618-19 — Atlas Geographique.

96 ELIZABETH STUART.
ment, so open to all tender and friendly affections, doomed
to wither and perish araidst the horrors of civU war — nay,
of religious civil war — the worst aspect under which the
demon Moloch can show his hideous aspect :
To Madame the Elbotbess Palatine.
" Madame, — The Count de Linange has at last brought me your dear
letter : he was detained on the way near ' Comte Graf,'^ and also at Sultz-
bach. I find him purblind as ever. I arrived here yesterday, where I
found the Duke of Weimar,^ who has been to visit Heidelberg. He no
longer assumes the Italian, but is very properly dressed : I find him much
to my taste. He left this evening, but comes back to me very soon, and
will maintain a company of a hundred horse at his own expense. I have
not yet seen the Princess of Anhalt, for she lodges, with all her children,
at the Countess of Ortenburg's ; besides, she begins to feel ill, and I think
will have her acouchement very soon. We make the Supper ^ here the next
Sunday. I have heard nothing from Bohemia this week. It would appear
that, for one crown Ferdinand will gain at Frankfort, he will lose two else
where. God give grace that so he may do ! A very happy prince he is,
for he has the luck to be hated by everybody !
" Believe, my dear heart, that I ofttimes wish myself near you : it seems
long to that happiness. Meantime I entreat you love me ever, and think
constantly of me, as of him who will be, until the tomb, with all affection,
Madame, your very faithful friend and most affectionate servitor, " Frederic.
" D'Amberg, this 13th August 1619."
Ferdinand was crowned Eraperor of Germany at Frank
fort the succeeding week, August 20 ; but Frederic, Elec
tor Palatine, the head and leader of the German Princes,
whose office It was to nominate him, was absent from his
appointed place at his right hand that day. The Imperial
crown was observed to totter — no marvel, when Its accus
tomed supporter was away. Nevertheless he continued to
carry on the semblance of loyalty to Ferdinand IL, and, as
Vicar of the German Empire, gave hira the title of King of
Boheraia only three weeks before he assumed It himself.^
1 The series of family letters called the Bromley Letters, from which
this letter is quoted, valuable as they are, will be found incorrect as to
names, dates, and places.
2 Supposed by mistake to be the celebrated Duke Bernard of Saxe-
Weimar ; but this hero was the youngest brother of several younger sons,
and was about ten years old.
' He means the Holy Communion.
-' Atlas Geographique, — " German Empire."

ELIZABETH STUART

CHAPTEE IV.

SUMMAEY
Elizabeth and Maurice of Orange insist on her husband's acceptance of Bo
hemia — James I. refuses to acknowledge their regality — Elizabeth and
Frederic depart for Prague — Leaves her younger children in the care of
the Electress Juliana — Progress through Southern Germany with her hus
band and eldest sou — Arrival at Prague — Meeting with the Taborites —
Laughter at their strange proceedings — Her coronation takes place three
days after that of the King — Crowned with the diadem of St Elizabeth —
Left by her husband in Prague — His letter — Women of Prague's de
puties insulted by the Queen's servants — Ladies of Prague present her
with a magnificent cradle — Birth of Prince Rupert — Elizabeth waited on
by the Taborites ( F'J5me«e)^Description of her portrait— Change of for
tune — James I. sends F. Nethersole to be her secretary — Frederic's cam
paign and tender letters to Elizabeth — Surprise of Prague — Hasty retreat
of the Queeu — Taunted concerning the Bridge Statues — Refuge in Bres-
lau — Elizabeth asks protection during her accouchement of the Elector
of Brandenburg — Refused — Tender letter of her husband — She retires to
Custrin — Birth of her infant. Prince Maurice — Insults of the Catholics on
Elizabeth's distress — Frederic joins her — Forced from Custrin — Prince
Maurice and the States invite her to Holland — Guarded by English
cavaliers — Given a confiscated house at the Hague — Kindness to its un
fortunate owner — Birth of her daughter Louisa — Devotion of Christian
of Brunswick to the Queen — Her children sent to her from Brandenburg
—Coolness to her young daughter Elizabeth — Letter of Christian —
Unavailing efforts of her husband and Christian — Births of Elizabeth's
sons Louis and Edward — Deaths of Christian of Brunswick, of James
I., of Maurice of Orange — Her friend Amelia of Solms marries the Prince
of Orange — Elizabeth's letters to Sir T. Roe — Mentions the marriage of
Charles I. and Henrietta Maria — Birth of her third daughter Henrietta.
The most splendid comet that had been seen since the
breaking out of the Huguenot wars had flamed through
the heavens during the preceding sumraer. The learned in
VOL. viii. G

98 ELIZABETH STUAET.
those days, being as ignorant as they are in these of the real
business ofthe celestial messenger, scrupled not to accuse it
of interference with affairs below. The Germans Insisted that
It came to announce the death of their Emperor Matthias.
King Jaraes thought It was sent for his queen, and wrote
sorae very pretty verses on the occasion. Contemporary-
historians were positive that it betokened the terrific
Thirty Years' War, which Iramediately followed Its appari
tion. It cannot be denied that the appearance of extra
ordinary comets are often coincident with notable human
commotions; perhaps because they occasion unusual weather,
and unusual weather irritates the brains and aggravates
the tempers of the raost pugnacious aniraals on the face of
the earth. Men rushed to arms, they scarcely knew why;
and when they were thoroughly tired of hacking each
other to pieces, threw all the blame on the comet ! Modern
philosophy has taken away even this poor excuse for going
to war, which is, after all, as rational as any other.
Elizabeth, we fear, had much more to answer "for as the
primary cause of this treraendous war than the comet of
1619. When Frederic shuddered and drew back from the
leap Into the hideous gulf of civil war, she urged him on,
taunting him with the question, " Why he had married a
king's daughter If he had dreaded being a king? "^
When he went to Amberg, close on the frontier of
Bohemia, to meet the confederate Calvinist princes, they
were most urgent In persuading hira to accept the proffered
Boheraian crown, entreating hira to abide by the advice
of his consort, well knowing what that advice would be.
Elizabeth replied by letter, ardently pressing his acceptance
of the crown, declaring she would endure the utmost de
privation and part with her last jewel in the cause ;"^
whereby we can ascertain her ideas of what real deprivation
was. Still Frederic remained undecided, and In this mind
returned from Amberg. Stadtholder Maurice had just
arrived at Heidelberg, and was exulting with Elizabeth
at the certainty of their point being carried. But Juli-
1 Schiller's Thirty Years' War. 2 jtid., and Harleian MSS.

ELIZABETH STUART. 99
ana, whose foreboding spirit anticipated the worst, met
her son, not with dissuasive speeches, but with sobs and
streaming tears, incapable of utterance. Frederic, who
liked the aspect of the future as little as his mother did, wept
as piteously as herself Maurice of Orange, exasperated at
the dejection of his nephew and sister, suddenly asked
Juliana " whether there was any green baize to be got In
Heidelberg ?" " Yes, surely," replied the old Electress, her
innocent soul on thrifty thoughts intent ; " but what for,
Maurice ? " " To make a fool's cap for hira who might be
a king and will not," was the sardonic answer of the am
bitious Nassau.i Overcorae by the persuasions of her he
loved, and the sarcasras of him he feared, Frederic signed
his acceptance of the antique elective crown of Bohemia.
His mother took to her bed in an access of despair, while
Elizabeth rejoiced that she could no more be called Goody
Palsgrave and Mistress Palatine by her mother's party in
England, for she was at length a queen. The former re
gent, John des Deuxponts, who knew full well the resources
of the dorainions he had recently governed, was of the
despondent party, and syrapathised with the grieving
raother Juliana. But Abraham Scultetus cheered his
sovereign with a series of prophetic sermons. In which he
expounded a whole chapter In Revelations as foretelling
great success to the undertaking. Thus encouraged, Frede
ric made preparations for departure from his beautiful and
peaceful Heidelberg with his consort, meaning to take
possession of Prague, the capital of his new royalty. As a
preliminary act, he reinstated his faithful regent, John des
Deuxponts, in the adrainistration for the Palatinate, and
entreated his mother to resume the place In the council she
had filled during his minority. Elizabeth confided her In
fant daughter and her second son, Charles Louis, to the
care of their grandmother ; she carried her eldest boy with
her, raeaning to present hira to their new subjects.
Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists, had united
in asserting their national right to the elective regal frian-
' Spanheim's Life of the Electress Juliana.

( I i

100 ELIZABETH STUART.
chlse, and they had hired withal a skilful mercenary com
mander, Ernest Count de Mansfelt (who, by the way,
exceedingly resembled in morale the Italian Condottieri
of the middle ages). This worthy was to organise the huge
and crude levies of the Bohemian ban, or militia. Not
withstanding such promising prelirainaries, King James
perversely refused to acknowledge the regality of his son-
in-law and daughter, and set the exaraple of denying them
the titles of king and queen, forbidding his ambassador,
Elizabeth's friend and poet. Sir Henry Wotton, to call
them so. He declared that a few weeks would show that
they could only rely on the very small minority of Cal
vinists. Indeed, James knew that all other religions would
be disgusted and persecuted by Frederic's party. More
over, he declared he could not for such a hopeless chance
Interrupt the peace and prosperity of his country, break up
its comraerce, and plunge It into the miseries of war and
taxation ; he did not deera his daughter's personal aggrand
isement a sufficient equivalent.
The last day that Elizabeth and Frederic passed at Hei
delberg so strongly resembled the last day that King James
her father spent at Edinburgh on the eve of his departure
to take possession ofthe English crown, that the sarae words
would describe both. Elizabeth, who then was a girl of
six years old, raust have remembered it well. The farewell
In both instances was on a Sunday. Frederic attended two
services with his son, and In the afternoon took leave of his
affectionate people with a paternal speech. They were in
agonies of grief, and stretched out their arms to him with
sighs and tears. The day was dismally wet and dark, but
the people crowded round their departing sovereign and
entreated him not to forsake them. In their utmost de
jection, they could not anticipate the fifty years of unutter
able woes to which that desertion doomed them. Elizabeth
was likewise absorbed in her devotions ; her preacher was
of the Church of England — Dr Chapman — whose sermon
was like that of Abrahara Scultetus, prophetic of prosperity.
Early the next morning the great departure took place in
eighteen coaches. Elizabeth's English ladies were not

ELIZABETH STUART. 101
numerous. All vacant places were filled by noble German
girls ; and Countess Amelia de Solms, a beautiful and
clever relative of the Palatine family, filled the functions
of Elizabeth's lost friend, Anne Dudley. Count de Solms,
who held a petty sovereignty, was Frederic's Grand
Marshal ; he was Ukewise the possessor of sraall feudal
dorainions held under the Palatinate. Frederic, In his
letters, does not forget now and then to joke concerning
Solms' red face and the corpulence of his wife ; but this pair
were the parents of three charming daughters, all faithfully
attached to Elizabeth, whose chief happiness in after life
was to rest on Amelia.
The departure of the elect King and Queen from their
happy home and loving people' took place September 27,
1619. There was then at Heidelberg John Harrison, an
English minister, chaplain to the fanatic Lord Brooke,
who has left some quaint observations on the subject, and
tried his hand at a turn of prophesy too on the happy
fate of that poor child whose early and disastrous death
forms the saddest page in our o'er true history. His pre
diction breaks out thus : " In the face and countenance of
the hopeful young Prince, methinks I observed some divine
thing extraordinary, which may give the world to conceive
he will one day make good all those great hopes which
were dead in Prince Henry [Elizabeth's brother], but re
vived in him. And no heart but would have been ravished
to have seen the demeanour of that great lady at her de
parture with tears trickling down her cheeks, so mild, so
courteous and affable — yet with a princely reservation of
state well becoming so great a majesty^ — like another Queen
Elizabeth revived also again In her the only Phoenix of the
world. Gone Is this sweet Princess with her now more
than princely husband towards the place where his array
attendeth, showing herself like that Virago of Tilbury —
another Queen Elizabeth, for so she now Is, and what more
she may be In time, or her royal Issue, is in God's hand for
the good and glory of his church ! Such a lady going be
fore, and marching in the front, who would not adventure
life and covet death?"

102 ELIZABETH STUART.
A century and a half later the Margravine of Baireuth,
Elizabeth's witty great-granddaughter, records so many
oversets when travelling in high Germany, that wonder it
is to find her going with her carriage the right side upper
most. But Germany and German roads were not quite so
miserable before the Thirty Years' War as they were in the
last century. One disaster befell on the way, which was
from a stone striking Elizabeth's ankle as her coach whirled
rapidly down a hill near Anspach, causing such pain that
she swooned; but recovering, she speedily resumed her
journey.-' The course of the progress towards Prague was through
the Margraviates of Moravia and Lusatia, and the Duke
dom of that Silesia afterwards so fiercely contested between
the descendant of Elizabeth, Frederic the Great, and the
Empress Maria Theresa. These little states likewise exer
cised some elective franchise pertaining to earlier and freer
tiraes, and, taking shelter from the persecuting Imperial
eagle under the shield of Boheraia, elected Frederic their
sovereign. The whole faraily crossed the Bohemian frontier October
27, new style.^ They were received at Falkenau, a domain
hereditary In the family of Count Andreas Schlick, a lead
ing politician in Bohemia, whose Une and name are not
out of date in the present day, although now the strongest
bulwark of the present imperial dynasty of Austria. At
Falkenau Count Schlick entertained his newly-elected King
and Queen with a fine collation in the open air,^ and by way
of dessert his preacher regaled them with a long open-air
sermon, which, as It was a poUtical one, was peradventure
not so wearisome to thera as might be expected. The last
day of October was appointed for the solemn entry Into the
Bohemian capital ; and the intermediate days they advanced,
tarrying at the castles of their partisans, until they rested
in view of the beautiful Thiergarten or Pare d'EtoIle, form
ing the approach to the romantic city of Prague, which was

1 Letter of an English visitor— Tracts ou German History, 1620.
^ Theatre de I'Europe. a Jigrg. Franc.

ELIZABETH STUART. 103
then marshalling Its thousands tp greet the sovereigns of
the national choice.
Elizabeth took her place In the procession on the raorrow,
seated In a chariot or raoving throne, having a canopy of
violet velvet adorned with gold lace and tissue. Her ivory
fair coraplexion never showed clearer than that day, and
her delicate beauty was wondered at by the brown popula
tion pouring from the city Into the wide avenues of the
Bohemian Hyde Park to gaze on her and greet her.
Frederic, who had been by her side until close to the walls
of Prague, alighted from the car, and mounted his war-
steed on the approach of a barbaric troop which rushed out
of the antique gateway of the Strathoff — a fortress so sacred
to liberty that no king can pass it without direct invitation
from the citizens of Prague ;^ and this gracious permission
to their sovereign-elect was borne by the strange band, the
appearance of which first excited astonishment and then
irrepressible mirth from the young English Queen and her
attendants. Dangerous rairth ! for It was a band of
Taborites armed in the same costume as when they sur
rounded the chariot of their terrific warrior - prophet,
Zisca. Their body armour and clothing reserabled
the buff-coats, belts, and breastplates of the roundhead
troopers; as to arras, sorae carried sickles and some flails
as weapons of war, which they whirled about their heads
with frightful agility. Then they bore on their standards,
and carried hung to their belts, queer things which Eliza
beth's attendants, from whose letters home this account is
given, called pewter cups and flagons, pots and pans.
Ever and anon, with sharp yells as a slogan, the Taborites
clashed these utensils together In a sort of wild cadence
like the Turkish cymbals. But the pots and pans, flagons
and platters, were not really pewter, but made of beech-
wood, and proved to be the celebrated mazers or wooden
vessels for the sacrament so faraous in the Zisca insurrection,
and in the controversies of John Huss and Jerome of
Prague. The Taborites, who professed to be the disciples
of these reforraers in their own wild way, were Infuriated
^ Atlas Geographique.

104 ELIZABETH STUART.
at the denial of the cup to the laity by the Roman Catholics
at the sacrament ; likewise by the luxury of gold and silver
chalices. To testify their abhorrence, these fierce reformers
carried their wooden communion-vessels, out of which they
took the sacrament every day, hung at their belts and
clattering on their standards, clashing them ever and anon
as good cause of quarrel ; thus drawing frora thera, withal,
their military music. Such was one specimen of the numer
ous sects of Eastern Europe, and the subjects over whora
Frederic and Elizabeth had attained the felicity of governing.
The Taborites forming In some sort of order before the
Strathoff Gate, their leader addressed a short martial speech
to the King-elect in the native Bohemian dialect, which the
band finished off by an especial flourish on their pots and
pans. EUzabeth and her attendants echoed it by a fit of
laughter, In which the grave Frederic almost joined. How
ever, he hastened to answer them in the Boheraian tongue
— which he spoke perfectly — and by Elizabeth's request
told thera " how much she regretted being Ignorant of their
language, which she would forthwith set about learning."
Surrounded by this fierce band, the King and Queen
entered that Prague whose name has been identified with
so many conflicts. It Is a beautiful and curious place even
now, when at least three sieges and two battles have come
off every century since the arrival of Elizabeth Stuart, and
soraewhat dimmed its picturesque magnificence. The old
town, or Prague proper. Is built on terraces rising up the
mountainous banks of the river Moldau, which Is here
broad, deep, and rapid, a few mUes above its junction
with the mighty Elbe. Old Prague was joined to the new-
town, then comparatively small, by a remarkable bridge
built by Queen Judith, the consort of King Wenceslaus.
It is an avenue of statues representing saints, warriors, and
other Boheraian worthies.' By the river's bank, at the foot
of the Weisseberg or White Mountain, stands the Edissa,
the old palace of Prague,^ a structure so antique that its
foundation is beyond the raeraory of tradition. No anti-
^ Atlas Geographique — Bohemia. 2 n,id.

ELIZABETH STUART. 105
quarian is able to class its massive and grotesque architec
ture. The Edissa Is ball-proof, cannon-proof, shell-proof,
and bomb-proof, having been experimented upon in good
earnest from time to time by almost every destructive
engine the maUce of man has contrived. Of course Its
gigantic halls and corridors have the reputation of being
fearfully haunted ; byt its very spectres are like Its archi
tecture — too ancient to be defined. To this singular
royal residence Elizabeth bent her devious way, testifying
the utmost astonishment at the customs of the people ;
particularly when she saw the women fall prostrate on each
side of her car — this she declared completed the Oriental
semblance that everything took about her."^ There was a
Queen's palace in Prague, but Elizabeth preferred inhabit
ing the grim old Edissa with her husband. Before Frederic
took possession of it he went to return thanks at the Cathe
dral of St Veit, or Holy Faith, a structure so old as to have
been erected by Sclavonic pagans, and thus named by the
Christians when they took possession of It, and all the heathen
idols were trundled into the Moldau.^ Elizabeth declared that
it was in great need of a similar purification — being crowded
with raore statues of saints than she had ever seen together
in her life. Her husband and his minister, Scultetus, liked
them still less, although the latter had the wisdom to preach
the most tolerant sermon ever heard from hira ; yet the zeal
of his raaster broke out before he left the church. The
Bohemians, who had great value for their saints, heard with
dismay their new King declare he would demolish thera the
first opportunity. Unfortunately, neither Frederic nor Eliza
beth had arrived at those years when thought usually pre
cedes speech; for she, In her first exaraination of the beauties
of her new capital, taking great offence at the avenue of
statues on the bridge, vowed they should all be demolished
before she crossed to the new town again — a speech reraera
bered afterwards.
Meantirae the Taborites, the Hussites, and Frederic's fa
natic chaplain, Scultetus, fraternised to admiration ; and as
1 Spanheim. ' Atlas Geographique — Bohemia.

106 ELIZABETH STUART.
the latter had an extreme antipathy to the unction In the
approaching coronation, he permitted John Cyril, the elder
of the Hussites, to perform the ceremony for his master.
Frederic was crowned King of Bohemia, November 3, hy
this elder, who was clad In a long blue gown, and wore an
enorraous blue hat. Nothing else differed from the coron
ation of our ancient kings, save that the Queen was not
crowned excepting by the grace and favour of her Mon
arch. Three days afterwards the coronation of the Queen
took place. Royally robed, she was led to her place In the
chapel of St Wenceslaus, by Frederic himself; after some
benedictions over her by the blue-robed administrator, the
King demanded " consecration, and the crown of St Ehza
beth^ for her namesake, bis wife," saying in Latin : " Reve
rend administrator, I beseech thee to bestow with thy bene
diction the crown on my beloved and deserving consort, whom
God hath given to be my helpmate."
The crown of St Elizabeth, as It appears in one of her
portraits, is small, of an antique form, and worn on the top
of the head. The fashion is probably derived from the re
galia of the Greek empresses, for the Russian czarina wears
her diadem in the same manner. Directly the ceremony
concluded, Elizabeth was shown to the populace, and the
whole city of Prague echoed with " Vivat, vivat Isabella ! "
for so her name was rendered by the tongues of her new-
subjects. The young son ofthe royal pair was In the course
of these ceremonies declared by the council of Frederic
the hereditary successor to the kingdom of Boheraia — an
imprudent encroachment, for which the Emperor Ferdinand
II. had been dethroned.
Directly his wife's coronation was completed, Frederic
departed for his city of Amberg, on pretence of presiding at
the baptism of the Prince of Anhalt's Infant, but in reality
to muster and combine the powers ofthe Calvinist League.
The Prince of Anhalt was to be the general of their com
bined miUtary forces. But the very letter Frederic wrote
^ Theatre de I'Europe. The Scottish Queen-consorts were crowned on
the same principle.
^ Theatre de Monde says St Isabella, but the names are synonymous.

ELIZABETH STUART. 107
to Elizabeth announcing his arrival at his capital of the
higher Palatinate, proves how ill chosen this bon-vivant was
for such responsibility. To THE Queen of Bohemia.
" Madame, — This is to tell you my safe arrival here. The Prince of An
halt tarries, being detained with gout in both feet. I do not think that
he will get to Nuremburg, where I hope to be to-morrow, without great paiu.
The Landgrave Maurice, the Margi'ave of Anspach, and the Duke of Wur-.
temberg, are there already. The baptism takes place in an hour or two.
I have not yet seen the Princess of Anhalt.
" I entreat you to scud me by a man express [en paste}, well packed in a
tin or wooden box, the bond given me by the States [of Holland], for the
money I lent them, with some writings appended. I do not know if you
can find it. It seems to me that I put it in the gold box with the bond that
the States gave to the little oue, which is near the vaisselle d'or. Retain
the gold box, and likewise the bond pertaining to the child.
" Yesterday I had letters from Madame my mother, who humbly kisses
your hands. I send you with this a letter from my sister, the Margrav
ine [of Brandenburg]. I shall hasten my return as much as possible. I
finish at present, as I write you more amply from Nuremberg ; but am ever,
my dear only heart, your faithful friend and very affectionate servitor,
" D'Amberg, this 8 November, 1619. " Frederic.
" Pray remember me to my brother, and kiss my little one for me.''
The new Queen was at this time chiefly occupied with
receiving addresses of congratulation and presents from all
classes of her subjects. Her people, the lower order of the
Boheraian women, came with their address and offering
on the day of their darling royal saint, Isabella. Their ad
dress was spoken in Bohemian. Elizabeth graciously replied
by the lips of her mehraander. Baron Rupa, " that she hoped
ere long their language would not be a dead letter to her."
So far so well ; but the present brought by these good
dames of the Halle "aroused the derision of the lawless, and
perhaps rapacious, attendants of the Queen. The siraple
folk had, according to their customs, presented sacks full of
their national cakes and confectionaries, likewise loaves of
bread, very likely the stipulated tribute from lands held of
the Crown. The loaves must have been made, as we often
have seen them in France, In large rings, for Elizabeth's
saucy English pages seized them and put thera on their
hats, and danced about the hall before the Queen, who

108 ELIZABETH STUAR'T.
might have remembered the lesson given her by her friend
Schomberg on her own deficient governing powers, which
permitted such liberties to be taken in her presence. The
language of derision is ever understood, however that of
differing speech raay be unintelligible. The harmless coun
try folk withdrew, grieving and abashed. Elizabeth's offi
cials preferred deputies who brought up long purses full of
ducats, out of which they might hope for fees. The ladies of
Prague who brought a cradle of carved ivory, embossed
with gold, silver, and gems, were better welcomed. This
was for the use of EUzabeth's infant, whose birth was
now daily expected. The famous Prince Rupert, fourth
child of Elizabeth and Frederic, was born November 28,
1619, in the ancient tower of the Strathoff, a few days after
the presentation of the magnificent cradle.^ His raother had
to give free access to the whole female population of Prague,
or at least as many as conld crowd near her. The noble
size of the infant, his liveliness and vigour, made the Bohe
mian populace loudly regret that he was not to be their
future King. He was given the name of Rupert, after that
mighty Elector Palatine who built Heidelberg, and deposed
Wenceslaus, the Bohemian king, from being Emperor; ^ not
Wenceslaus the Saint, but Wenceslaus the Sinner. The
grand festivals at this baptism excited the spleen of the
Austrian eneray, who derided Frederic and Elizabeth as the
Winter King and Queen, and promised them such royalty
as the monarchs of the Bean belonging to the Continental
twelfth cake, and no longer enduring than theirs, and that
their state would melt away with the snow.
The baptism of the Infant Rupert was made a great
political gathering ; the newly elected King of 'Hungary '
' Spanheim. ° Atlas Geog.— Hist. Bohemia and German Empire.
" Bethlem Gabor, which means Gabriel Bethlem. Hungary had cast
herself free from the house of Austria, and elected a magnate from
her own dominions, as her king : of course he formed a close alliance
with Bohemia, ratified by his deputies at this baptism. Bethlem Gabor is
railed at by all parties as a low adventurer, but he was of rank quite high
enough^ to be eligible to the Hungarian election. His family are great
people in Transylvania to this day. He claimed, too, to be classed as some
species of Protestant dissenter, but it is to be feared that he was nearer to
the creed of Mahomet.

ELIZABETH STUART. 109
was invited as principal godfather. This sponsor, instead
of bidding — " The pagan fiends avaunt,
Mahomet and Termagaunt,"
on behalf of his godchild, was hiraself. If he had any belief,
inclined to Mosleraisra, and brought Frederic into the ever-
luckless alliance with the Turks. And as that people, when
ever they broke over the Christian border In Europe, cora-
ported themselves towards the wretched population like the
Mohammedans In India, and the Mohararaedans throughout
all history, Frederic raised common humanity against himself
when he leagued with thera.
A revolt in Prague was the first Indication of the coraing
storm. The Lutherans as well as the Roman Catholics of
Boheraia, who had united In electing Frederic, were infuri
ated at the war of extermination which Jhe King and his
minister, Abraham Scultetus, had declared against all the
statues in the cathedral. But when the image-breakers
proceeded to the bridge over the Moldau, and began to de
stroy the effigies of St John Nepomucene, St Wenceslaus,
and St Elizabeth, and turabled thera into the Moldau, all
Prague rose to the rescue. Even the Taborites clattered off
a call to arms on their cups and platters, and mustered in
fierce wrath. Count Schlick rushed into the royal presence,
crying out to Frederic and Elizabeth, " that if the order for
pulling down the bridge statues was not recalled, Bohemia
was lost ! " ^ This was done Instantly, and orders given for
the daraage to be repaired, whereby Abrahara Scultetus
was infuriated. It was sad want of good sense and firm
ness to begin such a raeasure, and not dare to carry it
through. The people of Prague forthwith subsided Into
their accustoraed bounds, yet they did so sullenly, and never
forgot the attempt. Then Abraham Scultetus broke out,
and raging against his fellow-Protestants, the Lutherans,
invoked fire and fury upon them as latitudinarians, hurl
ing on them long sermons full of wrath. As he had been one
of the leading spirits of the intolerant Synod of Dort, where
^ Atlas Geographique, 1689, contains a minute and curious History of
Bohemia.

110 ELIZABETH STUART,
various Dutch sectarians, who did not exactly adopt his no
tions, had been persecuted with exile, confiscation, and death,
the citizens of Prague began to be alarraed. " Mercy be
upon us," wrote the Elector of Saxony's chaplain, " In what
respect are these Evangelists better than the Papists ? Even
more Intolerant shall we find the turbulent spirit of Calvin!
What avails it being freed from the Antichrist of the West,
If his rival usurps over us ? " ^ Such were the difficulties
preparing for these young sovereigns, neither of whom had
seen their twenty-third birthday. Elizabeth made it matter
of expediency to receive the sacrament, according to her
husband's persuasion, in the Cathedral at Prague, where a
long dinner-board, covered with a white table-cloth, at
which the recipients were seated, was used Instead of the
broken high altar.^ It was not very likely that any Church
of England person would have approved of it. But Eliza
beth complied, " because," as she wrote to her father apolo
getically,' " it had been reported through Bohemia that she
was a Lutheran, and she entreated permission to continue
the same."
The popularity of both the King and Queen was evidently
on the wane. As It was objected that the Queen was al
ways surrounded by her English or German attendants,
who scorned the native Bohemians, she resolved that on
the next public day her new subjects only should serve her
at table. Scultetus chose her servitors from among his
friends the Taborites ; their awkwardness, however, pro
voked the mirth of the whole Court. The Taborite cup
bearer spilt all the wine from her goblet on her velvet
robe. The sewer let the mighty haunch slide to the ground,
and placed the empty dish upon the table before the Queen.
Worse than all, a grim warrior, who stood near the chair
of state holding a sUver bowl full of lumps of sugar, became
fascinated with terror at the sight of the Queen's monkey,
a species of aniraal he had never before beheld, and now
took for something peculiarly unholy. But when the
monkey, perpetrating a grimace of defiance, skipped up on
the arm of Elizabeth's chair, and, extending its paw, helped
' Tracts by Moser. s State-Paper MS.

ELIZABETH STUART. Ill
itself to a lump of sugar, the Taborite threw down the
bowl, and, uttering a loud yell, escaped from the royal
presence.^ The praises of EUzabeth's beauty, on which most of her
contemporaries dwell, are fully confirmed by her fine por
trait at Hampton Court — the work of her favourite artist
and faithful foUower Honthorst. The complexion and
features depicted precisely agree with a remarkable descrip
tion of her person still extant, from the clever pen of her
granddaughter, EUzabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans.
There is something exceedingly characteristic of that origi
nal, inthe way in which this valuable sketch of long-forgotten
beauty was elicited. A daughter of Elizabeth's son, Charles
Louis, the issue of his irregular raarriage with Louise
Degenfelt, had ventured to declare herself the exact re
semblance of her grandmother, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of
Boheraia, a piece of presumption which drew on her the
following sketch of her own person, and that of the royal
beauty In contrast : " I reraeraber our grandraother, the
Queen of Boheraia, as well as if it were to day," writes
Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans,^ to her half-sister ;
" she had a quite different expression from you ; likewise
your hair is sandy, with a broad face and a high colour.
But the Queen of Bohemia had fine black hair, her face a
long oval, a high slender nose, and in one word, quite an
other cast of person. The Elector Palatine, further, bore a
great likeness to his mother."
The occasion of Elizabeth's sitting for the Hampton Court
portrait was vexatious. It was to be sent as a reminder to
her father; yet, as he denied her husband regality, she
dared not assume in the picture the antique crown of Bo
heraia she had even then begun to guess that she had too
dearly bought. Her head-dress consists of a consteUation
of pear-pearl pins stuck upright in a high head of hair, like
pins in a toilet pin-cushion ; a few diaraond sprays are at
the back of the hair. The ruff is point-lace vandyked, not
' German Tract, by Moser. (See Vignette prefixed to this volume.)
' Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte lately published in Germany, addressed
to her half-sisters.

112 ELIZABETH STUART.
very large, and moreover, under the chin, it shows her
bosom beneath. Four rows of rich pearls encircle the round
corsage of her dress, and hang In loops about her jewelled
ouche, which represents a royal arched crown, with a mass
of coloured gems beneath. The dress is dark-figured vel
vet ; it is very short-walsted, round and full, bordered with
pearls and gems ; the sleeves very full and stiff, slashes of
beads triraraedwith gems, and terminating In vandyked mau-
chettes ; lace cuffs high up the arm, of three rows, the nar
rowest lace next the wrist. Her hands are very long and
white, and are hung out rather ostentatiously for admiration.
Large pearls strung in chains fill up the space between the
hands and the wrists. Her royal mantle is of black velvet,
lined with fire colour, and bordered with rich gems ; this
is the Imperial fashion. Elizabeth is standing beneath
the scarlet-velvet drapery of her canopy ; one of her hands
rests on a table covered with scarlet, fringed with gold; her
attitude Is haughty ; she Is apparently giving receptions.
Her eyes are brown, her complexion the Ivory fairness
sometiraes accompanying dark eyes and dark hair. Her
forehead, eyes, and brows, bear strong reserablance to her
beautiful grandmother Mary Stuart, but the drooping mouth
expresses fretfulness, induced doubtless by care and anxiety.
King Frederic made a progress through Moravia and
Silesia accorapanied by* Scultetus, who, being a Silesian
by birth, outdid all his former doings, prophesying and
astrologising at every preaching, and outraging every
other Protestant sect wheresoever he led his master. Had
Frederic and his tutor undertaken a mission of enemy-
making, their success would have been coraplete. The
consequence was, that a general defection took place
among the Protestant Princes who had engaged to support
the King and Queen of Bohemia. When Frederic took
the field in the summer of 1620, he found no one to
espouse bis cause excepting those who could agree with
Scultetus, which, truth to tell, were but few. Spinola, an
experienced general commanding a small fierce army of re
gular Spanish troops, seized on the Lower Palatinate, and
threatened Heidelberg, from whence the Electress JuUana

ELIZABETH STUART. 113
wrote a piteous letter to James I., entreating him to succour
his two grandchildren she had there under her guardianship.
Elizabeth likewise wi'ote in despair to her brother Charles,
Prince of Wales, reminding hira that their father had pro
mised to exert himself if the original patrimony of her hus
band should be invaded. Charles, who was tenderly alive
to her troubles, could do nothing with their father, but he
sent her all his savings, one remittance of which amounted
to £2000 ^ — a very small assistance to a Queen whose
ideas of expenditure were so enormous that she had given
away more than that sum in presents at the baptisra of her
little Rupert, and often regretted that she could not visit her
father, because her expenses In progress would cost at least
£100,000.^ About the sarae period, Francis Nethersole was
appointed her secretary by her father, who paid his salary.
Great bales of his despatches exist in our archives, but Nether
sole is so complete a dullard that little Is to be gleaned from
them; neither Is this worthy remarkable for valour, for his first
Idea on arriving at Prague was the necessity of retreat for
EUzabeth and all her household.^ King Frederic was In the
field doing the best his railitary inexperience would perrait
to keep his Roraan Catholic cousin and great enemy, Maxi
milian, Duke of Bavaria, from seizing Prague. His hopes
and fears were thus written to his Elizabeth ; his letter is
manly, and shows not the least shade of apprehension. He
had planned a night attack on the Duke of Bavaria, called
the Surprise of Rakonltz. But he wandered with his forces
a whole night, and the only surprise was, when he found
the enemy gone sorae miles nearer Prague In the morning.
After telling his war news, he thus alludes to some intelli
gence his wife had sent him from Prague : —
" I believe that the Margrave must be greatly afflicted at the death of his
girl ; but it is surely a great absurdity to attire a corpse in full dress. As
for me, I should -wish for nothing better than a shroud. I hope, however,
that God will preserve us to be a long time together. For God's sake have
a care of your health, if not for love of yourself, at least for love of me and

' State-Paper MS. '¦' Ibid.
' Nethersole's Despatch, September 4, 1620.
VOL. vni. H

114 ELIZABETH STUART.
your dear children, and for that dear little creature. Give not way to
melancholy. Much I wish to be near you ; but my vocation carries me
here. I hope you think not that 1 love you the less for that." '
King James had sent to Prague, besides Nethersole, se
veral other envoys ,to treat about peace ; and Elizabeth
wanted to know who was to be at the expense of their en
tertainment, which Frederic declares he cannot afford ; hut
he advises her to invite them every day to dine at her table.
Frederic's next letter to his " dear only Heart," is dated
from Rakonltz, where he had occupied the ground vacated
by the Bavarian enemy. He praises his wife for the noble
spirit of her letters, but prepares her for the necessity of
withdrawing from Prague, for which the foe was in full
march. He recommends retreat before it might appear like
flight. He assures her he had tried to force a battle, hut
his eneraies were coy. He dates November 1, and sends
her an Intercepted letter from Duke Max of Bavaria, who
promises his wife the spoils of Prague. Elizabeth wonld
not, or could not, reraove ; but she sent off her eldest son
to the Lower Rhine, escorted by his father's brother, Duke
of Sirameren, who was a very young man.
Frederic, with better generalship than could be expected
from hisinexperience, by forced marches interposed between
Duke Max and Prague, and occupied the Pare d'EtoIle, to
guard all he loved -with his utmost energy. And there is
no doubt, had he been entirely self-reUant, he would have
done so successfully; but eager to be in the company of
Elizabeth, he resigned his coraraand to the Prince of Anhalt,
as the more regular and experienced general, taking upon
himself only the leading of the reserve. This was on Satur
day, Noveraber 19. The next morning, while all Prague
was kneeling in the cathedral, the booming of the Bavarian
cannon was heard over the Weisseberg or White Mountain,
and the troops were seen descending on the city through a
thick November fog. All the Pragueites rushed out of
church. Frederic declared It would be but skirmishing;
nevertheless he mounted his horse, and rode to the Pare
' Bromley Letters, Oct. 22, 1 620.

ELIZABETH STUART. 115
d'EtoIle, where his general was Intrenched. Prince Anhalt
received him with news of a glorious victory gained by his
son. Prince Christian of Anhalt, young Count Bernard
Thurm, and other dashing cavaliers, who had repulsed the in
vaders. Thus reassured,KingFrederIc ascended the Strathoff
Gate Tower, and continued anxiously to reconnoitre the en
virons. In a short time Prince Anhalt and his staff of officers
came thundering at the gate, and when admitted to Its
guarded precincts, declared that the Bavarians had forced
his camp, were masters of the environs, and would soon be
In Prague. The King hastened to provide for the safety
of his dear wife, whora he had sorae trouble to persuade to
fly. WhUe Ufting her to a carriage he had provided for
her retreat, he was heard to say with a deep sigh — " Now
I know what I am ! We princes seldom hear the truth till
we are taught it by adversity." "^ He raight, in the raassive
walls of the old palace, have long resisted the undisciplined
Ban of his Bavarian cousin ; but it was plain to be seen that
the Pragueites were worse than indifferent to his cause,
they were inimical, as raight be told by the exciteraent they
showed when Scultetus read that day from Scripture —
" Render unto Csesar the things that are Csesar's," —
at which moment the Bavarian cannon interrupted the Pro
testant service. Scarcely was the exultation of the citizens
restrained when they saw their lately crowned King and
Queen bend their flight over the Moldau, crossing it by that
bridge she had vowed not to cross until the ancient statues
were removed.^ EUzabeth declared that her objection
to cross the bridge was not to the statues, but to the want of
decorum of the people in their manner of bathing. And
this is alluded to in a placard published by the Imperial
party a few hours after her retreat, to this effect^ — " Whither
goest thou, Elizabeth ? whither but over that bridge which
thou didst refuse to pass, und.er the specious pretence of
modesty, and because thou wouldst not look upon the raen
and women bathing In the Moldau beneath. Mockery and
' Schiller's Thirty Tears' War. ' Atlas Geographique— Bohemia.
' German Tract, edited in Benger's Life of Elizabeth.

116 ELIZABETH STUART.
falsehood — thou couldst not endure to look upon the holy
crucifix ! Unsanctified unbeUever ! Now art thou carried
whither thou wouldst not go ! " If such were the notes of
exultation over the fugitive Queen, her consort was not
spared, and a complete din of accusations of cowardice was
raised against him on all sides, especially by the English,
raost unjustly, as the foregoing plain narrative shows.
When the poor Queen had crossed this unlucky bridge,
her husband's band of cavaliers flung to the gates at the
Tete-de-pont Tower, which had always stood open for the
traffic of Prague, arranging theraselves to defend that pass
to the utmost, while she made good her flight. Several of
these brave gentlemen rode by the side of her carriage until
she had gained the distance of a mile frora the city, when
young Count Bernard Thurra, and the young Count de la
Tour, of the princely house of Auvergne, one of her hus
band's Huguenot French relatives, looking back at the
bridge, saw that the battle was getting hot. They bade
the Queen fareweU, teUing her they would die or defend
her retreat. EUzabeth charged these brave gentieraen not
to sacrifice their lives in her hopeless cause. " Never," she
exclaimed, " let our best friends have reason to curse us for
the loss of their sons ! " Speaking in French, Count de la
Tour " comraended the Queen to God — he wished her safe
departure and triuraphant return ; but assured her he would
do the work he went about, or die." And he did it, says
the EngUsh despatch, and lives ; and honour live with him
as his portion for ever ! ^
That day's journey was long, says this despatch f six
great leagues, to a town called Nimburg. The Croats
were fast on the steps of the Queen. Sometimes she
remained In the carriage, though within a month of her
accouchement ; sometimes, under the terror of the Croats,
she mounted behind young Ralph Hopton, afterwards so
renowned as the cavaUer Lord Hopton, and dashed up and
down the mountainous ridges of High Germany, whilst
' Schiller's Thirty Years' War. Conway's Despatch-State-Papers, Nov.
14, 1620. Tooke's Gustavus Adolphus.
^^Harl. MS., Nov. 14, 1620.

ELIZABETH STUART. 117
" the plundering fingers of the Croats" were busy with her
baggage waggons.
It was found that, in the hurry of retreat, many valuables
had been left at Prague; among others, the regalia of
Bohemia. It was not indeed Ukely the citizens would have
suffered them to carry off the crowns of St Wenceslaus and
that of St Isabella; but Frederic's jewel of the Order of
the Garter fell into the hands of the triumphant foe, to the
vexation of EUzabeth ; her own night-clothes were likewise
left behind — a loss of raore real significance.^
Early In December 1620 they reached Breslau, the capi
tal of SUesia. From thence she wrote to supplicate aid frora
her father. Her husband tarried to rally his forces, and
then persuaded them to proceed to Frankfort-on-Oder, from
whence she sent a piteous request to George Williara,
Elector of Brandenburg, for perraission to lay-in at Berlin
or Wolfenbuttel, and that he would let her wait at Custrin
for a reply, as she could not long reraain at Frankfort.
Most churlishly did this recreant conduct hiraself on the occa
sion. Simultaneously the mother of Frederic was forced to
retreat frora Heidelberg, carrying with her the eldest daugh
ter and second son of King Frederic and Queen Elizabeth ;
she succeeded in gaining with them the protection of her
daughter, the Margravine or Electress of Brandenburg.
While the unfortunate Queen was reposing herself at
Frankfort-on-Oder, dubious as to the shelter she might find
in her time of anguish and helplessness, her husband decided
for Cu.strin in a letter still extant, written frora Breslau,
where he was still bravely striving against the overraaster-
Ing odds of physical and nuraerical force.
To the Queen op Bohemia.^
" I received this morning when I rose your dear letter from Frankfort.
I praise God that I know you are safely arrived there. Constantly and
diligently do I pray for your welfare. It troubles me to hear of the deci
sion of the Councillors of Berlin, who are very unwise. You will find no
place better thau Custrin. Certes, I dearly wish myself near you. I wrote
to you yesterday a letter large enough, in which I sent you all I knew of

' Mercure de France, Nov. 1620. ' Bromley Letters.

118 ELIZABETH STUART.
news. I did not find in or. near your letter that which my sister wrote
me. I suppose you forgot to put it in your packet.
" Love me always, and believe me to the tomb, your faithful, &c.
" Frederic.
" From Breslau, 11 Decemher 1620."
Most aggravating were the reports and comments of
friends as well as enemies on this dire reverse of fortune.
Tidings were brought to England that Elizabeth had died
In premature childbirth. At Antwerp they went so far as
to publish engravings of her hearse and funeral. Notes of
exultation were sounded loud and long throughout Spanish
or Papal Netherlands on the occasion. The public press, then
in a very evil and perverse infancy, mocked our fugitives.
" The Lamentation of Frederic" was printed at Antwerp,^
a doleful regret " for marrying a king's daughter, who
chose that her spouse should have a kingly title bought, he
It ever so dear. So now Frederic has to foot It with a staff,
and Elizabeth foUows, dragging a cradle at her back."
Placards were fixed on the walls of Brussels, with a reward
for " a king run away a few days since, of adolescent age,
sanguine colour, middle height, a cast In one of his eyes, no
raustache, only down on his lip, not badly disposed when a
stolen kingdora did not lie in his way — his narae, Frederic."
The English Roman Catholic party echoed the taunts of
the IraperiaUsts. Mr Floyd, a Member of Parliament, for
repeating in a speech an Insulting squib, declaring that the
King's daughter fled from Prague like an Irish beggar-
woman with her babe at her back, was expelled by a majo
rity of the House, and condemned to branding, flogging,
and ruinous fines.^ King James has been greatly blamed
for his tyranny in this affair. But aU he had to do with it
was pardoning the most disgusting part of the sentence.
He was now seriously unhappy on account of the utter
destitution of Elizabeth and her children; his aUowances
were munificent, but all sunk iraraediately in the gulf of
civil war. He sent a magnificent New Year's gift of
£20,000 to Elizabeth from his privy purse, and asked his
Pariiaraent for suppUes to aid his daughter's husband to
' Mos«''- ' Drake's Pariiamentary History.

ELIZABETH STUART. 119
regain his original patrimony. How the two causes of the
kingdora of Bohemia and the Palatinate were to be sepa
rated no mortal on earth could tell then, or ever can tell ;
perhaps this was the reason why King James's negotia
tions were interminable. Whether battles and sieges, and
torrents of blood and treasure, would have succeeded better,
cannot be decided here. The " Thirty Years' War " caused
a superfluity of bloodshed ; but whether it did any good
to the general Interests of huraanity raust be left to the
admirers of such remedies.
The insults and gibes of the enemy could be borne, but
the cruel selfishness of the Princes of the Protestant Union,
as it called Itself, was Indeed wounding, considering they
had forced Frederic into the trouble. The Duke of Bruns
wick would not give an asylum to his distressed cousin,
Elizabeth, at Wolfenbuttel. As for George William, he
murmured most Inhospitably at her taking refuge In his
castle of Custrin, exaggerated the discomforts of Its cold
damp walls, its want of furniture, and threw out not a few
taunts on the impossibility of his poor means being taxed
for the pomp of a royal christening.^ Elizabeth's incor
rigible extravagance certainly gave point to this Ill-natured
remark. Nevertheless, the hapless Queen in her distress
clung close to such shelter as the bare walls of massive
Custrin could give her.
About Christmas her husband was presented by his
Silesians with a subsidy of 100,000 florins, and was humbly
entreated by them to depart out of their land. Frederic
withdrew then from Breslau, and at the latter end of
December arrived at Custrin. Elizabeth gave birth,
January 16, to the finest boy she had yet borne hira.
The child was named Maurice, In remerabrance of the
warm friendship of their uncle Prince Maurice, who cheered
thera by his support when all others deserted thera. As
for George WiUiara, their host, he raised an Inhospitable
cavil concerning forty barrels of butter, raany thousand
eggs, besides beeves, pigs, and muttons In vast numbers,
that EUzabeth and her household devoured at Custrin ;
' Spanheim.

120 ELIZABETH STUART.
likewise bales of hay, and measures of oats, of which he
found himself minus. "The churl!" exclaims one of his
countrymen, " was It not well known that he would give
thrice the cost to one of his buffoons In a drunken bout,
whose jokes were coarse enough to please hira ? "^
The truth was, that the ban of the Empire which had
been hurled at Frederic began to tell visibly against him.
George William was reproved, while EUzabeth was in
childbed at Custrin, for harbouring the enemies of his
Iraperial master. George WiUiam was adraonished to dis
miss the Princess Palatine [Queen of Boheraia] as soon as
her recovery permitted it.^ However desirous the Imperial
family — according to Captain Bell's plot — were of destroy
ing Elizabeth and her infants. It was not proposed to
turn thera into the snow, as in the case of HamUton of
Bothwellhaugh's wife and babe.
George William now began to manifest some affectionate
loyalty to his Emperor; Elizabeth, therefore, had In about
six weeks to move on, which she did February 19th, for a
few hours' visit at Berlin, where she left her infant son,
Maurice, in the kind care of her sister-in-law, Charlotte,
the Electress.3 She crossed the Elbe to Wolfenbuttel, but
there was no rest for the sole of her foot there. Her kinsman,
the reigning Duke of Brunswick, was unwilling or afraid to
permit her stay; his brother Christian, the Bishop of Halber-
stadt, was, on the contrary, enthusiastic in her cause. Here
an escort frora her husband raet her ; and soon after
Frederic himself, who had parted from her to try the
cold and timid aid of kindred and friends, the Princes of
the Protestant Union In North Germany, rejoined her.^
It is said that, about this period, Frederic disguised him
self effectually, and, passing up the Rhine, visited secretly
his treasure-vaults at Heidelberg, and brought from thence
a great ma.ss of coin. When he returned, he and Eliza
beth coraraenced their journey through WestphaUa towards
1 Picture of the March of Brandenburg, by Von Gallus.
" State-Paper MS., January 19, 1620-21.
^ Carleton Despatches— State-Paper Office, from Feb. to March.
Ibid.

ELIZABETH STUART. 121
Holland, having received a warm Invitation from the
States. They were escorted by a troop of English cavaliers,
who formed a voluntary guard -noble for them. Ralph
Hopton still tendered Elizabeth his best services, and the
word went araong the gallant band, that " If their King,
Jaraes, forbade thera to call his daughter Queen of Boheraia,
they supposed they might call her Queen of Hearts."-' At
Miinster six companies of men-at-arras were sent her by
Prince Maurice, who brought them down the Rhine in
triuraph to Emerich, where Elizabeth had the pleasure of
meeting, safe and well, her eldest boy Henry Frederic, who
was under the protection of Count Ernest of Nassau. And
there Count Solms, bis three daughters, and several other
merabers of her shattered and scattered court, gathered
round the King and Queen of Bohemia, making a shadowy
show of royalty.
Little Rupert was his mother's corapanion, then a lively
Infant of about fifteen raonths old, whose innocent appear
ance excited the utmost affection in the good fraus and
bourgeoisie of Delft and Rotterdam. All the intermediate
thickly-set villages between these towns and the Hague,
were lined with living walls of people to see the Queen " of
Hearts " pass with her little prince on her knee. The
Palace of Henry Frederic — the King's youngest uncle — of
Orange, was prepared for their reception. Here Sir Thomas
Roe, the envoy, his brother diplomat, Dorchester, and
crowds of English, gathered round Elizabeth.
Next door to the Orange-Nassau palace was a fine building
nowise inferior to It, but belonging to CorneUus Von Myle, a
Dutchman of vast wealth, who had been exiled on sorae
religio-politic pretence or other. All his property had been
confiscated to the States, but his afflicted wife was permit
ted to shelter in an obscure corner of her once raagnificent
horae. The States presented the mansion to Elizabeth ;
who, instead of expelling the right owner, consoled and
comforted her, and retained her as an inmate, assuring her
that she would not forget to use all Influence to obtain the
recall of her husband and the restoration of their goods, —
' Howell's Letters.

122 ELIZABETH STUART.
and EUzabeth Stuart kept her word. The kindness of Eliza
beth to the desolate wife of Cornelius ^ drew on her a most
dangerous request, which was to ask for mercy from the
States on three Roman Catholic priests condemned to death.
It seems Elizabeth actually had the humane intrepidity so
to do, although as sure of being maligned by certain spirits
of her own party, as if she had had the temerity to write
historic truth in the nineteenth century. The Popish matter
was thus compromised : the conderaned priests underwent
their sentence, but their bodies. Instead of being left to rot
on the gibbet, to the delight and edification of their op
ponents, were, in compliment to her intercession, decently
interred.^ Three of Elizabeth's little ones were still dispersed in
distant lands. The Prince, and his little brother Rupert,
were with their raother in Holland ; Maurice with his kind
aunt of Brandenburg ; the Princess Elizabeth and Charles
Louis resided with their grandmother, Juliana, ostensibly
protected by the mighty King of Poland, but in reality on
the march-ground of his vassal, the Elector - Margrave of
Brandenburg. Howsoever it might be afterwards blighted by the strife
of the world, and, worse than all, by religious poUtics,
Elizabeth reared her young children In the same domestic
love which had united her so fondly with her own brothers.
They were encouraged to write to each other the same kind
of Innocent little letters expressive of genuine feeling.
Elizabeth's promising eldest son excelled in these infan
tine epistles. Some are extant to his next brother Charles
Louis, mentioning his journey from Prague, of which
he, in happy unconsciousness of its dangers, speaks with
deUght. In another he tells him that though little
Maurice was left at Berlin, yet Rupert was with them
" blythe and well, safe and sound ; " that little Rupert
began to talk, and that the first words he uttered were in
the Bohemian tongue, signifying — " Praise the Lord."
The young prince sends withal the most loving messages to
' Description ofthe Hague, printed at Delft, 1730.
2 MS. British Museum.

ELIZABETH STUART, 123
his grandmother (the Electress Juliana), and to his dear sister
Elizabeth. Many of his little letters to his grandfather,
James I., are preserved In our archives, In one of which
he triumphantly announces that he can say "hic hsec hoc."
As they are in English, his letters are usually mistaken for
those of Jaraes I.'s eldest son.
When settled at the Hague, Elizabeth was visited by
many of her former ladies, who vied with each other in
making her presents. At last no one knew what to send ;
the " material aid " of money and arras was not at
the coraraand of ladies. Lady Sedley, the relative of Eliza
beth's old friend Lord Dorchester, requested him to instruct
her as to the best kind of gifts she could send her. The
answer^ gives us an Idea of the life she led at the Hague.
As usual she had packs of little dogs and monkeys
round her, most likely more than were pleasant, for he
warns Lady Sedley not to add any more to that stock.
Horses were always acceptable to the Queen, but, unfor
tunately, she could not use thera just then at the Hague,
where she had already raore than it was convenient to
keep. Of gold trinkets, she had sufficient store. Sweet
meats she never tasted, and as for fine stuffs or brocades,
they were far raore choice at the Hague than in Lon
don. Quaint or ingenious devices were all that could be
acceptable, and the figure of Fortune turning on her
wheel, is finally recoraraended as an offering most likely to
be acceptable. Lord Dorchester affirms that the Queen
has always sixteen or seventeen dogs and monkeys around
her, and If she wanted any more, his wife has as many at
her service. The poor raan seems to think It were pity to
fill a possible place for one of his own doraestic nuisances.
Elizabeth did not break her royal word to Madame von
Myle. The same spring she solicited the States so strenu
ously on behalf of her exiled lord, that Cornelius von Myle
was permitted to return to the country of Holland, though
not to enter the walls of the Hague. Elizabeth wished to
restore his house, declaring to the States that her family
^ State-Paper Letter, Carleton to Sedley, Feb. 1622, Hague.

124 ELIZABETH STUART.
increased so fast It would be no longer large enough for
her. AprU 17th, 1622, EUzabeth gave birth to another
daughter: she was the first born a Dutchwoman, and was
welcomed by her hospitable entertainers with as much
glee as if a daughter had been born to them aU.
Christian of Brunswick is first mentioned as EUzabeth's
friend on occasion of the christening of this little lady;
yet he did not attend personally, not even by deputy,
by reason of a quarrel between him and the States. For
Christian, though a layman and swordsman, was the
Lutheran Bishop of Halberstadt — most terribly predatory
in his customs and manners, rather too much given
to catching rich Mynheers, and not letting thera out until
they had paid ruinously for their freedom. He was the
younger son of EUzabeth's great-aunt, a princess of Den
raark, who had married the representative of the Une ot
Brunswick. He seems first to have met and admired the
bright Queen during her recent visits at Berlin and Wol
fenbuttel. The redoubtable Christian, on close inspection
of his faites and gestes, differs frightfully from the chival
rous hero described by certain fair authors disposed to sen
timentalise on his passion for his lovely cousin, the Queen
of Boheraia, therefore the less said of hira here the better.
At present he disappointed and disarranged the christen
ing procession of his little kinswoman and godchild, so
that there was no time to provide a proxy to represent his
gracious person. However, as three Hogan Mogans, de
puties of the States of Holland, attended to stand for the
Infant Louise tloUandine, for so she was naraed, she was in
no want of sponsors. The young Amelia of Solms carried
the bearing-cloth or train of the baby, and her hopeless
lover, the brave Prince Henry of Orange, was near her in
close attendance at the ceremony."^ The States presented
their name-child, Louise HoUandine, with a substantial
annuity, amounting to eight thousand crowns ; as for her
godsire. Christian the Bishop, he rode forth, took a goodly
prey from his Catholic neighbours, and sent a weighty
I Carleton's Despatch, April 1622— State-Paper MS.

ELIZABETH STUART, 125
purse as his benefaction to his spiritual relative.^ The
money carae In at a raost seasonable tirae, when the mother
of the newly-made christian was involved in distress and
debt on account of the showy cereraonial. Elizabeth sent
her thanks so warmly to the Bishop of Halberstadt for his
gift, that henceforth he vowed himself her knight of the
lance — raounted a glove he had taken frora her fair hand at
her last visit to the Duchess of Brunswick on his helm, put
a motto on his standard " Fur Gott und fur Sie," and took
vow never to lay down his arras until his beautiful cousin
was restored to her Bohemian kingdom.^
In the course of little more than a year George William
of Brandenburg began to tire of protecting the children of
Frederic and Elizabeth. The young Elizabeth, on arriving
at the Hague and joining the family circle, was of course
a stranger to mother, father, brothers, and sisters. The
austere puritanisra of her grandmother, the Electress Juliana,
had imbued the quiet little German maiden. The Dutch
warrior, her great-uncle Maurice the Stadtholder, tried to
enliven the solemn little lady by pinching her ear, d la
NapoUon, saying, at the same time, "Another Julienne,
as demure as the prototype !"^ —so closely did the young
Elizabeth resemble his sister, the Electress-Dowager, who
had reared her. Her infant sister, Louisa, was consigned to
the care of Sybella Ketler, a lady who had fulfilled the
office of governess to her father^ in his infancy, and had
foUowed the electoral family's changeful fortunes. Sybella
Ketler likewise undertook the charge of the young EUza
beth. The Queen of Bohemia never scrupled to admit that
Louisa, who grew up lovely In person, was her favourite
daughter ; the eldest, Elizabeth, who had laid the founda
tion of an almost rairaculous weight of learning at the sad
and soleran court of the dowager JuUana, was not briUiant
in beauty. She always avowed a melancholy conviction
that her mother did not love her. Nor does she seem to
1 Caileton's Despatch, June 1622— State-Paper MS.
2 Harleian MS. ; Miss Benger's Life of Elizabeth.
^ Guhraeur, Memoirs of the Princess Palatine.
* Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans.

126 ELIZABETH STUART,
have deceived herself. Such Is frequently the case when a
child has been brought up apart from the family nest.
In the commencement of May, the same spring, Bishop"
duke Christian, having plundered and swept all the parts
of Northern Germany supposed to be inimical to tKe regaUty
of his dear Queen and cousin, joined hiraself to Mansfelt,
who was stiU a mercenary of Frederic's, when Frederic
could coraraand any cash. But both heroes experienced a
thorough overthrow from the terrible Count Tilly, that
Imperialist general Infamous for his cruelty. Mansfelt
laid the blame of his defeat on " the raad Brunswicker,"
and the raad Brunswicker on Mansfelt. In a very pretty
letter^ the said Brunswicker thus exculpates himself to his
dear and beloved Queen and cousin : —
" Most humbly I entreat you not to be angry with your faithful slave
for this misfortune, nor take away the good affection your Majesty has
hitherto shown me, who love you above all in this world ! Consider
victory is in God's hands, not mine, and that I cannot challenge victory,
although my courage in dying for your Majesty and serving you will never
fail me, for I esteem your favour a hundred times dearer than life ; and be
assured I shall try not only to reassemble my troops, but moreover to raise
as many more, that I may be in better condition to serve faithfully
your Majesty, whom I love beyond the possible ! Assurmg you, that as
long as God gives me life I shall serve you faithfully, and expend all I
have in the world for you. Your most humblest, your most constant,
faithful, affectionate, and most obedient slave, who loves and will love you
infinitely and incessantly to deatti. " Christian."
Notwithstanding these ardent protestations, the attachment
was a most innocent one, at least on the part of Elizabeth,
whose husband saw and approved of the enthusiasm which
promised him material aid against his eneraies, and Frederic
well knew the jargon of gallantry at that period, which con
sisted of such verbal flourishes. Taking advantage of
Christian's warlike intentions, Frederic joined hira with all
the troops he could gather, and made a demonstration which
put Heidelberg and the Lower Palatinate for a short deceit
ful moraent of success almost in their power. The result was,
however, that Tilly was too strong for them. Christian lost
his arra, after losing several battles ; bis life was In danger.
' Among the Carleton Correspondence — State Papers.

ELIZABETH STUART. 127
Frederic speaks of him tenderly and gratefully to Elizabeth.
After lamenting the loss of his poor Heidelberg, and mention
ing in most natural terms the misery of his loving people,
he says : " I am rejoiced Duke Christian is recovering, for
rather would I lose an arra myself than he should die. We
are extremely Indebted to him, and God knows I love him
as a brother ! Continue still to love your own poor Cela
don, and be assured that his thoughts turn continually to
his soul's star, and that he is ever, to the tomb, your
Frederic." The whole letter is most touching, and Indeed
gives good cause for the true love with which Elizabeth
ever regarded her unpretending spouse.^ Christian, during
the short remainder of his life, wore a silver arra. The
negotiations of James I. are said to have caused the utter
loss of the whole of the towns In the Palatinate, including
Elizabeth's dower-castle of Frankenthal.
If Elizabeth's stores of wealth decreased, the nuraber of
her children increased in proportion. Her sons Louis and
Edward were born in the succeeding years 1623 and 1624.
These additional scions to an already nuraerous family had
no better welcome than the consumraation of their father's
ruin. The Palatinate being taken from him by the Em
perors' Diet, the Upper Province was settled fast upon his
foe. Max, Duke of Bavaria. The Lower Palatinate, being
chiefly Protestant, of various softs, though unfortunately
only the Calvinist was tolerated, still reraained true In affec
tion to its hereditary ruler Frederic V. — fresh insurrections
breaking, forth as soon as one seemed trodden out.
The success of her brother's marriage with the Infanta
was of course irapeded by the situation of the Palatine's
faraily. Elizabeth herself was willing to show araiable
feelings towards her expected sister-in-law ; " she spoke
her fair in a letter, and sent her, as she says, out of her
poverty, a pair of diaraond pendants." Her feelings at
this period are best depicted by her own pen, in one of her
confidential letters to Sir Thomas Eoe : —
" 1 have cause enough to be sad," she writes,^ " yet I am still of my wild
humour to be as merry as I can, in spite of fortune. I can send you no
1 Bromley Letters, Sept. 1622. = State-Paper MS., May 1623.

128 ELIZABETH STUART.
news but that will make you sadder, and I see you have no need of it.
All grows worse and worse, as I know you understand by honest Carleton.
My brother is still in Spain. The dispensation is come, but I know not
yet upon what conditions. My brother is still loving to me ; I would
others had as good nature. He sent Will. Crofts to see me, from Spain,
with a very loving letter and message. But my father will never leave
treating, though with it he hath lost us all ; for my poor Frankeudal he
hath delivered to the Spaniard, and would make a truce for fifteen months,
till a peace be made, to give our enemies time to settle themselves in our
country. My young cousiu of Brunswick [Duke Christian] is still con
stant ; he hath a fair army of 20,000 men. He was forced to leave Mans
felt by his evil usage. Mansfelt is a brave man, but all is not gold that
glitters in him. I am glad you like our pictures."
She breaks out into a delighted exclamation on an alliance
with the Turks, effected by her husband's faraily connection,
Bethlera Gabor, elect King of Hungary; but It brought no
blessings to Christendora : —
" I would," she adds, " that the Turks paid the Emperor soundly, for it
is a hard choice which is the worser devil. I pray recommend my love
to your wife. Farewell, honest Thom."
This horaely abbreviation was the word by which she
usually addressed her old friend Roe.
The rupture of her brother's Spanish marriage-treaty,
and his hasty return to England, roused Elizabeth from the
despondency which, with all the forced bravado of a high
spirit, really pervades this letter. Her brother, and even
Buckingham, now led the opposition, bent on forcing
England into war to vindicate her cause. " All Is changed
from being Spanish," writes Elizabeth triumphantly, " in
which I assure you that Buckingham doth most nobly and
faithfully for me. Worthy Southampton is much in favour,
and all that are not Spanish. One thing gives rae much
hope of this Pariiaraent, because it began on ray dear dead
brother's birthday."^
Her doughty knight Duke Christian, the Protestant
bishop, began to stir himself, and with Mansfelt pre
sented himself in England, lured by the aids of raen and
money promised them by this Parliament, and still more
by the private loans and benevolences that James now
'' Roe's Correspondence— State-Papers. Miss Benger.

ELIZABETH STUART, 129
encouraged his people to raise for his daughter. Elizabeth,
in order to give the greater eclat to her champion. Christian
the Bishop-duke, had solicited her father to cause his election
as Knight of the Garter. But an unfortunate Impediraent
interposed — and the marvel is, that in those tiraes people
were found old-fashioned enough to heed It — for if purity
of conduct, and hands clean from pillage, had been requisite
for candidates of that noble order, even the royal founder
must always have had a short complement of knights. But
one of Christian's late pranks was pleaded against his admis
sion, to the foUowing effect :^ Two of his marauders, of the
very appropriate names of Knipliausen and Rooke, had
laid their claws on some fat traders of Hamburg, a neutral
if not a friendly Protestant territory, and coerced the poor
creatures, until they parted from a large portion of their
substance to save the rest of their skins. Elizabeth, who
was true of heart and honest In her dealings, was dreadfully
afflicted at what her friend Carleton calls " the accident,"
and more, as she declared, at the light and reckless view
Christian took of It. With an honourable principle that
does her credit, she Insisted Christian should be cleared of
this stain before he received the Garter ; but she had hopes
the pillage and robbing was the work of his merry-men.
Christian was too manly to admit this extenuation ; he ex
onerated Kniphausen and Eooke, and confessed the wicked
fact. In consideration of his penitence she withdrew her,
opposition to his election as Knight of the Garter at her
father's court.^
" I had answered you sooner," wrote Elizabeth to her
friend Eoe, " but that I staid, hoping to send some cer
tain good news out of England, where there is 13,000 men
a-levying for Mansfelt. What they are to do I know not,
for the King [Frederic] and I are utterly ignorant of all,
though they say it is for our service." After rauch discus
sion on the marriage of the nominal King of Hungary, and
some expressions of hope concerning the part the King of
' Carleton Correspondence, June 1624.
^ Roe's Correspondence, edited by Miss Benger.
VOL. Vin. I

130 ELIZABETH STUART.
Sweden was likely to take in her quarrel, she proceeds to
raention mournfuUy the death of her friend Lord Southamp
ton, likewise the death " of my youngest boy save one, called
Louis. It was the prettiest child I had, and the first I ever
lost. I have christened my youngest of all Edward. You
see I can send you nothing but deaths ; only your wife
Apsley,^ is gone to England to marry Sir Albert Morton,
who goeth extraordinary Ambassador to France."
The expedition for her assistance, like many a one that
has left this Island's shores, mouldered away miserably.
Neither in friendly Holland nor on the coasts of Picardy
were these ill-disciplined volunteers permitted to land from
their transports. Plague broke out in the vexed flotilla,
and faraine did such hideous work that no pen has dared
record the details ; while tempests strewed the sands of
Calais with wreck and corpses. Scarcely a volunteer sur
vived. As for the Bishop-duke Christian and Count Mans
felt, the terror of whose depredations was more felt by
friends and neutrals than by their foes, both died natural
deaths a few months afterwards. Christian expired at
Wolfenbuttel of a raging fever.
EUzabeth had to mourn nearer friends ; she writes: " The
King's death and the Prince of Orange's did follow so near
one another, as it gave me double sorrow for the loss of
such a father and such a friend, whom I loved as a father."
Her husband's uncle, Maurice, Stadtholder of HoUand, she
here deplores, who died within a few days of Jaraes I. It
was the disastrous siege of Breda, then invested by the
Spanish coraraander-in-chief Spinola, that broke the heart
and sapped the constitution of Maurice. At this siege, and
many others of useless bloodshed, Frederic had served as
volunteer. At the same time both Spinola and Maurice
died of wasting diseases. Superstition never was more
active than at this most horrid siege ; nocturnal alarms
hurtled in the air, the reveille was beat at dead of night, no
one could tell by whom, when the slaughter-tired soldiers
' One of Elizabeth's young ladies, before mentioned. She calls her
" wife " iu allusion to some old joke.

ELIZABETH STUART. 131
on each side were sleeping profoundly. Spectres were seen
in every forra at noonday ; and fearful signs of a fiery-red
arm In the heavens, holding a blazing sword, often hung
over Breda, to the consternation of all beholders. At last
the devil was seen walking about with Mort in his mouth —
a singular proceeding of his sable majesty, of which one Mr
Elborough bore veracious witness,^ who raet hira — but
whether the fiendish apparition cried " mort," or carried
a label so endorsed in his mouth, he does not precisely
define. Stadtholder Maurice, who had lived a most profligate
life hiraself, did horaage to female virtue on his deathbed,
by exhorting his beloved half-brother, Henry of Orange,
to marry the lady he loved, Elizabeth's favourite friend
and attendant, Amelia of Solms. EUzabeth herself men
tions her in the course of the following letter : —
" I should have been sadder," she says,* " but the comfort of my dear
brother's love doth revive me. He [Charles I.] hath sent to me Sir Henry
Vane, his cofferer, to assure me that he will be both father and brother to
the King of Bohemia and me. Now you may be .sure all will go well in
England, for your new master will leave nothing undone for our good."
After a few glances on the policy of Denraark and Swe
den, she thus mentions the Orange wedlock : —
" I am sure you must have heard already of this Prince of Orange's
marriage "with one of my women ; she is a Countess of Solms, daughter to
Count Solms that served the King of Bohemia at Heidelberg. I doubt
not you remember him by his red face, aud her mother by her fatness.
She [Amelia] you never saw, but two of her sisters ; she is very handsome
and good ; she has no money, but he [Henry, Prince of Orange], has
enough for both."
Then referring again to Charles I, after some comments
on Roe's recall, —
" I have," she says, " the best brother in the world ; he is now a married
man, for his marriage was performed at Paris the 1st of this month,' by
Prince Joinville, representing my brother. She [Henrietta Maria] is now
on her way for England. If I can at any time do you any good with my

' Roe's Correspondence, May 26, 1625. * Harleian MS.
5 May 11, new style. Miss Benger has edited this letter very ably, all
but the date, misprinted July.

132 ELIZABETH STUART,
brother, 1 assure you I will, if 1 do but know in what, for 1 never will be
unfaithful to you, for the many testimonies you have given me of your
good affection. Therefore, honest Thom, be assured I will never change."
A little daughter added to her family by EUzabeth soon
after, was named Henrietta Maria, in compliment to the
new sister, of whom she speaks here with so much com
placency.

ELIZABETH STUART

CHAPTEE V

SUMMAEY
Legacy of Prince Maurice to Elizabeth — Her husband and eldest son go to
Amsterdam concerning it — The packet-boat ruu down — The young Prince
perishes miserably — Elizabeth's grief impairs her health — Birth of her
daughter Charlotte — Presides at surrender of Bois-le-Duc — Catches camp
fever — Goes to Rhenen — Dislike of the Hague — Her husband and herself
publicly rebuked by a preacher — Birth of her fifth daughter Sophia, at
the Hague — Death of her daughter Charlotte — Her husband ill and in
different to hfe — New league in their favour, led by Gustavus Adolphus
— Birth of Elizabeth's thirteenth child, named Gustaf — Frederic departs
to join Gustavus Adolphus — His farewell to Elizabeth and little Sophia
— Meeting with the Swedish King — He refuses to yield to Frederic the
Palatinate — Frederic refuses to tolerate the Lutherans — Frederic's letters
to Elizabeth from Frankfort aud Munich — Elizabeth's letter to Sir H.
Vane — Letters to Elizabeth from her husband, deploring the miseries of
his country — Smashing of her Glasen Salle by the Spaniards — She re
quires purchases at Frankfort fair — Messages of the German Princesses,
wishing her among them — Frederic's first complaints of illness — Billet
of his, with his sister's present — Gustavus Adolphus endeavours to re
duce him to vassalage — Spaniards treat about Elizabeth's dower-castle —
Great battle of Lutzen — Death of Gustavus Adolphus — Small cause for
Frederic and Elizabeth to regret him — Elizabeth's dower-palace surren
dered to Frederic — Elizabeth's exertions for Frederic to succeed Gus
tavus Adolphus — He retires very ill to Mayence — Fever and delirium —
His last thoughts on Elizabeth — Her name in his last prayers — Dies —
Trouble regarding burial — Buried finally at Sedan.
The friendship which EUzabeth had ever experienced
from her husband's uncle Maurice the Stadtholder, had been
further testified by his last will. Among other more sub
stantial legacies, he had bequeathed to her his share in a
Dutch company that had raised a fleet, the object of which

134- ELIZABETH STUART.
was to Intercept some plate-laden galleons frora Mexico
bound for the Spanish Netherlands. The legacy left in
1625 appeared in 1628 soraewhat visionary; but at the
close of that year news arrived that Adrairal Helms had
actually captured the galleons, and come to safe moorings in
the Zuyder Zee with his prey, to the amount of ^870,000.1
In joyful expectancy of receiving EUzabeth's share of the
cash, which amounted to one-eighth of the whole, the King
of Bohemia set out frora the Hague to Arasterdam by the
packet-boat. Unfortunately the young Prince, his eldest son,
in his fifteenth year, was staying with him at the Hague,
having finished his education at Leyden, and now prepar
ing to serve as a volunteer In the next campaign. Frederic
made him the corapanion of his voyage. It was the dead of
winter, January 7th, old style ; but all the waters between
Amsterdam and the Zuyder Zee were covered with vessels
of every sort and size. The amphibious population of Hol
land was in a state of delirious exultation on account of this
national triuraph. Moreover, too many were dangerouisly
excited with strong potations In honour of the republic ; and
under such stimulus they rushed about In their various craft,
without any observance of the laws of the nautical highway.
Frederic, having visited Amsterdam, was returning with his
son by the passage-boat through the frost-fog of the dismal
evening, when, as they passed Haarlem Meer, the packet-
boat in which they were was run down by a heavy Dutch
bark laden with beer. The skipper of the packet swam
after the vessel, which was escaping, and called out "to
save the King of Boheraia, who was on board." A cable
was then thrown out, on which Frederic gained the other
vessel. The poor young Prince climbed to the raast of the
sunken packet, and cried piteously, " Father ! save me,
father ! " Frozen by the piercing air, his voice was soon
sUenced by death ; his body was not found untU the next
morning; his poor cheek was congealed by the Ice, and
resting peacefully against the mast to which he still clung.^
' MS. News-letter, British Museum— Pory to Rev. J. Mead.
= News-letter— Beaulieu to Sir T. Puckering, January 21, 1625-29— MS.
British Museum, and Howell's Letters, p. 176.

ELIZABETH STUART. 135
At the time he thus perished, Henry was the next heir-
male to the throne of Great Britain, and he was the third
Henry of his race occupying that position whose life had
ended In the morning of their days — the two former being
his great-grandfather, Henry Lord Darnley, and his uncle,
Henry Prince of Wales.
Frederic, the wretched parent of the drowned boy, had
heard his piercing cries, but was unable to obtain succour
for hira of the drunken and stupid crew which had run thera
down. He declared those cries would never leave him, and
that he should hear thera ring on his ear to the last hour of
his life. But who was to tell the bereaved mother this
hideous accident ? Three weeks had not elapsed since the
birth of her fourth daughter Charlotte, and she still kept
her charaber in more delicate health than usual on such occa
sions. Her husband was carried to his bed in unspeakable
agonies of mind and body, and the task fell on the English
Ambassador at the Hague, her intimate friend, the Earl of
Carlisle. Whatsoever skill he used, the calaraity nearly
cost poor Elizabeth her life. Probably she never learned
the worst of the casualty, that her poor boy's life was sac
rificed to the drunkenness, stupidity, and want of presence
of mind of those about him. She was at that time so very
poor that her distress was aggravated by the impossibility
of interring the young Prince suitably to his rank. Her
appeal to her pitying brother Charles I. was not In vain.
Distressed as he already was, he pawned his perssonal jewels
to send her an immediate supply of ^fi'lOOO, and the young
Prince's corpse was interred in the Cloister Church at the
Hague.-' Charles I. continued the Income of .£'2000 which
he had allowed his eldest nephew to the next brother,
Charles Louis, and enlarged his pension to the rest of the
famUy. The Court of England assumed mourning for the
death of young Henry, and the whole people followed
its example. Great blame was thrown on I'rederic in
England for his parsimony in going by the packet, which,
indeed, does not seem the most blaraable part of his con-
' News-letter— Beaulieu to Sir T. Puckering, January 21, 1625-29— MS.
British Museum, aud Howell's Letters, p. 176.

186 ELIZABETH STUART.
duct. But the national pride was much offended that the
next heir-male of Great Britain should have met with his
death in so commonplace a manner ; and the fact that the
princes could enter such a conveyance has been denied,
yet it seeras the siraple truth.
Frora the period of this sad event the health of Elizabeth's
consort was gradually underralned by regret; the remem
brance of his miserably lost child deprived him of his sleep,
and seeraed never to be effaced from his mind. As for
Elizabeth, she soon regained her spirits, being probably un
aware of the agonising facts which preyed on the mind of
her hapless partner; but the chief of her correspondence,
and that of her consort, with her brother Charles during the
rest of the year, consists of supplications for money, and of
representations of wants and debts. Nothing can be more
tedious and dispiriting to read than such letters. Charles
was most willing to aid his beloved sister and her family.
The great personal attachment of this brother and sister
survived the political circumstances, so adverse to human
affection, in which they were placed. From his own distress
he spared raany large suras for the relief of his sister and her
lord.^ Constant complaints, however, pervade their corre
spondence, that the rapacity of the agents through whom
they were transraitted, intercepted or impaired these sup
plies. Nevertheless Charles and Elizabeth continued to
love each other ; although she was the idol of the Calvinist
party in Great Britain, set up most invidiously against her
brother and his chUdren. Charles imputed no fault to his
sister, however provokingly these circumstances might annoy
him. What became of the rich legacy left her by her
husband's uncle, Maurice, Prince of Orange, it is not easy
to ascertain ; but this Is certain, that Elizabeth's profuse
generosity, combined with the number of her followers, and
retainers hanging on her bounty, would have dissipated
wealth five times as much as she obtained from the plate
galleons. The warlike Maurice, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of
' Domestic Correspondence— State Paper Office, from 1626 to 1630.
Likewise Holland Correspondence — ^Ibid.

ELIZABETH STUART. 137
Holland, had been succeeded by his brother Henry ,^ the
younger son of the great William, surnamed the Deliverer.
Thus a brother of Juliana of Nassau, the mother of Eliza
beth's husband, still guided the powers of Holland. This
Stadtholder Henry^ was a great soldier, not Inferior to his
warlike brother and father. Maurice, it is supposed, sunk
under the failure of the Calvinist struggle against Spain,
but the great booty gained repeatedly by the fleets of Hol
land from the plate ships of Spain had Inspired his succes
sor with new spirit, and moreover supplied the Dutch with
the sinews of war. In 1629 the Stadtholder Henry began
molesting the Spanish provinces of the Netherlands. Fre
deric assisted him, and Elizabeth carae from Rhenen to wit
ness the surrender of the town of Bois-le-Duc, the first fruits
of their uncle's carapaign. It received honourable terms ;
and, placed advantageously, she had the pleasure, one Sep
tember afternoon, of beholding the exit of the Spanish
garrison, guarding their sick and wounded, and moreover
all the monks and nuns. As this curious procession defiled
out of one gate of Bois-le-Duc the Dutch troops marched in
at the other.3 Elizabeth was treated as the heroine of the
day In the triumphant entry. But she dearly paid for this
pleasure by catching a camp fever in the long-besieged
town, and, after very severe medical treatraent, was forced
to retreat to Rhenen. She, as usual, wintered at the Hague,
a place of abode endured irapatiently by the tortured mind
of Frederic, the failure of whose health now becarae the fre
quent subject of the English Ambassador's despatches.
Nevertheless, during the winter of 1630, a new champion
for the Protestant cause, it was whispered In Europe, was
about to take the field, as intrepid as Elizabeth's lost cousin
Christian of Brunswick, and far more skilful and prudent.
This was the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus.
Full of hope, EUzabeth accompanied her dejected consort
to their little hunting-seat at Rhenen, near Utrecht. The
1 Atlas Geographique, 1711, vol. i. p. 802, which gives an excellent com
pendium ofthe History of the Dutch Republic.
2 His name was Frederic Henry, but he was usually called by the last
name. 3 Sir Dudley Carleton's Letters to Sir Thomas Roe, June 1629.

138 ELIZABETH STUART.
unfortunate Frederic greatly preferred a residence there,
with the arausements of hunting, gardening, and farming,
to his sojourn at the Hague. " A great city Is always de
testable," he was wont to say ; " but of all canaille, defend
me frora the canaille of the Hague ! "^ This detestation of
the Hague evidently arose from a rather droll incident.
One of the Calvinist preachers having publicly taken to task
both the King and Queen of Bohemia, for having danced at
a raask on a Shrove Tuesday, whUst the whole republic of
Holland were In mourning and lamentation for sorae disaster
regarding a siege, Frederic, who was no reveller either by
taste or education, rose and contradicted the preacher, as
to his own share in the reprobated caperlngs. But the
preacher of course had the best of it in his own pulpit ;
the King remained disdainful and indignant. Tet his ex
pression concerning canaille was ungrateful to the Dutch
people, to whom he and his family owed many benefits,
since, without the co-operation of this despised canaille, small
could have been the aid of his valiant uncles the Stadtholders
Maurice and Henry.
Elizabeth entirely regained her health at Rhenen ; and
though she again expected to Increase her already numerous
family, her hunting was as Indefatigable as if the daily meat
of the royal table depended on her success. " I think I
was born for the chase," she says in one of her letters, " for
I never had better health in my life." She was forced to
leave this favourite retreat for the Hague, on account of
her approaching accoucheraent. Her journey was made
within ten days of the birth of her twelfth child, Sophia, her
fifth daughter, who was born October 13, 1630, at the
Hague. The recovery of the royal , mother was rapid,
luckily for herself, as she needed strength to endure the
double affliction of the death of her little daughter Charlotte,
then about twenty months old, and the dangerous illness of
her husband, whose indifference to life aggravated the pul
monary disease that pursued him.^ "The little Madame
Charlotte," as Sir Henry Vane (then one of the diplo-
' Carleton's Ambassades, 1630. 2 Benger.

ELIZABETH STUART. 189
matists at the Hague) calls her, had been in a decline from
her birth ; she was buried by the side of her brother Henry,
in the Jacobite Cloister Church at the Hague.i
Before Frederic and Elizabeth left the Hague for Rhenen,
they received affronts, on the sore point of their regaUty,
from Csesar de Vendome, son of Henry IV. and the fair
Gabrielle. He could not pay them a state visit, though he
would, he declared, " if his own will was consulted, give
Elizabeth the honours of an empress." Vendome could do
no otherwise without declaring war on his own country,
which did not acknowledge the Bohemian kingship. He
tendered a friendly visit by calling at ten in the morning,
when neither Frederic nor EUzabeth were out of bed. Ven-
d&rae was half-brother to Queen Henrietta Maria, and the
only great man that had sprung from the royal hero of
France. He was charged from Richelieu with a private
raission, of alliance with Gustavus Adolphus. It had been
but wisdora if the dethroned potentates had raet hira on the
safe ground of Incognitoship. But Frederic, If not very
stubborn in storra and siege, was utterly inflexible in mat
ters of etiquette ; therefore Elizabeth wrote civilly to the
Duke de Vendome, representing that, as they were depart
ing for their hunting-seat on the Rhenen, their servants and
baggage being actually gone, she could not conveniently
receive him. Elizabeth's secretary, Francis Nethersole, by
whose diplomacy this affair had been guided, wrote to the
English Ambassador, Lord Dorchester, coraplaints of the
French resident at the Hague, M. de Hauterive, to whose
malice prepense he attributed the conduct of Vendorae ; as
if either could act in defiance of the Instructions of their
governraent, and such a governor withal as Cardinal Riche
lieu. " His queenly mistress," he said, " had the least ten
dency to revenge of any lady in the world, yet the dis
placing of the French Ambassador at the Hague would
be acceptable to her, if Dorchester could add such very
acceptable service to all he had previously rendered,'' de
claring moreover " that the desire of righting the wrongs
^ Vane's MS. Letter — Harleian Colleotion.

140 ELIZABETH STUART.
of her consort was as stirring a passion in her mind as
revenge in most of her sex." ^
The extraordinary change of policy which led France to
seek alliance with the Lutheran champion, Gustavus Adol
phus, and, in fact, to hire his services against the Emperor
of Germany and the King of Spain, led to the recall of the
ambassador, De Hauterive, greatly to the exultation of
Nethersole, who, with the sapience of the fly on the wheel,
Iraagined that his potent epistle had vindicated his royal
lady. Gustavus Adolphus, son of Charles Vasa (afterwards King
of Sweden), had been educated In the school of adversity,
as the youngest grandson of a king who had achieved his
own royalty, the son of a younger son, struggling against
his Roman Catholic elder brother and nephew, John and
Sigismund, who united for a tirae the crowns of Sweden
and Poland. In early life Gustavus Adolphus made the
tour of Europe on foot, learning languages, and graduating
at more than one university. Some say, indeed, that he
crossed the Alps of Switzerland with his waUet at his back,
like a poor student on the tramp, and studied at Padua.
After his father had routed his Catholic kin, and become
King of Sweden on the Lutheran interest, and the poor student
was elder son of a sovereign, the hand of Elizabeth Stuart
had been earnestly craved for hira, but refused by her father.
Her uncle, the King of Denmark, Christian IV., prevented
an alUance so desirable for her. After Gustavus Adolphus
was on his native throne, he sustained six years of very
doubtful struggles, during which tirae his hardy troops were
educated to conquest. He had, when his royal authority was
secure, strengthened hiraself by Protestant alliances. He had
given his sister, Catherine Vasa, in marriage to the Duke des
Deuxponts, the near relative of the King of Boheraia, and
had himself raarried another close connection of the Palatine
house, Eleanora of Brandenburg, whose brother, George
WUliara, Marquis of Brandenburg, had married Frederic's
sister. Indeed, Frederic himself had proposed and promoted
the marriage of his cousin Eleanora with Gustavus Adolphus.
' Carleton's Despatches — Additional MSS., British Museum.

ELIZABETH STUART. 141
Unfortunately no great happiness attended the high con
tracting parties.
One syraptora of more promising fortunes occurred when
Elizabeth and Frederic returned from Rhenen to the Hague.
Vend6me,who had visited his sister Henrietta Maria in Eng
land, had just arrived there on his return. He found it requi
site to atone for his previous neglect. Araelia, Princess of
Orange, the loving friend of the Palatine faraily, alleviated
the erabarrassraent under which the son of Henry IV.
laboured, with womanly tact. She took him with her when
she visited Elizabeth, and all previous misunderstandings
were speedily arranged to general satisfaction. Just at
this time all the contempora,ry news-letters are full of
gibberish of gallantry concerning the personal devotion
of Gustavus Adolphus to the Queen of Bohemia — a sort
of re-echoing of the fine speeches and Quixotic professions
of her cousin. Christian of Brunswick. Some modern writers
have given us reason to suppose that Gustavus Adolphus
was quite the knight of the lance devoted to Elizabeth. The
matter of fact is, they never met In the course of their lives.
The battle of Leipsic, fought in the suraraer of 1631, and
triuraphantly won by Gustavus Adolphus, was followed by
successes so rapid that most of the Lower Palatinate, with
raany other of the Rhenish cities, were In possession of the
Swedes by the end of the carapaign. Of course Frederic
and Elizabeth supposed their own self-appointed champion
meditated nothing less than their speedy restoration at least
to the hereditary dominions of the Palatinate. In this hope
Frederic, although neither very strong In health or pugna
cious in spirit, armed hira for the fray, accepting thankfully
whatsoever assistance his good uncle, Henry of Orange, and
his well-disposed Dutchmen, would bestow. They gave
him, towards the expenses of his campaign, about ¦£'4000,
and ^800 for his personal expenses. His warlike uncle,
Henry of Orange, the Stadtholder, was at the head of a
well-appointed army of five thousand men, severely trained
In the wars of his brother Maurice.^ His part of the
^ Carleton's Despatches — Additional MSS., British Museum,
' Atlas Geographique.

142 ELIZABETH STUART.
war was to raake incursions with sap and siege on the
frontier cities of the Spanish Netherlands, governed by the
Archduchess Isabel, from whom, in that very campaign, he
speedily took Venloo, Rureraonde, and Maestrlcht. Hitherto
the defence of Protestant Europe had beeu sustained, almost
since the liberation of Holland, by the Calvinists, mcst
gaUantly, but with fearful inequality of force. A thousand
atrocities had been committed by the belligerents on both
sides, In which the Roraan Catholics, as infinitely the strong
est in physical force, were the least excusable.'
Elizabeth was stUl confined to her chamber at the Hague,
having, January 2, 1632, given birth to her thirteenth child,
a son, whom she Insisted on naming Gustaf, after the Swedish
champion.^ Her husband bade her a tender farewell a few
days afterwards; full of hope and high spirits, she litUe
anticipated that It would be his last. She saw nothing worse
before her than their speedy restoration to their beautiful
Rhenish dominions. Frederic was observed to bid fareweU
with peculiar tenderness to the little Sophia, then more than ,
two years old, whose liveliness and infant charms had often
wiled away his devouring melancholy.^ At Leyden Fre
deric tarried to take leave of his elder boys, who were
pursuing their studies at the celebrated college there. He
witnessed the exaraination of the young Leyden students,
araong whom he saw his sons Charles aud Rupert^ contend
for pre-eminence in a style which proved that they had
pursued no royal road to learning. Frederic gave theni
his embraces and paternal benedictions before he went
forth to the war, all parties being In blessed unconscious
ness that It was the last time the father and his sons looked
in each other's faces. After this sojourn with his young
princes, Frederic proceeded with his uncle Henry of Orange
to Rhenen, where they rested. He went to Wesel the next
day, where his uncle the Prince of Orange took leave of
him, and he journeyed towards Gustavus Adolphus, then in
winter quarters at Frankfort ; for this was the middle of
January 1631-32.
EUzabeth tarried for safety at the Hague ; the Rhenen
' French Gazette L'Etoile. - Benger. " Ibid.

ELIZABETH STUART. 143
I
was no safe abode for her, when the Rhine was in arms.
Once in the preceding war, it was well reraerabered, she
had h.ad to ride for her life when her hunting led her beyond
the bounds of safety.^ The superintendence of the education
of her children, then rapidly advancing in growth and Intel
lect, was her chief eraployraent. Many gllrapses of the faraily
group are reflected from her letters by those of her loving
husband, who confided to her his hopes and fears In a cor
respondence frora the seat of war, partly In cipher." He tells
her that the Inhabitants of Hanau carae out to welcorae him
with many " vivats " for the King of Bohemia. There he
was raet by the English envoy, the old diploraat Sir Henry
Vane, who was arabassador frora Charles I. to Gustavus
Adolphus, much to the dissatisfaction of the Swedish hero.
The heavy baggage with which Frederic was encumbered
had all stuck in the raud, owing to the winter rains. What
soever was In this long train of carriages, his personal pre
parations for his campaign were moderate. He took with
him but his wearing apparel, his writing-desk, eight cases of
books, a folio of maps, a portrait of his wife and of his raother,
and a carap dinner-service, not of plate, but of pewter. One
Gerraan elwagen would have carried these, and much more.
The chief part of his caravan remained for extrication by the
patient labour of German cattle. Frederic waited for them
with equal patience several days, and It was as late as Feb
ruary 10 when he made his entry into Frankfort In solemn
state, with his forty coaches complete in nuraber. If they
were raeant to raake a remarkable impression on the Swed
ish hero, the intent was lost, for he was at Hochst, a country-
seat sorae Uttle way off, with the Queen of Sweden.^ Fre
deric went thither next raorning, accompanied by Lord
Craven and twenty cavaliers. He was received with royal
honours by the King and Queen of Sweden. They dined
together, Gustavus Adolphus giving his guest the right
' State Papers — Holland Correspondence.
^ Printed in the Bromley Letters, which came into the possession of Sir
George Bromley by his descent from an illegitimate daughter of Prince
Rupert, third son of Frederic and Fdizabeth. Some mistakes are apparent
in these collections. James I. is placed in action five or six years after he
was at rest. s j(,i(j_

144 ELIZABETH STUART.
hand, and entertaining him with details of his own great
victory at Leipsic, a little tendency to gasconade being by
no raeans contrary to the huraour of the Ulustrious Swede.
Fle had indulged, when he first invited Frederic to the field.
In a sarcasra on the unfitness of a brother-in-law of the King
of Great Britain joining him with no greater equipage than
his doublet and hose, which was raore expressive of his dis
appointment of subsidies and armies from Charles I. than
meant for a sneer at the penury of the exiled Prince. But
this speech had probably had the bad effect of causing Fre
deric to encumber himself with the heavy caravan of coaches
with which he had crept frora the Hague and entered Frank
fort. It was not very easy to follow the mercurial tem
per of the royal Swede. Soraetiraes he deUvered a sermon
at dinner In the style of the Calvinist divines. Such he used
to hold forth to his troops, " preaching from the saddle as
well as the best : " — the godly phase of the royal hero's cha
racter being In accordance with the religious mission under
which he entered Germany, and the precise tendencies of
Queen Eleanora, his consort, to whom, nevertheless, he was
but an unfaithful partner. Anon he was in the midst of the
carnival, which he kept at Frankfort with wild glee before
he raarched for the-delivery of three strongholds which yet
remained of the Palatinate In the clutches of the Spanish
allies of the Emperor. The one mad day of carnival being
always entered into with equal gusto by Lutherans as by
Roman CathoUcs, Frederic was seduced by Gustavus Adol
phus to share in the frolics of the masked ball. He assumed
the costume of a Jesuit, In which he could Indulge his satire
on his enemies, whUe Gustavus Adolphus took the disguise
of the gargon of an inn.i
From Frankfort they departed to storm Creuznach, one
of Frederic's former fortified towns. It was presently
carried. The gallantry of the English volunteer. Lord
Craven, was so conspicuous when mounting the wall, that
the King of Sweden, patting him merrily on the shoulder,
congratulated him " on his liberality of giving his younger
brother a chance of his estate." Frederic was received with
^ Correspondence of Roe— State Papers.

ELIZABETH STUART. 145
rapture by the citizens his subjects. He took care to thank
the English regiments in his own name and that of his wife,i
and to request the continuance of their valiant co-operation.
The delight with which Frederic's natural subjects greeted
him of course made him exceedingly desirous of the fulfil
ment of the promise with which Gustavus Adolphus had
lured him from his home and Elizabeth, to which he could
obtain no direct answer. But Wallenstein mustering
strongly, Gustavus re-crossed the Rhine, and again occupied
Frankfort as his headquarters. Here there was a great
gathering of the Protestant princes of Germany ; the dis
possessed King of Bohemia being treated by Gustavus
Adolphus with distinction; above all, he caressed him fre
quently, fraternising by calling hira " mon frtre " at
every word. Till raidnight, amusements of cards, dice, and
dance went on ; but when the princes and counts, the Queen
of Sweden, and the ladies, withdrew, Gustavus Adolphus and
his guest often conferred long and seriously until three In
the morning. Frederic, now among his old subjects, urged
his ally to permit him to levy troops ; while the Swedish
king declared " that would ruin his own recruiting.'' And
here the inconsistency of making war on religious pretences
becomes painfully apparent. Gustavus deraanded that the
Lutheran religion should be tolerated when he surrendered
the Palatinate to its lawful owner, and this very reasonable
reward for all his toils and conquests Frederic positively
refused to admit. Frederic, as the pensioned refugee of
Holland, where he had left Elizabeth and her little ones
in the very stronghold of Calvinism, was forced to view
this request of the Swedish king In the light his Dutch
patrons would wish.
The deep dejection which often pervades the letters of the
unfortunate Frederic to bis beloved Elizabeth, evidently arose
from the extinction of hope as to the issue of the contest.
The commencement of that written March Sth, old style,^
and beginning in cipher, is addressed to EUzabeth as usual,
^ Monro's Narrative of the Expedition, &c.
^ Bromley Letters— De Lorce, March 8/18, 1632.
VOL. VIII. K

146 ELIZABETH STUART,
" Mon trls cher cceur." He tells her how he safely received
her letter when raarching between Lorce and Aschaffenhurg
with the King of Sweden, who continued to treat him hon
ourably, but positively refused to let him raise troops in his
own Palatinate. " He could not iraagine why the King of
Sweden wished hira to come, and that he had much better
have staid at the Hague." Frederic continues to inform
Elizabeth that he follows the Swedish conqueror, who was
in full march to overthrow Count Tilly, In the unhappy
state of a volunteer. Then, dismissing the painful subject
of politics, he enters into reply of her last letter, and a Uttle
family gossip. Elizabeth wanted purchases made at Frank
fort fair; but her husband cannot buy her the stuff she re
quired, for the fair commenced not untU after the raarch of
the Swedish army. Then he gives Elizabeth a little criti
cism on the persons of the ladies. " The Landgravine of
Hesse-Darmstadt, his first cousin, is not disagreeable in
person ; but as to real grand beauty, I have seen none
on my travels. As for ray brother's wife, she can even
be terraed ugly; but she is a truly good woraan." These
princesses had been to the Swedish Court at Steinau,
but how they returned he cannot tell ; for how ladies
could go about near the seat of war passes his compre
hension, and that leads to this comment on Elizabeth's
wish of joining hira : —
" You need not fear, as soon as I could do it with safety. I am asked why
I send not for you to this country, but truth to say, of that as yet I see little
likelihood. If a battle was given, it might be talked of — God be pleased,
if it comes to that, all might go well. Yesterday we had a long march
among mountains, that is why we repose here to-day. I have written to
you, and to the Prince and Princess of Orange, by Count de Solms. ' He
waited to hear of my arrival, for what he has to deliver to you. Good
M. de Plessin is happy to be dead. I wish I could have some one who waa
capable about the children. I know not if you think that Boniqua is flt ;
but although he is a Lutheran — having nothing to do with their studies-'
that would not matter much. I am very glad that Morgan is so gallant
and gay, and that he acquits himself so well of his charge. If he were with
me, would he not swear rarely t I will answer for that, and drink withal
your health very often in the good wine of Ai. I am astonished that he is
still lovingly disposed.^

Bromley Letters— De Lorce, March 8/18, 1632.

ELIZABETH STUART. 147
Then follows a mystical bewailing In cipher on the faUure
of Charles I. to send hira what he had not for hiraself — money
to pay the Swedes ; and he concludes : —
" The danger of the roads is such that I dare not write all ; but I entreat
you to believe that whilst I live I shall never be other than, my dear only
heart, your faithful friend and most affectionate servitor, " Fkederio." ^
Elizabeth's answer to him Is not forthcoraing, but the re
flection of it raay be seen in her epistles to the British en
voy. Vane. Of him Frederic, throughout his whole corre
spondence, manifests the worst opinion, earnestly affirraing
that his primary object was to affront the King of Sweden,
and make mischief between hira and his brother-in-law
Charles I. Frederic attributes this propensity to personal
hatred of himself. But that was not the case. He, as the
ostensible head of the Calvinists, would actually have been
the highest in the regard of Sir Henry Vane, the elder,
whose enmity was to the toleration Gustavus Adolphus
extended to the Eoman Catholics, and the firm footing on
which he wished to establish the Lutherans on the Rhine.
If Charles I. and Gustavus Adolphus were on too friendly
terras, the ends of Sir Henry Vane's party would not have
been answered. Elizabeth, who was used to speak of this
double-rainded envoy as the " fat raan " in her letters to
other people, began her epistles to him with " Honest
Harry." ' " The Hague, April 5/15, 1632.
" I hope these letters by Home will pass to you, as well as my little
monkey did to me."
This monkey was a human one — ^her favourite page of
honour, the brave Sir Jacob Astley, who had served her from
a tender age, ever since her departure from England, and
now had departed with her consort to learn experience in
the wars of Gustavus Adolphus.
" He [Home] can tell you all the news of England, en matiere des dames,
and of the Hague. The Prince of Orange [Henry the Stadtholder] is pre
paring to go to the field, and most of his officers are come. His old Grace
[Lennox] is here, and saith that his gracious aunt the Duchess of Richmond

1 Bromley Letters— De Lorce, March 8/18, 1632. ^ state-Paper MS.

148 ELIZABETH STUART.
will come to see me, with all her white sticks. She doth write so to me
herself; bnt 1 confess I do not believe her. We look for my Lady Strange
every day, and my wise widow."
This was Madame la Comtesse de Loewenstein, belong
ing to a younger branch of the Palatine princes. She had
succeeded Araelia de Solms in her state attendance. She
was a faithful friend to Elizabeth, yet so full of pompous
absurdity as to be the butt of all the young princes of the
Palatine family.^ Elizabeth's expected guest, " with the
white staves," was the widow of her father's kinsman, the
Duke of Richmond, as great an oddity, who, beginning life
as a beautiful but Irapoverished lady of the house of Howard,
by marrying Frank Prannel, the heir of a rich city vintner,
went mad with pride on obtaining great wealth, and finally
an alliance with royalty. The distressed Queen of Bohemia
had more than once tasted her bounty, although not to the
amount the boastful old dowager pretended. Perhaps It was
not very prudent to trust the treacherous diplomat Vane
with this fling at her white-staffed retinue ; but prudence was
no quaUty of Elizabeth, or she would not have written to
" Honest Harry," excepting in the most guarded style of
ceremonial. "Ihear your pretty gentleman, Mr GiflFord, is laid by the heels," she
says, " and another towards it, for talking foolishly. I long to hear the
end of your treaty. I see by the King's letters [Frederic, her husband]
the King of Sweden doth not desire he should make levies, saymg, 'It
would spoil his army.' If my dear brother [Charies I.] would have been
pleased to have granted the King's request by Robin Honeywood, it
would have been better for him and your treaty. For then the King [her
husband], having troops, might have had more voice in the chapter than he
uow has, being but a volunteer, which is a very wearisome profession. But
I hope God will turn all to the best, aud am confident that you will still
continue to do your best for him.
" I pray believe me ever, your most constant aflFectionate friend,
«rr Q. XT ,r .. "Elizabeth."
" To Sir Harry Vane.
^ Elizabeth, in her next despatch, announces to him the
birth of a daughter to their kind relatives, the Prince and
Princess of Orange, who had been wedded six years without
1 Bromley Letters, p. 271, where one of them has written a queer paper
on her " Faites aud " Gestes."

ELIZABETH STUART. 149
offspring. In reply, Frederic sends his beloved lively tran
scripts of all his hopes, fears, and adventures. The Swedish
army, having In the Interim destroyed Tilly and his forces,
were now In full raarch to punish Frederic's inimical cousin.
Max, Duke of Bavaria ; the history of which Is rapidly
embodied by Schiller in Wallenstein's magnificent speech
to the Austrian envoys —
 "Beside the Lech sunk Tilly, your last hope;
Into Bavaria, like a wintry torrent.
Did that Gustavus pour."
On his raarch to Bavaria, Frederic thus wrote to his wife : —
" This moming, as we were leaving Freissingen, I had the satisfaction of
receiving four of your letters, three of April, and one of the 2d of May. I
thank you much for the pains you have taken — writing to me so carefully.
I see that you forget me not. Believe me, I think continually of you.
Very long it seems, since I beheld you ; and what afflicts me most is the
slight prospect I have of seeing you soon. Afiairs go ill for the Palatinate.
If the King of Sweden could remain there, with the aid of God he would
soon lower the pride of the Spaniard."
Already in these letters raay be perceived syraptoras of
the political coquetry between Wallenstein, the Iraperialist
general, and the Swedes, which afterwards led to the death
of that noted character at Egra. A strong reason kept
Wallenstein frora proceeding further. His astrologer, Seni,
had foretold to hira " that the good fortune of Gustavus
Adolphus would leave hira in the ensuing Noveraber ! " '¦
When touching on this subject, Frederic, after involving
himself in ciphers, to which his beloved consort only had
the key, continues : —
" I dare not write all — it would be too dangerous ; that is why I only
mention events already past. The King of Sweden is still much incon
venienced with the rosse [St Antony's fire], but he is recovering ; he can
walk and mount on horseback. He is a brave prince ; no one can be trou
bled with ennui near him. God preserve him to us ! I am very glad that
my letters have arrived so well, and that the portraits that I sent you by
the Count de Solms have given you pleasure. You are much obliged to
the king your brother [Charles I.] for the cession he has made you of the
heritage of your grandmother." ^

1 Benger. * Bromley Letters.

150 ELIZABETH STUART.
This was the personal property of the mother of Anne of
Denmark, who was mother of Charles I. and Elizabeth. She
had died very rich, and her wealth being divided between
her descendants, Charles I. had relinquished his portion to
his distressed sister. Frederic glances somewhat contemp
tuously on the proceedings of his brother, Louis Philip,
Duke of Sirameren, who, having complied with the tolera
tions which Gustavus Adolphus chose should be observed
on the Rhine, had received back his smaU appanage.
" I am not sorry Simraeren is not with me. 1 believe that he will
follow the wife of the King of Sweden. You have heard of the death
of Count Tillyi and of the poor Marquis of Baden, both ou the same
day. Alteringer,2 they say, is there. I am glad that I have enlight
ened thee as to the false reports raised. I wish [and then he enumer
ates some ciphers which stand for his personal attendants] that these
had as much good sense as fidelity ; I should then be well served. I am
rejoiced at the happy accouchement of the Princess of Orange [Amelia de
Solms]. Tell her as much ou my part, and that I wish that at the end of
a year she may be the mother of a son.' How earnestly do I desire that
but for one only day I could have the power of being in the circle with
which you are surrounded ! Tell me, I entreat, you, whether the nephew
of him you know of is always in the same odd humour as formerly. I am
astonished that Brutus has not come with the Countess of Loewenstein."
Thus Elizabeth's "wise widow" had safely arrived at
the Hague, but accompanied by some attendant, four-
footed or otherwise, the absence of whom had been noted
in the letters Frederic had received from his consort. He
proceeds : —
" I assure you that I rejoice extremely to see that the king yom'
brother testifies so much affection for you, and that Nethersole assures me
that he is satisfied with me. God knows that I should be grieved to dis
please him, or to forget, above all, the benefits we have received from him."
Amidst a cloud of ciphers regarding the political
treaties embroiled by Sir Harry Vane, Frederic wishes
that Nethersole, the faithful secretary of Elizabeth, was
resident rainister for Charles I. in his place, for the nego
tiation with Gustavus Adolphus.
' The Imperialist general defeated on the Lech. He had never prospered
since his atrocious abuse of his victory at Magdeburg.
^ An Imperialist general familiar to the readers of Wallenstein.
' She was so, afterwards : her son was the son-in-law of Charles 1.

ELIZABETH STUART. 151
One of his own officers had left him with a very bad grace,
yet expected to step Into some place vacant in the Hague
residence. " But of this," pursues Frederic, " 1 wholly disapprove. A brother
and sister iu the same house, of their humour would permit nothing to
go on well. You would very soon be deserted, and you know not how he
would quit. I believe it would be better to leave the place vacant some
little time. I am very glad to hear that Rupert is in your good graces,
and that Charles does so well — certes they are thrice dear to me in conse
quence. May God make me so happy as to have the power of beholding
you all once more ! Pray, make my baisemains to Madame la Princesse de
Bouillon and to our Queen, Madame Orange. I am very vexed that her son
has not made his appearance yet ! I hope by the time you receive this the
Prince of Orange wdl be off on his campaigu. Just as I wrote this the
Marquess of Hamilton has arrived, and with him Home, who has brought
me your dear letter. I have before seen the cession of the King your
brother [of the Danish legacy}. He testifies for you much affection ; much
it rejoices me, but still more to see yours in your wish that it should be
employed in my beneflt. I know not how to thank you enough, but 1
vish that this heritage should be for you alone. Let it be put out at use,
and with the income pay your debts by instalments. I desire nothing of
you but that you love me always as much as I love you. No absence, you
may be well assured, can chUl my love for you, which is very perfect.
" I wish your daughter might become very beautiful, and that I could
ind some good match for her. Count Maurice ' will not be very well
pleased to have the Count of Hauau for rival ; I think that neither one
nor the other will have her, but that Mr Hautin reserves her for his

All this is the playfulness in which the fond parent in
dulges when his thoughts rest on the dear ones at home.
His daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, was then advancing
to womanhood, and the suitors he mentions are some of
those ancient ones with which girls of thirteen are some
times joked for the amusement of seeing the airs they
give theraselves. By " Mr Hautin " he probably means
Hawtayne, as an English gentleman of that family was in
the service of the Queen of Bohemia at the Plague, and his
son afterwards was tutor to Williara III.
In the course of this long family letter, Frederic an
nounces to Elizabeth that he has arrived at Munich : —
' Count Maurice of Nassau, often confounded with his relative the cele
brated Prince Maurice the Stadtholder.
2 Bromley Letters.

152 ELIZABETH STUART.
" I am now come with the King of Sweden to the fine seat of my good
cousin. The Marquess of Hamilton admires it much, saying that he never
saw anything more beautiful. He [Max of Bavaria] has carried off the best
of his precious things, but has left many very fine ones not so easy to be
removed : but even if that were the case, I would none of them."
This magnanimous feeling which disdained the acquisi
tions of the mUitary plunderer was the more noble, he-
cause his own Heidelberg, with all Its marvels of art
and antiquity, had been mercUessly plundered, and tlien
left to the devastating Spaniards by Duke Max. Frederic
was seen to smile mournfully and shake his head, when he
read his own narae on sorae of the cannon at Munich,
captured formerly from Duke Christian.
" The King of Sweden is iu doubt," pursues Frederic, " if this cau be
maintained ; as a military station, it is well situated. If they have but
time it might be made good, and something has already been commenced
It is a delicious site, with every sort of game, and convenient for ever;f
description of sporting. Yesterday I commenced this letter, 1 finish it to
to-day." 1
The improved spirits apparent in this most Interesting
letter to his EUzabeth were soon damped in the mind
of the unhappy Frederic by the violent passion his pro
tector Gustavus Adolphus put himself into at Munich ; hut
it was with one who doubtless well deserved It, being the
diplomat Vane. The royal Swede stormed so furiously at
this treacherous person that he thought It necessary to
apologise for his violence, by lamenting, when his passion
subsided, " that when irritated something seemed to rush to
his head which took away all command over what he said
and did " — a humiliating confession for one of the master
Intellects of his day ; but probably connected with the
" rosse," or St Antony's fire, with which the hero had been
afflicted in his raarch.
" I am glad that all is well again," = wrote Elizabeth herself to Vane;
" I know that the King of Sweden himself is sorry for it when his choler
is past. It is a great pity that he is so subject to that, he hath so many
other good parts. I pray you make the best of all. Remember his good
actions, and forget his words."

1 Bromley. Endorsed, "From Munich, May 7/17, 1632."
^ State-Paper MS.

ELIZABETH STUART. 153
EUzabeth, notwithstanding the mischief that the attack
on Bavaria did the cause of her husband and the Pala
tinate, does not imitate Frederic's mournful magnanimity,
but Indulges in a few notes of exultation over the dis
comfiture of their faraily foe, Duke Max. She confesses
" that of all raen she does not pity the Duke of Bavaria, as
the King of Sweden only pays hira In the coin he lent us!"
Gustavus Adolphus, before he left Munich, one day at
dinner told his guest the King of Bohemia, " that as they
were dining at Munich, hopes might be entertained that
they should soon sup at Heidelberg." Yet Heidelberg and
Frankenthal were still occupied by Spanish garrisons, and
at every report of the successes of Gustavus Adolphus,
the soldiers committed fresh outbursts of mischief. They
were particularly active in smashing that marvel of the
Boheraian glass-workers' art, Elizabeth's beautiful suite called
the Glasen Salle, at Heidelberg, which had been finished
with such care and cost for her by her loving consort.
In the raiddle of June the Swedes had returned to the
Rhine, capturing Donauwert and other garrison towns
thereon. In the midst of this career news came that the
Elector of Saxony had lost Prague. Away went Gustavus
Adolphus to his support, and Frederic, in his letter to
Elizabeth of June 7/17, from Nuremberg, announces his
intention of following the royal Swede towards Prague —
" to see," he says, " what God would send for ray good."
But if reUgious politics would not suffer him to be re
instated In his Palatinate, where his kind good subjects
were all yearning to receive him, anxious withal to go the
sarae way In religion as himself. It was not likely he could
keep his seat for a month in a city where the Lutheran and
the Calvinist hated each other more deadlily than they did
their comraon enemy the Roman Catholics, who, moreover,
had the predominance. However, Frederic diverges into a
much more pleasant subject, one which often occurs In his
letters to his consort, being a criticisra on female beauty.
" I have seen here your cousin, the wife of Duke Auguste [of Saxony].
I supped yesterday with her. This is a good princess ; she has a fine com
plexion : as to the rest of her there is little enough, and that but ordinary.

154 ELIZABETH STUART.
Just at this minute two of your letters are come, those of the 1st and 3d
of June. I rejoice in the happy progress of the Prince of Orange.
Frederic complains of the arrogance of Vane, and that
he had sent him "a most Imperious letter, which, he was quite
sure, did not express the intentions of Charles I." Then
after a puzzle of ciphers, the development of which would
only bring the crabbed product of politics, he adds, —
" I should be very glad to have the portraits of my children. I wish
they could be transmitted safely ; until now the posts have gone well.
Yesterday I saw the old Margravine of Anspach, who is at Luneburg.
Simon serves me well ; so do my other valets-de-chambre ; but my lackeys
are good for nothing. Riches, I see, come in quick march on Cromwell;'
he cannot do better than marry the widow.
" I hope this journey to see Madame my mother."
That he never did ; for, in anticipation of worse times than
had yet befallen her faraily, the Electress Juliana had with
drawn to the protection of the King of Poland.
Gustavus Adolphus had placed his camp before Nurem
berg, throwing up trenches to fortify It as his headquar
ters. The Swedish queen's ambulating court was in that
ancient city, and from Nuremberg the letters of Frederic
are dated in the midsuraraer of 1632.^
" I have received," he writes to Elizabeth, " your letter of July 1st, and
I rejoice to hear of your health and that of my children. If the Prmce
of Orange takes Maestricht, Spanish afi'airs will be in a bad state. We
bave the army of the Duke of Freidland [Wallenstein] and the Duke of
Bavaria very near us here. Yesterday they took Swabach, which is but
two leagues from us. I do not believe they will attack us here, the army
is so well intrenched. I hope their army will waste away in this country,
where there is so little sustenance. This of the King of Sweden augments
on all sides. Yesterday I was with him as far as Swabach, with most of
the cavalry, in the direction of the enemy's march. Four companies were
despatched towards us ; they fired, but did not engage ; so we returned
without doing anything. To-morrow I believe they will come near us
here. That renders the highways very insecure, and I fear that your
letters and mine would have been intercepted if Duke Freidland [Wallen
stein] had not had the good feeling to send them on. I have always heard
that he was esteemed for his courtesy ; he has always acted thus honourably
towards my sister the Electress of Brandenburg. This evening Bercka
has arrived ; he has been a long while on tbe road. . . . The King of
Sweden the day before yesterday broke Colonel Hebron, and has given

' Not Oliver. ° Bromley.

ELIZABETH STUART. 155
his regiment to one who was his lieutenant-colonel, who calls himself
Phul. I am very sorry for it, for Hebron ' was a brave man, though a
little obstinate, which has caused this disaster. 1 dare not enter into
particulars. " If the enemy comes, the battle will be in the style of Amadis de
Gaul, for the ladies will be on the towers to see how they combat. The
Marquis de Culmbach with his eldest son is arrived here ; his wife came
within a day's journey, but dared not proceed because of the insecurity of
the roads. 1 fear that I shall not receive the remainder of my children's
portraits." No battle took place. Wallenstein and Duke Max of
Bavaria reraained within a league of the Swedish trenches,
these two coraraanders hating each other too much to join
heartily against the Swede. Meanwhile Wallenstein threw
out many tokens of good-wiU, which were probably raeant
for conciUation to the elect o^ his native country, the titular
King of Bohemia.
It had been well for Frederic if he had acquired hardi
hood as a soldier in some such campaigns before he accepted,
in his Inexperienced youth, a crown which required more
than ordinary human might to uphold. Amidst his failing
health and spirits he now betrays no pusUlaniraity, although
often the corapanion of the dashing sorties of the heroic
Swede. He still writes to Elizabeth from the trenches be
fore Nuremberg. In his letter of July 23, he says, — ^
" These slaughterings and burnings please me not. 1 was yesterday at
the Margravine of Anspach ; there I saw also the widow of Count Hans
Wilhelm. I do not find her at all changed. All these ladies wish much
to see you in Germany. God send that might be very soon. Meantime
you are convinced that I love you with all my heart, and that my thoughts
are continually on you. I have not had this week any of your letters.
I fear that they are intercepted with the portraits of my two girls, whom I
wish well married."
At the end of July, Frederic continues to write frora the
trenches before Nuremberg ; he still dwells on the chivalric
friendliness shown by Wallenstein, on whose mysterious
history these neglected letters cast some light. Let us re
member that that great war-chief was Bohemian born, and
always In a state of antagonism with the ecclesiastics of
^ There is reason to suppose that Hebron was Hepburn, a Scotchman
in the service of Sweden. ' Bromley Letters.

156 ELIZABETH STUART.
the Roman Catholic Church. Then his coquetries with the
opposite array becorae not difficult for the historian to con
strue, whose raental eye can steadily view the present and
past of the Thirty Years' War, and all their clashing com
binations of circumstance and character.
Elizabeth had left the Hague for the hunting-seat of
Rhenen, where she betook herself to hunting as if for her
daily sustenance. The camp broke up before Nuremberg,
for Wallenstein moved off without coraing to blows. In
Septeraber, Frankfort was again the rallying-place, and
Frederic writes from thence to EUzabeth, saying, —
" Your dear letter of the 23d of September has, happily, reached me this
morning. I am glad to see you pass your time so well at the chase. Be
lieve me, I much wish to be with you, but my ill fortune permits it not
yet. You will see by the paper annexed wbat the King of Sweden has
declared, which is no such great affair. It is translated from the Latin. I
am enough inconvenienced, having no secretary."
From which It may be inferred that Frederic had trans
lated and transcribed It himself. Latin was the best me
dium that Gustavus Adolphus could use for communication
with the various peoples of Europe. As to Swedish, he might
as well have spoken his mind in Chinese.
" I sent Dingen," continues Frederic, " to him [Gustavus Adolphus],
praying him to rest content with my preceding declaration, or restore my
country, as he had done to my brother. If he will do neither one nor the
other, I know not what I ought to do. Yesterday I dined at Hanau with
the Landgrave, and Madame his wife. She much wished to see you m
Germany." These repeated messages prove that EUzabeth was always
distant from this celebrated campaign of Gustavus Adolphus.
Amelia, Landgravine of Hesse, mentioned here, was the
niece of Frederic's mother, Juliana. He often speaks of
her with great praise ; but so far from lauding her beauty,
like her partisans, he pronounces on her the sentence of
ugliness, but allows her admirable quaUties. Frederic takes
care to inform his consort " that Frankfort fair is nothing,"
his econoray being needfully great, and her desire for
fairings chUdishly eager. She vainly sent her husband
coraraissions for purchases at Frankfort spring fair, and had
teased Vane for fairings.

ELIZABETH STUART. 157
" I thank you," she wrote to him, " for your wine, aud will be no less
grateful for your fairings, the Princess of Orauge, my Lady Strange, and
I, having provided some for you out of the great Kirch-mass Fair of this.
country. Them you would have had by my little monkey [young Sir
Jacob Astley], if he had gone that way ; but now we must stay for a sure
messenger, because such precious things must not fall into the enemy's
hands." Frankfort auturan fair had been long celebrated as the
greatest raart of books in the whole world, and these would
have been fairings worthy the gay Queen's acceptance and
of her learned consort's purchase — he who travelled to the
wars with eight cases of books among his baggage. Yet It
is only too probable that the German booksellers eschewed
unfolding their treasures at the headquarters of the invad
ing Swede.
An unusual passage occurs in this letter' to Elizabeth.
Her husband finds it necessary to find fault with her : —
" I am astonished that you did not lodge Dingle sooner in the Com-
manderie, where he would have had room enough, rather than so near your
daughter and the women's quarters at the Hague. He might well have
contented himself with the chamber Ashburnham had. You know well
my mind as to that, and that I hate to give rise to gossip ; likewise, I well
know your disposition, who can never say " no " or refuse any request. I
expend much in this country without advancing my affairs ; but nothing
grieves me so much to see, as the miserable state of my poor subjects. May
God change all for the best, and render me so happy as to restore you to
me. When you have read the articles, I pray you send them to Maurice"
[not his young son, but a confidential agent whom he had left in charge of
his affairs.] ^ " The Marquess of Hamilton," he announces to Elizabeth, " is
just departed for England, where I hope for his good offices about the
King ; he has always manifested strong attachment in everything concerning
us. At my parting from him I gave him the George that you gave to me.
I was convinced you could not deem it better bestowed. He requested
that I would give him my portrait to put behiud it. I send you here the
measure, I pray you let it be executed in petit peintitre [miniature]. Mau
rice will pay.
"lam little obliged to Dupont, who has squandered for me two thousand
florins in France ; but I fancy I owe that malefaction to his wife. I am on .
the eve of departure for Altsheim.' A defluxion has fallen on my left ear,
which impedes my hearing. God send it may not be worse. I shall put
myself under regimen of diet at Altsheim for some days, to see what good

^ Bromley Letters, October 2, new style, 1632.
2 Probably his kinsman. Count Maurice of Nassau, whom he often men
tions as in immediate communication with his family at the Hague.
3 Or Altzy, a town with a strong castle iu the Palatinate.

158 ELIZABETH STUART.
that may do me. Here they are under great alarm of Pappenheim ; but I
will hope he cannot effect much, winter being so near at hand. But the
Counts of Wittera will hare to famish, I fear. How I wish you near me. I
shall be sadly dull at Altsheim, where I shall be utterly solitary ; but I will
not fail to write to you every week, for my thoughts are continually upon
you.i I am now getting iuto my coach, going to Oppenheim this evening."
A few days afterwards he wrote very sorrowfully from
Altsheim, having been infinitely depressed by the sight of
his ruined country. Most historians give the sapient verdict
that the death of Gustavus Adolphus broke the heart of
Frederic, Palatine of the Ehine and King of Bohemia:
surely it would have been better first to have examined his
own evidence on the state of his affections.
" If the King of Sweden had had the will to do it, my Palatinate might
long have been delivered from men-at-arms. But were any towns ever tor
mented like mine 1 It seems long, indeed, since I heard from you. Maurice
sends me word that Charles has the small-pox ; that gives me uneasiness.
God grant that you may all be preserved by His grace, and make me so
happy as to have the sight of you soon." ^
Frederic, soon after, is heard of at Mentz, which was not
a site like to cure his illness — being seated at the confluence
of the Maine and the Rhine ; from thence he visited his
brother, the Duke of Simraeren. Here he raet his excel
lent sister Charlotte, Electress of Brandenburg, whose hus
band had great reason to pray for the Protestant champion,
Gustavus — " Preserve us from our friends ! " They pro
bably came as suppliants to Mentz, which he had seized
from the ecclesiastical Elector, and rendered subject to his
banner. The Electress Charlotte sent a remerabrance to
Elizabeth, which Frederic despatched with the foUowing
pretty little billet : —
" Mon tres oher Cceur, — The Baron de Rupa goes to see you, and I would
make this accompany him, although I wrote you but yesterday. I send
you, by him, a little agate coffer that my sister the Duchess has prayed

' Endorsed, " From Frankfort, September 26 to October 6," new style-
Bromley. 2 Dated September 20 to October 1 0 — D'A Isace ; but the editor of Brom-
ley Letters has mistaken place and date of the year. The circumstances
Frederic mentions rectify the last; and the town of Altsheim, on the river
Altzy, near Frankenthal, should have been the date of place.

ELIZABETH STUART. 159
me to send to you, and little "gouppes'' on the part of her husband. I
believe if they had had anything better they would willingly have offered
it to you. Believe me I love you entirely, and that my thoughts are on
you perpetually, and that I shall be all my life, my dear only heart, your
very faithful friend, an,d very affectionate servitor, " Fkederio."
"De Mayence, 20/30 October, 1632." '
There were circumstances connected with the family-
meeting of the Princes of the Palatine family, joined by
Frederic at Mentz, which he did not coraraunicate to his
high-spirited Elizabeth ; but which sorely vexed his own
broken spirit. It was there that Gustavus Adolphus gave
him, as his ultimatum, the terras of holding the Palatinate
in vassalage to hira. Such degradation was little softened
by the unfolding of the plans of Gustavus Adolphus, who
airaed at being the Emperor of Protestant Gerraany.^ It
was but the very day before the great battle of Lutzen that
Frederic, then at Mentz, wrote the following letter to
Elizabeth, dated Noveraber 5/15, 1632:—
" Your letter was happily received by me on Saturday evening. It is
my best satisfaction here that the posts have returned to their punctu
ality, and that I have often your news. I am glad you have seen your
countryman, and you did well to write to me. By him I know you have
sent my portrait to the Marquess of Hamilton, from whom I have not
heard since we parted."
He then enters Into a passage of ciphered politics : from
it raay be gathered that her dower-castle of Frankenthal
had agreed to surrender to hira.
" I have received the portrait of Philip [his fifth son]. 1 think it im
proved, but it seems to me too old. Beningsley serves our children well ;
no one can be more fit for this charge. I have sent two agates to Clitscher
to make them cut into two Georges. I pray you hand to him the enclosed
billet, from which he will understand my intentions ; and if he does not
understand French, explain it to him. As for the pages you mention, I
have no vacant place. The French are very dirty, and I cannot augment
my numbers. 1 hope the Duchess of Lansperg will find this excuse legiti
mate. Do not put yourself in pain ; there is no danger to be feared for me

' Bromley Letters.
^ Spanheim's Life of Juliana. Frederic Spanheim was born at Amberg,
iu the High Palatinate, iu 1603, an eyewitness of events. He died in 1649,
having been theologian Professor at Leyden. He wrote an eulogistic
memoir of his sovereign's mother, the Dowager-Electress Juliana, his
friend and co-religionist. He may be depended upou in all matters uncon
nected with religious politics.

160 ELIZABETH STUART.
here. You must have heard of the taking of Leipsio. The King of Sweden
and his army are in that direction. God send him the happy success he
has had heretofore ; but all depends on the Almighty's will." ^
After being admitted Into the sanctuary of the thoughts of
Elizabeth and Frederic by means of the foregoing corre
spondence, we can scarcely give them credit for the distress
and dismay which some writers seem to think it was decent
they should raanifest for the death of the Swedish hero by
the Gre,at Stone of Lutzen — it certainly relieved them from
the humiliating idea of holding the Palatinate In vassalage
to hira. The actual syraptoras of feeling shown by Elizabeth
were a very early and active anxiety for her husband's
interest. She lost no time In writing to her brother, Charles
I., to transfer the allowance which It seems he had
agreed to pay to the Lutheran charapion, to her husband,
as her arabition so far mastered her judgraent that she ab
solutely fancied that her broken-spirited Frederic could step
Into the generalship of the Protestant arraies In the place of
the slain hero, who was not only hero, but the greatest
general of his day. Charles I. agreed to the suggestions ot
his sister, and gave suitable Instructions to his diplomat
Elphinstone ^ thereon ; but an event was at hand which
altered all these arrangeraents, and provided the weary
head of Frederic with rest. As dictator of armies com
posed of three adverse religionists, troubles would have
corae upon hira indeed in battalions.
The plague was raging in Frankenthal, which place had
agreed to surrender to Frederic, November 12. It was
reported in Mentz that he had taken the plague; but his
secretary Curtius, to whora he gave audience in bed, reports
that he mentioned the plague story to him, and treated it
as an idle rumour, showing him a swelling In his neck, and
teUing him " when It burst he should be weU." It may be
remembered that he mentions to his wife a swelling which
came behind his ear, affecting his hearing, to medicate which
illness he had retired to Altsheim. He had not been well
since the day of severe cavalry service, when he gave personal
1 Bromley Letters, November 5/15, 1632.
2 State-Paper MS.

ELIZABETH STUART. 161
assistance in the raid of Gustavus Adolphus, to clear the
Nureraberg roads of the Croats. Soleran service was per
formed in the Dora-Church at Mentz on account of the
recent victories. All the city flocked thither, and Frederic,
tired of his sick-roora, would join the congregation. Two
counts, his cousins, dined with hira. After service bis head
becarae very painful ; but he attended to business, and ar
ranged the garrison which was to enter Frankenthal on his
part, as the Spanish coraraander had surrendered. He was
much agitated at finding that Bannier and Oxenstiern, the
Swedish regents, insisted on the same terms of toleration for
the Lutherans for which their royal master had stipulated.
Yet as King Gustavus Adolphus could no longer claim vas
salage frora the raonarch of the Rhine, his affairs were
clearly in a far better state. However this may be, a
change for the worse rapidly took place in the health of the
unfortunate Frederic. He fancied he heard the voice of his
loved and lost Henry calUng " Father ! father ! come tome,
father ! " in the piteous tones that rang on his ear through
the dismal frost-fog of Haarlem Meer.' All his attendants
were struck with horror at this revelation. One or two who
had common sense, declared their master delirious with the
fever, and sent in haste to his kind relatives the Prince and
Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt for Dr Peter Spina, the physician
of their household. This intelUgent raan could not arrive
until Noveraber 26. He found the royal patient alarra-
Ingly ill ; his brain wandering ; the whites of the eyes red,
and he was withal so weak that to reduce these symptoms
would exhaust life itself. Other swellings were apparent
on his person, which were considered plague-spots. The
treatraent of Dr Peter Spina restored the reason of the
unfortunate Frederic, who had refreshing sleep, and woke,
believing that the crisis of his IUness had passed, and insjisted
on writing a few lines to his dear consort, to tell her the
good news, adding, " that if he might but live to see her
once raore he should die content." His extreme weaknes.s,
nevertheless, extinguished all hope, and on the 29th of
' Spanheim.
VOL. VIII. L

162 ELIZABETH STUART.
November his final hour was plainly approaching. His
last words are preserved by Spanheim, his mother's religious
minister, and his own subject. " In dying," he expressed
his conviction " that the States of Holland, and Prince
Henry their Stadtholder, would not withdraw their protec
tion from the dear Princess his consort, whom he had com
mitted to their care ; and that from Charles I. she would
continue to receive proofs of fraternal affection. As to
hiraself, she would only lose one whose chief merit had been
that she had constantly been the dearest object in his exist
ence." To his children he left an exhortation to remain firm
in the Protestant faith, and obedience to their mother. To
all his relatives he sent some affectionate reraembrance.
But with his very last thoughts, and even araid his very
last prayers, the narae of EUzabeth was tenderly mingled.''
Frederic expired In the Castle of Mentz ^ about seven in
the evening of Noveraber 29, 1632, new style, with calmness
and devotion. Sorrow at witnessing the miseries of his
loving subjects had brought his days to an end in the meri
dian of life, for he was but in the thirty-sixth year of his
age. The fortress of Frankenthal was not given up by the
Infanta's troops until the third day after Frederic had ex
pired. It received hira dead, though not living, for he was
interred In the Dom-KIrk ; at which time it was taken
possession of by the Duke of Sirameren, as adrainistrator for
Charles Louis his nephew, whose affairs he was to manage
during his minority. About two years afterwards, when
this unlucky Frankenthal again fell under the power ofthe
Imperialists, the Duke of Simraeren reraoved his brother's
coffin to the burial-place of his relatives, the Bouillons, at
Sedan, on account of the outrages the Roraan Catholic
troops had comraitted at Heidelberg in the place of inter
ment of the ancient Palatine princes. There the remains
of the hapless Frederic at last found rest in a world whieh
had afforded him none when living, and with difficulty per
mitted it in death. Sedan was the abode of his earliest
years, and where he received his education.
^ Spanheim. s n^i^

ELIZABETH STUART

CHAPTEE VI.
SUMMAEY
News of ber widowhood broken to Elizabeth by the Prince of Orange — Her
surprise and agony — Charles I. entreats her to visit him — She pleads her
duty to her children in excuse — Leaves her sick-bed and assumes widow's
garb to receive Lord Arundel — Charles I.'s bounty to her and her
children — Elizabeth's loving letters to him — Her warm gratitude — Her
eldest son's disposition — Her daughter's accomplishments — Elizabeth
tempted by Richelieu and Charnasse to betray her brother — Her noble
reply — Charles I. invites her sons to England — She sends the young
Elector and Rupert — Rupert intended for a leader of emigration by
Charles I. — Elizabeth forbids it — Uladislaus, King of Poland, asks the
hand of her daughter Elizabeth — Elizabeth's partiality for her eldest son
— Differences between her and her eldest daughter — The young Elector's
letters to his mother — Scandals circulated by her maid Mrs Crofts and
Lady Carlisle — Elizabeth fears for her son Rupert's religion — Queen Hen
rietta tries to make him Roman Catholic — Elizabeth wishes him to fight
against the Emperor — Forbids his voyage to the East Indies — Her letter
agaiust colonising — Death of the Emperor Ferdinand II. — Elizabeth
receives Marie de Medicis — Tired of her company at the Hague — Dreads
her visit for Charles I. — Elector and Rupert lose the battle of Lippe —
Rupert and Lord Craven taken by the Imperialists — Elizabeth wishes
Rupert dead rather than prisoner — Repents her wish — Her indifference
to Lord Craven^Maurice, Edward, and Philip sent by her to Paris to
learn graces — Elector gets into prison at Vincennes — Great trouble of
Elizabeth — Richelieu puts under restraint her other sons — Return of the
young Elector to England — His meanness and ingratitude to Charles I.
— Suddeu return of Rupert to his mother — He and Maurice sent to
fight for Charles I. by their mother — Cavalier ballad in which she is
mentioned — Death of her youngest child Gustaf.
Elizabeth was by no raeans prepared for the blow that
awaited her. Frora the last letter written to her by her
unfortunate consort, she had derived no Idea of his danger ;

164 ELIZABETH STUART.
her sanguine and hopeful temperament anticipated nothing
worse than a return in triumph to Frankenthal. Every
hour she expected the announcement that her Frederic
would corae to reinstate her, as before. In the beautiful
dominions they had forsaken in an evil hour for the empty
title of royalty. She was ill with the intermittent fever
which had raged along the Rhine that wet and sickly sea
son. The old family physician, Dr Rumpf, who had long
been domesticated at the Hague with the Palatine, was
the person deputed to break the tidings of her bereave
ment, Dr Spina having written a narrative letter to him,^
detailing the particulars of the event. Rumpf called to
his aid the Countess of Solms, mother to the Princess of
Orange, and, at last, the Prince himself. Her reception of
the dreadful truth was such as to make these old and valued
friends ^ of Elizabeth believe her life was in danger. Months
afterwards she herself described her own sufferings, declar
ing — " that it seemed to take away her faculties, although
not her sense of raisery, and that she remained for three
days chill and silent, unable to speak or weep."^ Her sym
pathising friends, the Prince of Orange and the Countess
Solms, wrote piteously of her sad state to her brother, Charles
I, whose affectionate letter, written only ten days after the
fatal event, was the first thing that afforded her the slightest
solace. Her faithful secretary, Francis Nethersole, was the
bearer of the King's letter. So anxious was Charles that it
should reach her hands speedily, that he provided Nethersole
with passports frora various ports, that he raight embark
where the wind served best to the Hague. Charles invited
her tenderly to England, entreating her to set out the mo
ment she was able.* Meantime he prepared for her reception
her former residences, the Cockpit of Whitehall, and his
palace at Elthara.^ The afflicted Queen, when sufficiently
recovered, wrote to her brother a long letter in reply to
1 State-Paper MS., November 20/30, 1632— Peter Spina to Dr Rumpf.
Sir Thomas Roe's Correspondence in Germany— Letter from Elizabeth
of Bohemia. State- Paper MS. 'Ibid.
* Archives of France, Arsenal, Paris. The letter and the answer have
been translated for the information of Richelieu.
s Harleian MS.— Pory to Sir Thomas Puckering.

ELIZABETH STUART. 165
this affectionate Invltation.l She tells him that " his mes
sengers, Boswell and Nethersole, found her the raost afflicted
creature this world ever held, having lost the best friend
she had in it, in whom her joy and affections were so en- ¦
tirely centred that glad she should be to be at rest by
him, were It not for his helpless children ; and further, the
great kindness she received from so dear a brother, made
her wish to live to aid them."
The invitation to England, for which she had vainly longed
in her father's tirae, she declines as inconsistent with the
Gerraan etiquette of widowhood, which forced her to seclude
herself several weeks in her chamber ; and for her children's
sake, she resolved to observe rigorously the customs of their
country. She requests her brother to observe the strange
coincidence that, though IU of the same intermittent fever
that carried off her husband, yet, it being her dear brother's
birthday, November 19th (old style), she was writing to
hira, the subject being the King of Sweden's death (whora,
by the way, she naraed without the least expression of
regret), when Nethersole desired an interview with her
to coraraunicate Charles I.'s desire to see her in England,
an invitation that her brother had sent previously, thinking
dangerous tiraes would be at hand for women and children
after the death of the Swedish champion. On this very
day her husband breathed his last, as she recalls to her
brother's remerabrance. Again she expresses her regret "that
she cannot corae to hira in England, because it becarae very
needful to exert herself for the restoration of her son to the
Palatinate, and she raust prefer the welfare of her children
to her own happiness ; adding that the last request their
father raade her at parting was for her ' to do her utraost for
thera ; ' and now she loved thera raore because they were
his children than because they were her own. After thanking
her brother for sending her a person so esteeraed by her as
Nethersole, the only one she could have conferred with In
her desolate state, and who carries back her answer, she bids
Charles I. require of hira the particulars of how kind the
' Archives of France — MS. in French for Richelieu.

166 ELIZABETH STUART.
Prince of Orange was to her, and how much attached that
faithful friend was to him." And good reason had the
Prince of Orange to be so, for Charles L had incurred the
deadly malice of Richelieu by protecting Holland from his
power.^ King Charles had just before received a letter frora
Leyden,^ written by Elizabeth's eldest surviving son, the
young Elector Palatine, to whose signature was added those
of his three younger brothers studying at the University
with him. The words were siraple and touching, remind
ing the King " that they had hitherto been brought up by
his bounty, and that, now God had taken from them their
dear lord and father, they had no protector but him, to
whose gracious arras they coraraitted theraselves, having no
hope In this world greater than belonging to his royal
blood." Eupert, Maurice, and Edward, joined their names
to this supplication. To which Charles replied, " that the
place of their father could be supplied, since he would fiU it ;
but he had irreparably lost a dear brother."
Elizabeth had for sorae time confided her eldest son to Sir
John Dineley as governor, and her younger ones to the charge
of her forraer page, her little monkey. Sir Jacob Astley. Dur
ing the acuteness of her grief Dineley wrote frequently to her
old friend. Sir Thomas Roe, in which he uses this emphatic
comparison, " Her Majesty, the most afflicted of women,
and yet the greater for her trials, hath passed through fire
and water, sighs and tears, though not without some marks
of her agony." ^ Wasted, indeed, with grief and sickness,
she, for the first time, left her chamber and her bed-wrap
pers, and assumed her sable garb of widowhood, in order to
receive the solemn erabassy sent by her brother nominally
for condolence, but really for the better arrangement of
her affairs. Lord Arundel, the Premier Peer of England,
her early friend, was this ambassador ; he brought with
him a train of one hundred and fifty persons.
A consultation took place on the private and public
> Sir 'William Temple. ^ State Papers.
' State Papers, Feb. 14— Sir John Dineley to Sir T. Roe.

ELIZABETH STUART. 167
affairs ofthe Palatine family, in which Lord Arundel assisted
Elizabeth. The allowance that Charles I. had hitherto
awarded to thera he agreed to continue. It was In arrears,
which he paid towards the liquidation of their debts. Twenty
thousand pounds per annura was the sum he paid to his
sister and her chUdren, chiefly from his own estates, as long
as he was able to draw any revenue from them. Notwith
standing the troubles in which Frederic had been involved,
he left the account of his affairs a pattern of that order for
which the German character is noted. Seventy thousand
pounds lay in the Amsterdara Bank towards the provision
of his younger children, the fruits of the sale of one of the
appanage properties belonging to the younger branches of
his line. But his own olive branches were so very nuraer
ous, that provision, according to their rank, was not easy to
make, even If all had been prosperous In the rich old cities
of the Rhine, over which his government formerly extended.
Great difficulties had been removed frora the settlement of
affairs by the death ofthe head ofthe house. The calamit
ous sceptre of Boheraia, which had been the cause of weigh
ing Frederic to the tomb, was reraoved from his son, and its
miserable title only remained with the Dowager-Queen
Elizabeth. Heidelberg had surrendered, and was given up
by the Swedes to Duke Louis PhiUp of Simraeren, and he
who had arranged his tolerations of the clashing Christian
sects to the satisfaction of the Swedes, pursued the same
course for his nephew — -an arrangement to which fanatic
objections by the sectarians at the Hague were clamorously
urged on Elizabeth, whereupon her brother-in-law threw up
his trust, with the Intimation that if they did not approve
of his raoderate policy, perhaps they would prefer the
adrainistration of the young Elector's next of kin.^ Now
this happened to be the Roraan Catholic Duke of Neu
burg, an inexorable Imperial partisan, into whose hands,
by the Gerraan law, the guardianship of the Palatine princes
' State-Paper MSS. from Jan. 1632-33 to Nov. 1633 ; likewise Span
heim, who, of course, conceals as much as possible the intolerance of his
sect.

168 ELIZABETH STUART.
must inevitably fall. Louis Philip of Simraeren knew well
the dilemma In which the Dutch fanatics were fixed. He was
obstinate in refusing his difficult guardianship ; and It was
not until the entreaties of his mother, the Electress Juliana,
were joined to those of Elizabeth that he would resume the
government of his nephew's dorainions. It foUowed that
Elizabeth's eldest son, Charles Louis, was acknowledged
as Prince of the Lower Palatinate. The doraains of the
Upper Palatinate, when his father fell under the ban of the
Empire, had been given by the Iraperial Diet to his
cousin. Max of Bavaria. War-wasted as they were, they
proved the richest gem In his electoral bonnet ; for the
Bavarian Duke had been promoted as the first Elector
in rank In the Imperial chapter, the place hitherto held by
Frederic and his ancestors.
War still raged along the Rhine. Duke Bernard of Saxe-
Weiraar was nominally considered head of the Swedish
armies ; they were in fact divided Into three, commanded
by hira. General Bannier, and General Wrangel, who acted
alraost Independently of each other, like the war-kings who,
either under the Saxon or Danish banner, once ravaged
fair England.
There was Uttle cordial co-operation between the Luther
an and the Calvinist leaders. , Henry Prince of Orange sus
tained the cause of the latter; Elizabeth's eldest son, with
his next brother, Rupert, only thirteen, entered his army
as princely volunteers, to learn the art of war. Her
younger sons reraained at Leyden, and she herself retired
with her daughters to Rhenen, where they beguiled their
griefs in the cultivation of the arts. The young Princess
Palatine, Elizabeth, under the tuition of her raother's old in
structor, Flonthorst, becarae celebrated as an amateur
artist ; her next sister, Louisa, surpassed her ; and indeed
their pieces stUl coraraand prices in Europe, not merely as
royal relics, but as fine specimens of Flemish art In por
trait-painting.' On the young Elizabeth had descended
no share of the beauty of her ancestress, Mary Stuart;
but she was renowned for her learning as well as her
Some are to be seen at Althorpe.

ELIZABETH STUART. 169
artlstical skill. Louisa was lovely in person, and very
attractive in raanners. The next sister, Henrietta Maria, a
little one about five years old, was pretty ; and the young
one, Sophia, an Infant of three years, promised to be the
handsomest of all ; her playfulness and vivacity raade her the
darling of her brother and sovereign, Charles Louis. It
was well there was some one to mollify the teraper of
that Prince, who, exasperated by evil fortunes, already
showed symptoms of those ill qualities of misanthropy and
selfishness, which afterwards pained his raother's heart
more than any of her other griefs.
Elizabeth herself was the last person In the world to
encourage the party that laid her brother's crown in the
dust, and finally took his life. Her letters of advice to
him breathe a bellicose spirit, which would have speedily
settled the civil war one way or other. Yet in England
her name had succeeded that of the unfortunate Princesses
of the House of Gray as the rallying-point of the Geneva
factions, political and religious. Many withal, young and
romantic persons growing up, were her devoted adrairers ;
persons who had no politics but their feelings, wholly dis
tinct frora the polemic agitators, who merely wanted her
name for a cry. The father of her secretary, Nethersole,
was leader in the House of Commons of a strange set of
supernaturalists of the Brownist class ; he insisted on teUing
his dreams at every sitting of the House for deliberation or
coraraittee, until he was voted a nuisance — and no wonder.
Such was the teraper of affairs when Elizabeth sent her
faithful servant, his son, on her old errand of begging
raoney frora her brother. Sir Francis Nethersole was pro
saic and obtuse to that degree that his letters and de
spatches offer a collection of the driest bones that were ever
served up to the historical reader; but he was sincere in his
loyalty to Elizabeth. Finding money scarce In the Court of
England in 1633, Nethersole took it into his head to raise
some by begging through the country in the narae of his
distressed mistress, appealing to her popularity for the
smallest donations. Charles I. considered such a proceed
ing dangerous and disgraceful, and forbade it. Nethersole

170 ELIZABETH STUART.
was contumacious before the Council Board ; was put under
arrest ; escaped to his friend the Dutch Ambassador ; and be
came the cause of a very long and dull controversy between
the Dutch and the ministers of Charles I. Elizabeth loved
her brother too well to suffer politicians to interfere between
her heart and his. Charles Invited his sister to become
godmother to his second son James, the same autumn, an
office which she always remerabered with maternal kind
ness when they afterwards raet in Holland. Her dear
godson " Tint," as she often calls him, is mentioned fre
quently in her letters.
The hopes of all her friends were awakened by move
ments In the Upper Palatinate in favour of her son, and it
was to encourage these demonstrations that Nethersole was
so eager with the begging-box in England.
The years of her eldest son's rainority passed sadly
over EUzabeth. Bitterly she continued to weep for her
lost partner, and great reason she had to regret hira as her
sons advanced towards manhood. Miserably as Germany
suffered under the scourge of the- Thirty Years' War, the
forces of the Emperor were too strong for the Lutheran
Princes and the Swedes. The latter arraies lived on the land
of friend or foe, or whatsoever they could take by force;
yet, though often victorious, they dwindled. Then Richelieu
extended his blandishraents to the Calvinists, who, under
his influence, were getting too strong for Charles I. In Great
Britain.^ He strongly terapted Elizabeth to set up her in
terest against her brother ; but the true love of the sister
proved too strong for any arabitlous ideas the cunning am
bassadors of Richelieu could suggest In her mind. Her bright
and righteous Intellect saw the motives of the French prime-
minister full clearly. From the hour which witnessed the
union of the island monarchies, every scheme — every ca
lumny human ingenuity could Invent, the French had re
course to in order to rend asunder the ties of affection which
held together the royal faraily, by whom it pleased Provi
dence to effect that beneficial event. No measure was too
' Temple. He affirms that Richelieu bribed the agitators, Pym, Hamp
den, &c.— See his works.

ELIZABETH STUART. 171
violent that would delay the dreaded time when the British
island-empire took its natural rank in Europe — the rank it
holds in the nineteenth centurj'. The French monarchy,
notwithstanding Its claim to be the eldest daughter of the
Christian Church, cared not with what wild fanatics she
fraternised, so that she could pull down the island throne.
But had every branch of the reigning family proved true-
hearted, like Elizabeth Stuart, France had sowed the seeds
of strife in vain.
Richelieu had private revenge, as well as this fixed policy
of his country, to pursue. Charles I. had supported the
party of his persecuted benefactress, Marie de Medicis, the
mother of the Queen. Taking advantage of the delivery of
the desolated Heidelberg into the hands of her son's guar
dian, the Duke of Simraeren, In which the French array,
allied with the Swedes, had sorae.personal share, Richelieu,
by his arabassador, would have lured EUzabeth secretly to
forsake all reliance on her brother, and league herself with
hira. Charnasse,'^ his agent in northern diplomacy, then at
the Hague, presented himself at one of her public days
before her saloons filled, and entered on this subject. But
EUzabeth was full of indignation, because the French had
refused to give her son his title of Elector. Charnasse
having pressed on her attention that her brother neither
would nor could give her help frora England, put the insi
dious question, " What, then, will your Majesty do ? "
" What God and my friends 'will advise me," replied the
heroine ; and, by the way, this feminine and alraost childish
answer was as appropriate as any that could have been
made to the question direct, blurted out by Charnasse.
" Why, Madarae," he replied, " if you would seek the King
ray raaster, you might have assistance and protection."
His raaster was Louis XIIL, who, though of age, was utterly
governed by the imperious Richelieu. " Since you speak
1 Hercules Baron de Charnasse, a Breton noble, envoy from Louis XIII.
to Gustavus Adolphus. He joined the functions of colonel to those of am
bassador. In the latter capacity he was killed at the siege of Breda in 1 637,
haying previously carried on negotiations with Denmark, Poland, and the
Princes of Germany. Elizabeth's eldest son speaks of him as " Colonel
Charnace," iu his letters to his mother of 1636.

172 ELIZABETH STUART.
thus," said EUzabeth, " I will tell you ray mind freely.
The King my husband, before his death, sent to the King
your master, and desired his assistance, but was altogether
neglected.' Since his death I wrote to the King your
master, as I did to all other Princes; but to this day he never
thought me worthy of an answer. Small reason have I to
trust to his help, so long as he denies the unquestionable
right and title of my son, and gives It to our mortal enemy,
a usurper ! " This was the powerful office of Elector Pala
tine and Vicar-General of the Erapire, who actually had to
govern the Erapire in any interregnura, from the decease
of one Eraperor to the election of his successor. It had
been given by the Diet to the Duke of Bavaria. No doubt
Richelieu would have been charmed at the opportunity of
molesting the German Eraperor by questioning it ; but
there are sorae private national customs which cannot be
Interfered with by potentates of the same church. " Why,
what would you have our King do?" replied Charnasse,
" he cannot raake a Gerraan Elector ! " " No, nor unmake
hira either," retorted Elizabeth. " Madarae," observed
Charnasse, " our King hath done no more than the King
your brother, who gave not your son the title of Elec
tor until he sent him the order. As for the Marquis of
Brandenburg,^ he doth not give it him yet." Charles I
only acted according to etiquette, which in this instance
was regulated by good sense, elector being rather a func
tion than a title, and not exercised by minors. He had
sent his nephew the Order of the Garter soon after he
entered his eighteenth year, on Christmas Eve, 1634.
Then the unscrupulous French negotiator took the
opportunity of pressing on Elizabeth the advantages which
would accrue to her family, If, by means of entering into
1 Several passages in Letters of Frederic to Elizabeth— Bromley Papers.
Such was the case ; and the detail is involved in that maze of ciphers of
which Elizabeth had the key. It is not particularly appropriate, where
it occurs, to her personal life.
^ Both George William and his successor Frederic 'William, called the
Great Elector of Brandeuburg, were devotedly loyal to the Emperor, which
caused them severe sufferings, until the elector gave the Swedes tremendous
reverses. They were as nearly related to Elizabeth's son as Charles by
the marriage of his father's sister, Charlotte, to George 'William.

ELIZABETH STUART. 173
alliance with France, or rather his patron, Richelieu, her
sons could successfully rival her royal brother in Eng
land. This unprincipled proposition, which in after tiraes
was not always made in vain to scions of the royal faraily
of Stuart, was met by the high-rainded Elizabeth with the
feelings to which every heart, true to the sacred cause of
faraily friendship, will respond. The French agent insinu
ated to her, In terms dark enough, excepting to persons
aajualnted with the Inner raost springs that worked the policy
of that day, " how rauch It behoved the interest of her sons
to have a strong party in England, likely to raise their cause
in opposition to their uncle and his faraily." Elizabeth in
stantly comprehended the incendiary meaning. She disdained
to reply in enigmas, but honestly, and without the possibi
Uty of mistake, said, " Rather than do anything myself, or
that ray children should in the slightest degree touch King
Charles my brother's honour [dignity], I will see them
all lie dead at my feet. And," continued Elizabeth, " if
any of them should be so degenerate as to consent to any
such thing, I will give them my curse ! " — words that fell
not In vain, as the after acts of the English tragedy can
prove. The noble-minded lady iraraediately comraunicated
this conversation with Charnasse to the envoy of her brother.
Sir William Boswell, who wrote it in his Despatches from
the Hague to Charles I.^
Notwithstanding the Calvinistic profession of the Palati
nate, and the Princes education there, the livelier spirits in
digenous to Southern Germany had retained sorae of the
arausements of the old faith, which Luther's reform, the first
established on the Rhine, had either winked at or approved.
The Carnival, for Instance, had always been kept in the
family of Elizabeth with merry and mad fun. Soraetiraes
the mumming, masking, and revelling at her abode had
rather astonished the Mynheers ; yet as the Hague was the
water-portal of Europe, and being used to the customs of
many nations, the said Mynheers had not objected. But
this year a mask of Yagers, performed by the young Elector
1 State-Papers, March 29, 1635. To form an accurate notion of this date,
it must be remembered that, but four days previously, it was 1634-35.

174 ELIZABETH STUART.
Palatine and his brothers Rupert, Maurice, and Edward,
their songs, dances, hallooing, and other jovialties, happened
so inopportunely, as perfectly to enrage a solemn body of
EngUsh puritans just come frora their own country with a
godly condolence, to see how the insinuations of Charnasse
had worked In the mind of their King's sister. And some
other puritans in EUzabeth's service joined In condemning
the wickedness of the young Elector, Charles Louis, and his
brethren. All these small vexations, aggravating her con
tinual cares, impaired the health of Elizabeth. The nervous
fever of anxiety again degenerated Into the intermittent
fever of the previous year. So long the quotidian held her,
that the succeeding May (1635) found her unable to
rise from her bed, or stand without support. Until then,
time had laid a lenient hand on her beauty. Now sickness
and grief began to leave their prints on her countenance.
It was a year of Intolerable suspense and expectation. Her
eldest son considered himself old enough to head an army of
his subjects, who offered to raise his banners In the High
Palatinate, and re-conquer his rights. How they were to
be paid and subsisted was another affair. Even if money
could be raised. It could not be eaten. The patient Ger
man boors had lost that confidence In the future which
every man must have who tills the earth and commits seed
to its bosom. For twenty years in the fertUe land of
Southern Germany, whatsoever the peasant sowed was
reaped or down-trodden by the soldiers of Wallenstein or
the Swede. The land was no longer cultivated ; famines
of the most fearful species ensued. Heavy above all they
brooded over the beautiful Palatinate, where the hapless
peasants were found dead by the roadside or In the woods,
having thrust tufts of grass in their mouths, vainly trying
thus to appease the cravings of hunger.^ The Swedish
Chancellor Oxenstiern came in embassy to Elizabeth on
the subject of her son's approaching majority. His son Peter
went to Charles I.; many reports were afloat concerning the
hand of the young Swedish Queen, Christina, being bestowed
on the eldest son of Elizabeth at this period, which came to
^ Spanheim. Benger.

ELIZABETH STUART. 175
nothing.! The bitterness of her fallen fortunes pressed on
the heart of Elizabeth, and a contrast was drawn between
her expatriated son and the power of the young northern
Queen. The result of these negotiations was, that Charles I.
sent a kind Invitation to his two eldest nephews.^ It was
thought desirable for the young Elector Palatine to com
plete his eighteenth year at the court of his uncle, 1635,
the birthday of his legal majority, he being born December
24, 1617. He was received with paternal kindness by
Charles I., a noble sura, araounting to raore than £15,000
per annura, appointed for his support, and a negotiation
entered Into for that division of the Swedish array which
was comraanded by the Duke Bernard of Saxe-Welraar.
The expected death of the Emperor Ferdinand IL, the
Iraplacable eneray of the young Elector's father, gave hopes
to Elizabeth that her brother's application at the Court of
Vienna, for the restoration of his nephew, would have sorae
success. Alas! Uttle raore than one-half of the dreadful
Thirty Years' War had then rolled over Europe ; the
worst of its horrors was to come. Civil war was on the
verge of extending Its flames to England.^
Elizabeth remained at the Hague with her daughters : her
brother, as a pledge of his friendship, gave her name to a
new-born daughter, that younger Elizabeth Stuart who came
Into a world of woe at the close of the year 1635. Her
years of misery were fewer than those of her aunt and name
sake; her gifts of talents, teraper, and beauty, as excellent.
Charles I., in the raidst of his poverty, and the agitations
around hira, was Intent on relieving England from the
discontent occasioned by the redundance of population
which long peace had fostered. His father's noble colony
of Virginia, and his own colony of Maryland, suggested
the plan of a great EngUsh colony in the East Indies. The
delight the young Palatine Princes had always taken In
naval affairs in their alluvial horae of Holland, gave him
the Idea of making the younger sons leaders of emigration.*
' Benger.
2 Tooue's Chronology. Howell, in his letters of January 2, 1635-36, says
both brothers had been some time in England.
' Toone's Chronology. *" Howell's Letters.

176 ELIZABETH STUART.
Lord Craven conducted Rupert to England In the winter
of 1635-36. He was his mother's best-beloved son, although
she joked much in her correspondence with Sir Harry Vane,
the elder, calling him " Robert le Diable," describing in
his uncouth manners a certain compound of shyness and
ferocity, which modern parlance calls " cubblshness," very
different from his handsome brother Charles Louis, who
soon becarae popular araong the ladies of his uncle's court,''
for the latter was courtly notwithstanding his inherent ill
nature. " I fear," wrote his mother soon after his arrival, " that mon envmjS will
not make altogether so many compliments as my Lord of Carlisle does ; yet
I hope, for blood sake, he will be welcome, though I believe he will not
trouble the ladies with courting them, nor be thought a very beau garfm,
which you slander his brother with."
Rupert, who was then sixteen, was tall, manly, and ro
bust, devoted to practical science, and also to abstruse
learning ; by no means elegant in features, and slovenly ex
cepting when on horseback in the day of battle, ready forthe
fiery charge. His raother entreated the English diplomatist
to give good counsel to her Rupert when thus emerging into
public life. " Tell him when he does III, for he is good-
natured enough, but does not always think of what he should
do." Could Elizabeth have looked forward to the colonial
powers of Great Britain, she would not have coraraitted her
great fault in opposing her brother's plan for the em-
ployraent and advanceraent of her younger sons. Rupert
ardently entered into his royal uncle's plans. But his
mother thought that carrying on the war by the banks of
the Rhine, with a handful of mercenary troopers, fiUing
graves as early in life as Duke Christian, Mansfelt, Gus
tavus Adolphus, and their father, was a better fate for
her young German princes than leading the van of Eng
lish colonisation. She mocked at the East India expedi
tion Charles I. was fitting out, and rather insultingly
declared, " that It was a Quixotic scheme," and " no son of
hers should roam the world as knight-errant."^ Then she
^ State Papers— Holland Correspondence, Jau. 23 (old style), 1635-36. ,
' Howell's Letters, January 2,1635-36.

ELIZABETH STUART. 177
commissioned the Dutch Councillor Rusdorf, " who was in
England on business, to urge to Rupert his dignified
station as a Gerraan prince ; the grief into which he
would plunge her, his raother, his young sisters, and his aged
grandraother, the Electress Juliana ; and how rauch raore
fitting it would be for him to exert his youthful prowess
against his ancestral enemies.'' Young Rupert, whose natural
good sense led him to the useful and practical, listened with
great distaste to the lecture of his mother's agent. He
did not profess Intentions of disobedience, but his wishes
remained fixed to his voyage. Then, Rusdorf having de
puted Sir Thomas Roel to comraunicate his ill success, she
wrote pereraptorily to recall Rupert to her at the Hague.
The young hero was sedulously studying raarine architec
ture, cheraistry, and many other sciences conducive to his
royal uncle's practical views. When It is remembered how
many brilliant Inventions emanated from Rupert's raind. It
is grievous to find the young navigator, raineralogist, and
cheraist, degenerate into the blood-stained leader of partisan
warfare, urged by female prejudices not many degrees raore
rational than those of country ladies at the present day, who
have a taste for the military, and whose brothers must be
officers, and nothing else. The young Elector Palatine,
Charles Louis, kept up frora Harapton Court an earnest
correspondence with his mother, but the earUest of his letters
preserved does not occur before the end of April 1636. In
the course of the despatch,^ which tells less clearly than the
foregoing narrative the state of the English treaties with
the Eraperor of Germany on behalf of the restoration of
the Palatinate, carried on by Elizabeth's old friend Lord
Arundel, he alludes to his brother Rupert, saying that
" King Charles desired him to stay longer in England, and
Queen Henrietta Maria wished the same; the Queen said,
' that since he and Rupert had been so long together, she
would not have them separate;' and King Charles added,
' he did not wish him, his elder nephew, "to leave his court
until he had agreed for his being put in possession of
1 State Papers — Roe's Correspondence, 1636. 2 Bromley Letters.
VOL. VIII. M

178 ELIZABETH STUART.
his rights, or enabled to seek them by force of arms.'"
As for Queen Henrietta, with her usual passion for conver
sions, she was busy, with her spiritual assistants, besieg
ing Rupert's Protestantism. As in most cases where poli
tical religious controversy rages fierce and high, the Chris
tianity of that young ardent soul was destroyed, and per
ished under the polemic blows dealt it on one side by his
aunt's priests, and on the other side by his mother's Dutch
protectors ; for whatsoever the one party reverenced, the
other mocked and pulled to pieces. If there is any Chris
tianity in professed controversialists — a raatter on which we
have great doubts frora historical experience — it were well
that they deeply meditated on the results of their doings.
Rupert owned to his mother, as her letters declare, that if he
had remained a few days longer at Queen Henrietta's court,
"he should have becorae a Roraan Catholic." And the Queen,
when told of this by EUzabeth, said with her usual lively
eagerness, " that if she had had an idea of the state of
Rupert's raind, he should not have departed as he did."
The tasks that now devolved on Elizabeth were far too
heavy for her toil-avoiding teraperaraent. She felt more
keenly than ever the loss of her beloved husband, whose
regularity and close attention to detail, although ill suited
to the dash of partisan warfare and the rapidity of mili
tary enterprise, were excellent for the patriarchal govern
ment of a peaceful hereditary State and his own family.
As the sons and daughters of Elizabeth grew up, each testi
fied an inclination for a separate will and way, and there was
no sire to control thera. Many syraptoras of a disordered
and divided household appear among the fragments extant
of her original correspondence.
The marriage of Elizabeth's eldest daughter was under
negotiation both at the English court and that of the Hague.
Uladislaus, King of Poland, was a suitor for the hand of
this young lady, but the usual religious differences started
up. The young Princess Elizabeth had been brought
up a Calvinist, which sect she professed at the Hague.
She was now seventeen, and still attached to it. Her
warUke suitor could not marry her unless she changed it.

ELIZABETH STUART. 179
Her royal uncle of England demanded toleration for his
niece ; but the anti-tolerant Poles would not consent to the
exercise on their throne of any faith but their own, although
Uladislaus told them " that this marriage would cause his
bride's uncle, Charles I., to aid the hereditary clairas of his
line on the Swedish throne, then merely occupied by a girl.
Queen Christina." Then Elizabeth declared she would
never be the raeans of authorising an attack on the only
child of Gustavus Adolphus.^ She was withal alarmed lest
the treaty for this match should disgust her faithful friends
the Hogan-Mogans of the Dutch States. Speaking of the
Polish match for her young Elizabeth, she says very coolly
— " For rayself. If it be found good for ray son's affairs, and
good conditions for religion, I shall be content with it; else
I assure you I shall not desire it, ray son being raore dear to
me than all ray daugh-ters" — an unjust sentence, in which
was probably comprehended the great unhappiness and sore
faraily strife which afterwards tortured her declining years.
The pride of Elizabeth's high descent, which seldom indeed
manifested itself, now was apparent, though quietly. In an
swer to some exaggeration concerning the lofty rank of the
Polish monarch.^ " As to the greatness of the raatch," pur
sues Elizabeth, " Madame vaut Monsieur is an old French
proverb ; but for the King's [Uladislaus'] person, there is
nothing to be said against it, he being a brave and worthy
prince, whora I honour very much." She entreated that Sir
Robert Gordon, the envoy to Poland from Charles I., would
so assure the Polish King. The grandmother of Elizabeth's
children, the Electress Juliana, had been the mover of this
project of alliance. She had retreated from the unhallowed
din of reUgious civil war, to the protection of the heroic
Uladislaus, and had perhaps hoped to compose It by the
sweet Influence of the young Protestant bride, her grand
child; for Elizabeth, Princess Palatine, although possessing
little outward comeliness, was remarkable for softness of
temper and mildness of expression. The aged Juliana
earnestly entreated that great caution might be used, so as
not to Incense King Uladislaus, her benefactor.
1 State Papers, Feb. 21, new style, 1635-36. ^ Ibid.

180 ELIZABETH STUART.
Although the young Princess reraained firm In the Pro
testant tenets, she evidently felt painful agitation during
the negotiation of the Polish hero for her hand, having
been observed to blush deeply if his ambassador spoke
to her when her raother kept court at her Hague resi
dence. Before the rupture of the raarriage treaty, the young
Elizabeth, who was even then the most learned princess in
Europe, declared her intention never to enter into another
marriage negotiation, but to devote herself to a single life,
and the pursuit of learning and philosophy- — a determination
which did not please her mother ; anger between them en
sued, and then forgiveness.
" Gordon had written to Dolben, whom your Majesty knows," wrote the
young Elector from theEnglish Court to his mother at the Hague, " that the
Ambassador of Poland was making all haste to return to Holland, and that
he would go his half in any wager that might be laid for the match. My
sister makes mention, in all her letters to me, how happy she is now in
seeing your Majesty gracious to her ; and as her greatest ambition is to be
continued in your favour, like the rest of your children, so her only grief
would be if you should find any cause in her to discontent you, or to use
her with the former coldness. If she should give any, I would condemn
her sooner than anybody ; for it appertaineth to me, who have received
most favour from your Majesty, to have a singular care that none of us fail
iu the duty and obedience we owe you. Thus I will shut up my long
tedious letter." 1
The treaty lingered some time afterwards ; its most satis
factory result was that Elizabeth and her daughter were
greatly praised by the puritan party in England for their
firraness in their Protestant principles, in which they were
most sincere, but undeniably for conscience sake, and not to
court popularity. There was an archduchess, who would
have suited the old Duke of Bavaria much better, proposed
for the young Elector Palatine. Sir Thomas Roe waited
on EUzabeth at the Hague, and In an afternoon recep
tion she gave him at two o'clock, as soon as her dinner
was over, he opened the marriage treaty.^ She flinched
at the marriage of her son with the Emperor's daugh
ter, saying, " The Archduchess was many years older than
1 Bromley Letters, April 25. No other date, and misplaced in the
colleotion. The events, however, date it as in the spring of 1636.
2 State-Paper MS., April 12 to 22, 1636.

ELIZABETH STUART. 181
the Prince, and no comely person." Sir Thoraas Roe
replied, " Princes' marriages did rather respect states than
persons ; In this the Prince Elector married the Palatinate
rather than the Emperor's daughter, and should raore en
deavour to advance his estate than please bis eye and
fancy." Thus exhorted, Elizabeth submitted the matter to
her brother, but she foretold the 111 success of the embassy
conducted by the Earl Marshal Arundel, himself a Roman
Catholic. '' I know," she said to Roe,^ " he loves ray per
son and my chUdren well, yet he is no enemy to the House
of Austria, and I know he loves not the Dutch, high nor
low. Methinks he would end the business any way so it
be peaceably. Marshal he raay be, yet not raartially given
In this business." Thus the perplexed Queen consoled herself
with a pun, which Shakespeare would not have disdained so
much as he ought, but took care that her favourite son was
not afflicted with an old and uncomely bride.
Charles Louis comraunicates to his raother the termina
tion of the disgrace of her attached but blundering servant
Nethersole, who had been let out of durance vile : —
" Sir Francis Nethersole hath kissed King Charles's hand and the Queen's
hand ; the King hath granted the continuance of his pension of £200, and
now he means to go back into the country. I see by your letter that my
Lord Boswell brought, that your Majesty is in doubt as to what I shall do,
but the King's goodness is so great that he will never press me to anything
without your knowledge."
Then, alluding to the Polish match for his sister, he de
clares that the King of Poland said he preferred to treat
with Charles I., because he had thought he would not be so
strict In religion as his sister Elizabeth, and that Queen Hen
rietta would aid hira, —
"But," continues the young Elector Palatine, earnestly, "you were
not deceived in what you answered, that King Charles would not go
less in that [the Protestant religion] than yourself ; and as for Queen Hen
rietta, she was so discreet she would not meddle with it."
The royal Pole had offered to take the young Elizabeth
for his bride If she would go to England and place herself
for some time under the care of her Roraan Catholic aunt,
1 Elizabeth to Sir T. Roe, State-Paper MS.

182 ELIZABETH STUART.
Queen Henrietta. But the stormy aspect of the poUtical
horizon In England was alarming enough to Inspire with
unusual discretion on the subject of conversions even the
Queen of Charles I.
The Queen of Bohemia had sent for the exact height of
her eldest son In England by Sir John Mawwood ; it was to
be measured without his boot heels. She gave no reason
for her request. However, he guessed that it was to com
pare his stature with that of his young brother Maurice —
"at her court," he says, "they think him as high as rayself"
In his postscript he writes, " I can send the Countess of
Kuleraburg no fan because the season Is past, but I will find
something else for her. Surely if ever fans were needed in
England, they raust have been at the height of this summer.''
Presents were often sent by the English nobility to Elizabeth,
especially horses, she being a daring rider.
" I am glad you like my Lord of Holland's nag ; every oue here thought
he would be too little for you and too furious ; but 1 think they said it
because they saw me in great want of pads this progress, for they thought
him here not fit for hunting."
The Prince had a coramission for furnishing horses to re
cruit the division of the Swedish array under Duke Bernard
of Saxe- Weimar, which was not progressing successfully,
and says to his mother regarding it, —
" 1 shall do my best to get good horses for Duke Bernard ; but they are
at this time hard to be gotten ; therefore, Madam, make much of them
you have. My Lord Stanford hath a roan which he intended to send your
Majesty on my coming hither, one of the handsomest horses iu England,
but he fell lame. ' Now, lately, he [Lord Stamford, not the horse] told me
he had found a farrier that undertook the cure of him, and as soon as he is
well he will send him over." ^
Elizabeth passed the autumn at Rhenen, hunting and
exercising herself and her English horses. Meantime much
gossip and tale-bearing circulated from her feraale court,
backwards and forwards. Mrs Crofts, who had been the
favourite friend of the young Princess ]?alatine, and one of
her royal raother's ladies-in-waiting, quarrelled with the
Princess. She asked and obtained leave to visit England,
1 Endorsed from Oatlands, 11/22 September 1636.

ELIZABETH STUART. 183
whither she went In the winter of 1637, and presently be
came leagued with the Intriguante Countess of Carlisle, who
worked so much mischief In the court of Charles I. To
the vexation of the Elector and Rupert, these ladies
circulated a great many vexatious tales, giving satirical
portraits of every person in the Queen of Bohemia's house
hold for the amusement of the courtiers at Whitehall. This
proceeded sorae tirae before it came to the knowledge of
the Elector, who was absorbed in the political negotia
tions still dragging their tedious length at the Emperor's
court. At the coraraenceraent of the New Year he wrote
to his mother, full of joy, a letter frora Theobald's, that his
uncle had resolved to aid hira In the war with his fleets, men,
and money. But In the course of the spring the machina
tions of Mistress Crofts, and the tales she told Lord Craven
of the rude behaviour to her of the sons of her royal mis
tress, elicited letters much raore arausing. Anticipating the
wrath of his Queen-raother, the Elector addressed her on
the evil reports of Mistress Crofts, saying : —
" Though I am sure your Majesty maketh no doubt of my civil carriage to
Mistress Crofts, because she was your servant, and you commanded it, yet
I hear she is not pleased, and hath sent her complaint beyond sea. I do
not know whether they are come to your Majesty's ears ; but I easily
believe it, because she told my Lord Craven that I used her like a stranger,
and would not speak to her before her King and Queen [Charles I. and
Queen Henrietta]. Yet I may truly say that I have spoken more to her
since she came into England than I did in all my lifetime before. If your
Majesty will remember the iU opinion I had of her, both before and after
my sister's friendship for her, and if you consider the quarrel we had a little
before I went from Rhenen about Cave and Home, you would not think I
resented too much her ill carriage since she has fallen out with my sister
who now sees her error." ^
Araong other reports, Elizabeth had been made uneasy
by some relating to the great intimacy between Prince
Eupert and the elegant Endyralon Porter, one of the most
accomplished cavaliers at the English court. Rupert spent
much of his time with Endyralon ; and as his wife, the beauti
ful Olivia, was a Roman Catholic, his Queen-raother thought
Rupert's Protestantism in danger.
' Bromley Letters, May 1637.— Whitehall

184 ELIZABETH STUART.
"My brother Rupert," continues the letter above, "is still in great
friendship with Porter, yet I cannot but commend his carriage towards me,
though when I ask him what he means to do, he is very shy to tell me his
opinion. I bid him take heed he do not meddle with points of religion
among them, for fear some priest or other is too hard for him. Besides,
M. Condoth frequents that house very often, for Mistress Porter is a pro
fessed Roman Catholic. Which way to get my brother Rupert away I
know not, unless I come with him myself. Doctors Spina and Hausman
desired to go over to their wives until I have further employment for them."'
Elizabeth demanded of hira a specific account of all that
her attendant. Mistress Crofts, had said of the Interior of her
palace at the Hague, to which the Elector thus replies : —
" I cannot tell your Majesty particularly what discourse Mistress Crofts
makes of them she left beyond sea, but I heard that the third or fourth
night after she arrived she gave the characters of all at the Hague to my
Lady Carlisle, which I heard by one that overheard them, but would not
tell them any particulars, only saying that 'they were particularly well
sketched,' and ' her censure sharp enough.' I did not inquire what counsel
she gave my brother Rupert, but he told me the other day that ' she would
not look upou him.' It is now in your power never to be troubled with
her more, for though I hear she has promised your Majesty to the con
trary, if she once more returns you will never be rid of her. As for me,
1 will do her all the help I can if she will stay in England, for I wish
her no other ill than that she may not return to your Majesty, let her do
ns here as much mischief as she can. There is spread over all the town,
and every one maketh their judgments of it according to their several afi'ec-
tions, that my Lady Livingstone hath given my sister a box on the ear before
twenty people in the Prince of Orange's garden, aud did not so much as
ask her pardon after it." ^
Elizabeth's eldest daughter, the Princess Palatine Eliza
beth, wooed by the King of Poland, Is the recipient of this
box on the ear. Lady Livingstone was state goverujess
to the younger children ; but it is probable that Charles
Louis raeans the Countess de Loewenstein, the widow, his
father's relative, and his mother's first lady. He continues
the subject of the gossip circulating from his mother's house
hold to the Court at Whitehall, by the means of the lady of
his aversion, Mistress Crofts, a person high In his Queen-
mother's favour. But his idea is evidently that she was sent
over to England to report the conduct of hiraself and Rupert
" Your Ma,jesty," he resumes, " will not, I do believe, take it well of
those who write over every foolish thing that happens in your court; for

1 Bromley Letters, 21th May— WhitehaU. 2 rbjd.

ELIZABETH STUART. 185
here they always make the worst of it. I cannot but believe that the box
ou the ear was given in jest, seeing I heard nothing of it from my sister her
self. I see that your Majesty hath no great opinion of the treaty of Ham
burg, neither is there any great hopes that it will have any success, because,
as is reported here, the King of Hungary [soon after Ferdinand IIL] hath
forbid them to permit any treaty iu their town. This may be a fiction,
but any place will be as good."
The death of the Eraperor Ferdinand II. brought all the
tedious diploraacy to an end ; his son, Ferdinand IIL, was
crowned without the services of the young Elector Palatine
as Vicar of the Erapire ; Duke Max of Bavaria and his
young babe retained the High Palatinate ; King Uladislaus
married the ancient and uncomely Archduchess provided for
Elizabeth's handsome young Elector. Elizabeth, who was
deterrained to prevent Rupert becoraing a leader of colo
nisation, wrote her mind on that head to her friend, Sir
Thomas Roe, speaking scornfully of " Rupert's roraance of
Madagascar," adding the following sarcasra, not at her son
so much as at the originator of the expedition, Charles I. : —
" It sounds like one of Don Quixote's conquests, when he promises his
trusty squire to make him king of an island. I heard of it some fourteen
days ago, and thereupon I writ a letter to divert him from it, as a thing
neither feasible, safe, nor honourable for him. Since then, I have received
a letter from Sir Harry Vane, who writes of it as a fine thing ; which I
cannot enough wonder at. I answered him plainly I did not like of it ; I
thought it not fit nor safe to send him, the second brother " — [Rupert was
indeed the next heir to the broken dominions of the Palatinate] — " when
there was work enough to be had for him in Europe. Besides, I thought if
Madagascar was a place either worth the taking or possible to be kept, the
Portuguese by this time would have had it, having so long time possessed
the coast of Africa near to it ! " i
It is certain that, besides the impossibility of her acting
In opposition to her partisans, the Dutch, Elizabeth could
not enter into the practical views of her brother, whose
colonies ought to raise the blush of sharae on his ungrateful
countryraen when they caluraniate hira.
Elizabeth could not deprive her son Rupert of the results
of many raonths of preparation for her brother's project of
an East Indian colony — preparation for a high rank of
huraan dignity, when tested by the touchstone of reality
— for the glorious office of the practical, the Intrepid, and
1 Elizabeth to Sir T. Roe, May 6/16, 1637— State-Paper MS.

186 ELIZABETH STUART.
sagacious leader of emigration. Yet, owing to his mother's
perverse pride, Madagascar, with all its profusion of natural
advantages, groans to this hour under the yoke of a foul
and fierce paganism.
There was some correspondence between Archbishop
Laud and Elizabeth, which can surprise no one who re
members that he was one of the clergy about court during
her youth ; he had, moreover, visited her at the Hague.
He had responded to her request for subscriptions and briefs
In churches for the unfortunate Protestants of the Palatin
ate In a manner which Insured her affectionate gratitude.
To his influence she appealed for the restoration of her re
luctant Eupert. "I have," wrote Elizabeth^ to Laud from
Rhenen the same sumraer, " beseeched the King, my dear
brother, to give my Rupert leave to come over now speedily,
that he may accompany the Prince [of Orange] this year to
the field." This was to the siege of Breda — a citadel never
long In the possession of either Dutch or Spaniards, every
stone of which might have been cemented with human
blood. Laud prevailed on Charles I. to resign the unwill
ing Rupert, who being allowed by his uncle a pension
amounting to .£200 per month, put himself at his mother's
disposal In June 1637. The young Elector embarked with
Rupert from the naval palace at Greenwich, returned to
their mother, and soon after may be traced at Breda with
thePrinceof Orange; and in August the same year both were
In the field with a small army, which the hope of the Eng
lish subsidies kept together. EUzabeth having stripped her
self of all the cash possible, her devoted friend. Lord Craven,
took the field with them, having generously contributed
^£"10,000 of his great fortune to her cause, and promising
soleranly to keep her boy Rupert under his guidance. In
addition to the recruits levied among the towns of the Ehine
they had formerly comraanded, the young princes were in
treaty for the hire of one of those villanous bodies of free
booters, which were the worst plagues of tortured Germany.
This body of rogues caUed themselves Swedes. They pre
tended to demur until the Regency of the child-Queen of
1 State-Paper MS., June 1637.

ELIZABETH STUART. 187
Sweden gave them leave to march under the Palatine ban
ners. Now appears the first evidence of selfishness in a
letter to Elizabeth from her eldest son, who blames her for
her maternal care In securing to her second daughter, Louisa,
as a future provision, some of the money she had received
from Charles I. He likewise coraplains, with better reason,
that jewels had been bought with sorae of the raoney that
his father had put to use at the Amsterdam bank of the
sum paid for the sale of the district of Lixheira to the
Duke of Lorraine.^ He acknowledges the great bounty of
Charles I. to hira, but adds that Comptroller Vane had
observed, that
" The Queen of Bohemia must not expect to have her arrears paid ; but
I hope your Majesty wiU not be content with that base saying, but will still
solicit them. If this be true, he is the falsest fellow that ever was, for he
i assured me the contrary. It is likely he gives King Charles this advice
pour faire cb ion valet."^
The rapacity evident throughout this letter, of which
Elizabeth had, through the reraainder of her life, constant
specimens from her eldest son, was a trait probably brought
out In his young mind by his position as the head of a mer
cenary array.
Breda fell to the arms of the Calvinist party, but Eliza
beth lost an excellent friend and near relative of her hus
band's, the Prince of Hesse-Cassel. She left Rhenen, her
country seat, for the Hague earlier than usual that autumn,
and gives a sketch of her occupations, her feelings, and her
news. In a letter to Sir Thomas Roe, comraencing, as usual,
with " Honest Tom, — I have not ¦written to you for lack of matter, when I
was at Rhenen. I could send you no news of anything but the death of
hares, aud which horse ran best; which, though I say it that should
not say it, was mine own. But, at my coming away, the joy of the taking
of Breda was much abated by the loss of the brave worthy Landgrave,
which, I confess to you, troubled me uot a little. You know how much
cause I have for it. But we must not lose courage for all that. My son
has now more reason than ever to make himself considerable ; therefore
he is desirous to take the Landgrave's army to himself, and did send

^ Bromley Letters, dated from the army, August 27, 1637,
' State Papers, October 21, 1637.

188 ELIZABETH STUART.
Horneck, one of his gentlemen, thither, to sound the minds of the officers
and the Landgravine [Amelia of Hesse], who show themselves all wilhng
to. have him, so that he can find means to make them subsist. Therefore
he has given Sir Richard Cave order to humbly beseech the King, my dear
brother, that he will bestow somewhat upon him to help his beginning."
The " young Weimar hero," Duke Bernard,^ however,
stepped forward to bid for the Hessian army and the hand
of the spirited Landgravine. The Palatine family were
raortified raore ways than one by this arrangement; for
when Duke Bernard visited the Queen of Bohemia at the
Hague, he was supposed to be a suitor for the hand of her
eldest daughter.
One of the last tournaments was performed at the Hague
on occasion of the marriage of a young Countess of Solms,
sister of the Princess of Orange and one of Elizabeth's ladies,
with Baron de Brederode. The Queen herself revived some .
of her former splendour, as much as was consistent with her
habit of widowhood, which, in compliance with the custom
then prevalent in Europe, she wore through life. Her two
eldest sons were the chevaliers par excellence, tilting in the
costurae of the Abencerrages, each on a white horse, at
tended by the officers who were to assist thera In their en
suing campaign. They renewed these chivalric exercises
frequently until they took the field.^ Elizabeth went early
to Rhenen that summer, where her young warriors came to
see her occasionally. She had to leave her country resi
dence In the ensuing August, in order to receive Marie de
Medicis, Queen-raother of France, who unexpectedly ar
rived there, retiring before the malice of Richelieu just pre
viously to taking refuge in England. " I carae here from
Rhenen," she says to Sir Thoraas Roe,^ " to receive Queen-
mother. Her coraing hither will make you not a little
wonder. She doth use me very kindly, but keeps her
greatness enough, for she kissed none but me ; " that is, at
the presentations which took place at the Castle of the
Hague to the widow of Henry IV, that Queen greeted
1 Duke Bernard died before he received the hand of the Landgravine
Amelia, and the command of ber army.
2 State Papers, January to February 1637-38.
3 State-Paper MS., Hague, August 1638.

ELIZABETH STUART. 189
no one with the salutation usual between the royalty of
France and ladies of noble degree, excepting Elizabeth,
the sister-in-law of her daughter Henrietta. Thus Marie de
Medicis Ignored the rank of the Nassau faraily, and as for
the dignitaries at the Hague, their wives were treated as
yoke-raates to fellows of no reckoning, trading burghers.
Such arrogance of etiquette, especially to the House of
Orange, descended from the elder line of Charlemagne, pro
voked recriminations on the medical and mercantile pros
perity of the House of Medicis. As the " Queen-mother''
had arrived at the Hague soraewhat like a suppliant, her
proceedings betrayed her usual lack of wisdora. While
waiting for an Invitation to pay that fatal visit to England,
which proved the irapetus to Charles I.'s calamities, Eliza
beth was forced to remain with her at the Hague or the
rural palace of the Nassau's, Houndlersdike. She then saw
enough of the perversity of the royal fugitive to dread the
visitation meditated by her to the Court of England, fearing
much for her brother, who, notwithstanding the hospitality
he extended to his wife's distressed parent, when she ulti
raately threw herself upon him uninvited, was most unwiUing
to receive her with her train of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics,
inflaming the prejudices of his people against his wife's
religious establishment. Elizabeth thus shrewdly alludes
to the sudden departure of the unwelcorae guest for Eng
land, In one of her letters to Sir Thoraas Roe, as, despite of
all hints frora Charles I.'s residents, Boswell and Sir Richard
Cave, of excuse, she set off for England the beginning of
October. " Cave only waits for a wind, which Is yet con
trary. I think Queen-mother is cause of It ; for she Is
gone very suddenly frora hence, with scarce taking leave,
towards England, though Sir Williara Boswell did all he
could to detain her. I think the wind loves our country In
keeping her as long as It can out of it." ^
When this troublesome guest reUeved Elizabeth from the
ceremonials requisite on her sojourn at the Hague, she re
turned to Rhenen, in the vicinity of which her eldest son
mustered his array of raany nations. Elizabeth bade farewell
1 State-Paper MS., October 2/12, 1638.

190 ELIZABETH STUART.
to her two sons, Charles and Rupert, who left her at Rhenen,
and marched into Westphalia, with the Intention of striking
a good blow for the Lower Palatinate. Unfortunately the
veteran Imperialist troops were resting on their arms, on
account of some treaty going on, and their general, Hatzfelt,
on this inbreak, drove the Elector Palatine before a vast
superiority of force from the siege of Lippe. Near this town,
the Palatine Princes engaged, with their sraall force of 4000
men, one wing of the Iraperial general's army. So despe
rate was the onset of Eupert and Lord Craven that victory
was nearly carried by a coup-de-mxiin, and would have been
coraplete if the purchased Swedish army had not suddenly
deserted and fled. The attendants of the Elector Palatine,
seeing all was lost, forced hira from the field; but the young
lion, Rupert, was not so easily to be torn from his first
taste of slaughter ; he fought on frantically untU he was
overwhelmed by mere weight of numbers. Lord Craven
and Count Ferentz, who would not leave hira, were taken
prisoners by his side. While this desperate encounter was
going on, the Elector Palatine retreated frora the lost
battle to his coach, with General King, and urged his
driver to make towards Minden on the Weser.^ While
crossing this river at a place where there was no ford, the
coach was overthrown, and the young Elector was Immersed
in the river ; fortunately coaches In those days were only
waggons with leather curtains. He easily left it, andclung to
a willow, tUl he was rescued from the water. Finally, he
got safely to Minden on foot, but wet and weary. Before
the news came of these disasters, the agonies of suspense
Elizabeth endured had told so severely on her health that
fever ensued, and she was obliged to be bled. Her arm
inflaraed, and her life was in danger just before the news
carae of the defeat on the heath of Lippe. Of the fate of
Eupert she was uncertain, and was betrayed by her appre
hensions ofthe perils ofthe ban ofthe Erapire under which
his late attack on the Imperial forces had laid hira, to wish
him dead rather than a prisoner^ — a wicked wish, of which
^ Howell's Letters.
^ State-Paper MS.— Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Roe, Nov. 1, 1638.

ELIZABETH STUART. 191
her maternal heart speedily repented, especially when It
was found that the Emperor (mercifully considering that
Rupert only sinned in bravely following the banner of his
liege lord and brother) did no farther harm to her young
hero than caging hira. Elizabeth was exasperated at the
conduct of her cousin Frederic, Duke of Brunswick-Lunen
burg, the brother of her forraer champion, Duke Christian,
who had sent 1000 men to the aid of the Emperor's already
overwhelming force, and very abusive are the names she
Calls him. In excuse for Duke Frederic, It ought to be
reraembered what sort of gentry the predatory Swedish
troops, for which her son Charles had made so bad a bar
gain, were, and that they had been living on what they
could steal In Lower Germany for years, preying on his
unfortunate subjects.
The flames of war which the attack of the Palatine Elec
tor had ignited, now burst forth on every side. The
Swedish generalissimo and co-regent Bannier marched on
the country of Lunenburg to revenge the overthrow the
Duke had given the Swedish banner. " He can do him,"
says Elizabeth,^ "no raore harra than I wish him, for that
Tun of Beer [her cousin, Frederic of Brunswick] sent 1000
cuirassiers against my son, else the enemy durst not have
fought with him. They write hither that all my son's
troops did very well, and were only oppressed by multi
tudes, else they had not been beaten. I am sorry for my
Lord Craven and Ferentz. I fear they will not be so soon
released ; but if Rupert were anywhere but there, I should
have my mind at rest." A raatter of still raore consequence
to the biography of Elizabeth even than her feelings on the
defeat of one son and the capture of the other, is developed
in this letter of hers. The indifference with which she men
tions the iraprisonment of Lord Craven, and even the pros
pect of his long detention, ranking his loss and misfortunes
completely with those of Ferentz, shows he was neither her
lover nor her husband. She had been eight or nine years
a widow ; Lord Craven was in the prime of his heroic life.
She could have married him without a shade of blarae, but
1 State-Paper MS.— Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Roe, Nov. 6, 1638.

192 ELIZABETH STUART.
her expressions are not coraraonly grateful to him for his
devotion to her cause and his exertions for Rupert. If there
was any love in the case, it was wholly on Lord Craven's
side, for the letters, which evidently speak the feelings of
the royal widow's soul, are entirely bent on her boys and
their disasters. In her answers to "honest Tom's" con
dolences on the defeat, she says, —
" I confess the overthrow of the troops does not much trouble me, they
were not so many ; but Rupert's taking is all. 1 confess, too, that in my
passion I did rather vifish him killed. I pray God I have not more cause
to wish it before he be gotten out  All my fear is their going
to "Vienna, if it were possible to be hindered." ^ [Boswell, in cipher, has
appended to her letter some scheme for the escape of Rupert.] "But I
fear," adds Elizabeth, alluding to it, " you will think my conceit is too
romance[like] a one, yet such things have been done. Mr Crane, one that
follows my Lord Craven, is come from Rupert, who desired him to aesm'e
me that neither good usage nor ill should ever make him change his reh
gion or party. I know his disposition is good, and that he will never dis
obey me at any time, though to others he was stubborn and wilful. I hope
he will continue so; yet I am born to so much affliction I dare not be con
fident of it, but I am comforted that my sons have lost no honour in the
action, and that him I love best is safe."
Here, again, she confesses an unjust partiality to her
eldest son, whose retreat in his coach-and-four, while his
younger brother was risking his life and liberty in the most
desperate efforts to keep back his pursuers, was any
thing but admirable; although, as head of a party and
the family interest. It was his duty to take care of self in
particular, a duty he never forgot, though not always to the
benefit of his mother and her children, as she found subse
quently to her cost. Rupert contrived to write sorae lines
to his raother, assuring her of his steadiness as a Protestant,
but urging her to employ all his friends to work for his
liberation, as he was woe-begone in his captivity in the
citadel of Vienna. His friend. Lord Craven, had paid the
enormous sura of £20,000 for his own ransora, and would
have paid higher even for perraission to share Rupert's
prison, but it was not suffered.
The events of the succeeding year brought to Elizabeth
' State-Paper MS.— Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Roe, Nov. 6, 1638.

ELIZABETH STUART. 193
strange aggravation of her maternal anxieties. Her
younger princes, now growing up, were In need of gentle
manlike accorapUshments, Impossible to obtain in Holland.
The rough manners and awkwardness of Rupert any
where, excepting on a horse or in a boat, had convinced his
mother that dancing and some other training for courts and
drawing-rooms were desirable for Maurice, Edward, and
Philip ; so they were sent to Paris to learn politeness and
manners, and, through the imprudence of their eldest brother,
ran no little danger of practising it as state prisoners. To
load the biography of Elizabeth with the tortuous policy of
the contending powers of Europe would be labour dire and
weary woe, but it may be said briefly, that when her friend
Duke Bernard of Saxe- Weimar died in the summer of
1639, on his return from a diplomatic visit to France,^ she
was a sincere mourner. As the Hesse army was now
again to be purchased, EUzabeth sent over her eldest son
to England in order to Induce Charles I. to advance the
money. The King agreed to give his nfephew £25,000 for
that purpose, who soon after sailed for France in one of the
royal pleasure-vessels, was landed at Boulogne with the
honours of a crowned head, under discharges of artillery ;
and this porap, as raay be seen by his letters, was very
agreeable to him. He travelled in state to Paris, where his
brothers were. But when he left It, meaning to take the
nearest road to Switzerland to join the Weimar army in
Alsace, he assumed the closest incognito ; Richelieu, how
ever, the despotic minister of Louis XIIL, had hira ar
rested at Moulins, and with small ceremony handed him
to the state prison of Vincennes. The three young princes
at Paris were likewise put under restraint, although not
actually incarcerated.
Meantime their mother had that autumn shortened her
hunting season at Rhenen, and, accorapanied by her daugh
ters, visited Amsterdam. The loving Mynheers treated lier
as if she were actually their queen ; they presented her with
some fine porcelain jars,^ and gave her young princess Hol-
1 Benger. Le Vassor. ' History of Amsterdara.
VOL. VIII. N

194 ELIZABETH STUART.
landine, their narae-chUd (although caUed by every one but
her sponsors Louisa), a raagnificent Indian cabinet. On
her return to the Hague In the first week of October 1639,
Elizabeth received the overwhelming Intelligence, of course
exaggerated, that the Elector Palatine was close prisoner
at Vincennes, and all her young princes, his brothers, were
captives in various donjons: She did not believe the last;
but the capture of the eldest made her fear they were in
danger. Having consulted with her fast friend the Prince
of Orange, on the reasons of her son's treatment in France,
because, as she said, "her husband had travelled there incog
nito even though France was at peace with Austria," he re
pUed, " that the French minister, Richelieu, considered her
son to be too much attached to England, and on that
account he did not wish him to have the late Duke Bernard's
army." The French affirmed that the Elector Palatine had
broken their national laws by coraing en prince, and going
incognito. Elizabeth's life was spent in perpetual lamenta
tions and solicitations for his liberation, and that of the rest
of her boys. At last Maurice was perraitted to return to her.
The two younger were detained as hostages for the tractable
behaviour of their elder brother, who was at last released on
his parole, that he would not atterapt to put himself at the
head of the army of the late Bernard of Weimar, which
finally was transferred to the coraraand of the French gene
ral, the Duke de Longueville.
The young Elector Palatine was, just before the Easter of
1640, brought away frora Vincennes by one of the French
ministers to Paris in his coach,^ and perraitted to reside at
the English Ambassador's, then the Earl of Leicester, at an
enormous expense to his uncle Charles I. During this agree
able parole he enjoyed all the sights and delights of Paris.
He had an Interview with Cardinal Richelieu, and there
is reason to believe that this unscrupulous statesman in
sinuated to him that his uncle, Charles I., had been the
cause of his iraprisonraent; for, from that tirae may be
traced his ungrateful enraity against his royal uncle. The
1 Bromley Letters, pp. 117, 118, which is misdated 1641; shouldbe March
3, 1640,

ELIZABETH STUART. 195
gaieties of France, however, had their effect on him at the
present period, and he wrote to his mother these agreeable
particulars : —
" Yesterday I was at St Germain to see the King and Mademoiselle,
who did it for the Queen, wash the feet of the poor." [This was the eldest
daughter of Gaston Duke of Orleans (then a very young and beautiful
girl), " the heiress of Montpensier," whose autobiography is well known.]
" I should have been incognito, but the King of France found me out, and
made me stand at the table which he served, and spoke with me all the
¦time of the ceremony, which he performed with a great deal of devotion.
Mademoiselle performed very prettily, but not without the disaster of
letting two dishes of pease fall upon her gown. Having dined privately, I
heard from the galleries of the chapel the King's music, which is very
good, sing the vespers ; the King [Louis XIIL] and the Queen [Anne of
Austria] being below."
The chapel at St Germains-en-Laye is sraall, the gallery
very broad. It is silent and desolate now ; but the historical
meraory can people it with the celebrated characters thus
suraraoned up by the pen of the Elector to his raother.
There were Richelieu, the beautiful Queen Anne of Austria,
Louis XIIL, and the grande Mademoiselle. The time
was Maunday Thursday of the Passion- Week of 1640;
the office of washing the feet of the poor — somewhat
similar to the Queen's Maunday at WhitehaU (but the very
literal imitation of Scripture is not performed as to the feet-
washing) — has not been perforraed here since Queen Eliza
beth's days. The Calvinist Elector Palatine subraitted,
with a very good grace, to witness the gorgeous cererao-
nies of the Roman Church In the St Germain chapel. He
had audience of the Queen of France, from whom, as the
sister of his great enemy of Spain, he expected raortifica-
tion. Anne of Austria was too good-natured to mortify any
one ; If she could never acknowledge the assumed rank of
her prisoner's mother in public, she made such amends as
she could by message. " The Queen told the Master of the
Ceremonies, the day after I had my audience," continues
the Elector to his mother, " that she thought I did not go
well pleased from her, but she knew what tlie reason was ;
therefore," added she, " I must behave better, for I forgot
to give the title to his mother." That miserable title of
Queen of Bohemia, which had cost at least a hundred thou-

196 ELIZABETH STUART.
sand lives ! and in her wretched bereavement of husband,
sons, horae, affluence, and dominions, this half-acknowledg
ment of it by the Queen of France was sent to soothe so
many ills by her son, who knew her weakness weU. He
adds — and, indeed, the information was needed, after assist
ing so coraplalsantly at the Roraan Catholic ceremonies of
Holy Thursday, " Sunday I do receive at Charenton;"*
the principal conventicle of the Calvinists then tolerated
in France.
Elizabeth welcomed home her young sons, Edward and
Philip, who left Paris at the end of the same April.^ She
had requested of her eldest son to send her some watches by
them from the French capital : he could not find any ready
made, but promised to send her those he had ordered the
first opportunity. Louis XIII. had allowed him good en
tertainraent at Paris ; and the fact seeras to be, that the
prisoner was in no hurry to leave his comfortable quarters;
although his mother, very anxious to see him, assured him
in her letters "that he could now, without any breach of
parolo, run away." Yet her eldest hope was in no haste ;
and it was not until the King of France cut short his good
cheer that he turned his face homewards. Meantime, he
had been on unfriendly terras with his father's kindred of
the Protestant house of Rohan.
" Your Majesty," he writes,' " hath heard of Madame de Rohan's
being angry with me, that I did not see her soon enough, though I pro
ceeded not to see any but the princesses of the right blood, and the Princess
Mary, iu their rank, and then saw those that were nearest to me, as Madame
de la Tremouille. But now we are friends, and Wednesday last her daughter
aud I christened my Lord of Leicester's child together. To-morrow I go
to St Germain to see the King, Queen, and Duchess of Lorraine, and to dine
with M. Le Grand, who hath ou several occasions been very civil to me,
especially in those things wherein the fool Brulon would have troubled me,
whereof De Lean will acquaint your Majesty, whom I humbly beseech to
maintain in your good opinion."
The fool " Brulon " was Master of the Ceremonies at the
chateau of St Germains, and the dispute on those intoler
able points of etiquette, which always seem so particularly
important to elective sovereigns.
' Bromley Letters, Paris, April 7, 1640. 2 Ibid., April 28,
Ibid,, August 4, 1640.

ELIZABETH STUART. 197
The spring was cold and backward, but Elizabeth took
her newly-restored young princes to Rhenen, where they
all araused themselves with the sport she called hunt
ing, but which really seems to be coursing hares with
greyhounds. She had complained, in her letter which
teUs of their sport, of the expense of keeping her eldest
son's horses at the Hague. He writes to her — " I have
beseeched your Majesty to dispose of the horses of mine
at the Hague, or of anything that is mine, as you please,
for I wish for nothing which moves passion."^
The negotiations for the marriage of the young son of
the Prince of Orange and the eldest daughter of her brother,
Charles I., engrossed all the attention of Elizabeth after
she had received her eldest son safely horae in the autumn
of 1640. EUzabeth thought the Princess-royal of Great
Britain ought to match higher among the kings of the
earth than the elective Stadtholder of Holland. None,
however, of these great kings had behaved to her with the
beneficence of her good friend, Henry of Orange, and her
loving Araelia, his spouse. Elizabeth wished that her
second niece and name-child, the sweet young Princess
EUzabeth, might be the bride of Orange. Charles I.,
however, desired to give his subjects, who made " Pro
testantism in danger" a plea for their turbulence, the best
proof of his firmness against Roraan Catholic tenets, by
marrying his eldest daughter to young Williara of Orange.
The young Prince, although but nine years old, went to
England to wed his little spouse In person. Thither too
went, but uninvited by his uncle, the Elector Palatine.
His mother encouraged him In this Intrusion — not then
aware that the expense, trouble, and constant uneasiness
this Prince had been to Charles I., rendered his appearance
for the third time at the English Court about as welcome
as that of the raan of the sea on Sinbad's shoulders. He
had the bad taste and bad feeling to wrangle with the little
bridegroora for precedence — a most grievous injury to his
mother's best friend and personal protector, and his own
father's uncle, Henry Prince of Orange. Charles L, of course,
> Bromley Letters, Paris, August 4, 1640.

198 ELIZABETH STUART,
gave the precedence to the husband of the Princess-Royal,
his own son-in-law, and frora that raoraent had the bitter
est of opponents in his nephew, Charles Louis, the Elector
Palatine. He was seldora abisent from England, until he
becarae alarmed for his safety after the murder of his uncle,
Charles I.
EUzabeth did not then receive her little niece, whose
juvenile bridal had been just celebrated at Whitehall. She
was left in England to finish her education, but the young
bridegroora returned to the Hague.^ Every one seemed to
have forgotten Rupert as rauch as If he was destined to a
life-long iraprisonraent at Lintz. His raother expressed her
self as one without hope, for though the Elector had been suf
fered to return from France in the third summer of Eupert's
captivity, yet Rupert was not released. She wrote much
and long to Sir Thoraas Roe, who had opened a new and
very dull treaty, at Vienna. Its dulness seems to have
extended to her own usually lively letters to Sir Thomas
Roe, raany of which are In the State Papers. In them
she mentions consulting her mother-in-law, the Electress
JuUana, on the exile of her eldest son frora his domi
nions, and the iraprisonment of her second In the far Hun
garian fortress. " If Rupert," she says, " be now freely
set at Uberty, I shall have the better opinion of their good
Intentions ; but else, I still confess I am like St Thomas-a-
Didyraus, and believe nothing."
In the evening of one of the dark days just before Christ
mas, Elizabeth and her daughters being returned from
Rhenen, and settled for the winter at the Hague, she had
been giving reception to her old friend, the English resi
dent. Sir William Boswell, who was withdrawing home
wards at eight o'clock. As he left the apartments of the
Queen of Bohemia at the Castle of the Hague, a post-waggon
entered the court, out of which sprung the long-lost Rupert,
and encountered the English envoy face to face. "No
creature at court expected his coming," writes BosweU in
the most good-natured delight at being the first to share
^ State Paper MS. Aug. 6/16, 1641— Rhenen.
^ Ibid. BosweU to Sir Thomas Roe, Dec. 13, 1641.

ELIZABETH STUART. 199
the surprise young Rupert had prepared for his raother.
Rupert would not be announced, but rushed into the arras
of his parent, interrupting, by his unexpected entrance, the
ceremonial with which she was sitting down to supper." ^
Her transports of joy at the unhoped-for return of her
long - lost one, greatly affected Sir William Boswell,
who gives the credit of the happy event wholly to his
master, Charles I., and Sir Thomas Roe ; but it was
rather to be attributed to the influence of Queen Henrietta
with her sister-in-law Anne of Austria. Rupert informed
his mother that he had been some tirae on his parole at
Vienna, had been treated with sorae kindness and distinction
by Ferdinand III., who had invited hira to his hunting
parties, and finally released him on his knightly word never
to bear arms against the Empire again. He was thin and
worn In appearance, having traveUed scarcely stopping
for rest or refreshment, that he raight hiraself be the
first to bear the news of his restored liberty to his raother.
Ten days had not elapsed before Elizabeth began to be
anxious to know what she should do with the restless young
spirit, whose return she had so ardently evoked. It was
finally agreed that he should offer his services to his uncle,
Charles I., to fight against his rebels now in open war.
Prince Maurice, who was then home frora the carapaign he
had been serving under the Swedish Regent Bannier, did
not wish to bear arras against Ferdinand III. after liberat
ing thus generously his favourite brother. Charles I. gladly
accepted the services of his two younger nephews. Eliza
beth and her daughters accompanied them to the Brill, in
the spring of 1641-42, from whence they saw the young
adventurous princes erabark for England, which soon
rung with the fame of the dashing cavalier, Rupert of the
Rhine. To do him justice, although, like his ancestor,
Edward I., he soraetimes lost a victory by pursuing the
fugitives too far, he never engaged in any base Intrigues
against his uncle, or consorted with his eneraies.
Elizabeth herself was not forgotten during their career,
being often alluded to in those cavalier ballads which
1 State-Paper MS., Boswell to Sir Thomas Roe, Dec. 13, 1641.

200 ELIZABETH STUART,
political history superciliously disdains to notice, notwith
standing their iraraense power In the contest. Bad or good,
prosaic or poetical, the historical ballads of these Islands had,
frora the times of the Druids to those of the Puritans, to
perforra the offices pertaining now to the periodical press.
Few newspapers could, in the present day, give raore Indi
vidualising details of any encounter. The following triplets
are coraraeraorative of one inthe early days ofthe civil war:
Lord Byron, the Princes Palatine, and Sir Lewis Dives,
beat "In a large field by Worcester Gate" a squadron of East-
cheap prentices and citizens led by Col. Sandys. Rupert
and Maurice, instead of coraraanding separate detachments,
seem to have sustained each other In combat like Castor
and Pollux, or the Homeric heroes. The extracts are cou
fined to the verses in which the sons of Elizabeth are active:
" Brave Lord Byron true to the crown.
With troops too few 'tis very well known,
Came here to guard our Worcester town.
The crop-ears marched without much fear.
Not knowing Rupert rode so near.
Alas ! poor souls it cost them dear !
' Where, where are they ? ' Prince Rupert cries.
Gazing about with fiery eyes,
When an ambush behind a hedge he spies.
* * » * * ' »
Prince Maurice then, to second his brother.
Fired his petronel, down fell another,
'Twere pity but news were sent to his mother.i

But oh. Prince Maurice, where was he 1
Where few of us would wish to be !
Surrounded by butchers one, two, three.
Those men of Eastcheap little said.
But all their blows at his head they made.
As if they had been at work on their trade.
The cavaliers close up then spurred,
The blows they gave were all with the sword,
And many a roundhead stretched ou the sward.

Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia.

ELIZABETH STUART. 201
They fly, they fly. Prince Rupert cried.
No sooner said than away they hied.
For his fiery charge they could not bide." '
The English Parliamentarians did not forget that Eliza
beth's Paladins were doing battle In a cause diametrically
opposed to the principles they had imbibed at Leyden Uni
versity, their Alma Mater. Not all the cringing of the
elder brother, Charles Louis, would make amends for the
discomfitures of the Eastcheap men-at-arms. Elizabeth's
remittances suffered for the heroism of her boys. Every
guerilla victory they won tightened the strings of the purse
that held her supplies, which was in the keeping of her
brother's enemies. So far It is needful to explain ; but
dwelling further on the exploits of Elizabeth's Paladins
must not divert the pen from her own life.
The winter of 1641 was passed In deep sorrow. The
youngest chUd of the thirteen, " Gustaf," as he was called
in the family (born just when his father departed for his
unfortunate campaign with Gustavus Adolphus), sickened
and died in his ninth year. This death, not of moment
enough to fill a small record in history, was all In all to the
bereaved mother.
' Loyal Songs. The last edition, printed in 1704.

ELIZABETH STUART

CHAPTEE VII.

SUMMARY
Dutch Covenanters find fault with Elizabeth and her daughters' diversions
— She goes to meet Queen Henrietta Maria — Family party in her coach
— Her entertainments to the Queen — Their friendship — Louisa and Ed
ward take a bias to the Queen's religion — Death of the Electress Juliana
— Untoward event from Elizabeth's patronage of a French refugee — She
quarrels witb her daughter Elizabeth — Scandals ensue — The Frenchman
mentions Elizabeth's name disparagingly — Her sou PhiUp kills him, and
flies from the Hague — Elizabeth infuriated agaiust her son — Her eldest
daughter leaves her — Death of Eliziibeth's rriend,Henry Prince of Orange
— Letter of ber son, the Elector — He brings the news of the murder of
Charles I. — Extreme grief of Elizabeth and her children — Elizabeth first
institutes the solemn fast aud service for her brother's death — Her letter
to Montrose — Betrothal of her daughter, Henrietta, to the Prince of Tran
sylvania — Marriage of her eldest son to Charlotte of Hesse — Elizabeth's
supplies nearly cut off — Her eldest son denies her dower and his father's
legacies — Her eldest daughter and Sophia receive appointments at his
court — Elizabeth alone with Louisa — Princess Henrietta mai-ried to the
Transylvauiau Prince — Her early death — Long contests with the Elector,
for money— His letters to his mother — Her extreme distress — Want of
food — He insists on her coming to Heidelberg — She fears his quarrels with
his wife — His sneering letters to his mother — Mysterious loss of her son,
Prince Maurice.
A FIERCE watch was kept by the Puritan party in Hol
land on the proceedings of their guest, EUzabeth Queen
of Bohemia ; — not so rauch on her politics as on her robes
and raantles, farthingales and neckerchiefs. And when her
youngdaughters carae frora theRhenen to disport themselves
for the winter at the Hague, a very strict inquisition was
instituted respecting their mode of dressing, and their amuse-

ELIZABETH STUART. 203
ments, by the Calvinist preachers. To enliven the Shrove
tide of 1639, Elizabeth and her young princesses got up
a Uttle French drama on the doleful story of Medea ; no man
took a part In this play, or witnes-sed its performance. It
was, in fact, a mere scholastic exercise, confined to the cog
nisance of governesses and maids of honour. Nevertheless
the merabers of the Covenant at the Hague brought a
complaint concerning it to the Prince of Orange, who re
coraraended thera to raind their own preaching, and let their
neighbours alone. But they insisted on her own chaplain
fulminating against her mode of dress from his pulpit, and
when refused, they reviled him as belonging to Aiminius
and Laud.-"^ The arrival of Queen Henrietta Maria in Hol
land of course aggravated all these vexatious interferences.
Elizabeth met her royal sister-in-law after her tempes
tuous voyage, about a raile frora the Hague,^ this being the
first tirae they had ever looked upon each other, when they
coraraenced a friendship which had little interruption during
their lives. The coach in which Elizabeth carae to receive
her brother's consort was curtained and lined with crira-
son velvet — not rauch according to our ideas of a coach,
for it was really a waggon without springs. Glass win
dows had not yet been thought of; but it opened between
the wheels with clurasy side-doors, each having a leathern
convenience for holding steps, called a " boot," on which
individuals of the company that the King or Queen delighted
to honour were perched. A numerous posse of Insldes
were packed Into this sociable conveyance. Sir Walter
Scott raost truly describes the coach of the seventeenth cen
tury, when discussing the family of Tillietudlem. On this
occasion Henrietta Maria, after all embracings and welcora-
ings of herself and daughter were over, was placed by her
sister-in-law on her right hand ; Elizabeth sat by her : the
Lilliputian bride, Mary of England, and her Uttle durapy
bridegroom, who is in his portraits the oddest punchinello
that ever inducted himself into a vast superabundance of
nether garments, sat opposite : Rupert, who was already
' State Papers — Elizabeth's Letters to Sir Thbmas Roe, 1639.
' Holland News, and Gazettes of France.

204 ELIZABETH STUAllT.
well known to his royal aunt, occupied one boot with his
little sister Henrietta, goddaughter to that Queen ; the
Prince of Orange, and the Princess Elizabeth, eldest daugh
ter of the Queen of Bohemia, the other ; — a happy family-
party of eight, all on excellent terms at that time with
each other. Yet several of them professed different modes
of belief or unbelief. There were merabers of the Church
of England, of the Church of Rome, two grades of
Dutch dissent, besides Rupert, whose utter disgust of the
controversies then prevalent had extinguished in his mind
all sense of devotion. It was lucky that no theological
topic was started among persons of such diverse creeds
in such close contiguity. l
It was Elizabeth's vivid and roraantic iraagination that
erabodied the traditions and custoras of the Low Countries
into a beautiful national tableau. Everybody reraembers the-
story of the swans which brought the fairy Mergalina,
drawn in a car down the Rhine, to be the mother of the
line of Cleves. Among the pageants which greeted Queen
Henrietta Maria and her daughter. In Holland, was one
illustrative of this Rhenish fairy-tale. A water-car, drawn by
swans, was exhibited on the lake at the Hague, Into which,
with her usual courage, ventured Queen Henrietta, and was
towed some distance by the beautiful creatures quite safely —
more fortunate than the spectators of a water exhibition of
the kind prepared at Yarmouth a few years since, on the
river Yare, where fifty or sixty persons were drowned by
the fall of a bridge on which they had crowded to view the
spectacle.2 It is said that the Princess Louisa and her brother Edward
received their first bias to the Roman CathoUc religion in the
private chapel of the Queen of Great Britain, their aunt
If so, their predilections were confirraed by the vulgar in
tolerance and inquisitorial spirit that actuated the leading
party at the Hague. Throughout the whole of the Queen
1 Holland News, and Gazettes of France.
2 Now and theu, in the eastern counties of England, exhibitions are made
of water-fowl, trained to draw tubs and boats on the broads and rivers op
posite to the coast of Holland, which is doubtless a traditional custom from
that kindred country.

ELIZABETH STUART. 205
of Bohemia's correspondence, Henrietta Maria Is mentioned
with sisterly kindness and good-wUl, excepting when, many
years subsequently, she was endeavouring to force the young
Duke of Gloucester, at Paris, into apostasy frora the Church
of England.
In 1643 Henrietta Maria returned to England with suc
cours for her struggling lord. The influence of Elizabeth had
greatly aided her in obtaining thera. To the care of her
sister-in-law, Henrietta Maria most earnestly comraended
her child Mary, the spouse of the young heir of Orange,
then scarcely twelve years old. Elizabeth cherished her
with constant kindness through life, and ever spoke of her
and wrote of her as her "best niece."
The Electress Juliana was now on her deathbed. If the
most laudatory of chaplains can be believed, she, with al
most her last words, spoke of the great and good qualities
of her daughter-in-law, and bade her daughter Catherine
write, sending her blessing to her and to her grandchildren.
Spanheim, her chaplain, who brought these tidings to the
Hague,! was advised by Elizabeth to write the life of her
deceased mother-in-law. He did so In the usual style In
which biographies are written by contemporaries, with as
much panegyric, and as few facts, as words can serve to
express: he dwells on the exalted and tender friendship
between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law with In
flated sentences of rhetoric, the exact contrary being the
actual truth. Although Elizabeth, with her romantic gene
rosity of feeling, extolled her husband's mother when she
was in her grave, yet there survived a root of bitterness,
from which sprang the future dissensions in her family.
The fanatic tendencies of her eldest daughter Elizabeth were
owing to the difference of creed in which she had been
imbued when brought up in tender childhood by the Elec
tress JuUana. Her eldest son, who now began to raanifest
for his mother the dislike and cruelty which embittered her
future life, was likewise his grandmother's pupil.
Never did any cavalier partisan in the civil wars of Eng
land enter into tho cause of King and Church with warmer
'¦ Spanheim's Juliana.

206 ELIZABETH STUART.
feelings than the sister of Charies I. It was In vain that her
son. Charles Louis, whose raararaon-seeking spirit became
every hour raore odious, represented to her that her inter
ests, and those of her numerous and needy chUdren, were
entirely on the other side. Elizabeth was uncompromising,
and actually endured all privations rather than truckle to
her brother's eneraies. She spirited up Rupert and Maurice
to deeds of daring in his behalf, during which tirae the Elector
Charles Louis, who had left his uncle and benefactor at York
without explanation, was cringing to the Parliament for lucre
of gain, assuring the merabers he always wished success to
the arms of the Pariiaraent, holding prayer-meetings at
his dwelUng, and out-canting the most pharisaical among
the Roundheads. He made raany petitions and sordid
prostrations in his mother's narae ; but It is useless to
dwell more on this matter, than to point out the source
frora which they sprang. He gained a few hundreds for
hiraself by this baseness, but no relief for her distresses at
the Hague. In a spirit of raalice she was granted a subsidy
frora the sequestered estates of her brother's loyal subjects —
an act which cut Elizabeth to the heart, as it was raeant to do,
and raade her declare her real feelings and principles, despite
ofthe worldly cunning of her eldest son. A completely false
position had she been placed in from the very first of her
marriage with the leader of the Calvinist party in Europe.
She had never swerved, excepting once, at that long table in
Prague cathedral, and never afterwards did swerve, from
the Church of England established at the promulgation of
the last translation of the Scriptures. Of course Its enemies
were her enemies ; and the party which had received her
husband and supported her faraily at the Hague were prac
tically the most Inimical of all. It was in close coramunica
tion with the regicidal party In England ; and many of her
speeches, besides the deeds of her two cavalier sons, were
cast in the teeth of the Dutch Prince, as they called Charies
Louis, whenever he pleaded the destitute case of his mother
in HoUand. At last the unfortunate Elizabeth was left with
nothing to subsist on excepting the small pension granted
her by the States of Holland, and the Interest of the sums

ELIZABETH STUART. 207
her husband had secured to his children in the bank of
Amsterdam. Her portion of this last fund was, however,
devoured by the useless efforts which had been made,
when her eldest son came of age, towards the recovery of
his property in the Palatinate, from which he was, at the
tirae of his disgraceful sojourn in England, totally expa
triated. Hitherto the calamities that had befallen EUzabeth, ori
ginating as they did merely frora her party happening to
belong to the weaker side, were really far frora intolerable.
She had escaped the worst miseries that befell her ances
tress, Mary Queen of Scots — the calumnies with which
politicians usually assail woraen. If they are the wives,
daughters, or sisters of their opponents. All parties had
joined in loving, praising, and panegyrising Elizabeth Stuart.
A dark cloud, however, descended over her as her children
advanced to adult age. Whatsoever were their attainraents
in learning and religion, they were not of that truly practical
kind which, according to the sweet rule of Scripture simpli
city, " maketh farailies to be of one raind in a house." Seve
ral were incUned to becorae Roraan Catholics, actuated, as
many persons are In these tiraes, from sheer contradiction
to the spirit of sectarian controversy. The word went
forth that the princely Palatine family was the most divided
in the world. Just when they were generally disquieted
with the change of Prince Edward to the Roraan Catholic
religion, a Protestant refugee, reraarkably handsorae and
elegant in raanners, arrived at the Hague. He was a
nobleraan, and called himself Marquis d'Epinay. He gave
out that he had been deprived of his intended wife by the
profligacy of one of the French princes of the blood.
Directly he appeared, the Queen of Bohemia patronised
him very remarkably. All her children, on the contrary,
regarded him with aversion. Soon he was extreraely Inti
mate at her court ; at last he was consulted on her pri
vate affairs. Her daughter Elizabeth, who was both devotee
and savante, more especiaUy defied and distrusted this M.
d'Epinay, who does indeed seem to have been what his
countrymen so emphatically call mauvais sujet. Great

208 ELIZABETH STUART,
doraestic contentions ensued, and scandal, ot course, became
rife, some calumniating the mother, others the daughter.
It is asserted that the Princess Elizabeth was the first to
throw aspersions on her mother's character. M. d'Epinay,
to the agony of EUzabeth's young high-spirited sons, evi
dently plumed hiraself on this faraily contention, and now
and then his vain babble Increased It to the highest degree.'
One evening, June 20, 1646, he and several of his country
men met Prince Philip alone ; a rude collision ensued, then
abuse and taunts, Epinay being Prince Philip's assailant,
calling hira by hls> name, with which he coupled that of
his raother very irreverently. The young Prince fought
so furiously in retaliation that the French brawlers took
to their heels. The next day, as Prince Philip was driving
through the Place d' Armes, he caught sight of Epinay,
and, springing frora his carriage, flew on him. Epinay
received him on his sword, giving him a dangerous
wound under the arm ; but the Prince, who was unarmed,
saving his couteau de chasse, plunged It In the heart of Epi
nay, then, plucking It from the wound, flung it as far from
hira as possible, sprang into his carriage, drove off, and
fled to the Spanish border.^ The uproar was very great
at the Hague concerning this horaicide, which is related
by all English authors as if Philip had assassinated an
unarraed eneray. As for the Queen his mother, she, ex
alted angel, " bowed weeping from her high sphere, be
wailing the misfortune of having such a son ; " and what
it was all about, is lost in a mist of sympathy. The
German authors, on the other side, have gone too far in
imputing actual guilt to Elizabeth. Few persons who
have passed through all the flatteries and teraptations of
beauty In early life, with a narae unscathed, become evU on
the wrong side of fifty. But she liked to patronise, did not
like to be contradicted by her children, and was deceived in
the character of a briUiant villain. She became Infuriated
against her son, and vowed she would never see him again,
nor her eldest daughter Elizabeth, who, she was told, had
set her brother on to kill Epinay. But the real ground
^ Soltl's Elizabeth Stuart. 2 Theatre du Monde.

ELIZABETH STUART, 209
of the Queen's displeasure against her daughter was the
latter telling her to her face " that PhUip needed no apo
logy." All the chUdren of Elizabeth rejoiced in the punishment
their brother Philip had given the slanderous Frenchman.
The eldest son, the Elector Charles Louis,' wrote a letter to
his mother in behalf of Philip, dated July 10, 1646, which
is indeed Inexplicable, unaccompanied by the foregoing cir
cumstances : —
" Permit me, Madame, to solicit your pardon for my brother Philip — a
pardon 1 would sooner have asked had it ever entered my mind that he
could possibly have needed any intefcession to obtain it. The considera
tion of his youth, of the affront he received, of the shame which would all
his life have attached to him had he not revenged it, should suffice ; but,
more thEiu all, the remembrance of his birth, of his close relation to your
self and to him to whose dead ashes ^ you vowed more love than to aught
else on earth, must surely be more than adequate to efface any bad impres
sion made by those who, by a false statement of the circumstances, have
misled you, and who, rejoicing over all divisions in our family, have sought
to estrange my brother from your heart. The very act," he adds, " of my
asking forgiveness for Philip, is far more criminal thau his deed ; but he
hopes the love of his mother for her children, and the honour of her house,
will outweigh every other idea."
This disastrous occurrence ultiraately caused great changes
in Elizabeth's faraily. Her daughter Elizabeth soon after
wards made a retreat, which may be almost interpreted as
a flight, to the house of her father's sister, the Electress of
Brandenburg, with whom she had passed her childhood when
protected by the Electress Juliana. Charles Louis did not
scruple to regret that his favourite sister Sophia was left In
her early bloom to his mother's companionship. Thus was
the first and last breath of scandal cast on Elizabeth, not by
avowed enemies, not by fickle friends, but by her own chil
dren and family. No one can say that she acted wisely in
this affair ; and It Is surprising that party scandals were not
exceedingly active on the occasion. But the slain French
man was In accordance with the party prevalent In Holland
' Guhrauer. There is a letter from the Elector resembling it in the
Bromley Royal Letters, yet not so ample ; but both might have beeu
written on the same subject.
* This passage is not iu the Bromley Letters.
VOL. VIII. O

210 ELIZABETH STUART.
and England ; therefore nothing but his praises are to be
found In their account of his death.
The next sorrow that befell Elizabeth was the loss of
her firm and affectionate friend the Prince of Orange. He
died of dropsy in March 1647 ; he was succeeded by his
only son, scarcely adult, who had married Mary, the Prin
cess-royal of England. William II., Prince of Orange, was
too young to stem the heavy torrent of political agitation
which, comraencing in the convulsed British Isles, extended
in sorae degree to Holland. Notwithstanding all his base
truckling to the murderers of Charles I, the Elector Charles
Louis received intimation from thera that they desired his
absence ; and he it was who brought the tidings of his uncle's
execution to the Hague.' The horror and agony which fell
on the Queen of Bohemia were fully shared by the rest of
her children. Her daughter Elizabeth hastened home to hold
a family council on this calaraity ; her mother became re
conciled to her,^ while they wept together the bloody death
of their benefactor.
As for her eldest son, after suing meanly for raoney from
his uncle's inimical Pariiaraent, praying among the Calvin
istic polemic assembUes, he was fully prepared to act the
part either of Williara III. In 1688, or Egalit^ Duke of
Orleans in 1790, if the prevalent faction in England had
shown any tendency to elect a monarch In the place of the
one they had destroyed. There are many Indications of his
mother's utter horror of the path he pursued, as it becarae
developed. He learned too late that it was the kingly office
that the republican English wished to murder, rather than
a desire to wreak any hatred of the person, character, or
conduct of Charles I. ; and his nephew might have thus
understood the speech that the regicide Henry Martin made
regarding Cromwell, whose aim to be King of England
being discussed by one of his satellites, Martin answered,
in his usual strain of careless audacity, " No, sir, no; if we
wanted a king, the last gentleman who served us In that
^ Life of Descartes. 2 Ibid.

ELIZABETH STUART. 211
capacity did as well or better than any other." In the
Reign of Terror In France, raost of the regicides openly
avowed they had no personal raalice to the hapless Louis
XVI., nor to their victims, Marie Antoinette, the blame
less Madame Elizabeth, or the tortured innocent called
Louis XVII. ; they only raeant to raartyr royal authority
in their persons. Had the avowals of the Elector Palatine's
parliaraentary friends been as frank, that Prince might have
spared hiraself much tirae, and a vast deal of hypocrisy,
wasted in England.
The Queen of Boheraia had reproved the Elector for
his cruel neglect of his aunt, Queen Henrietta Maria,
of whora he had been the favoured guest at her Euglish
palaces, Hampton Court and Whitehall, in the days of her
prosperity. His mother, whose generous spirit scorned the
ways of her worldling son, pressing him hard, received this
answer to her remonstrance on his Ingratitude and base-

" It is true, Madam, I did not write to the Queen your sister [Henrietta
Maria], during my being in England, nor since ; for until the King and
Parliament were agreed — I being with the Parliament — it was not fit or
safe I should keep correspondence with her ; besides that, by those dis
courses which she hath held of me, both to the Queen-Regent of France
[Anne of Austria] and others, as I am well informed, both before King
Charles's death and since, I had very good cause to believe that my letters
would not only be unacceptable, but also would be made use of to my preju
dice. And though the late King [Charles I.] and this [Charles II.] have
used me very civilly, yet I have no cause to believe that I am in a better
predicament with the Queen [Henrietta Maria] than I was formerly ; and
that my letters to her, now I am come from England (and those there seem
to be angry with me for having beeu with King Charles II., and refusing to
see Strickland) may not be interpreted (especially as it comes so late) as a
respect to her, but that I am driven to it for want of the former appui,
and that I believe more in the King's [Charles II.] success than theirs.
Therefore I shall humbly expect your Majesty's farther pleasure in it,
after you have considered of these my reasons." ^
Elizabeth's pleasure was, as It had ever been, that this
sUppery politician should act Uke a raan of honour; and he
fairly owns to her that such an attempt was too late. As for
• Bromley Letters, May 24, June 3, 1649— Cleve.

212 ELIZABETH STUAET.
calling on Sir Walter Strickland,^ then the Ambassador from
the English Parliament to the Dutch States, that was really
raore than her son dared to do whUe he was her inmate,
within reach of her piercing glance, and within sound of
her eloquent words, powerful with all the expression of true
affection for her lost brother, and single-hearted love to his
faraily. The traitorous supplanter could send his shabby
explanations, when at a distance frora the raother's search
ing eyes and thrilling voice; but could not stand before her
and own his base returns to those who, in his raost detract
ing words, had " used hira civilly," which civility comprised
food, shelter, raoney, and kind and generous intercourse.
" I do [not] resolve to write to her Majesty, Henrietta
Maria," he adds, " which I hope you will not be dissatisfied
with, since you have ever given me the liberty, humbly and
freely, to offer ray thoughts to your Majesty."
When the rising of Montrose in the Highlands was in
course of preparation, Elizabeth aided It with her last ready
raoney, and very ardent were her aspirations for Its suc
cess. Montrose visited her at the Hague, from whence she
wrote to hira her apprehensions regarding the unnatural
coraproraise her young nephew, Charles IL, was making
as to taking the Covenant, the negotiations regarding whicli
were mediated by the Prince of Orange.
" Mt Lord, — 1 have desired Mr Edward Herbert to let you know how, by
great chance, I have found that the Prince of Orange will again extremely
press the King to grant the Commissioners' desires, and so ruin him through
your side. I give you this warning of it, that you may be provided to
hinder it. I have had a huge dispute with Beverwaert about it. For
God's sake leave not the [King] as long as he is at Breda ; for without ques-

1 Like many county families, the two branches of the Stricklands had
taken difi'erent views in politics. While the head ofthe family. Sir Robert
Strickland of Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, was the King's devoted cava
lier. Knight of the Bath, and Knight of the Shire for Westmorelaud, his
son. Sir Thomas Strickland, had received the rare honour of Knight Ban
neret from the royal baud, under the victorious standard of England, at
Edgehill. But their kinsmen of the Calvinist religion. Sir William and Sir
Waiter Strickland of Boyntou, Yorkshire, both members of Parliament,
although not regicides, were statesmen ofthe Parliamentary faction, chiefly
employed in foreign afi'aii-s. This Sir Walter Strickland had been Queen
Henrietta's stanch opponent at the Hague in 1643, and was made a lord
by Cromwell.

ELIZABETH STUART.

213

tion there is nothing that will be omitted to mine you and your friends,
and so the King at last. It is so late I can say no more, only believe me
ever,

'^ti^'^s^C--^

To the postscript of her letter is banished her usual merry
mood ; she says there, —
" I give you many thanks for your picture. I have hung it up in my
cabinet, to fright away the brethren. Tell my Highlander that the breth
ren do not forget to lye, for they say his countrymen will [up raise ?] with
them, and my commendations to him." ^
After the dismal termination of the expedition of Mon
trose, the horae of Elizabeth was crowded with distressed
Royalists. She was often plagued with their quarrels. In
deed, there were spies of all ranks among them, from the
English republican government, to foster strife.
The anniversary of the death of her brother, Charles I.,
was observed by Elizabeth, and all her house, as a day of
mourning and fasting. Then first began the custom in the
house of Stuart, of setting the fatal January SOth apart
for sorrowful comraeraoration — an observance voluntarily
iraitated by their subjects, and which has Induced more poli
tical spite than any other, for their political opponents
were more exasperated at having to go to church, and shut
up shop, than by any other harra that the royal race of Stuart
' This letter is edited by Mark Napier, Esq. It illustrates, as a fac
simile autograph, his noble biography of Montrose. Tbe letter shows a
great similarity in the handwriting, and mode of putting the letters ou paper,
between that of James I. and his daughter. For the entire autograph wo
refer our reader to the biography of Montrose.

214 ELIZABETH STUART.
ever did, or could do, to them. Let this be as It may, the
custom was first begun by the ardent feelings of Elizabeth
for the raeraory of her raurdered brother, in which observ
ance her godson and nephew, the young Duke of York, his
sister Mary, Princess of Orange, and their households, ear
nestly shared. Of course this grievous fast was kept as an
exultant feast by the regicides over the water, and one of
their spies in Holland sent a sketch of the doings of Eliza
beth at the Hague : — '
" Your thanksgiving of January SOth was, by the courts and royal kin
dred here, appointed as a solemn fast for the old King's [Charles I.] death,
but was comically disappointed. For when they all met in the French
Church, where your Euglish missals [Church of England Common Prayer]
also are performed, the Great Hall sent one to command them to be silent
and depart. They disdainfully refused. The messenger told them he had
coramand to turn the key, aud shut them in, if he could not shut them
out ; upon which they departed. Yet they turned it into a lesser conven
ticle in the Princess Royal's [Princess of Orange] presence-chamber."
The newsraonger considered the religious service of the
sorrowing sister and children of Charles I. as a raonstrous
affront to the republicans of England. But that was not
heeded by Elizabeth, who had instituted it. She cared not
for selfish interests, or for her children being viewed by a
pretty nuraerous party in England as the probable supplant-
ers of those of her beloved brother. She loved him de
votedly, not as those In the line of regal succession to
mighty realms usually love their brethren, but with an
honest, natural, human creature's love — hating his persecu
tors and murderers with a lively hatred, crying to God and
man Incessantly for vengeance on his enemies; cherishing
his children and his friends, and defying his foes to her
utmost possible power. And all these feelings are plainly
¦ seen in her letters, attested by her hand.
The treaty of Westphalia restored to the eldest son of
EUzabeth part of the territories of his father. He was
permitted to return to Heidelberg as sovereign of the
Lower Palatinate, being recognised by the Eraperor, Ferdi
nand IIL, as Elector Palatine, but was placed as the last
of the electoral princes. Instead of taking rank as the first,
' Letter printed in Thurloe's Stati Papers, February 1649-50.

ELIZABETH STUART. 215
which had been the privilege of his ancestors. The surrender
of Heidelberg and the Rhenish provinces gave sorae prospect
to Elizabeth of the restoration of her dower-land on the
rich banks of the Rhine. But no prospects of better tiraes
could efface frora her raind the tragedy that hurried to
a bloody grave the loved corapanion of her youth. She
would not share In the peace-festivities celebrated at the
Hague, or hear the sound of joy. One benefit accrued to
her, the absence of a son who never ceased torraenting her.
He raarried, February 12, 1650, Charlotte of Hesse, at Cas
sel, and went to reign with her at Heidelberg.
Charlotte, the Electress-Dowager of Bradenburg, who had
always beeu the warra friend of Elizabeth, and a kind aunt
to her children, proposed, in the course of the year 1650,
to negotiate the offer raade by the Ragoczki, Prince of
Transylvania, for her niece Henrietta. The two ladies
carried on the treaty. Elizabeth gave her forraal consent
to the match ; and this was rather remarkable, considering
the deistical tendencies of the Transylvanian Prince. The
religion of the wooer is not mentioned by the Elector,
Charles Louis, In his despatch to his raother.
" I send," he says,' " a copy for your Majesty's use of what I sent to the
Electress [of Brandenburg], concerning the Transylvanian business ; if it
[the young Princess's settlement] can be brought higher, it will be so much
the better. The ambassador that is here pretended to treat with me about
it, though he have no sufficient power. I have, with a civil answer of
neither ' Aye ' nor ' No,' referred to the Electress, to whom his commission
is directed, having only brought me letters of credence from the Prince
Regent [of Transylvania] and his mother, as also your Majesty's consent.
But, for my part, I like the other match better, though this is the most pro
fitable for her in matter of money. I have written to Vienna, to inform
myself how things stand with him, and wiiether the Emperor gives him
the title of Prince, which he pretends to, because, as the ambassador says,
the principality is by the States entailed on his family. The Princess of
Tareute is here now, with her young sister. She is much altered for the
better in her fashion and behaviour. The niggardliness of her mother,
which she much complains of, hath done her a great deal of good."
These ladies were princesses of the house of Hesse-
Cassel. The elder, Araelia, Princess of Tarente, was wife
of the near kinsman of his father, and commander of the
Dutch cavalry stationed at Breda. They were sisters of
' Bromley Letters, September 1650.

216 ELIZABETH STUART.
his most unhappy wife. Elizabeth of Bohemia heard the
first mention of her by her son in this despatch. It con
tained, however, other matters of raoraent to her, even the
discussion of the raoney she looked for at the hands of her
son, in payraent of her own dower, the income settled on
her by his father.
" If the Elector of Mayence fail me," he writes to his mother, " then I
am bankrupt, both with your Majesty, the merchants at Frankfort, and my
own servants ; but I hope better, since all is concluded between him and
me, and they are now upon taking the bounds of what land is to be given
and left on either side."
Elizabeth had written to him her regrets that her nephew,
the young Charles IL, then at Edinburgh, should comply
with the Scotch Covenanters in all their peculiarities. She
went with Montrose in all his views, and never hid her
opinion. Her son observes to her in reply : —
" 1 do not wonder at King Charles II.'s complying with the Scotch of
Argyll's party in all things, since once he trusted himself in their hands.
And they write from Loudon that he hath done public kirk penance ; the
truth thereof, if it be measured according to the strictness of their disci
pline, may well not be doubted of. But I shall not," — he adds, [with a sneer,
which shows how much he enjoyed the discussion of this matter with his
mother, who was full of passionate grief for any degradation happening to
a royal Stuart,] — " I shall not give credit unto it, until 1 hear it from your
Majesty ! "
The Elector was then settled araong the ruins of the once
splendid Heidelberg, with Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel, his
rich bride ; for the princes of her house had thriven amidst
the woes of Germany, by letting out their subjects to fight
the battles of their neighbours for a consideration ; a prac
tice which made their names somewhat Inodorous in Chris
tendom. The tempers of the handsome Elector and his spouse
were somewhat of the haughtiest, proraising little domestic
peace ; three individuals, however, of Elizabeth's needy
and uneasy faraily were provided for by this change. The
restored Elector invited his eldest sister Elizabeth to he
the first lady of his bride ; and when in the course of
tirae he becarae the father of a daughter, his younger sister
Sophia was withdrawn by hira from her mother's protection
and established as lady-governess of the little EUzabeth
Charlotte.' A letter written by the Electress his wife is still
' Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans.

ELIZABETH STUART, 217
extant, addressed to her mother-in-law' from "Heydelberg,
May 31, 1652." Nothing can be more lowly than the lan
guage with which she solicits Elizabeth's protection for her
little new-born son, promising that, with the aid of God, he
shall be brought up to regard her with every feeUng of
respect and reverence. She mentions her mother as con
valescent from some Illness, but pleased with Elizabeth's
remerabrances of her. Without containing any historical
fact, it Is a pretty feminine French letter, raaking a far raore
pleasing irapression on its readers than any by her husband.
The Queen of Boheraia was thus left with only two
daughters, Louisa and Henrietta Maria, both beautiful and
highly educated. Louisa, who devoted herself to painting,
chiefiy resided at the Chateau of Rhenen, where she wrapped
herself entirely up In the study of her delightful art, under
the care and tuition of the faraous Gerard Honthorst, who,
having tasted the bounties of Jaraes and Charles I., repaid
them by the most sedulous attention to their relatives in the
darkest tirae of their destiny. It is said that raany of the
latter pictures of Honthorst were painted by Louisa, and
that he disposed of thera for her, by which raeans she was
able to araeliorate the poverty that beset her. Even now
her acknowledged pictures bear high prices for their indi
vidual raerit.^ Many tiraes this brUUant young lady had
been wooed by Protestant Gerraan princes — araong others
by the great Elector, Williara Frederic of Brandenburg,
who was supposed to be passionately attached to her.
Poverty separated this love, like raany others ; he took one
of the golden darasels of the line of Orange, who blessed
hira with a crooked dwarf for an heir, even the odd-terapered
Frederic I., King of Prussia. The destitute Louisa, Princess
Palatine, was left to her easels. Her sweet sister and com
panion, Henrietta, was not so fortunate. Her brother, the
Elector Charles Louis, concluded for her the raatch with
the Prince of Transylvania. She was married to him
April 4, 1651. He was a Soclnian, or rather a Deist — a pro
fession of faith very conveniently assimilating with that of
^ J. Gregory, Esq. of Sutton Court, has favoured us with a copy of the
original, which was enclosed in an autograph letter from Charles II. whU©
in exile, and endorsed, " To my dere aunt, the Queen of Bohemia."
^ Granger,

218 ELIZABETH STUART.
the Turks, his neighbours and allies. Ragoczki soon after
entered into an unequal struggle to wrest Transylvania
frora the supreraacy of the Eraperor of Germany. His
young bride only survived her marriage four or five months.
She was taken from the evU to corae, for her lord died a
fugitive. In misery.
The elastic spring of the Queen of Bohemia's high spirits
was not broken altogether, though the winter of the next
year set In with alarming syraptoms that she should have to
look to chance or charity for her daily bread. Civil com
motions in Holland threw her pension In arrear ; and as to
the revenue due from her son the Elector, on one liti
gious pretence or other he remitted to her so little, that
having sent Lord Craven to urge her wants on him, she
wrote to that faithful friend, November 3, a piteous and
alraost incredible picture of her distresses, " as no parable,"
she says, " but the certain truth, the next week I shall
have no food to eat, having no money nor credit for any;
and this week, if there be none found, I shall neither have
meat, nor bread, nor candles."' She guessed that the
Elector raeant that she would be forced to sell her jewels,
because he was pretty sure that she would leave no part of
thera to hira ; but she declares that, if that be the case, she
will " bequeath what he owes her to the rest of her family.''
The Chancery of the Empire regulated legal questions of
the kind, it is true, too rauch with the delays and hesitation
of the English Chancery, for they are offsets of the same
tree; yet there were such inflictions as " bans of the Empire"
for contumacious raerabers of the great German Bund, and
the bitter fruits of these edicts were not then out of the new
Elector's memory. His mother raentions that she expected
that an award of the kind would give hira ^£"30,000, which
he claimed as heir of his deceased brother and sister, which
is somewhat doubtful, as two brothers and two sisters were
then dead ; but perhaps she means Henrietta and Philip:
the last had lately found a soldier's grave, fighting at the
siege of Rhetel for France against Spain.^ The Elector, in
reply, first urged her to come to Heidelberg: this she
vowed " she would not do In the winter, although she sup-
' Bromley Letters. ' Theatre de I'Europe.

ELIZABETH STUART. 219
posed he -raeant to starve her out of the Hague, as he
would a blockaded fortress. If, however, she was forced by
such ill-usage to join hira at Heidelberg, she openly de
clared that she should not prove very pleasant company ; "
and she adds, a few days later, " Let him set his head at
rest ; I will not stir this winter, let him be as tyrannical
as he will." The Elector sent her some money on her
stringent urgency, but not enough. He likewise com
manded bis sister Sophia to write her a letter, attributing
his neglect to a long Illness, occasioned by a dislocation of
his arm. The raother expressed her grief to Lord Craven
for his sufferings.' " She found," she said, "that he could not
raake her hate hira or wish hira IU; but she regrets her
forraer devotion to him, which had led her to involve her
self for his sake. She knew very well that It was his
niggardly hand, not his lame arm, that caused him to with
hold her due, howsoever his amanuensis, his favourite
sister Sophia, might make the best of this vague excuse."
The following letter which he addressed to his mother,
November 1653, proves that he was aware that she keenly
felt his conduct ; and as Elizabeth seldom had anything on
her raind that she did not divulge, it is likewise evident
that she had so expressed herself. As for her undutiful son
and wily correspondent, it may be noticed that, after inflict
ing on her pecuniary wrong, he was always very humble In
his phraseology.
The Ehectoe Palatine, Chaeles Louis, to the Queen oe Bohemia.*
" Madam, — The intermission of a three months' pain in my right
shoulder is not so satisfactory to me as that it renders me more able to
give your Majesty most humble thanks, though iu au ill character [of pen
manship], for the care [concern] you were pleased to show on my sad acci
dent, which I desired my sister Sophia to perform for me whilst I was so
unfit for that duty, as I am still, to my great grief, for the other your
Majesty may require of me.
" And though I ever have longed for the honour and happiness of kiss
ing your hands in this place [Heidelberg], yet now I see that the relation
of my present condition, as it is made by your own as well as by my ser
vants, is so little credited, I am the more earnest to wish that your Majesty
may be au eyewitness of it, and then I am confideut that your Majesty
will have a better opinion of my endeavours, though never so little con
siderable [profitable] to you at present.

^ Autograph letter to Craven. ^ Bromley Letters, p. 159.

220 ELIZABETH STUART,
" The last post from Ratisbon brought me the final agreement between
the Duke of Simmereni and my ambassador there, which is now drawing
up. This is the sum of it : — He leaves me at present two-thirds of the
Ampt-Stromberg, one-fifth of the revenues of the Ampt-Creutznach, and
some certaiu church-lands in the Ampt-Lautern, with the vote and session
of the principality; and after his and his wife's decease, the whole Ampt-
Lautern except Ottenberg. The rest remains according to the brotherly
division. If I had been sure ofa quick despatch in law, I should not have
quitted my right at so small a rate ; but since friendship is more worth than
long ¦pleadings, I have condescended to the aforesaid agreement.
" As for what your Majesty is pleased to command about changing the
drunken castelain at Rhenen' for Grandin, I am ready to obey you as soon
as I cau, by giving the other some content for his arrears [of wages], de
spatch him, and agree with this about his entertainment.
" Your Majesty will perceive by all my writing, that though my pain he
almost spent, yet a great weakness continues in the nerves of my arm and
hand, which are somewhat withered, and not without pain now whilst I
write, or when I use it iu any other way, which 1 hope will plead for my
scribbles, as [for] my other inabilities, for not showing that duty and
obedience [after] which, in all possible ways, I shall endeavour, whilst I
live, as your Majesty's most humble son and servant, " Chaeles."
Endorsed—" Heidelberg, this 26th November 1653."
Elizabeth's early friend and faithful brother-in-law, the
Duke of Simraeren, coraes again into notice in this de
spatch. Difference of religion and politics had estranged
his brother's widow and her faraily frora hira. He did not
long survive the settlement alluded to here ; and we shall
see his sister mention his death In one of her sportive let
ters with less than indifference.
As for the invitations the Elector gave his mother, in the
style here shown, to come to Heidelberg and see with her
own eyes how little he could afford to help her, insincere as
they were, they actuaUy caused her to turn her thoughts to
her dower-palaces of Frankenthal and Fridesheim, which last
she loved exceedingly, having had beautiful gardens enclos
ing a vineyard; " all destroyed, she understands ;" but " she
thinks the Elector is bound in duty to restore them.'' The
Elector did not mean to acknowledge any such duty ; "his
crotchets," as he calls them, kept his time and money in full
employment ; he was repudiating his unfortunate consort,
^ Louis Philip, Duke of Sirameren, his father's younger brother, often
mentioned in the earlier chapters of this Biography.
' Printed " liheims," where neither the Elector nor bis mother had busi
ness or power — evidently meant Rhenen,

ELIZABETH STUART. 221
Charlotte of Hesse, and marrying a German Anne Boleyn,
in stxong imitation of his collateral ancestor Henry VIII.
The excuse of want of male offspring did not, however, hold
good In this case, for the Electress had brought him a son,
who lived to succeed him. Another of his " crotchets " was
the marriage he was endeavouring to bring about with his
sister Sophia and her near kinsraan Prince Adolph of Deux
ponts, which, like raost of the offers made to Elizabeth's
daughters, came to nothing.
The three fatal years after the terrible death of her brother
deprived Elizabeth of two of her children, and of a friend
who seeraed her sole remaining stay. This was William II.,
Stadtholder and titular Prince of Orange. His early loss had
thrown her niece, the Princess Mary, into all the troubles of
widowhood at nineteen. She was likewise the mother of a little
sickly son, afterwards William III., born a few days after the
young father's death. The guardianship of this infant pro
duced altercations between the grandmother, Araelia of
Solms, and the young raother. Amelia had built a beauti
ful house at the extreraity of the forest that skirts the Hague.
Le Valais de la Bois de Haye is its historical narae ; but the
Dutch caUed it Beauty Hof, because Elizabeth, her young
princesses, and the ladies of the exiled English cavaliers,
were frequently visiting the elder Dowager of Orange, and
seen in its glittering charabers, which were wholly furnished
with Indian and Japan raovables and rarities. When the
cavalier proteges of the distressed Queen at the Hague
or at Rhenen suffered frora cold and starvation, they mi
grated to these hospitable bowers, or to the palaces of the
youthful Orange Dowager at Tieling or Breda. Bitter foes
to each other, the Orange Dowagers never extended their
hostUity to the Queen of Bohemia, who was perraitted to
love them both. She had been the mistress of one belli
gerent lady, and was the aunt of the other. They agreed in no
point but In cherishing her. By the united interest of both
she obtained from the Dutch government a certain stipend
of about £18 per month, which actually kept the wolf from
the door, while she devoted all she could obtain from her
graceless son the Elector towards liquidating her debts,
which were, though some seemed still very troublesome,

222 ELIZABETH STUART.
reduced greatly towards this period, when she dispensed with
her numerous stud of horses, and army of grooms and stablers.
After these sources of profuse expenditure had been sup
pressed, the letters of the Queen assume a most cheerful
tone. The crowds forraerly surrounding her, clamouring
for gifts and gratuities with the perseverance of Orientals,
dispersed with the entire conviction that their precious
time was lost when seeking for that which it was self-
evident was not to be had.
Elizabeth now disposed of most of her jewels, and, alter
ing her style of dress, becarae what Pepys termed a very
"plain lady" — a term, though used as a civil expression
In the next century for lack of personal beauty, at this pe
riod meant merely a wearer of unbedizened garments. Had
she adopted these excellent rules when her calamities first
began, she would have been speedily free frora debt. The
character for boundless extravagance still clave to her,
and was believed in by her nearest relatives, who could
not help reraerabering the vast suras she had formerly
wasted in idle pageantry. She reforraed all this perforce,
yet obtained little credit for so doing, but her private com
fort raust have been great. She made many vLsits, occa
sionally sharing in the gaieties of Brussels — always a most
agreeable city, but now enriched and enlivened by the resi
dence of the viceroys from Spain, the Archduchess and her
cardinal spouse, with whom EUzabeth had, even in the heat
of the Calvinist war, been on good terras.
All the spring of 1653-54, the Elector affected to he
raaking preparations to receive his raother at Heidel
berg. Having learned (he writes to her, February 3, by
Sir Charies Cottrel) —
" That it will not be your fault if you do not bless us with your presence
here, which I ara the more encouraged to hope for, since the making peace
between Cromwell and the States [Dutch] may produce the payment of
your creditors, and an unfitness of your abode with them. Though I
know there is nothing here that can add a pleasing cause to that necessity,
if your Majesty's grace and favour do not supply its inconveniences, yet, I
hope, we will keep them in their owu turbulent sphere without trouble to
the higher region." ^ ¦^ Bromley Letters, p. 178.

ELIZABETH STUART, 223
By these mysterious words, he alludes to the violent
quarrels between himself and his consort, Charlotte of Hesse,
then in their height. He reproached his mother afterwards,
that she did not come when he pressed her, because her
presence raight have given a turn to those deplorable dif
ferences ; thus showing a touch of regret, If one deceitful as
he was raay be given credit for regret of wrong-doing.
Elizabeth dared not venture herself in what he truly called
their "turbulent sphere," although he continued to consult
her on the situation she was to occupy in her once magnifi
cent home.
" I shall by your Majesty's permission desire to know iu time which
lodgings [suite of apartments] you will please to make choice at Henry's
Building,^ and in it the Emperor's lodging, for yourself, and the rooms
above for your women, to which there is a new staircase made from
the said Emperor's apartments, which Sir Charles Cottrel hath not seen.
Or the upper rooms in my grandfather's buildings (which are upon
the same floor), with the ruined Glasseu Saal [saloon of mirrors], for your
self and your women as above said. In that case they will be somewhat
farther from your person than if you lay below. Except you would have
them in the rooms above the Frauzeimer [lady's chamber], where I hear
the Duke of Deuxponts lay, which is nearer. I shall expect your Majesty's
commands herein, and other particulars, from Sir Charles Cottrel. I shall
not fail to observe your Majesty's commands touching the two cabinets
your Majesty desires ; but I doubt we shall hardly find two of equal good
ness on one floor. 1 believe your Majesty will have the Princess of Zol-
lern's Marquis of Bady [Baden] here very often ; he is a very gaudy old
gentleman, and pretends much friendship to us, but I doubt he is some
what double, at least he is reported so. He was here yesterday, and being
a Judge of the Chamber of Spier, will reside there with his family. His
two eldest sons have much wit, and are well bred. I can name few more
in our couutry that are conversible, and the women as little ; what they
imitate in strangers is still the worst. Those that are of the French have
nothing of them but their clothes; French letters ill-spelled, and the
affetteries of the Marais [in Paris], from whence they have all their modes.
Those that are after the Spanish show it iu their gua/rd infantas [fardin-
gales], only iu everything else they are as dull or impertinent as can be." '
By what follows. It appears that he means to allude
to the fact that Elizabeth was making some clairas on per
sonal property at Sedan and Rhenen, as left her by word
of raouth by King Frederic, her husband ; for Charles
Louis works hiraself up into a passion when concluding
' Elector Palatine, who built in the middle ages great part of tbe palace.
' Bromley Letters, p. 178.

224 ELIZABETH STUART,
his letter re.specting thera. In his own peculiar style, which was
always to Introduce something spiteful with polite words :—
" I think myself much bound to your Majesty for your gracious wish,
but bad been glad to have known the King my father's saying, when I
spoke to your Majesty of my intentions at my last coming out of England
in your bedchamber. But any stranger would be deceived in that humour,
since towards them there is nothing but mildness and complaisance uutil
accustomed to them. Patience ! every one must bear their taslc [burden],
and it is mine to bear several ones ! If I may deserve your Majesty's con
stant favour, it will be the greatest comfort to your unfortunate son and
servant." Here was a rather aggravating insinuation, that the
Queen, his lady raother, was all srailes and gracious be
haviour to new faces, while his unfortunate self raet with
different treatraent. At the bottom of all his patience in
bearing the burdens, for which he so affectionately pities
himself, was his father's bequest to his mother of certain
articles of household goods, called "stuff" by him in a
subsequent despatch, of which he had the strongest inchna
tion to deprive her.
The mysterious loss of Prince Maurice agitated the close
of the year 1653 ; yet his raother never seems to have
mourned hira as dead. In fact, frora the hour of his de
parture in the preceding year, with a large EngUsh ship of
war, to cruise in the South Seas,' no one ever ascertained
what becarae of hira. Some newsmongers reported that,
disgusted with Europe, he had realised the plan his uncle
Charles I. had projected for Rupert of colonising an
Island,2 and that he was reigning long afterwards in one of
the Polynesian group. But some traces would assuredly
have been found of him and the contents of his vessel, by
the discoverers in those latitudes In the present and last
centuries. In the suraraer of 1654 Elizabeth heard a ru
mour that Prince Maurice had been shipwrecked on some
coast in Africa or Asia which owed allegiance to the
Sultan, and had been sent a prisoner to Constantinople.
With such confidence was this report received, that Prince
Rupert set out for Vienna in order to be nearer to his
brother. The Elector Charles Louis, in a letter to his
^ One of those that revolted from the Parliament.
" Howell's Letters.

ELIZABETH STUART. 225
mother, dated June 16.54, mentions the existence of the
lost Maurice, though not without a shade of doubt, say
ing, " As for ray brother Maurice, my brother Rupert who
is now here thinks the way, by the Eraperor's agent at
Constantinople, too far about for his liberty (If the news be
true), but that from Marseilles we may best know the cer
tainty, as also the way of his releaseraent." ^ But there
was no certainty ever established concerning the fate of
Maurice. Hope died out alraost insensibly. It never
deserted the sanguine raind of Elizabeth ; her lost son's
return was not despaired of araong his brothers and sisters,
until long after she had quitted life.
' Bromley Letters, p. 167.

VOL. VIII.

ELIZABETH STUART

CHAPTEE VIII.

SUMMAEY
The Queen of Bohemia's letters, wherein she sends her nephew, Charles II.,
and Mary, Princess of Orange, the gossip of the Hague — Mentions Queen
Christina — Exults in the valour of her godson, James, Duke of York-
Regrets the death of her niece's maid, Kate Killigrew — Praises her suc
cessor, Anne Hyde — Reports Cromwell's expected kingship — Friendship
with Lady Browne, Mrs Evelyn's mother — Asks Charles II.'s consent for
the marriage of Sophia— Reports quarrels of Cromwell and Parliament
— Her monkey, Apollo — Mary of Orange joins Elizabeth at Tieling—
Their kiud reception of young Gloucester from his English captivity-
Grieves for his persecution by his mother when at Paris — Speaks of
" her favourite," Anne Hyde — Queen of Bohemia's tour to Brussels with
Princess Hohenzollern — Her resentment against Christina of Sweden-
Messages from her — Avoids her — Goes to Antwerp and Bergen. — Warm
interest in young Gloucester — Receives his visit — Elizabeth's gossip con
cerning Christina and Cond^ — Laughs at Charles II.'s old statesman in
love — Escape of her monkey — Her remarks on the spy Manning — On
the Swedish and Brandenburg affairs — Satire on Christina — Considera
Cromwell the Beast in Revelations — Account of a grand Dutch f6te—
Vivacious abuse of Cromwell — Her letters on battles aud balls — News
concerning Cromwell — Elizabeth's troubles with Mrs Grenville— Merry
doings at Carnival — Elizabeth preached against — Her daughter Louisa
paints her cousin's portrait — Charles II.'s letter to Elizabeth concerning
it — Her son's base behaviour.
All vague guesses, bold shots at probable circumstances,
and other unsatisfactory biographical labours, are spared,
whensoever our royal lady condescends to take the pen of
a ready-writer In her own hand, and relates what she is
about, and where she is. Elizabeth undertook this plea-

ELIZABETH STUART. 227
sant task, when her niece and nephew, Mary Princess of
Orange and Charles IL, left Breda for a long and merry
tour, comraencing at the baths of Alx-la-Chapelle, and
ending with the settlement of Charles II. at Cologne — a
period which all the parties concerned often alluded to as
the happiest portion of their lives. Elizabeth's letters,
though addressed to Charles II.'s cavalier secretary. Sir
Edward ]!Ticolas, present an unbroken narrative of all that
was going on wheresoever she went, and all she saw and
heard, for the information of her niece Mary and her nephew
Charles. She coraraenced her gay correspondence the very
day the royal party arrived at the waters of Aix. No little
talent does the lively writer display In her self-Iraposed
occupation as a journalist, in a series of letters which ful
filled the useful purpose of a family newspaper. It would
be desirable If her professional brethren, even of modern
date, were half as entertaining.
Notwithstanding her vivacious style, she was only then
convalescent frora a most dangerous illness, of the pleuritic
kind, to which she was subject. " Mr Secretary," she
begins, " I am very glad to find that you are safely arrived
with all your corapany at Aix, and that you found the King
[Charles IL], and ray niece [Mary Princess of Orange] so
well in health, and so kind one to the other, which has ever
been so since I have known them. I believe. Indeed, the
separation will be hard ; but when there is no reraedy, one
must be content. As for my journey uphill, I cannot tell
what to say to it. Sir Charles Cottrel will Inform you how
it goes but slowly on, and, which Is stranger, it is not my
fault." ^ She here alludes to the Illness which had but
recently nearly deprived her of life. Sir Charles Cottrel
was the ex-Master of the Ceremonies to Charles I., for
whom she had found a corner and sustenance In her
poverty-stricken household, out of loving remerabrance for
faithful personal service to that beloved brother. More
over, she employed him, as we have seen. In confidential
1 Appendix vol. to Evelyn's Diary. According to his endorsement. Sir
Edward Nicolas received her firat letter Aug. 31, 1654, soon after hia
arrival at Aix-la-Chapelle.

228 ELIZABETH STUART.
embassies to her perverse son, and in all her foreign affairs,
Charles II. afterwards restored him to his brilliant ofiice
at court
Elizabeth was extreraely curious regarding Christina of
Sweden, who had, against the wishes of her subjects, abdi
cated her throne the sarae year, and was the heroine of
Europe — the observed of all observers. Strange to say, the
Queen of Boheraia never had any personal communication
with the only child of Gustavus Adolphus, although oft-
times dwelling In the same city with her. One of Charles
I.'s exiled Church of England chaplains, Dr Morley, how
ever, described her to Elizabeth, who proceeds to say : " The
Queen of Sweden gave an assignation to the French Am
bassador, to meet her at Breda, whither he went ; and so
did the Prince de Tarente,"^ and so did the Princess de Tar
ente ;^ but the Prince and Princess, and most of our French
gallants who went with thera, all came sneaking home again.
For the Queen of Sweden's grief was so great for the beat
ing of the Spanish array before Arras, that she would not go
to Breda. She sent another account to the French Ambas
sador, as you may iraagine ; but the Landgrave of Hesse-
Cassel wrote the truth to his niece, the Princess of Tarente.
We have yet no particulars here of this defeat ; but In
general It is reported a very great one. I long to hear
what part ray godson had In It, for I still think of him
being ray chiefest corafort, next to your excellent raaster."
The godson, whora she often raentions by the pet name
of " Tint," was her favourite nephew, Jaraes Duke of
Tork, who had wonderfully distinguished hiraself In this
action. " I ara very glad your daughter. Lady Browne,^
is so well. I do not wonder at it, she is so well used
by her husband [Sir Richard Browne] ; and now she
has her father with her, she Is the more content, and I
take it very well that all this does not make her forget her
friends here. I assure you I long to have her here again.
1 Henry Charles de la Tresnouille, commander of the Hessian cavalry
hired by the Dutch.
2 Amelia, wife of tho above, and daughter of William, Landgrave of
LFesse-Cassel. " Mother of John Evelyn's wife, daughter to Sir Edward Nicolas,

ELIZABETH STUART. 229)
I am very sorry for poor KiUigrew ; she was a very good
gentlewoman." ^
While the young widow, Mary Princess of Orange, was
amusing herself at Alx-la-Chapelle with her gay brother,
Charles IL, an accident had like to have changed the whole
course of history, by demolishing the future elective King of
Great Britain, WilUara III, in his infancy. Elizabeth of
Boheraia, who was partly left in charge of the boy, had, in
this her first despatch, coraraunicated the narrow escape
thus : " You will hear, by Mistress Howard, how great a
scrape ray little nephew escaped yesterday upon the bridge,
by the Princess of Orange's horse." This was Amelia de
Solras, the grandraother of the child. " God be thanked
,there was no hurt, only the coach broken. I took hira into
my coach, and brought hira horae. The [elder] Princess of
Orange went frora hence on Saturday, and you will have
our baron shortly with you at Aix. He will tell you the
second part of the Queen of Sweden, for he coraes frora her
to your court. To-morrow I beUeve I shall go a-shooting,
which I have not done since you went. I am very glad you
are established in your place, which you deserve so well. I
' Kate Killigrew had served the Queen of Bohemia, aud her niece the
Princess of Orange, for eight years. She was the daughter of Lady Stafford,
by a first marriage. She died of the small-pox, in the service of the Prin
cess of Orange. Her place was filled by the celebrated Anne Hyde. Kate
Killigi'ew had been warmly recommended to the Queen of Bohemia by ber
son, Charles Louis, when he was the guest of Queen Henrietta Maria at
Hampton Court. It is remarkable that the daughters of the House of
Killigrew were celebrated for their learning, genius, and purity of life,
besides their beauty ; while the sons, corrupt and dishonourable, were the
disgrace of their century. " Thou youngest virgin daughter of the skies,"
is the commencement of Diyden's immortal ode on the death of tbe poetess,
Anne Killigrew, younger sister of Kate, mentioned by the Queen of Bo
hemia. As for the brother, Tom Killigrew, who is usually supposed to
have been a professional buffoon, or court jester, and the last of those func
tionaries at the English Court, he was by birth a gentleman, and by profes
sion, author, soldier, courtier, and cavalier ; for all that, he was liSte et non
bon bite, being so foul in conduct, works, and conversation, that he is posi
tively not fit to be mentioned. Nor should he be so, but for drawing the
contrast between him as a human being, and the qualities of his lady rela
tives. There was another KiUigrew, Henry by name, who was not good
enough for the Elector, Charles Louis, himself nowise particular, at least
regarding his own moral conduct. In one of his letters to the Queen of
Bohemia, he says of him, " He will never leave lying as long as his tongue
can wag." The Killigrew family can be traced nested in the English Court,
like mites in a cheese, from the days, at least, of Henry VIII.

230 ELIZABETH STUART.
ara sorry for my Lord Wentworth's sickness ; pray let him
know so from me, and remember me to Mr Chancellor
Hyde." The next news-letter from EUzabeth was sent to the
royal party at Aix, just one week afterwards. She re
joices at the farae of her dear godson Tint, and the laurels
he had won before Arras. " The Queen of Sweden," she
continues,^ " is yet at Antwerp. We look every day to see
the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel here, and by hira I shall
know what she will do. Dr Morley has a letter of the dis
covery of a new treason in London of the levellers against
his precious Highness [Oliver Cromwell]. Our Baron has
sent for his man, Sraith, to raeet him, God knows where,
for I do not. I believe you will have him at Aix, for he Is the.
direct wandering Jew. I hear Mrs Anne Hyde is to come
to my niece, Mary Princess of Orange, In poor Mrs Killi-
grew's place, which I ara very glad of She is very fit for
it, and is a great favourite, of mine. Pray let my Lord
Wentworth know I ara extreme glad he is of the King'.s
councU. Being so much his friend as I am, I cannot but
wish him much joy ofit."
" I hope, before this coraes to you," the Queen continues,
in her news-letter ofthe next week,^ "you will receive a
packet, which came from Rotterdam, and which ould Will
Kepley carries hiraself to Aix. I shall be very glad to hear
what news he brings, because here is again news of
Monk's ^ being beaten, which a man at Middleton writes
to Strachen frora Stranaven, or sorae such narae, and that
all long for the King. Stone is at last here. He says that
Crorawell will be now either King or Emperor. I wish him
the latter. He has heard nothing of Barafield, but I easily
believe he is honest enough to be well used by Cromwell.
This day the Asserably of Holland wrote to the States-
General that Sir George Fleetwood, brother to him that Is
Lieutenant of Ireland, told hira that he knew Cromwell had
said ' he would keep the peace with the Dutch no longer
^ Appendix volume of Evelyn's Diary — from the Hague, Sept. 7, 1654.
^ Ibid. Dated Sept. 15, 1654.
Theu a Parliamentary general, serving in Scotland.

ELIZABETH STUART. 231
than he found It -good for his Interests, and would break
with thera the first occasion that he can, for the good
of his designs.' In Holland they are angry at the
agent for writing this ; those that have seen the letter
told It rae."
The subject was, as might be expected, interesting enough
to the royal faraily for the Queen of Boheraia to refer to it
again in her next week's news-letter.-^ " Sorae, In a ship
corae out of England, say that the mock Parliament begin
to dispute their privileges with CromweU, but I fear they
will too well agree. I ara very glad the King [Charles IL]
used Prince Williara [of Nassau Friesland] and his lady^
so well." Charles II. was at this tirae truly desirous of
marrying the other sister, Henrietta of Orange. It was
a great misfortune that he did not ; but he was circumvented
by the worldly wisdom, of her mother, whora he never for
gave. The Princess Louisa Palatine, the accoraplished daughter
of the Queen of Boheraia, was then painting a portrait
of their friend, Araelia of Hesse, Princess of Tarente. The
Queen adds to her letter: "It is now very fair weather.
When the Princess of Tarente's picture Is ended by Louye,
which will be this day, then I raay chance go a-shooting,
which I have not done since you went. I pray deliver this
you wiU find enclosed to the King [Charles IL] with ray
hurable service. I pray let rae know if the Queen of Swe
den did write to King Charles, and whether she did it civilly
or not. Sure Dick Harding is grown a fish in his baths,^
for he is as mute as one. Tell hira so frora rae ! I think
the King had better stay where he Is, than go to Cologne.
He will not be so rauch at his leisure there as at Aix. Those
of Cologne are odd people ; so I ara of your opinion."
The Queen of Boheraia in her next letter announces that
she had heard of the Intended return of the Princess of
Orange. " I ara very glad," she says, " I shall see my
niece so soon. Dr Morley will write ' what he learns out
^ Appendix volume of Evelyn's Diary. Sept. 21.
^ Daughter of the Stadtholder, Frederic Prince of Orange.
^ He was a clergyman, and was with the royal party at the baths of Aix.

232 ELIZABETH STUART.
of England of Cromwell's dissolving his Parliament for
being so ungracious as not to do what he would have
them ;' the news was confirmed to me last night by one of
the States-General, but it was so late I could not hear the
particulars. The same State [deputy] told me there was
a speech of part of the Orange-and-red men in rebellion
against his precious Highness. I pray tell your daughter
[Lady Browne] all this, for I had sealed ray letter to her
before I had the certainty of the news. I ara very glad
the King [Charles II. ] resolves to stay at Aix ; it is much
better than Cologne. I hear there is one, who heretofore
served my Lord of Brentford,^ packed frora Scotland to the
King but three days agone, and came from thence but six
days before ; he would tell no news, but made haste away.
Soon as he went, reached [arrived] here one Thomson, one
I have seen before. He tells all the particulars of the
defeat that is so much bragged of, ' that they were dis
persed upon it ; but it is five weeks since he came from
thence, being corae through England by his country the
Borders [of Scotland], where, in his passage, he met with
a party by whom he was hurt and lamed;' but, for all
that, he is gone to the King."
The obscure action she mentions was a skirmish between
some of Cromwell's troops in Scotland and some roving
bands of Scotch irregulars who took " kane in the king's
name" on brae and border, and wheresoever they could
levy it, probably for their private emolument. " He much
complains,"^ continues the Queen of Boheraia, "of divisions
araong thera, and not of Sir George Monro. I do admire
how people could tell so great a lie as the Pasquet ; but it
is very common among my countrymen." Now, whether
.she means by her " countryraen" English, Scotch, or Dutch,
and whether the " Pasquet " thus given to figments regard-
1 Patrick Ruthven, Lord Brentford in England, Earl of Forth iu Scot
land, had been a General in the royal forces, but was dead at this time.
He bore a strange character as a necromancer, having studied the black
art in the Tower, with his fellow-captive tho Earl of Northumberland.—
See Lilly's Life and Times.
2 Evelyn's Memoirs, Appendix volume— Letter of the Queen of Bohemia
written Sept. 29, Hague, 1654.

ELIZABETH STUART.' 233
Ing news was a gazette or a ship. Is a riddle she has left no
raeans of solving, for lying in all its branches was unfor
tunately no distinctive feature In matters political of either
land. " Lady Mohun Is here ; she has fied from England,
fearing to be iraprisoned by Crorawell. She is very good
company, talks very freely, but handsomely [with pro
priety]. My Lady Herbert is also here since Sunday last.
I have had yet no tirae to ask her anything, not haviug
seen her since Sunday. Tom Dolraan is here, and desires
leave to see rae, which Ihave put off till I know the King's
[Charles IL's] pleasure. [As be has] so openly owned the
setting forward of the treaty, I will not see hira with
out the King's approbation. I have writ thus to your
daughter." Lady Browne, being the wife of the Cavalier
Sir Richard Browne, arabassador of Charles I., and then
of Charles IL, to the French court, was, as most clever
ambassadresses are, deep in the plots and plans of her
kindred diplomats. A very reraarkable correspondence
seems going on between the Queen of Bohemia and Lady
Browne, without doubt replete with the lively talents of
both these illustrious ladies. It is very unlikely that it
should have been destroyed, and Is probably at this moment
safely reposing in the charter-chest of the house of Evelyn.
" I desire," resumes the Queen, " that you both know the
King's pleasure in It. I entreat you, besides, to reraeraber
ray hurable service to him, and keep me still in his good
opinion." She adds, " I bragged too soon of shooting, for,
since I wrote, the weather has not served."
The negotiation for her daughter Sophia's marriage with
Prince Adolph, the brother of Charles Gustavus, King of
Sweden, intervened at this date ; and one of this series of
her letters^ is her ofiicial request of Charles II.'s consent,
which he courteously granted, although his cousin would
have been married by it into the faraily of one of his greatest
political eneraies. Notwithstanding his aunt's advice to
fix his headquarters at Aix-la-Chapelle, and not at Cologne,
' See the succeeding Biography of her daughter, Sophia of Hanover.
The marriage with Adolph of Deuxponts never took place.

234 ELIZABETH STUART.
Charles II. found the gay watering-place of Europe far too
expensive for his slender raeans.
In the Queen of Bohemia's next despatch, dated October
19th, she says to the royal secretary : " Hearing you may
chance to stay all this week at Cologne, I send you this en
closure for the King [Charles IL] to give hira humble thanks
for his approbation of Sophia's raarriage. You will have
understood by Curtius all the news of Gerraany, as he is
gone to wait upon the King. You will find by theEnglish
prints that they are forbidden to write anything of the
proceedings of their mock pariiaraent." Such was a small
specimen of English freedora, parliamentary and popular,
under the government of Cromwell, and one, perhaps,
among other reasons, for desiring to raise him a statue for
general adoration within the walls of the House of Commons.
The Queen wrote the truth, but not the whole truth, con
cerning the chains with which this revolutionary despot
fettered the press of his country.
There had been a dreadful explosion of gunpowder at
Delft. The Queen of Bohemia went, as all the world did,
to see the mischief after it was done. " I was at Delft,"
she continues, " to see the wrack that was made by the
blowing-up of the powder this day sevennight. It Is a sad
sight ; whole streets quite razed, and not one stone left on
another. It is not yet known how many persons are lost;
there is scarce[ly] any house in town but the tiles are off."
Then occurs a great blot on her paper; she proceeds to
explain that her monkey Apollo had comraitted this male
faction. " ApoUo, with leaping Into my lap, has made this
blot. Tom Killigrew is here, who makes a rare relation
of the Queen of Sweden. It is very cold, which I hope
will diminish the plague. I ara extreme glad that the
King Is satisfied with Rupert's letter, and has answered
him so kindly. I pray do poor Curtius all the favour you
can." tie was one of her old diplomatic retainers, and had
often acted as envoy between Charles I, her husband, and
herself The Princess of Orange having now returned to her
palace of Tieling, her royal aunt Elizabeth went to meet

ELIZABETH STUART. 235
her, and celebrate her birthday. " She Is," observes Eliza
beth, " in rauch trouble for her dear brother of Gloucester."^
It had been not raany months since they had welcoraed this
beloved boy frora bis long captivity in England at Breda
and Tieling. He had won their hearts by his sincere and
pleasant temper; and though all observed a sort of uncouth-
ness which he had contracted, they assured one another that
he would soon polish up into an elegant young cavalier. He
proceeded to Paris for the course of education there, assisted
by his tutor, the Reverend Mr Level, a clergyman of the
persecuted Church of England. The atterapts of his raother.
Queen Henrietta Maria, to force hira Into the profession
of the Roman Catholic religion, are well known. The news
of his distress. In consequence, filled the hearts of bis relatives
In the Low Countries with sorrow and Indignation ; and
various are the notices which occur concerning young
Gloucester in these letters of his aunt. " I ara sorry the
King [Charles IL] has so rauch cause of grief," she con
tinues. " I beseech that God may speedily reraedy it. I
believe ray dear nephew Gloucester has good resolution,
but there is no trusting to one of his tender age. I confess
I did not think the Queen [his raother] would have pro
ceeded thus. All is kept here very secret that Prince
Will [of Nassau-DIetz] doth in Overezel; but I ara told
all goes well, and that Deventer, which was the town most
against, will do well, as also Rupert " — not her son, but
some person concerned In the Dutch politics of De Witt
against Orange, which is the subject of her discussion —
" who was of the other faction. I send a letter for the best
of kings " — that being her serious opinion of her nephew,
Charles II. ; " 'tis about Tom Killigrew's business. I pray
remember me to Mr ChanceUor Hyde, and teU hira that
his lady and my favourite, his daughter " — raeaning Anne
Hyde — " carae hither this Saturday, and are gone this day
to Tieling," being for the purpose of Inducting Anne Hyde
In her place as mald-of-honour to the Princess of Orange,
Charles II.'s sister, "I find my favourite" — and by this
1 Evelyn's Memoirs, Appendix volume — Letter of the Queen of Bohemia,
Nov. 16, 1654.

236 ELIZABETH STUART.
endearing terra Elizabeth always designates Anne Hyde—
" is grown every way to her advantage."
The Princess of HohenzoUern, in the latter end of No
vember, invited the Queen of Bohemia to bear her com
pany in a tour from Bergen to Antwerp and Brussels. It
was in the course of this pleasure-trip that they meant to
satisfy their curiosity concerning Christina of Sweden, of
whora Tom Killigrew had given such extraordinary notices,
no doubt in his peculiar way. When on the throne of
Sweden, Queen Christina had behaved raost inimically to
Charles I., and had been ungenerous enough to use re
viling words on his dire misfortunes — outrages which
Elizabeth declared " she would never forgive." Christina
had treated with scorn the proposal, made through Des
cartes, of giving an asylum to Elizabeth's eldest daughter
when the faraily were In the utraost distress, and the
young Elizabeth was peculiarly uneasy at horae. Des
cartes had been greatly hurt by the levity and inso
lence with which the then prosperous Queen of Sweden
spoke of the Palatine family. He died at Stockholm of
the severe change of climate, soon after his acceptance of
Christina's Invitation ; and this old friend of Elizabeth, it
was reported, had not been kindly treated by his northern
patroness. It was guessed that Christina meant to traverse
the pending marriage of Elizabeth's youngest daughter
Sophia with Adolphus the brother of the King of Sweden,
Charles Gustavus, in whose favour Christina had lately
abdicated. All these causes operated In influencing Elizabeth's pen,
when writing her opinion of the Swedish heroine. Yet
angry as she was, her natural candour led her to say on the
sight of her, " She is extravagant in her fashion and apparel,
but she has a good well-favoured face and a mild counten
ance." Tom KiUigrew had described Christina as grotesque
and hideous. The two queens were pointed out to each
other, when they were both at the theatre at Antwerp, by
one of the players, who came to the seat or box of the Queen
of Bohemia to pay his respects, and learn her approbation of
his performance. The same person informed Christina of

ELIZABETH STUART. 237
the presence and whereabouts of EUzabeth, but no recog
nition passed between the queens.i " I stayed but one day,"
continues Elizabeth, " at Brussels, where I saw the Arch
duke at raass, and I saw his pictures and lodgings. I
was at Sir Harry de Vic's,2 who was very careful and
diligent, and did rae all the service he could. I stayed but
Sunday at Brussels, and returned to Antwerp upon Monday.
And hearing from Duart ^ how the Queen of Sweden had
desired to know when I carae back to Antwerp, ' that
she raight raeet me in an indifferent place,' I made the
more haste away the next day, because I had no mind to
speak with her, since I had heard how unhandsomely she
had spoken of the King ray dear brother, and of the King
my dear nephew, and, indeed, of all our nation. So I
avoided it, and went away [from Antwerp] as soon as I had
dined. Yet she sent Donoy to me with a very civil mes
sage, ' that she was sorry she could not use that civility to
rae as both she should do and desired [to do], hoping that
one day we raight meet together with more freedom.' I
answered her as civilly as I could, and when I came from
Bergen I gave Sir Williara Swann charge to raake her a
compliment from me.
" I carae hither to the Hague frora Bergen, where I was
extreraely * well entertained by the Princess of Hohen
zollern, who was with rae, and was ray guide all the journey,
and defrayed rae." The Princess of Hohenzollern bore
the expenses of her royal guest, a ceremony very needful
for all those to do who were desirous of the travelling com
panionship of the irapoverished Queen of Bohemia. The
Princess of Hohenzollern was Francisca, a descendant of
the eldest son of William the Liberator, the first Stadt
holder. The Dutch, out of gratitude, had granted her
various privileges and Imraunities in the town of Bergen, of
1 Evelyn's Memoirs, Appendix volume — Letter ofthe Queen of Bohemia,
December 3, 1654.
^ An old diplomatic envoy of Charles I.
' This was apparently the comedian who had acted as the means of com
munication between Elizabeth and Christina.
* Elizabeth usually writes as her niece Mary II. did a quarter of a cen
tury later, " extreme good " or extreme well. Yet she occasionally uses
the adverb correctly.

,238 ELIZABETH STUART.
which she was by Inheritance the principal proprietor. She
was the wife of John George, Prince of HohenzoUern, a
near relative, if not the head,^ of the Electoral family of
Brandenburg. Francisca, Princess of Hohenzollern, was a
Roman Catholic, as Elizabeth soon afterwards knew to
her sorrow: probably her religion was then concealed
on account of the Dutch ; for the two ladies were con
sidering the feasibility of a marriage between Charles II
and her pretty young daughter, to which scheme may
be attributed the close Intiraacy of the Princess with his
aunt. It is not likely, however, that Elizabeth, if she had
known her religion, would have recoraraended a Eoman
Catholic wife to her nephew, being fully aware that aU the
troubles of her beloved brother sprang frora the sanae
source ; and even at the present moment she was not
devoid of anxiety regarding the forced proselytism prac
tising at Paris by her Roman Catholic sister-in-law on her
young nephew, the Duke of Gloucester. Yet she says of
her friend, being quite aware Charles II. was to read her
despatch : " Her daughter is now so pretty every way
that you would like her better than ever you did if you
saw her. She is much grown, and Is still of a very sweet
disposition, which doth becorae her. She has a great deal
of wit, and loves our nation extremely. It makes me
think of your wish, which L am not against, you know;"
— evidently alluding, says the editor of Evelyn's Memoirs,
to a plan of producing a match between Charles II. and
the young daughter of ZoUern, but not very consistent, if
Elizabeth knew her friend was a Roman Catholic, with
what follows. " By this post I had very good news of the
Duke's [Gloucester's] constancy in his reUgion, and of my
Lord of Ormonde's handsorae carriage in that business.
So as the Queen Henrietta Maria saith, she will press him
[Gloucester] no farther in it. But I hope the King [Charles
IL] will not trust to It, but get him away from thence, which
wUl do the King [Charles IL] great right [meaning good].
It is so cold as I can say no more."
1 Memoirs by Frederic the Great, King of Prussia.

ELIZABETH STUART. 239
" I long to hear," she continues In her next despatch,^
" that my sweet nephew Gloucester Is at Brussels. My
niece [the Princess of Orange] has sent Nick Armourer to
meet hira there. I have written to hira, by Arraourer,
that if the King would perrait him [Gloucester] to take
this place [the Hague] and Tieling in his way from Brussels,
he would raake his sister and rae very glad. Gloucester
need not raake such haste to see the King [Charles IL] at
Cologne ; it is but the other day since he was with him,
but it is long since we saw him. And I ara sure our
Hogan Mogans will take no notice of It If they be not
asked the question, as they were for King Charles's coming
to Breda." By this delightful narae of Hogan Mogans,
which was, indeed, their official title, Elizabeth means the
merabers of the government of the United Provinces. At
the peace with Cromwell, they had agreed not to harbour
Charles Stuart or his brethren. So when they came to
visit their sister of Orange, or their loving aunt the Queen
of Bohemia, the harassed exiles were warned to quit the
Dutch territories. But a flying visit from the boy Glou
cester, whose firmness against his raother's persecutions
had won hira great popularity in Protestant Europe, raight,
EUzabeth thought, be stolen, and that the Hogan Mogans
would wink at it. As to Breda, where the Stuart brothers
often raet, the Orange demesne of that town was con.sidered
to be In the Spanish Netherlands, therefore there was no
occasion for the Princess to ask leave of the Dutch authori
ties ; she could receive her brothers there without their
licence. " I have taken the boldness to write the same to King
Charles by my Lord Gerard, who, I believe, wUl be with you
as soon as this letter, for he went from thence on Saturday
last. We hear nothing of the rebels' fleet hereabouts, but
they say that Blake Is to join the Spanish fleet against the
Duke of Guise." ^ " The French arabassador," continues
^ Evelyn's Memoirs, Appendix volume, — dated at the Hague, December
21, 1654.
' The Duke of Guise commanded the French fleet, though a soldier ; he
died soon after of his wounds received at the victory of Arras.

240 ELIZABETH STUART.
EUzabeth, "believes the French treaty with Cromwell as
good as broken ; he Is much joyed that the meeting [at Ant
werp] between the Queen of Sweden and the Prince of Condd
was to neither of their content. For Condd desired to be re
ceived as she received the Archduke, viceroy for Spain in
the Spanish Netherlands, which Christina refused, saying she
had done too much in that, and would do so no more. Tet
Cond^ carae to see her h^usquement a I'improvist, and did
nothing but rally her in his talk, which put her so out as
she said alraost not one word. This was in the morning ;
after dinner she sent to ' know if he would see the play at
night?' He said, 'he would obey her,' but desired to
know whether he should come known with the state of his
rank as prince of the blood-royal of France, ' or unknown'
— viz. Incognito. For if he carae as Prince de Condd,
he looked to have chaise a, bras as the Archduke had.
Christina said, ' he had better corae unknown (incognito).'
So he carae, and she stood all the play, rallying with
Monsieur Quito, the Prince's favourite. The next day the
Prince de Cond^ went to Brussels ; neither of them were
well satisfied* with each other. My Lady Swann is here
within a few days ; by her I shall know raore of this," mean
ing the Interview between the celebrated hero and hero
ine, the warlike Prince of Condd and Christina of the Ab
dication. He was doing penance at Brussels by exUe for
the rebellion of the Fronde in France, which Christina
had encouraged with all her might — that is, with all the
influence she could emit from her far cold orbit when
she was reigning as the Star of the North. Cond^ corre
sponded with her almost amorously, and she had excited
his turbulence ; yet, when these two admirers met, their
first p'roceedings were to squabble concerning arm-chairs 1
as the Queen of Bohemia dryly describes. She proceeds
to note some of the gossip of young Charles Stuart's court
under a cloud at Cologne; she mentions a raysterious transit
which her friend Sir Harry de Vic had made from Brussels
to Cologne, not on matters political, but affectionate — the
dry old statesman was in love with a fair damsel at Cologne.
" Sure it is adoating time!" exclaims the Queen of Bohemia,

ELIZABETH STUART. 241
" for King Charles' ould ministers of state. I thank God
your wife is yet alive,^ for fear you should fall in love again.
I pray let me know when that wedding will be, for I will
send you a letter to Reverend Dick Harding to bespeak
hira as brideman " to Sir Harry de Vic, whose going court
ing to Cologne had amazed her. Her monkey had made
an escapade, but had returned. She thus concludes her
lively epistle : " I thank you for your congratulation on
Apollo's return ; you know how great a favourite he Is. I
pray tell my Lady Hyde I am very glad she was so wel
come at Cologne."
A mysterious homicide at Cologne was perplexing the
friends of the exiled Stuarts. Captain Manning, one of
Charles II.'s suite, was discovered to be a spy of Crora-
well's. The King, who raeant to exaraine deliberately Into
the accusation, sent hira under restraint to a strong castle
near Cologne ; but one of the King's attendants, either
fearing Charles's cleraency for the traitor, or, which is raost
likely, expecting discovery of his own proceedings in the
same line, shot hira dead at the castle-gate when he was
alighting frora the vehicle in which the King had sent
him. That the cavalier-rising in the west, under Pen-
ruddock, was betrayed by the spy Manning Is certain,
as his correspondence appears among the Thurloe Papers.
The assassination of Manning greatly troubled Charles,
who would have been glad to have exarained hira. The
Queen of Boheraia thus alludes to this historical fact in her
next despatch to Sir Edward Nicolas, then with Charles II.
at Cologne : ^ " Since you wrote yours, I understand that
that arch-villain Manning has received his just desert. I
wish all those of his cabal with him. I wish I might know
whom he has accused on this side of the sea, to avoid" them,
but this Is only in case you may tell it, for I do not desire
^ Lady Nicolas, mother of Lady Browne the English Ambassadress,
grandmother of Mrs Evelyn, aud wife of Sir Edward Nicolas, to whom
this curious exhortation is addressed by the Queen of Bohemia, from the
Hague, December 21, 1654.
^ Evelyn's Memoirs, Appendix volume — dated Hague, December 27
1654. VOL. VIII. " Q

242 ELIZABETH STUAET.
it Otherwise : I have curiosity enough to desire the rest,
but I wUl not desire but as you think fit. There is Uttle
news here : the King of Sweden has a son born to him,"
Charles Gustavus, the near relative of Elizabeth's husband
and children ; he was the successor of Christina. It was
this polite hero who said to his consort, when she, presum
ing on the birth of his heir, was offering sorae counsel on
affairs political, ' Madam, we took you to give us children,
not advice.'" He was raaking a terrible onslaught upon
Brandenburg, the territories of his cousin, the Elector
George WilUara, whose brave son, Frederic WilUam the
Great, soon after gave hira deserved punishment. Eliza
beth was related to these belligerents by blood herself, but
her children were exceedingly closely connected with both.
The three families were descended frora the Jagellons,
claimants of the hereditary duchy of Lithuania — and they
were all eagerly looking forward to election — as the last of
the line reigning In Poland, John Casimir, had no heirs, and
was disgusted with its sceptre : this was the secret spring
which set the northern sovereigns waging such bloody wars
together after the " Thirty Years' War."
Elizabeth went to Tieling on a visit to her niece, the
Princess of Orange, on the last day of the year 1654.
When she returned to the Hague, she wrote thus to
Cologne:^ " I have letters from Brussels this morning,
telling me that my dear nephew, the Duke of Gloucester,
was there the New Year's eve, the same day I was at
Tieling ; but when he came thither, or came from thence, I
know not. I am extreme glad the King [Charles IL] per
mits him to see his sister and me. I hope he will suffer
him to stay some time with my dear niece the Princess of
Orange ; it will be a great contentment to- her, and no hurt
to him ; and as long as there is nothing told to the States of
hira, they wiU take no notice of it; this I know is true:"
that is, as long as the young Prince was content to remain
incognito. The courtship of Sir Henry de Vic, which had
araused her in the preceding month, was not prospering,
^ Evelyn's Memoirs, Appendix volume — dated Hague, Jan. 4, 1654-5.

ELIZABETH STUART. 243
for tlie Queen resumes : " I am sorry for poor Sir Harry
de Vic, as, let the match break or go on, it is every way ill
for him. We hear no certainty here how the French treaty
with the rebels in England goes, whether it breaks or peace.
I am very sorry for the Countess of Morton's death. I
pity Sir Thomas Berkeley, but most her children." The
Countess of Morton was the governess of the young Hen
rietta Stuart, youngest daughter of Charles I. Every one
knows the particulars of her successful escape with the
royal infant. She had left Paris some years afterwards, and
returned to England to avoid the proselytising spirit of her
queen, Henrietta, and the affectionate entreaties of her fair
pupil, and of the kind old Gamache, and neither were persons
to be resisted without painful feelings ; they did not think
the Church of England (as established at the last translation
of the Scriptures) catholio enough, but the faithful Lady
Morton knew it was. After her raarriage with Sir Thomas
Berkeley, she returned incognita to England, but In a few
weeks died of a typhus fever — perhaps of the plague that
the Queen raentions in one of her letters of the preceding
auturan. She was vexed on her deathbed by polemic
wrangles, but died in our church.^ The sympathy ex
pressed by the Queen of Bohemia was natural enough ;
they were co-reUgionlsts and early acquaintances.
EUzabeth returns to Christina, and has a fling at her of
dry satire. " The Queen of Sweden Is now at Brussels,
where she was received in great state. I beUeve the Arch
duke wisheth her at Antwerp again, for she persecutes
him verie close with her corapany, for you know he is a
verie modest raan. I have written the King [Charles IL]
some particulars of It, which are rare ones" — namely, of
Christina's persecutions of the modest viceroy of the
Spanish Netherlands. To do EUzabeth justice, no letter
from her pen ever sins against propriety ; or, to use her
own phraseology, is " unhandsome." The rest of her de
spatch is filled with particulars respecting the quarrels of the
descendants of the JageUons,the kings of Sweden andPoland,
1 MSS. of Pere Gamache.

244 ELIZABETH STUART.
and the intention of the Muscovite Czar to come and de
vour thera when weakened with contending. The King of
Poland, John Casirair, she had heard, raeant to send his
agent to Cromwell to ask for ships to make a diversion
against the Muscovite. " So good an agent Is very unwilling
to go," she observes, " but he must obey his master.^ Sure
Crorawell is the Beast in the Revelation that aU kings and
nations do worship ! I wish hira a like end, and speedily!"
Among her other energetic qualities, our Elizabeth was a
good hater, and, notwithstanding the touch of comedy in
this explosion of her wrath against the enemy of her hou.se,
her heart went with her aspiration.
" Mr Secretary," she says in her next letter,^ " I be
lieve you wUl hear at Cologne how debauched [dissipat
ed] I have been this last week, in sitting up late to see
dancing. We made Friday out, and every night, which
lasted till Saturday, till five o'clock in the morning, and
yesterday was the christening of Prince Will's child [Wil
liam of Nassau-DIetz]. I was at the supper; my niece,
Mary Princess of Orange, the little Prince [then four years
old, afterwards WilUara IIL], the Princess-Dowager, his
grandraother, of Orange, and Prince Maurice, were gossips.
The States-General and the CouncU of State, and myself
and Louise, were there as guests. After supper, was danc
ing till three o'clock. My little nephew was at the supper,
and sat verie stUl. Those States [the Orange depudes]
that were there were much taken with him. The King
of Sweden with his army is within an hour's march of
Konigsberg, with twenty thousand men, mostly horse.
The Elector is in the town, and has also twenty thousand'
men." This passage indicates the terrible strife raging
between Charles Gustavus King of Sweden, and his relative
the Elector of Brandenburg, in the heart of whose domin
ions the warlike Swede was then doing battle. CromweU
affected to interfere with a religious protest against the
horrors of war, and the inordinate ambition of his friend
the King of Sweden, in godly meekness wondering that
^ She alludes to De Brd, the Polish minister resident at the Hague.
^ Evelyn's Meraoirs, &c. — dated Hague, January 10, 1654-5.

ELIZABETH STUART. 245
men took such pains to reign ! Elizabeth, exasperated at
this cant, exclaims against CromweU, — " Good man, he
took no pains for It, nor had no ambition ! There never
was so great a hypocrite ; I wish him as ill a new-year
as, I thank you, you wish me a good one ! " ^ III wishes.
are a feeble artillery ; they generally Inspire contempt.
But Elizabeth always launches hers with such comic viva
city, that one laughs reading her raaledictions. She pro
bably laughed when writing thera.
The Princess of Orange, her niece, was her guest at the
Hague during the festival of the Epiphany, particulars of
which she interweaves with the fates of contending na
tions. " My dear niece," she resuraes, " continues her In
tention of going frora hence on Thursday next, but I doubt
the weather will hinder her, for it thaws apace. I have
written to my nephew, Charles IL, all the particulars of
what they were, and who was best dressed." The young
Duke of Gloucester was expected, as his sister's guest,
every day. " I hope my next," writes his loving aunt, " will
tell you of my sweet nephew's being welcome to Tieling,
for Mr Love] 2 assures us all here that he Is perfectly well.
I believe Mr Eraser is not sorry to have a commission to
wait upon .hira this way, for so he raay see his raistress,.
though she will not confess him so." Eraser was one of
the young Duke's gentieraen, so far is evident, and he had
showed himself taken with the charms of some maid of
honour of the courts of Boheraia or Orange, n'arae unknown.
But Elizabeth was always delighted if she could discover
any signs of dawning flirtation. Frora sorae, however,
she obstinately averted her penetrating regards. As to her
favourite Anne Hyde, whose Hebe beauty she so much
coraraends, she never would believe in the rautual passion
of her and " her dear godson Tint," meaning her nephew,.
the young Duke of York, whose early valour and martial
genius were then fiUing all Europe. Lord Craven rather
recrlininated afterwards on his illustrious raistress that she
^ Queen of Bohemia to Sir E. Nicolas — Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. ii.
" His tutor. The letter is dated Hague, January 11, 16e4-5 — Evelyn's
Memoirs, Appendix volume.

246 ELIZABETH STUART.
never would believe there was anything in that attachraent.
It must have been beginning at this period, for there are
few of the Queen of Bohemia's letters which do not men
tion her young favourite Anne Hyde's attractions and good
ness. Like Lord Dundee, her friends had no faults.
" The news I writ you," resumes her devious pen, " of
Poland and Sweden, is most true, and that De Brd (the
Polish agent) raakes still his preparations to go for Eng
land." Soon after she had announced that Charles Gusta
vus was hovering with an array of the terrible Swedish
cavalry at the gates of the old Brandenburg capital, Kon
igsberg, he and the great Elector' settled their affairs by
two or three fearful pitched battles. In which, we are happy
to record, the invader got well punished, and was beaten
back to his Scandinavian horae.
Elizabeth's pen, which flies with equal facUity frora politics
to pleasure, frora diploraacy to dancing, now plunges into
the description, not of a battle, but a ball, she had shared
In at Tieling, where she had gone to visit her niece of
Orange. " We had a royalty, though not upon Twelfth
Night, at Tieling. It was a raasked balL My niece, the
Princess of Orange, was a gypsy, and became her dress ex
treme well." Another, whose name has been gnawed hythe
tooth of Time, who will now and then bite a hole in our best
documents,," was dressed as a North HoUand boorlne.
Mistress Anne Hyde was a shepherdess, and I assure you was
very handsorae'in It ; none but her mistress, the Princess of
Orange, looked handsomer than she. I believe my Lady
Hyde and Mr Chancellor will not be very sorry to hear it,
which I pray you tell thera frora me." The father and mother
ofthe Queen of Bohemia's blooming favourite were then at
Cologne with Charles II. Neariy the sarae costuraes were
worn at this fancy-ball of the Princess's at Tieling, as the
masks at the grand christening of the Nassau Infant. The
Queen of Bohemia says she wrote the description of the dresses
to Charles II. Her letter is still extant : It is in answer
to his account of a ball he had assisted at, given by a hos-
'- Memoirs by Froderio the Great.

ELIZABETH STUART. 247
pitable citizen of Cologne. The Queen of Boheraia will not
hear that It was comparable to her masking and mumming
at the Hague or Tieling. " I believe you had more meat
and drink at Hannibal Sestades, yet I ara sure our fiddles
were better, and dancers. Your sister the Princess of
Orange was very well dressed like an araazon ; Amelia of
Hesse, Princess of Tarente, like a shepherdess ; Maderaoi-
selle d'Orange, a nyraph ; they were all very well dressed,
but I wished all the night your Majesty had seen Vander-
haus : there never was seen the like ; he was a gypsy, and
Anne Hyde his wife. He had pantaloons close to hira of
red and yellow striped, with ruffled sleeves ; he looked just
like Jock-a-Lent." The last-named personage seems to
belong to Elizabeth's very early reraembrances of the Scot
tish Mayday festivals. It is singular that, minutely as she
writes and describes at all periods of her life, a trait of
Scotland or of Scottish memories can seldom be traced to
her pen. The thoughts of Mary Stuart flew back to Scot
land, albeit not too well treated there, with fond tenacity,
whether in the splendid festivities of Paris, or pining In
English prisons ; but her granddaughter Elizabeth Stuart
forgot she was born a Scottish Princess.
Among other wars, and rumour of wars, she thus alludes
to a little one irapending between ber son the Elector and
his neighbour : " I beUeve you have heard of the quarrel
between ray son and the Elector of Mentz. It raay end in
sorae ill business. It is now so cold, and they make such
a noise with their bells and sleids [sleighs] in the street as
makes me end." The merry sleigh-bells did not, however,
prevent her from writing a long postscript. " I pray re
member my service to the King, and In my name make a
hurable suit to him in Thom Killigrew's behalf; it Is to
recommend hira to Prince Will for Captain Morgan's cora
pany, who Is dead ; It will make him subsist till the King
be able to do for him, and his wife's fiiends have put him
upon it. I would not trouble his Majesty with a letter, since
you are in the place. Thora writes to the King hiraself
about it. It will be a great honour for hira, the King's
writing, because bis wife's friends will by that see his Ma-

248 ELIZABETH STUART,
jesty's favour to him," In all this making of interest for her
unworthy protdg^ " Thom," by the raention of his wife's
friends, as if they were Dutch, It is apparent that he was
one of the Benedicts whose bans were up.
" Mr Secretary," coraraences EUzabeth, in her next and
last letter' to Sir Edward Nicolas, " my sweet nephew,
young Gloucester, is not yet gone from Antwerp, but I hope,
now the weather is better, I shall see him shortly; for as soon
as he coraes to his sister's house, the Princess of Orange, at
Tieling, I shaU be there. I hope It is a good prophecy of
the Electress of Brandenburg's having a son, but she doth
not look to be delivered before the end of this raonth or the
beginning of next." As usual, fortune-telUng had been con
sulted about the future destiny of the grandchild of the
elder Princess of Orange, whose daughter Louise had mar
ried the Great Elector. He had just cleared his country of
the invading Swede, and deserved a better son than he had,
for the Nassau alliance had brought crookedness and crab-
bedness into the Brandenburg famllj'. To be sure, the
dower was splendid, but the Orange Electress died after
being the mother of one dwarfish queer Imp, with whom we
shall have some converse In our next biography. " The
letters out of England," resuraes the Queen, " say that
Crorawell is bringing his army to London, and doubles his
guards ; plants cannon in raany places in London, and at
the Tower." This is written to the Prince of Tarente.
The news was true enough, and the despot thought he
should Uke to have the whole of the parks for his private
use, so he built Kensington Barracks, and shut the populace
out of Hyde Park, by iraposing a toll of sixpence a-head on
all the perarabulators therein. How would his worshippers
like to have to pay it now ? Of course, at the Restoratiou
the King threw open the parks, and took off the mean poll-
tax on fresh air and pleasant walks, which the populace
enjoy now, and did before the Great RebelUon stuck up
many despots as heroes of freedom. The poor folk had
long enough discovered that they had mistaken their friends!
on which account the cannon Elizabeth mentions were.
' Appendix to Evelyn's Memoirs^dated Hague, Jan, 18, 1654:5.

ELIZABETH STUART. 249
placed in terrorem round and about London : their sites
are pretty well known even now.
" As for the Archduke," resuraes her pen, " he may thank
God to be rid of the Queen of Sweden. She is lodged at
the Count of Egraont's house in Brussels, where she stays
all winter. My Lord Norwich has news that the Archduke
goes for Spain, and Don John of Austria coraes In his
place, and raarrieth the Queen of Sweden ; and they are to
have the Low Countries as the Archduke Albert had, but I
believe it not."^
So ends the Queen of Bohemia's series of news-letters for
the Inforraation of the banished court at Cologne.- Poor as
Elizabeth was, her roof gave shelter to raany a houseless
Cavalier ; aud, Uke her prot^g^ " Thora," some were sad
mauvais sujets. Nor were such tendencies confined to the
gentieraen Royalists in difiiculties. The Queen of Boheraia
had admitted in her train a darae bearing the loyal narae of
Grenville. If the sister of Sir Bevis and Sir Richard Gren
ville, certes she partook raore of the rantipole qualities of
Sir Richard — whose diableries completely horrify Claren
don's sense of propriety — than the preux-chevalier Sir Bevis.
Mistress Grenville had, the same winter, when out on a
vacation, been giving both her tongue and conduct raost
Improper latitudes. Sir Charles Cottrel and his Queen had
due notice ofthe same ; and when the errant lady returned,
were obliged to inforra her that she could no longer remain
In the establishment. But the GrenviUe, whether maid or
widow, was In debt, and could not go. A great disturbance
took place at Elizabeth's house, the particulars of which she
writes to her nephew Charles 11.^ Her letter gives a pro
longed view of her domestic life, which she has recently
dwelt on. " I must trouble your Majesty again to let you
know the suite of what I wrote you the last post concerning
Mrs Grenville. Having done all I could to get her friends
to help her away, so that I should not be forced to do it
' History, likewise, knows it was not true. Don John of Austria was
natural sou of Philip IV. of Spain, who has somehow shared iu tbe heroic
reputation of his namesake of the preceding century, the natural son of
Charies V.
* Lambeth MSS.— from the Queen of Bohemia, March 2, 1654-5.

250 ELIZABETH STUART.
myself, which could not but disgrace her, I could not pre
vail on them. They answered that ' they would not meddle
with her business.' I seeing that, and not being able any
longer to suffer her vaunting, upon Tuesday night last I
made her go out of my house, in a coach, ,whlch had order
to set her down wheresoever she desired to be. I did it at
night to avoid a noise, and that they should not say I put
her into her creditors' hands, if I had done it In the day.
She went to Mistress Mohun's. I thought to have sent to
the Court of Holland about It, but some of my friends coun
selled me not to do it, but to keep thera for help if I had
need of thera. Yesterday carae to rae four gentlemen of
Mistress GrenviUe's friends, who. In civil terms, expostulated
with rae for putting her away In that fashion ; saying, ' that
they had hindered forty English gentlemen frora coming to
me that morning on that matter.' I assure your Majesty
that there are not by half so many of our nation in this
town of the Hague. I am confident they could not have
five more besides theraselves to have done It. Those that
never came further than Ned Wood's might, It raay be, have
been persuaded. I answered, ' that It was their fault that
I did It, since they (her friends) would not help her away
otherwise. I had suffered her huraours as long as I could,
because I do not love to affront any, but I could not suffer
always ; and since they said they would not raeddle with
her affairs, I raust be raistress In my own house, and would
not be braved there, (adding) I believe they would as little
suffer the same of their own servants.' Mistress GrenviUe's
friends answered, ' it was a great disgrace for her to be
sent out so, and In the night ! ' I answered, ' that I did it
for the best, to make the less noise.' They said ' It would
make people believe that it was for La Mfere's letter.'" By
La Mere the Grenville party meant the informant who had
let the Queen and her comptroller of the household. Sir
Charles Cottrel, know of the irregularities of the lady under
discussion. " No," answered her royal mistress. "It was
not for that letter, or I should have disraissed her directly.
It was for her unquietness and disrespect to rae. They
desired me," she resumes, " that I would give Mistress

ELIZABETH STUART. 251
GrenviUe's creditors assurance of her debts, else she would
be arrested. I said ' I should be sorry for it, but could not
help It. Her creditors would not take my word, for I owed
some of them much raore than she did ; besides, I could
never meddle with my servant's debts.' There passed more
discourses, which would be too long to relate. At last I
told thera ' I should be very glad If they could find a way
to content her creditors, so that I were not engaged in it.
If her creditors would ask rae about it, I should persuade
thera to let her alone, but I would not be engaged for
her.' "
Genuine good sense and good temper may be perceived
through the whole of the Queen's conduct in this scene,
from the life-Interior of her doraicUe. She had been annoyed
and offended, but is not revengeful; though evidently
indignant at the allies of her conturaaclous servant, who
threatened her with being besieged by forty English gentle
men. " I will not narae the four," continues she to her
nephew Charles II, " your Majesty wUl hear of it without
ray naraing. One Is her cousin, the other her countryman ;
the third was her gallant before his matrimony ; the fourth
is none of these, but I think carae in for company's sake to
make up the four. As for the forty Hectors that should
have corae to have terrified rae, they did send to ray Lord
Grandison and Colonel Cromwell to have led on the van of
these raost furious knights." Colonel Crorawell was the
most devoted of cavaliers; it was he who had the Intrepidity
to carry into bis cousin's stronghold. In the depths of old
Westrainster Palace, the carte blanche ^ that young Charles
had sent to the revolutionary despot, in hopes of saving his
beloved father's life. He was one of Charles II.'s gentie
raen of the bedchamber, and though now disporting him
self at the Hague, generally guarded him raost sedulously, for
his usual sleeping-place was on a mattress across the thresh
old of his royal master's door, a practice continued long
after the Restoration. The contrast between the two
Cromwells Is deeply interesting. Elizabeth ever names
the loyal Colonel with approbation, and usuaUy with an
' Sir Henry Ellis's Historical Letters, to which the fac-simile is appended.

252 ELIZABETH STUART.
explanatory notation that he may not be confounded with
her bete noir the " Protector." In this instance it may be
learned that Lord Grandison and Colonel CromweU very
handsomely refused to lead the van of Mistress GrenviUe's
array of defiance, " saying," continues she, " they would
not meddle with any in that kind, that had used me so ill.
I must now, with great reason, beg your Majesty's pardon.
for this trouble ; It is to let you know the truth, if you hear
any false reports of this. I wUl always give your Majesty
an account of my actions, there being nothing I desire more
than to be right in your opinion."
Charles II. came frora his retireraent at Cologne, and
visited his aunt and sister during the carnival at the
Hague 1655-56. They received hira with the utmost hospi
tality, and, among other diversions, a ballet was devised by
the Queen of Bohemia. " Very well danced It was," she
says. Next Sunday It was made the subject of pulpit de
nunciation, not by the Dutch Calvinists — they had given up
the Palatine family as incorrigible, it raay be supposed — but
a little lively French Protestant took up his parable against
It. " He said in his serraon," records Elizabeth, " that we
had committed as great a sin as Sodom and Gomorrah,
which set all the church a-laughing."l No wonder. It was
the carnival of 1655 which occasioned all these gay doings.
With her niece, the Princess of Orange, she received masks,
and kept open house for thera. " The masks," wrote she,
" kept coraing in until five In the morning."
In the sumraer, Elizabeth's nephew and niece, Charles II.
and Mary of Orange, raade another merry assignation to
set off together incognito to Frankfort fair. Then was
renewed the pleasant correspondence which gives the
reader glances at the genuine life of these historical person
ages. The artist-princess Louisa had painted a portrait for
her cousin Charles II. of his well-loved sister Mary. Her
mother forwarded it to Frankfort with one of her pleasant
news-letters, which has not fallen into biographical hands.
Charles answered her In a gay airy letter, lately dug out by
one of our historical antiquaries. No bad judge of art,.
J Sir Henry Ellis's Historical Letters — Lambeth MSS.

ELIZ.4BETH STUART. 253
Charles speaks of his cousin Louisa's painting as if he
cordially liked it ; there is nothing forced in his praises.
The easy style of the letter proves the family friendship
.subsisting between Elizabeth and her brother's children.
He is all hilarity at the arrival of this dear sister ; and such
chattering is going on in his poor but cheerful abode, that
he can scarcely have a respite to thank the dear aunt Eliza
beth for her welcome present, saying that he is writing from
his sister's charaber, where there was such a noise that he
hardly hoped to end his letter or write common sense. As
for the Princess of Orange's journey to Cologne, and the
accidents that befell her by the way, " I leave her,'' he con
tinues, " to give your Majesty an account of them. I shall
only tell your Majesty that we are now thinking how to pass
our tirae. In the first place, of dancing, in which we find
two difiiculties ; one for want of fiddlers, and the other for
somebody to teach and assist at the dancing the new dances.
I have got ray sister [the Princess of Orange] to send for
Sylvius as one that is able to perforra both. As for the
fiddle-de-dees, ray Lord Taafe does promise to be their
convoy, and in the raean time we must content ourselves
with those that make no difference between a hyran and a
coranto.^ I have now received ray sister's picture that my
dear cousin, the Princess Louise, was pleased to draw, and
do desire your Majesty to thank her for rae, for 'tis a most
excellent picture ; which is all said at present by your
raost hurable and most affectionate nephew and servant, —
Chaeles R." ^
He was too good-natured to inform his aunt of the despi
cable conduct other son, the Elector Palatine, who, though he
had subsisted for a score of years on the bounty of Charles L,
and known the troubles of exile and the loss of rank, yet he
himself now raised a squabble of precedence ; he, the Elector
of the Empire lately restored to rank on good behaviour,
with the loss of half his dominions, could not visit the exiled
King of Great Britain because his rank was too high to yield
hira precedence. And though as lads they had played and
1 The coranto is supposed to mean a waltz.
2 Ellis's Original Letters, 2d Series, vol. iii. p. 376.

264 ELIZABETH STUART.
sported together In the Home Park at Harapton Court
many a time and oft, yet when Mary and Charles saw him
at the Opera at Frankfort, stiff bows only were exchanged.
EUzabeth had asked ber son previously to request Charles
II. to stand sponsor for his half-animated son. The boy
was naraed Charles, after himself, yet the ungracious
Elector hastened to contradict and deny his mother's re
quest — for reasons of state.^ 1 Bromley Letters.

ELIZABETH STUAET

CHAPTEE IX.

SUMMARY
Satisfactory arrangement of Elizabeth's income by the Dutch — Elopement
of her daughter Louisa to the Antwerp English convent — Elizabeth's
anger agaiust Princess Hohenzollern, as the cause of her child's apostasy
— Her letter to Rupert about oranges — Lord Craven and Elizabeth —
Angry with her son "Ned" — Her daughter Louisa becomes a nun at
Chaillot under the protection of Queeu Henrietta — Elizabeth opposes
the marriage of her daughter Sophia with Ernest of Hanover — Elizabeth's
merry letter — Restoration of Charles II. — She accompanies him to his
embarkation for'England — Death of her nephew Gloucester and niece
of Orange of smallpox — Letters to her sou the Elector — Indignant at
his frauds and equivocations — Her wish to go to England — Letters to
the heroic Lord Langdale — Preparations for departure to England —
Her nephew's poverty prevents a State-visit — Trustfulness of her Dutch
creditors — Has no carriage to take her to embark — French Ambassador
takes her in his with her ladies — Clarendon opposes her voyage — His
secret reasons — She perseveres — Her letter to Rupert — Tells him she has
satisfied Clarendon — Arrives incognita at Craven House, Drury Lane — •
Kind provision made for her by Lord Craven — Affectionate reception by
Charles II. aud James Duke of York — She remains incognita for a time
— Constantly visited by the King — Her satisfaction — Expresses gratitude
towards him — She goes to the opening of the Euglish Opera-house with
the King — Goes with him often to theatres — Lord Craven's attachment
and services — She hires Leicester House — Contest with the Elector about
furniture — He canvasses her for a presentation to Charterhouse — Her
receptions of ambassadors — Takes cold going into Leicester House —
Breaks a blood-vessel — Charles II., James, and Rupert, hasten to her
. — Affectionate farewell to them — Religious preparation and calm death
— Burial in Westminster Abbey — Account of her descendants — Failure
of heirs-male.
Great tribulation fell on the Queen of Boheraia on the
very day when the worst of her pecuniary difficulties were
alleviated. She had entered Into a negotiation with the

256 ELIZABETH STUART.
Dutch States, which agreed to secure to her permanently
the raonthly pension of 10,000 Uvres she had for some years
been receiving from them. The generous Hogan Mogans
granted this request, December 19, 1657. On the even
ing of that day, after the arrangeraent of this business, her
daughter Louisa was mysteriously lost, and several hours
elapsed before EUzabeth received the least hint as to where
she was or what had become of her. The most terrible tra
gedy was supposed to have taken place ; in fact, the Prin
cess issued out of her mother's house at the Hague, alone
and disguised, at seven o'clock In the morning before day
light was distinct, passed through the streets on foot, and
without money, guide, or equipage,-' went to Delfthaven,
where an agent was waiting for her by appointment, who
took her to Bergen. Here she was welcomed by her rela
tive the Princess of Hohenzollern. Finally she retired to
the convent of the Carmelites Anglalses, Antwerp. It was
cruel to infiict the mortal anguish of suspense on her mother,
who was in great agony when her daughter towards night
fall was missed. The next day a letter was found on her
toilette, and delivered to the Queen of Bohemia, which
announced that the fugitive had escaped " on account of the
aversion she felt to receiving the Protestant sacrament on
Christmas day, as she was by conviction a Roman Catholic."*
A memorial, set forth by the priests on the occasion, men
tions Sybella de Ketler, who had been her father's governess
and then her own, as if that lady had paved the way for this
secession ; likewise, " that the ultimate conviction of Louisa
arose from the perusal of a controversial book published
by the Calvinists." Indeed, such conversions are not un
usual fruits of the polemical tree on whichever side they hap
pen to be put forth. The Princess of Hohenzollern bore all
the blarae; but her brother Edward, and perhaps Queen
Henrietta Maria, were the real Instigators of the escapade.
Soon after, the Princess Louisa raade her recantation of
^ Oraisons Fun^bres.
^ This escapade of the Princess Louisa presents raany features of the
flight of the Princess Anue of Denmark from James II. Anne caricatured
the adventure, but imitated it in several points.

ELIZABETH STUART. 257
the Protestant religion in the English Carmelite convent at
Antwerp with great cereraony. The Princess of Hohen
zollern repUed very hurably to the angry reproaches Eliza
beth wrote to her. Nevertheless, the Dutch States, on
the complaint of the incensed mother, deprived the Princess
of her privUeges at Bergen, as a punishment for perverting
and aiding in the abduction of a Protestant virgin of royal
rank. The Queen was forced to take every means of prov
ing that she was not an abettor of her daughter's change,
or the Dutch, who were very eager Protestants, might have
deprived her of the newly-settled stipend, her chief subsist
ence. Many scandals were raised on the occasion, espe
ciaUy by a lady designated by EUzabeth and her sons as
the " P. of Q." ^ It has been supposed that the Princess
of Hohenzollern is indicated. But of all persons the
Princess of Hohenzollern was the least likely to depreciate
the character of her convert and cousin.
The Queen of Bohemia had by the spring recovered
her spirits sufliciently to write, in a tone of jesting and drol
lery, to her son Rupert, about abstracting some oranges
meant for him. " Robert Cortez sends you two cases of
Portugal oranges," writes she; 2 "two for the King
[Charles IL], and two for me. They are at the Brill, but
the ice is not yet all gone. As soon as they corae you shall
have your part sent you. I believe Lord Craven will tell
you how rauch ado he has had to save your part from rae,
for I made him believe I would take one of your cases for
my niece and the [young] Prince of Orange. I did it to
vex hira."
There Is scarcely any other Instance that can be found
araong her correspondence, volurainous as it is, where
Lord Craven is alluded to otherwise than as a raere useful
official. She proceeds to tell Rupert the matters on her
mind concerning her daughter Louisa, whora Charles II.
1 Bromley Letters. They are printed very incorrectly, it is, true, but
the initial Q. goes through several letters.
2 Bromley Letters — dated the Hague, March i, 1657-58.
VOL. VIII. B

258 ELIZABETH STUART.
and his sister, the Princess of Orange, had lately visited in
her Carraelite convent. They first had asked their aunt's
leave to visit her renegade, and she replied, "That It would
be only too much honour for her ; but since the P. of Q. had
told such base lies of her, they would do a very good action
to see her to justify her innocence. The royal party, Charles
II. and Mary of Orange, and my other nephew," ^ writes
she, " went to see Louisa in the monastery, and did chide
her for her change of religion, and for leaving me so un-
handsoraely. Louisa answered, ' She was sorry she had
displeased me, but was well satisfied with her change of
faith.' " Whatsoever calumny was afloat concerning Louisa,
it related to matters polemical and controversial, not to
personal slander ; as the Queen adds, " that the Bishop of
Antwerp had written a letter to Prince Edward, where
he clears Louisa of that base calumny ; yet Ned is so
wilful ts that he excuses the Princess of Tarente."^
EUzabeth adds, "the P. of Q.s did go to Antwerp twice, and
spoke with Louisa. I have not yet the particulars. Louisa
writes to Merode, the President of the States Chamber of
Deputies, that they parted on very 111 terms. I hope this
week we shall have what passed between thera. By my
next you shall have It. At her return hither [to the
Hague], the P. made raany believe that she had brought
rae letters frora the King [Charles], ray niece the Princess
of Orange, and Louisa, to justify her, and that she had
herself given thera to rae, and talked two hours with me,
which is an impudent lie !" After which outburst of ma
ternal rage, Elizabeth diverges into the public history of her
country : " Cromwell has broken his mock Parliament be
cause the Independents were too strong for him, and had
prepared a petition, signed with six thousand hands, against
1 Perhaps the Duke of York, whom she mentions the next week as her
dear " Tint."
2 Bromley Letters.
3 To Miss Benger's Biography of Elizabeth of Bohemia is appended some
curious notitia of her family, translated frotn the German, where it is
averred that the scandalising lady is the Prioress of Quedlingberg.— See
p. 447, vol. ii. Elizabeth, in her distress and anguish, and iu her just
anger against the Princess of HohenzoUern, mixes the two incoherently in
her letters.

ELIZABETH STUART. 259
his being king, and. Indeed, against all government but a
commonwealth. The Lower House would not acknowledge
the Upper House, and one stood up and said, ' That many
of the pretended House of Lords would do well to seek out
their pedigrees first, to see If they were gentlemen before
being Lords.' "
Elizabeth's youngest daughter Sophia was not at the
Hague when Louisa fied to Antwerp, but writes to Prince
Rupert, the next month, as frora Heidelberg, where she
was with her niece Elizabeth Charlotte, " that they were
expected to set out In a week, if not delayed by sorae illness
of the child." The Queen of Bohemia in her next letter^
says, "Your sister Louisa has arrived at Chaillot. Her bro
ther Edward went and fetched her from Rouen. The Queen
[Henrietta] went to see her the next day. The King of
France [Louis XIV.] went thither the week after. They
are very civil to her. The Queen Henrietta wrote to me,
' that she will have a care of her as of her own daughter,
and begs for her pardon.' But I have excused it [declined
pardoning Louisa] as handsomely as I could, and entreated
her not to take it IU, but only to think what she would do
if she had had the same misfortune" — a case oddly enough
put to Henrietta Maria, who had never been permitted to
bring up her children in her own religion. Elizabeth Is
StiU wroth that " Ned " wUl not acknowledge his error in
having so good an opinion " of the P. ; she is detested by
Protestant and Papist. I have such a cold that I can say
no raore. FareweU, dear Rupert."
If the Duchess of Orleans raay be believed, her aunt
Louisa's profession was undertaken without any religious
raotive, but merely that she might enjoy a noble income,^
and cultivate in peace and prosperity her love for painting ;
that she never spoke to the nuns ; and when she went to the
required raidnight services, instead of prayer she araused
herself by watching, with a painter's eye, the fine Rem-
* Bromley Letters — Queen of Bohemia to Prince Rupert, Hague, 29th
April (1657).
' Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans. In those edited by
Feder^ ou the contrary, she dwells on her aunt's holiness and goodness.

260 ELIZABETH STUART.
brandt effects of light and shade at the illumined altar.^ To
be»sure, the 111 motives that Elizabeth Charlotte attributes
to every one are not always to be taken on trust ; but the
reader must not fall Into the gross mistake of some writers,
who assert that she threw imputations of the coarsest immo
rality on her aunt Louisa after she became Abbess of Mau-
bisson, when, in fact, the abbess whom she affirms had the
thirteen children, had been a married woraan, and flourished
In the reign of Francis I. A small space of a century and
a half had elapsed since the arrival of that poor Louisa at
Maubisson whom the French savants have pretended that
her niece of Orleans calumniated.
It does not appear that EUzabeth ever saw this favourite
child again after her desertion. The mother felt the blow
more severely than any of her many misfortunes. She wrote
with raore passion and anger regarding those who had
wiled away Louisa than appears In any of her previous
correspondence. On the Princess of Hohenzollern her
displeasure chiefly fell ; but there are many indications that
the leading spirit in the affair was Queen Henrietta Maria,
who perhaps in this manner repaid the active Interfer
ence of Elizabeth when her son, the young Duke of Glou
cester, took refuge at the Hague and at Breda from her
persecuting endeavours to raake him a Roman Catho
lic : for it was but a few months after Elizabeth and the
Princess of Orange had received at Breda the young
son of Henrietta as a Protestant refugee, that the Queen
welcomed the daughter of Elizabeth as a votary at her
Chaillot foundation. The widowed queens had changed
children. The marriage of her Calvinist daughter Sophia with the
Lutheran prince Ernest Auguste of Brunswick-Lunenburg,
in the succeeding suraraer, afforded little consolation for
the escape of her Roraan Catholic runaway. Elizabeth had
opposed the engageraent with all her might for some
months. However, when she found that her eldest son
insisted on disposing of Sophia as his subject and vassal,
' The letters of her brother the Elector, Charles Louis, in the Archives
of Hanover, sneeringly attribute the same motive to her.

ELIZABETH STUART. 261
she raade the best of it, and actuaUy became very friendly
on further acquaintance with her handsorae son-in-law,
the nephew of her old friend, protector, and cousin.
Christian Bishop of Halberstadt. The best prospect her
son-in-law had was the reversion of one of those rather un-
edifying German prelacies, where benedictions were given,
in Teutonic fashion, as knocks on the head, and the church-
militant hired out her flock to fight wheresoever the huraan
species was proving Itself the raost pugnacious part of the
creation. While Ernest and Sophia were waiting the re
version of their bishopric, Elizabeth retained them as her
inmates at the Hague, where Sophia had her establishraent
for the education of her young niece, the Electoral Princess
Elizabeth Charlotte, whose rerainiscences of her grandmo
ther were thus rendered raost vivid. The tirae was draw
ing on for the restoration of the Stuarts. CromweU,
whom we may remember EUzabeth, in one of her letters,
had declared to be " the Beast in the Revelations," and
"wished him the same destination," had departed to
his ultiraate abiding-place, wheresoever that raight be, in
the storray autumn of 1659. Elizabeth's home was the
rallying-point of the Cavaliers, and she was as active a
partisan of her nephew, Charles II. , as a pennUess lady
could be. She spent her time, for the convenience of occa
sionaUy meeting her nephew, at Breda, which was just
within the territory of the Spanish Netherlands. Here the
Princess of Orange had a dower-house and beautiful
grounds: for after the strong aUiance which had taken
place between the Orange party in HoUand and Spain,
this property had been restored to her. It had becorae
the harbour of refuge for the exiled English princes, her
brothers, when they were hunted frora France, or from
the Hague, by political parties subservient to the usurper
in England.
A raerry, mad epistle was written by Elizabeth to a
nobleman of the wandering court of Charles IL, concerning
tive sectarian eccentricities of her first lady, the Countess
Lowenstein. There Is a paper extant In French, written
coarsely enough by the Queen of Bohemia, or one of her

262 ELIZABETH STUART.
sons, entitled " Faites, gestes, and prowesses of the Com
tesse de Lewenstein, pretended ambassadress of her Ma
jesty " ^ during her sojourn at Breda. The Countess, it
seems, was a butt at the courts of Orange and the Palatine,
at whom every one airaed the shafts of wit or mockery.
" My Lord,^ — I assure you your letter was very welcome to me, being
glad to find you are still heart-whole, and that you are in better health,
aud your cough is gone. As to your appetite, I confess that outlandish
messes are not so good as beef and mutton. I pray remember how ill
pickled heiTing did use you here, and brought you many of your huudred
and fifty fevera. As for the Countess, I can tell you heavy news of her,
for she has turned Quaker, and preaches every day in a tub ! Yom' nephew
George can tell you of her quaking, but her tub-preaching has come on
since he went. I believe at last she will grow an Adamite.' I wish your
nephews both had some of her pippens preserved in their messes ; it would
do them much good.
*' I did not hear you were dead, wherefore I hope you keep your
promise not to die till you let me know it ; but you must also stay till I
give you leave to die, which will not be till we meet shooting somewhere,
but where that is God knows best. I can tell little other news, my chief
exercise being to jaunt between this and Tieling, where my niece [of
Orange] has been all this winter.
" I am now in mourning for my brother-in-law the Duke of Simmeren's
death. My Lady Stanhope and her husband [the Dutch statesman Heren-
vliet] are going six weeks hence into France, to the waters of Bourbon ;
which is all I will say now, only that 1 am ever your most affectionate
friend, Elizabeth.
" I pray remember me to your lady, and to Lord Winchelsea.
"Hague, March 4, 1658-59."
The Queen of Bohemia would not in forraer years have
mentioned with nonchalance in a merry letter the death of
her husband's brave brother, Louis of Sirameren, the young
hero who guarded her in her disastrous flight frora Prague,
and took care of her children through many dangers ; but
the differences of Lutheran and Calvinist interests in poUtics
had long alienated them.
At last time struck the hour of the Restoration, and in
the middle of May 1860 there was a general gathering of
the friends and relatives of the restored sovereign. Eliza
beth was then at the Hague, where she witnessed the grand
1 Bromley Letters — Lambeth MSS.
^ The letter is supposed to be addressed to Daniel Finch, afterwards
Lord Nottingham.
' A sect of Dutch dissenters, who, considering clothes as badges of ori
ginal sin, dispensed with wearing any.

ELIZABETH STUART, 263
entry of her nephews,^ accompanied by their sister Mary,
Princess of Orange, whose small son, afterwards William
IIL, was perched on the knee of one of the royal Stuart
brothers ; and this — O changing world ! — was bis uncle
Jaraes Duke of York, afterwards Jaraes IL, who was pecu
liarly beloved by the mother, and had always cherished dearly
her fatherless little one. Elizabeth and her party accom
panied Charles II. In the barge that conveyed hira and his
brothers to the stately vessel destined to carry thera to
England. She dined with him in the cabin, where he
placed her at his right hand, and bis sister Mary on his left
— two Princess-royals of Great Britain ; but Elizabeth took
precedence as a queen — a norainal queen, it is true ; yet
her niece was raerely norainal Princess of the far-distant
Orange province In the south of France. Elizabeth, with
tears and blessings, bade farewell to the departing Sove
reign and his brothers ; then, with her niece the Princess of
Orange, descended Into the barge that had brought thera
to the haven of Delft.^ At Hampton Court there Is a paint
ing showing the rejoicings of the HoUand boors on the
occasion ; it bears a wonderful similitude to the huraours
of a Dutch fair.
The Queen of Bohemia had taken part in all rejoicings of
high and low, with that lively good temper which won for
her from Pepys the applause of being a very debonnaire
lady — a term implying good manners, accessibility, and
natural sweet temper. He adds,-^ that she was " plain ; "
but he describes her dress, not her person, by this phrase.
Gorgeous attire was forbidden to widows at that era ; they
had to lay aside all gems and glittering robes until a second
raarriage. The plain attire of the portraits of Henrietta
Maria, as Queen-Dowager, in Quakerly siraplicity, all but
a pearl pin or two, iUustrate this fact clearly enough.
Many events painful to Elizabeth followed in rapid suc
cession. The deaths of two of her best-beloved relatives
marked the close of the Restoration year. Her " nephew
Harry," as she always termed the Duke of Gloucester, died
of the smallpox in England ; and her " best niece," as she
1 Theatre de I'Europe. '¦' Ibid. ' Pepys' Diary.

264 ELIZABETH STUART.
called Mary, Princess of Orange, who had "foUowed the
royal faraily to England, fell ill of the same disease. Eliza
beth's friend. Lord Craven, who was in London, wrote to
her, giving hopes of the Princess's recovery, in these words:
" I believe your Majesty will hear the hot alarum of the
Princess- Royal's being in great danger of death ; which
indeed was this morning sadly apprehended by many ; but
because your Majesty should not be frighted, I have been
with her, and, God be praised, she is rauch better." The
Princess, nevertheless, sunk under the perpetual bleedings
inflicted by her doctors, and expired on Christraas Eve
1660. The acknowledgraent of the Duke of York's mar
riage with Anne Hyde was pending at the time of this
death. Mary, Princess of Orange, had opposed it violently.
Elizabeth showed no such spirit. She had always loved
the young lady, and avowed her belief in the harmlessness
of her intentions regarding stealing the Duke of York's
heart, as Lord Craven, in one of his despatches from Eng
land, had rather reproachfully reminded her, saying, " Your
Majesty knows it Is what I have feared long, although you
were not of that opinion."
The Queen had written to her son, the Elector Charies
Louis, in great anguish of mind, on the deaths of her
nephew and niece. He replied with unwonted humanity.
" I am very sorry," ' he says, " for the new affliction God hath sent upon
your royal family, whereof I am the more sensible, because I know how
near it toucheth your Majesty's affection, which was ever great towards the
deceased Princess of Orange, of whom you will daily find the want while
you are at the Hague. I pray God," he adds, " comfort your Majesty in
alt these great affiictions, and to do me the grace that I may be able to con- ,
tribute something— if not so much as my duty requires— towards it."
Though seeraing well, all this was utter grimace, as the
Queen his raother soon proved. She had dispensed her last
coin for the two heavy mournings she was obliged to give
her household, out of respect to the meraorles of the nephew
and niece she had lost — Gloucester and Mary. Her son,
the Elector, had previously given some intimation that he
would help her, but, as usual, repented hira of his promises;
' Bromley Letters, January 12/22, 1661.

ELIZABETH S'PUART. 265
on which hisi^ueen-motber wrote him a .scornful castiga-
tion, dated two days after ' he sent her the above-quoted,
and the letters raust have crossed on the road. She had
written raany to hira in the sarae style.
" I am glad I was deceived," she says, " and that you intend shortly to
send me to the King, and that Sophia will pass this way. I assure you I
neither am nor ever was unreasonable so that nothing will satisfy me. I
desire not to ruin you or make you live under what you do. In my letter
I told you why I did not send one to be informed of your revenue, for
either they were such as durst not offend you, or such as might easily have
been deceived, being strangers ; and besides, in the condition my family
was then in, I easily imagined they would not be much regarded. What I
have received from you since your restitution [restoratiou] is not so much.
Till Frankeudal was restored to you, you gave me two thousand rix-doUars
a^mouth, but since that you gave me but half ; and I was some six months,
as I take it, [far] from receiving anything to rebate little of the £6000 the
Emperor gave me." 2
In a pretended scarcity of specie, the Elector had offered
to pay his royal mother her dues from her dower at Frank
enthal by produce in kind — naraely, corn and wine — hoping
that the cumbersoraeness of the raaterial would prevent her
acceptance ; but It was a tirae of dearth at the Hague, and
her hungry faraily would have been very glad of these ex
cellent goods ; she therefore took hira at his word, offering
to pay for their transport down the Rhine frora Bachar-
ach. With the usual fraud of his character, the Elector
flinched frora his offer, and severely enough does his royal
mother deal with him in this letter. She had already
treated with scorn his offer to show any messenger of hers
the state of his revenue, and proved his injustice In cutting
off half her Income as soon as he got possession of the dis
trict of Frankenthal, which was peculiarly her own.
" By your letters," she continues,^ " I can testify that the corn and wine
was promised me, and I was desired to ask the parties. It was reason you
should pay for them more than I. You could not lose by sending the corn
and wine but very little ; but you know I did offer that from Bacharach
the transport should cost you nothing. You seut me one seven thousand
guilders for living. I do not mention the mournings, for that is a thing
of course. I had uot lacked fine bread and candles if you had helped me
as you promised. But sixteen thousand guilders could not do it, living as
1 do, much less than I should, which made me, in a manner, beg the State's
assistance ; and as it is, I cannot give my servants their wages. If remem-
1 Bromley Letters, dated Jan. 21/14, 1661. ^ jbia. ' ibid.

266 ELIZABETH STUART.
bering you to have done more would have done it, you should not have
lacked [being reminded]. But when I wrote to you of some things of that
nature, I never received answer, which has hindered me to write concern
ing my niece's mourning ; but since you desire to be remembered of it,
you may send me what it cost."
There was sorae claim regarding mourning that the
Queen had a right to demand of her son, as being Dowager
Electress-Palatine ; but she had very wisely not waited for
his slow and niggardly disbursements, although these ex
penses had deprived her of white bread and candles. The
sordid spirit she appealed to replied In a raore odious tone
than usual. Denying veheraently that he ever offered the
corn and wine, he continues : —
" I very well remember that your Majesty seldom wrote to me but on
money subjects since I was in Germany, which I do not blame your Ma
jesty for, but ouly I am sorry that oftentimes I could not answer you but
with my leg." ^
By making a bow of denial perhaps the Elector means;
but returning to the corn and wine, of which his poor
mother has shown she was even personally in need, he con
tinues with the utraost hardness : —
" As for the transport of wine and com from Bacharach into Holland,
that it should cost me nothing, I hope your Majesty doth not think me so
stupid that, if any such ways had been showed, 1 should not have accepted
it, for my own profit as well as for your Majesty's accommodation. But those
that make such projects are better acquainted how to eat and drink it than
bow to sell it, and love to tattle of it ; but when it comes to the point, they
kuow not how to make it good. 1 do well believe that if I would give them
corn and wine at Bacharach almost for nothing, as (it I do well remember)
they pretended, they might well carry it for Holland without any cost. But
I should be no gainer, but a loser by that bargain, for they think corn and
wine groweth here with uo more cost and hazard than mushrooms. If
there be any so good husbandmen amongst them, I wish they may come
up and rent all my revenue in that kiud, and then I am content to receive
one-third less in money of what it is worth in the best years."
And all this tirade, which Is levelled against his unfortu
nate mother, under the general accusation of" they " — persons
whom he designates not — is because she, having no wheaten
bread to eat for herself and her household, had accepted his
1 Bromley Letters, January 26/16, 1661. This is the true date of the
year, new style, as was used on the Continent. English history did not
reckon the new year till after March 25, which we now and then repeat to
keep our young readers in mind of the true dates.

ELIZABETH STUART. 267
offer of paying In kind her dues from the produce of her
own dower-estates, and offered to be chargeable for the
freightage frora Bacharach down the Rhine to the Hague.
His brothers and sisters called this worldling araong thera
selves Tiraon the Misanthrope — too respectable a compari
son by far, for Tiraon was honest, generous, and had been
ungratefully used, which had provoked hira into growl
ing over much. Rupert, Elizabeth, and Louisa used to
mention derisively, In their faraily intercourse by letter,
his extrerae dexterity in raaking out a case consonant to his
own selfish Interests.
Thus cut off from her supplies due on her dower In the
Palatinate, both in raoney and goods, the Queen of Boheraia
announced her Intention forthwith of coming up the Rhine
to Frankenthal, and taking possession of her dower-palace
there, which resolution by no means suited her ungracious
son, who, dating his answer February 2, from Heidelberg,
1661, commences with exclaiming: —
" Sure your Majesty hath forgot in what condition the house of Frank
eudal, which they call the Shaffnony, is in when you were pleased to write
of preparing it for you ! For no preparation would have made that fit for
your living in it but a whole new building, which to do, on a sudden or in
a few years, my purse was never yet iu a condition for it ; but I intended
to do it by little and little, and had then begun it, if your Majesty had
come hither " [namely, to Heidelberg]. " I have done a little last year." '¦
He likewise announces daily expectation of the arrival of
the Duchess, his sister Sophia, who came to Heidelberg
when there was " some intermission in the tempestuous
weather of February, expecting to proceed to the Hague,
that she might see her raother before her intended departure
for England."
Every day Elizabeth grew more anxious to leave her
irksome sojourn at the Hague and return to her native
land. She was in correspondence with several of the old
Cavaliers, who had borne all the severity of the changing
tiraes in England without flinching frora their loyalty or
truckling to the usurper. Of these, one, the most honoured,
was the heroic Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and his venerable
1 Bromley Letters.

268 ELIZABETH STUART.
father, who had been recently advanced to a peerage, with
the title of Lord Langdale, a circurastance which dates
the time of the following series of notes addressed by the
Queen of Bohemia to the elder Marmaduke Langdale.
They are preserved in the charter-chests of the Honourable
Philip Stourton of Holrae House, Yorkshire, by whose
kind perraission they are now for the first time laid before
the public, offering some of those specimens of EUzabeth's
correspondence which, in conveniently brief space, show at
once her mode of writing, and withal no little of her cha
racteristic spirit. There wei-e other letters of this series,
for she speaks with no little glee of a mistake the old
Cavalier had made by sending In her envelope a letter
addressed to one of his stewards or factors, and to him the
epistle destined for her Majesty. Hagli, Feb. 6/lS.
" Mt Lord, — I send you your letter again, where you will see how you
mistooke the superscription. I believe those you sent my letter to were
as much surprised to see ' Madame ' and ' Majestic ' upon it as I was to see
' Gentlemen.' If I had you here I would jeer you to some tune for it; but
uow I am merciful! to you, and onlie assure you that I am and will [be]
extremely your friend. There is no news stirring here. Your frend
Rupert has not been well since he came into his quarters ; he had like to
have had a feaver ; but he writes to me [that] it had left him, onelie he was
a little weak. As soone as he can he will be in England, where I wish my
self [sic\, for this place is verie dull now, for there is verie little companie;
so I can say no more, but am ever your verie affectionat frend, " Elizabeth."
Strange as Itmay seem to those who have traced the actions
of the Princes of the Palatine family as the comraencers
of the terrible Thirty Years' War — a religious civil war of
the most hideous character — Rupert is at this time found
as a mercenary coraraander in the service of the Emperor
of Gerraany — the mortal foe of his house and the Protest
ant religion. But Charles II. wished to have his assistance
in England; and we see by his mother's next letter to
Lord Langdale that at her request Rupert was preparing
to withdraw from the Imperial service.
" Mt Loed, — You need make no excuse for your mistake, for I have
committed the like mauie times. Rupert has beene ill, but is now reco
vered, and gone to Rostock to change aire. I have written to him to come
hither to go to England as soone as he can. I hear there be some new pn-

ELIZABETH STUART. 269
sonners. I hope they shall have what they deserve. It is so hott that I
can write no more ; but rest ever your verie affectionat frend, " Elizabeth."
" For the Lord Langdale." — (Black seals, but no silk.)
[Supposed April 1661.]
The prisoners Elizabeth alludes to were perhaps Morison,
Mildmay, and Wallop, pardoned by Charles II. on making
public confession of their crimes, and doing public penance
for them some months afterwards.
In her next letter to Lord Langdale she gives information
regarding Eupert, who in a short tirae transferred his ser
vices from the Emperor to his cousin Charles II. Her
letter has been bound with five threads of black sewing-silk,
over which she has sealed two small black impressions ofthe
arms of her husband, empaled with those of England, sur
mounted by a broad low-arched crown. The silk threads
are still under the seals. Her hand is a very large scram
bling one, like her father's, Jaraes I., but not difiicult to
read. " Mt Lord, — I am verie glad to know by your letter that you are so well
arrived iu England, and that the King doe still continue his affection to
Rupert. I have sent him your letter ; he had not yett had answere from
the Emperour for his leave, but looked for it everie day. He meant in the
meanetime to goe to Berlin to visit the Electour of Brandebourg, where I
believe my letters wUl finde him. I assure you I cannot be in England
sooner than I wish myself ; and when the King shall please to send for me
I .shall goe verie willingly. I pray remember him [of] that when you find a
fitt time. The weather is so hott I can say no more, but assure you that
I am ever your verie affectionat frend, Elizabeth."
She was anxiously looking forward to her departure for
England, as raay be perceived. She coraplains of dulness,
and Indeed the death of the Princess of Orange in Eng
land, and the apostasy of the Princess Louisa, now a nun
In France, had literally left her alone with her creditors
at the Hague. She had no prospect of her latter days
being cheered by those who had aided her in bearing the
troubles of the past. After the last brutal repulse from her
son, the Elector, the thoughtsof the world-worn Queen turned
wholly to her Island home. Unfortunately the royal faraily,
lately restored, were unable to meet Elizabeth with any
thing like the magnificence with which her mind had

270 ELIZABETH STUART.
connected the Ideas of a visit to England. In the early
days of her raarriage she had computed the cost of a State
progress and voyage to see her father at the enormous sum
"of ,^100,000, a fact which must have caused her to be con
sidered alraost an impossible guest. England, teeming
with wealth when she left it under the peaceful sway of
her father, was now scarcely recovering from the dead col
lapse endured under the gripe of Cromwell. His sevenfold
weight of taxes and bungling maritime laws had completed
the ruin of her coraraerce, which was annihilated. The
country was as poor as her restored king, whose palaces
were disraantled and remained desolate.
Henrietta Maria had, after a short sojourn, left the ruin
ous Whitehall, and returned to France with her youngest
daughter, until the royal appanages, then consisting of
lands, could bring forth their Increase under the heal
ing hand of tirae. Such were the real facts of the case
when Elizabeth expressed her wishes to be present at her
nephew's inauguration ; but since the Norman Conquest there
never had been so parsimonious a coronation. EUzabeth,
with her well-known mania of extravagance, her obsolete
taste for parade and pageants, would but have lamented
over the glory of her house departed. She was entreated
by her nephew to wait until the coronation was over
The utter Impracticability of a State visit being evident
enough, the thoughts of EUzabeth turned to the possibility
of going to England Incognita. Her faithful friend Lord
Craven had been for sorae tirae there, taking possession of his
estates confiscated by Crorawell. He offered her his stately
mansion in Drury Lane, wherein she could dwell If she
would raake a visit to England. Thus the chief expenses,
besides all the delay of a State arrival, would be obviated.
Elizabeth resolved to accept this generous offer, yet was
unwilUng to assurae the appearance of flying from ,her
creditors at the Hague, where she owed about ^£'50,00.0,
chiefly for the necessaries of life ; but the kind people to
whom she was Indebted had that confidence in her honour
that they were quite willing to let her depart, perfectly
convinced that her presence would induce the English

ELIZABETH STUART. 271
Parliament to pay the arrears acknowledged as her due,
and that thus they should be paid more quickly than If
she remained with thera. Her health was good, her
person vigorous and active ; therefore they looked for-:
ward to raany reraittances If they facilitated her return to
her own country .^ Moreover, the States of Holland offered
to send her over in one of their best ships, convoyed by
two others. EUzabeth then wrote to her old friend Orraond
her intention of erabarking at Helvoetsluys early in May ;
of giving no trouble or expense, as the States found her in
ships ; of bringing a very small train, under thirty persons,
and her ardent wish being to congratulate her nephew on his
recent coronation. She thanks her nephew for his kind
ness to Rupert, who was henceforward to reside In Eng
land. Elizabeth received her daughter Sophia, now called
Duchess of Lunenburg, who had still the charge of the
eldest daughter of the Elector, Charles Louis, and she
brought this child, Elizabeth Charlotte, afterwards Duchess
of Orleans, to take the last look of her grandmother, and
bid her farewell How earnest was that last look there is
good reason to know, since she has provided her biographer
with the admirable graphic portrait already quoted, noting
well the beautiful dark hair of the Queen of Bohemia, and
the fine oval contour of her face, her delicate features, the
clear Ivory of her skin, her height, and air of majesty.
Alas, It was majesty divested of externals, for Elizabeth
had neither a coach to convey herself to the place of em
barkation, nor the means to hire one. But the French
Arabassador, to whom she comraunicated her embarrass
ment, kindly conveyed her to Delft in bis own carriage, ac
companied by her ladies. Beside the courteous ambassador
were the Queen, the Countess Kinsky her first lady, and
four faithful Dutchwomen, one of whora was Mademoiselle
Von Myle, daughter of the unfortunate Roman Catholic
citizen whose house had been sequestered by the States,
and given to the Queen on her first arrival at the Hague,
1 French Ambassador's letter from the Hague to Louis XIV., May 1661.
Hari. CoL, Brit. Mus.

272 ELIZABETH STUART.
and to whose distressed family she had behaved with her
usual generous spirit. Her daughter Sophia, and Duke
Ernest Auguste her husband, met her in the haven in a
State barge, which was to row her to the Dutch man-of-war
awaiting her ; but before she embarked the captain of an
English frigate intercepted her with a letter from Claren
don, announcing his regret that she could not be received
in the state of a royal guest on account of the want of
funds. Elizabeth nevertheless went on board the Dutch man-
of-war, in the full confidence that she should be received hy
her nephew with filial tenderness. It was likely enough
that Clarendon did not wish her to come to England — there
having been the most perplexing disputes concerning the
precedence of his daughter Anne, the lately acknowledged
Duchess of York, and he of course expected a fresh tur
moil, as EUzabeth clung to her shadowy rank of Queen
with great tenacity. The departure of the Queen-mother,
with her daughter Henrietta, and the death of the Princess
of Orange, had left the field of precedence clear for Anne
Hyde, as Duchess of York. And her father did not wish
to see her scorned as she had recently been by ladies of
the royal faraily. Such is the real reading of the enigma
wherefore Elizabeth was repelled frora England by her
nephew's rainister, and welcomed lovingly by her nephews.
When on board the Dutch raan-of-war she wrote a letter to
Clarendon, not extant, in which doubtless she made his
mind easy, that the unpleasant scenes which had taken
place at the English Court as to the precedence of the
daughters of Charles I. and that of his daughter, should
not be renewed by her. She likewise wrote to Rupert, who
was then at Vienna, announcing officially the coronation io
the Emperor. She dates from between Delft and Delfthaven,
May 19, new style,^ and In the hurry of departure, and in the
confusion of initials between the King and King the envoy,
the letter is difficult enough to construe. However, she tells
Rupert she has written a propitiatory letter to Chan., by
which she means Lord-Chancellor Clarendon, and that the
answer she returned to the captain of the little frigate was,
1 Bromley Papers.

ELIZABETH STUART. 273
" that she was already shipped, and had taken farewell of all
at the Hague, public and private, and that If she were not to
continue her voyage she would be supposed disaffected to
the King, which would make her despised In all places."
Then she tells hurriedly home-news to Rupert — how well
Sophia looks, and that his sister Elizabeth Is received as
coadjutress of the Protestant convent at Herford ^ — which
she had forgot to tell him in her letter just before sent.
" I go," she adds, with resolution to suffer all things con
stantly. " I thank God He has given me courage. I shall
not do as poor niece, but will resolve on all misfortunes. I
love you ever, my dear Rupert."
The Queen safely landed at Margate In two days, from
whence she went to Gravesend, and went down the river
late In the evening of May 14/24, 1661, proceeding at once
frora the nearest landing-stairs to the residence in Drury
Lane which her friend. Lord Craven, had provided for her,
being his own town dwelling-place, Drury House. Thus
Elizabeth came strictly incognita, giving people no oppor
tunity of questioning why there were no bonfires, salutes
of cannon, pageants, and processions, such as had marked
the departure of the daughter of their royal race forty-seven
years before. The residence of EUzabeth in Drury Lane
must not be considered as bearing any analogy to the
present close and squalid state of that locality. The lane
was really an avenue of lovely elms, leading to one of the
best-kept gardens In London, within the gates of which
Drury House, an Elizabethan raanslon, was situated, which
stood greatly degraded and desecrated until 1807, when
part of it, a public-house, bearing her picture as a sign, was
pulled down ; but it is said that a large wing still exists,
forraing part of the disraal houses in Great Wyld Street,
where, indeed, may be seen sorae pointed gables.
The intercourse which took place between Elizabeth and
her nephews was very affectionate, though at first private.
1 Misspelled Neyford in the Bromley Letters, where this enigmatical
epistle, partly written in the third person, is remarkably mangled, and
finished up by being dated 1 655. It is a complete exercise for I'art de
verifier des dates ; but we think the meaning is rightly given in the text.
VOL. VIII. S

274 ELIZABETH STUART.
She begged Charles II. to write to her undutiful son, the
Elector Charles Louis, and try to shame him out of his base
intention of continuing to withhold from her her dowager
provision. He replied by one of his sophisticated epistles,
of which Elizabeth herself had received so raany specimens.
Charles II. settled a noble annuity of £12,000 on his aunt,
and coraforted her with the assurance that he would do his
best to obtain the arrears of the pension settled on her by
Parliament at her marriage, .£"20,000 of which had been
already recognised, and was in course of payment.^ Affairs
began to look more prosperously on the long-harassed Queen,
and she entered into pleasure, with the bachelor King her
nephew for her escort, with her usual relish.^ The opening
of the English Opera-House In Lincoln's Inn Fields by the
cavalier poet. Sir William Davenant, was one of these
occasions. The Siege of Rhodes, written by Davenant
himself, was the spectacle to witness which the Queen of
Bohemia and her nephew, Charles II., carae In state, 2d
July 1661. Pepys mentions the opera as one of pecu
liar magnificence for scenery and decorations ; but however
great the splendour presented to the eyes of the audience
might be, the accommodations provided for the public were
but raoderate ; for the royal party being very late, and the
gallery uproarious as the scene did not commence tiU the
King and his aunt came, a board was broken in the fioor of
the upper regions, and Pepys was mightily diverted at .
seeing an avalanche of dirt descend, falling on the ladies'
necks and on the gentlemen's hair. He raentions subse
quent visits of the Queen of Boheraia to this popular
place of arauseraent, whither she went in August, escorted
by her host. Lord Craven, who served her in the capa
city of Lord Chamberlain, Steward, Comptroller of House
hold, Captain of Guard, and Guards withal. Reports were
prevalent In Germany and the Hague that this devoted
friend was to be rewarded with the hand of her eldest
daughter Elizabeth ; ^ but that Princess, after facilitating
the escape of her brother's ill-treated wife Charlotte,
^ Drake's Pari. ^ Pepys' Diary. ' Guhrauer.

ELIZABETH STUART. 275
had retired to the Westphalian Convent of Hervorden, or
Herford, of which she afterwards became abbess. The
reports that the Queen of Boheraia was the wife of Lord
Craven were checked by the rumour that he was in love
with her daughter, who was of a more suitable age. Cer
tainly his generosity to the Queen was as likely to proceed
from filial devotion as any other. However this raight be,
the gallant Lord Craven died a bachelor, and the younger
Elizabeth a religieuse. We have always found German
traditions and records of the Queen of Bohemia and her
children far more entitled to credit than the slight notices
In English political history, vague and distorted as they are.
A charge has been raade against the nephews of Eli
zabeth of treating her with neglect and unkindness dur
ing the remnant of her days passed in England. And this
has been transferred from the Interested pages of political
history to those of her blographers,'^ just as if It were true.
She and her family gave a different account of her treat
raent, and, of course, they knew best. " I ara glad your
Majesty has so rauch reason to be satisfied with the King
your nephew," says her daughter Sophia In a letter of
14th August 1661, " which must be still raore pleasant
to hira." There is siraplicity in this phrase, but it is con
clusive ; nor Is It solitary, the correspondence of all her
children Is In the sarae tone.
Another contest occurred between the Queen and her
graceless son the Elector.^ She had hired the palace in
Leicester Fields of Lord Leicester, as her future residence
in England ; it was to be vacated by the Dutch Arabassa
dor at the ensuing Christmas, when she was to take posses
sion and furnish It. There was no expense needed for the
latter purpose, excepting the transportation of furniture
which she possessed at the Rhenen hunting-palace, and at
Sedan, the thoughtful providence of her husband Frederic
having saved some frora the devastation at Heidelberg, and
deposited it with his friends and relations there for her use.
Can It be believed that the Elector actually endeavoured
' Miss Benger, &c.
''Additional MSS., British Museura, George IV.

276 ELIZABETH STUART.
to traverse his mother when she wanted these old things,
and tried moreover to spirit up her creditors at the Hague
and the Rhenen, to prevent the removal of aught belonging
to her ¦? The creditors were much kinder. As to her hus
band's relatives at Sedan, they honourably fulfiUed his known
Intentions, and forwarded her packages to England, despite
of her son's restrictions.^
Notwithstanding these disputes and wrangllng.s, she was
canvassed by her son, the Elector, who never lost sight of
his own Interest in the least affair, for her presentation at
the Charter-House School on behalf of a young German : —
" To THE Queen of Bohemia.*
" Madame, — I am entreated by Simon Altoff, whose faithful service to
the King my father of happy memory is not unknown to your Majesty,
humbly to beg your Majesty's gracious recommendation to the governors
of Sutton's Hospital iu behalf of his godson and kinsman, that he may be
admitted into a scholar's place iu the school of the said hospital, where (as
he is informed) your Majesty hath the nominature of one in your turn.
The good service he hath done me these many years past makes me the
more earnestly beseech your Majesty in all humility to grant him this
favour, who will be ever ready to deserve it with his blood when your
commands will require it. And I shall take it for no less sign of your con
stant goodness to your Majesty's most humble and most obedient son and
servant, Charles."
He could write hurably enough when he wanted anything.
The Governors of the Charter-House can best tell whether
any young Gerraan, whose Christian name was Simon,
appears on their books In 1661; for, though quoted as an
incident In the scanty records of her latter life in England,
there Is no other means of guessing whether the Queen of
Bohemia recoraraended the scholar to the Charter-House.'
Meantirae the Queen began to take her part in public
life as the first lady of the English Court. Iramediately
after ambassadors had complimented King Charles, they
hastened to Craven House, where she was surrounded by a
brilliant circle of the feraale nobility. Durazzo, an iUus
trious Genoese,* sent as Arabassador Extraordinary on the
1 Rusdorf — Bromley Letters. 2 Bromley Letters.
^ Elizabeth had been given presentations by the founder in her youth.
The Charter-House is open to some foreign scholars.
« Middlehill MSS., belonging to Sir T. Phillipps, Bart.

ELIZABETH STUART. 277
Restoration, gives a lively picture of EUzabeth's grace and
fascination ; he dwells on the hearty manner in which she
expressed her happiness at seeing herself, after many suffer
ings, restored to the enjoyment of her appanages, her
rank, and "to some authority," by which the Genoese
means the receptions she gave In her evening drawing-
rooms. On Catherine of Braganza, her nephew's betrothed
Queen, would soon devolve the duty of receiving the noble
ladies of Great Britain ; to her Elizabeth of Boheraia had.
In the course of the summer, written a congratulatory letter
as her future majesty's raost loving aunt.
The iraproved circurastances of Elizabeth gave her spirit to
send to France for raany trifles, and her agent mentions
her orders of etuis with scissors, and the continuation of the
romance of Phararaond, coramunicating>, moreover, the ira
portant fact of Parisian fashions, that sable muffs were
still worn, but not so large as of late.
Leicester House was at last finished and furnished for the
reception of its royal tenant, who, through several pre
ceding months, had been the guest of the ever-faithful Lord
Craven, with every want and wish anticipated by his pro
vident care. She had better have reraained thus during
the rest of the winter ; yet it was not cold that killed her,
but an unhealthy damp warmth, which had prevailed during
the winters of 1661 and 1662. Apple-trees were in blos
som, and the whole country blooming like spring, every
one foreboding the plague ; fasting and prayer were pre
scribed by Parliament as a reraedy, nevertheless general Ill-
health prevailed.! The Queen took possession of the newly-
built ^ Leicester House, 20th January, and Iramediately was
seized with a violent catarrh and Inflamraation of the lungs ;
perhaps the deceitful warrath of the atmosphere caused her
to neglect these syraptoras, until the breaking of a blood
vessel revealed too truly her danger, the announceraent of
which she met with her usual high courage.
Rupert had returned from Vienna, and was near her ; ^
^ Pepys.
2 Diary of Anne Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, who attributed the
death of Elizabeth to this circumstance.
' Ibid., and Theatre of Europe.

278 ELIZABETH STUART.
she sent by him a request to see the King and her godson
the Duke of York : she took a firm and affectionate leave
of thera, having obtained a proraise of the King that he
would devote the remaining arrears due to her from the civil
list to the payraent of her creditors at the Hague. Charies
II. having carefully fulfilled a like proraise that he made to
his sister Mary, Princess of Orange, by paying her long-
delayed portion to her son,^ makes It probable that he kept
faith with his aunt, for we hear no more of these miserable
debts in any letter or meraoir of the times.
Elizabeth made her will, leaving, after the distribution
of some jewels among her other children. Prince Rupert
residuary legatee, chiefly of faraily papers, which have
become the property of history on their publication in the
last century, by his descendant Sir George Bromley.^ The
faithful Lord Craven was not forgotten ; some noble family
portraits were bequeathed to him.^ Her death took place
on Valentine's Eve, 1661-62, just as forty-nine years had
pas.sed frora the joyous season when she becarae the bride
of the Elector Palatine, with the raost elaborate and expen
sive festivities ever known In England. Her friend of the
House of Erskine declares that she had become in the last
years of her Ufe quite Inert, which had a bad effect on her
constitution after accustoming herself to constant and vio
lent exercise in the open air. The great expenses of an
equestrian establishraent at the Hague, wholly inconsistent
with her extreme poverty, doubtless was the cause of this
change in her habits.
Elizabeth died a duteous daughter of the Church of Eng-
1 State-Paper MS.
' Badly edited as the Bromley Papers were, they have cast great light on
these pages.
' The present Lord Craven has occasionally permitted them to be ex
hibited at the Institution in Pall-Mail, the lighted view of which usually
forms one of the attractions of the Loudon season ; but historical pictures
are better viewed by daylight. Here we remember to have seen fine whole-
lengths of Elizabeth's favourite sons, the martial Rupert and the handsome
Maurice, so lifelike in the perfection of portraiture effected in that century,
that whosoever looks upon them may consider they have seen these cele
brated men. Combe Abbey, being the property of the House of Craven,
the pictures of Elizabeth and her family are very suitably deposited there.
Combe Abbey was sold by Lucy, heiress of the House of Harrington, to
Lady Craven in 1622 for £36,000.

ELIZABETH STUART. 279
land ; she received the sacraraent with fervent piety before
she expired. Her Illness having rapidly tended to dropsy,
she did not die In her bed, but sitting in an arra-chair ; her
intellects were briglit, and her calmness unruffled to the
last moment. After erabalraing, her body was reraoved by
night to the adjacent Soraerset House, then, like Whitehall,
in the raost ruinous condition, fitter for Elizabeth's occupa
tion dead than Uving ; Indeed, she had utterly refused to
occupy either during her life.'-
Prince Rupert, who was then and afterwards In a naval
coraraand in England, arranged a torchlight water proces
sion at midnight on the bosom of the wintry Tharacs, of
barges covered with black cloth, to the jetty called King
Edward (the Confessor's) Bridge. There the funeral cor
tege landed, as many a royal procession had done pre
viously, and pursued its way, with very respectable funeral
pomp, by the light of flambeaus, to the abbey. Prince Rupert
being accompanied by two dukes and twenty-one other
peers of England and Scotland. They laid Elizabeth near
her father in the royal vault, under Henry VII.'s chapel.
After the ecclesiastics of the abbey had finished the irapres
sive burial-service. Garter proclairaed her titles, the sarae
which were inscribed on her coflSn, to the following effect :
— " The most serene and powerful Princess Elizabeth,
Queen of Boheraia, relict of Frederic, by the grace of God
King of Boheraia, Archsewer, and Prince Elector of the
Holy Roraan Empire, only daughter of James [I.], sister
of Charles I., and aunt of Charles IL, Kings of Great
Britain, France, and Ireland, who most piously fell asleep
In the Lord on the XIIL day of February, in the mansion
of the Earl of Leicester, In the year of Christ 1661-62, In
the sixty-sixth of her age."^ A general mourning was
ordered by Charles II. for his aunt, which lasted until the
arrival of his Queen In the foUowing AprU.*
Five out of her thirteen children had preceded Elizabeth
to the grave ; but she left a numerous progeny, most of whom
1 Bromley Letters.
^ Additional MSS., British Museum — Lord Chamberlains MSS.
' Pepys.

280 ELIZABETH STUART.
were on the worst terms with each other. Her eldest son
and uncomproraising eneray, Charles Louis, Elector Pala
tine, lost his bigamous mate, Louise de Degenfeldt, in 1677 ;
by her he had a numerous family, but none eligible to the
succession. His son by his first wife was sickly and fragile ;
every one foretold his death long before It happened.
Charles Louis, expecting the extinction of his line, made
Interest with his sister Elizabeth, then the Protestant Abbess
of Herford, to persuade his ill-treated wife to a regular
divorce, to enable him to marry again. To this EUzabeth
consented, raeeting her brother for consultation at the
Baths of Schwalbach. Likewise his son Charles, whose
marriage was unfruitful, entreated his mother to consent.
Charlotte of Hesse was still at Cassel, whither she had re
treated, and, supported by her nephew, the Landgrave of
Hesse, received all these proposals with contemptuous
refusal. It is said that the whole family loaded the Abbess
Elizabeth with reproaches for encouraging what they called
an Infamous transaction. But EUzabeth meekly declared
" that she foresaw terrible miseries in store for her loved
fatherland, the Palatinate — the people of which had been so
dismally tormented in the Thirty Years' War." Then the
family deraanded Rupert, the next heir, to come and live
at one of the appanages of the Palatinate. Rupert, who
was remarkably comfortable at Windsor Castle as constable,
although, as he said, " the country people took him and his
faithful great black dog for wizards," declared " he would
not come ; he had been insulted by Charles Louis, who
might do what he pleased for an heir — he should not have
hira." 1
The Elector Charles Louis died the year after this dis
cussion, 1680. His ill-treated' wife, Charlotte of Hesse,
survived hira several years. The upshot was, to use the
words of Henry Sidney in his Diary, " The Elector's son
hath no children, and the Palatinate will go to the Duke
of Neuberg, a Papist."^ And such was really the case,
1 Guhrauer's Elizabeth, Princess Palatine. Additional MSS., Kmg's
Library. Bromley Letters.
" Diary and Correspondence of Henry Sidney, Lord Romney, edited by
Mr Bleuoowe, vol. i., p. 97.

ELIZABETH STUART. 281
but not until all the horrors It had suffered in the Thirty
Years' War had been renewed by reason of Louis XIV.
laying claim to the succession on behalf of his sister-in-law,
EUzabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans. Turenne, who
was commissioned to execute the most devastating: war of
modern tiraes, was of the same famUy as the Bouillons of
Sedan and La Tour d'Auvergne, who had been all leagued
for Protestantism with the unfortunate King of Boheraia,
as we have shown in the course of this biography. Turenne
has received far more hero-worship than his due, for this is
a detestable fact.
Of the death of Prince Maurice no tongue could ever
tell; bis ship was never seen since he parted with the
squadron of Prince Rupert at Jamaica.^ Prince Edward,
who had resided in France since his adoption of the Roraan
Catholic religion, died there not long after his mother in
166.3, at the early age of thirty-eight. He left three daugh
ters, of whom more will be said. Thus, out of a group of
seven stalwart sons, Elizabeth Stuart and Frederic V. left
not one grandson to represent their line. Of their surviving
daughters, Elizabeth died Protestant Abbess of Herford, in
Westphalia; Louisa, at the great age of eighty-four, in 1709,
died Roman Catholic Abbess of Maubisson. As for Sophia,
her lineage, as the nearest Protestant heirs to the throne of
Great Britain, reign here. How that succession took place
the succeeding biography wUl tell.
^ It is curious that, while these sheets were passing through the press, an
island is announced as discovered in the East India Archipelago of 30,000
Christian souls professing the Heidelberg Catechism.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER

CHAPTEE I.

SUMMAEY
Sophia born the twelfth child of Frederic, King of Bohemia, and his
Queeu, Elizabeth Stuart — Poverty of her parents — Long-delayed baptism
¦ — States of Friesland her godfathers — Their donation — Sophia's resem
blance to Mary Queeu of Scots — Her joyous temper — Loses her father
in her third year — Brought up at Rhenen — Admiration of Descartes —
— His flattering lettei's — Her accomplishments — Removed to the court of
her brother the Elector Palatine — Is state governess to his daughter —
Sophia captivates the heir of the Emperor — His early death — Sophia in
volved in the quarrels of her brother and his wife Charlotte of Hesse —
Manages to keep iu with her brother — Sophia returns to her mother at
the Hague — Accompanied by her charge Elizabeth Charlotte — Wooed by
Prince Adolph des Deuxponts— Cromwell breaks the marriage — Engaged
to Ernest Auguste of Brunswick — Opposition of her mother — Sophia
marries him by her brother's commands — Her mother reconciled — Asks
Charles II. to give Ernest the Garter — Birth of Sophia's eldest son at
Hanover — Her husband becomes Bishop of Osnaburg — Sophia's farewell
to her mother — Their letters— Her niece domesticated with her — Death
of her mother — Residence at the Castle of Iburg — Birth of her children
— Extraordinary family arrangements of the Brunswick princes.

Born at the very lowest ebb of her parents' adverse fortunes,
the Princess Sophia, as the twelfth child of Frederic V.,
Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth Stuart, carae Into a world
where her presence seeraed as little needed as It was desired.
Her baptisra was long delayed, on account of the expense
of perforraing it " decently" — meaning, with the expensive
pomp and parade usual in the seventeenth century. Whether
the little lady had lived or died, she would have equally
caused embarrassment, as the funds for princely burial would

286 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
have been as difficult to be raised as for baptism. The
troublesorae rank of her father and mother, as titular King
and Queen of Bohemia, made all these etiquettes the more
expensive. Moreover, having christened eleven preceding
children, faraily names had become scarce. However, Eliza
beth of Bohemia once had a sister whose effigy may be seen
In Westminister Abbey at this hour — a curious specimen of
baby costume in the quaintest of marble caps, resting in the
queerest of marble cradles, covered with a fringed marble
counterpane. After this small sister, Elizabeth called her
infant Sophia. It is a name which, since that era, has taken
a place in the baptisraal nomenclature of this country; but
It is derived from Eastern Christendom, and was brought to
the shores of the Baltic by the Sclavonic race which colon
ised Mecklenburg, of which country Elizabeth of Bohemia's
grandmother Sophia, Queen of Denraark, was a princess.
Heavenly Wisdom Is the interpretation of the Christian name
Sophia, and the Greek Gnostics impersonified the quality as
the youngest Eon of God. The raetropoUtan church of that
down-trodden branch of Christianity, the Greek faith, now
desecrated at Constantinople, was neither dedicated to saint
or raartyr, but to the abstract idea of the Eon Sophia.
The Uttle Princess was born at the Hague, October 13,
16.30. But it was not untU May 30, 1631, that the resident
English minister was able to announce to his court that " the
youngest daughter of the Queen of Bohemia was christened
at the Hague, by the name of Sophia. Her godfathers were
the States of Friesland, and her godmothers Madame
Hardenberg and Madarae de Brederode, who each of them
gave £30 to be distributed in the nursery, as the godfathers
did £40." 1 But these magnificent merchants did better, for
they added as a gift to their godchild a patent durante
vita, securing to her a life-annuity of £46 — a modicum
which kept her from the worst distresses she was doomed
to experience In eariy life. Her education coraraenced very
early. If she had not arrived In this world at the most
auspicious time for endowraent with wealth and territory,
she brought with her what was a great deal better-— the
' Ellis's Historical Letters, 2d series, p. 261.

SOPHU, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 287
most joyous of tempers. Gentle and gay, at the same time
she possessed naturally that species of tact only seen in
children of great talent, which adapts Its display to the pre
cise tirae when playfulness is agreeable to those In authority.
Sophia's early diplomacy, added to her beauty, made her the
darling and plaything, not only of her sad sire, but of her
ill-natured brother Charles Louis, who never, even in his
most cynical moods, was able to resist the Infantile wiles of
his sister Sophia. It was supposed that she was the only
living creature for whora he ever felt an eraotion of dis
interested attachraent ; on which account it will be found
that Sophia was frequently linked to his changing fortunes
through life. She was nursed at the country palace at Rhenen,
under the care of Sybella de Ketler, who had been the
governess of the father and of all the children of the Pala
tine faraily. There her unfortunate father gave her his
last erabrace, with his other little ones, when she had only
just entered her third year, at the tirae when he unwillingly
left his beloved family to join the campaign of Gustavus
Adolphus in the Palatinate, which was indeed raost disas
trous to him, as has been detailed In the preceding bio
graphy. Sophia never saw him more, and she was thus
left fatherless before she was conscious of her great loss.
Sophia's personal attendant was a young girl with whom
she formed an attachraent lasting through life, well known
in her letters, and those of her daughter and niece, as
Madame Hariing. All the children of the Palatine faraily
were accustoraed, with their corapanions and attendants,
to take robust exercise in the parks and chases of the
Rhenen palace. Personal labour in the gardens Sophia
was taught from her infancy to consider pleasure — happy in
being so taught; for when sorrow and unkindness afflicted
her, she always found consolation among flowers and trees
In her own pecuUar paradise. She lived in gardens, delight
ing In the thrice-blessed culture of the earth, and, raoreover,
died In the garden she loved best. The taste which contri
buted so much to her happiness, and which diffused such
inestimable influences to all beneath her, was derived from
her Stuart ancestors. It was an hereditary tendency. Mary

288 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
Queen of Scots, as we have shown, never came to a strange:
place without planting trees. We have seen it carefully
inculcated in the education of her mother by Jaraes I. The
descendants of Sophia brought it back to our Island, and
kept In fashion the love for horticulture and pleasant gardens,
alraost pecuUar to the English, which had been cherished
by the Stuarts, but which would have been neglected and
despised by their worldly-rain ded courtiers when the elder
line of sovereigns sank under the effects of slandering pens
and tongues.
Among all her sisters, Sophia most reserabled her ances
tress Mary Queen of Scots in elegant height of stature, deli
cacy of features, limbs, and coraplexion, and, above all, inthe
sweet hilarity and charm of happy temper which fascinated
and delighted all that approached her. Both her mother
and her learned sister, Elizabeth, took Infinite pleasure in
teaching this gracious and lovely child. She became nearly
as skilful with the pencil as her sister Louisa, though her
career of after activity prevented her from sharing her
artlstical renown. Her master was the same, the kind and
faithful Gerard Honthorst, the proteg^ of their grandfather
and uncle, James I. and Charles I. Sophia was the com
panion of Louisa In her studies of the glorious school of
Flemish painting, as she was of her sister Elizabeth in her
deep learning, under the care of Descartes. Those who have
read the letters of Sophia^ will reraeraber that she occa
sionally illustrates natural objects, when raentioned by her,
with a sketch by her ever-ready pencil. A change had
been introduced as to preceptors since young princesses
were first educated as learned woraen. Instead of the old
bishops, who guided the thoughts of the Plantagenet prin
cesses, those of the reforraed faith contracted friendships
with philosophers or savants, such as Descartes, and even
Bayle — men who formed a sort of elder class to the savants
and Encyclopedists by whom the French Eevolution ofthe
Terror was heralded. »
At sixteen, the beauty and " royal grace" of the Stuart
' Edited by Ilten.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 289
line were considered to shine pre-erainent In Sophia. She
likewise was renowned for her Intellectual culture, having
Irabibed the philosophy of Descartes through the raediura of
the learned recluse her sister Elizabeth. Descartes confided
all his letters to the latter, when she was resident nearBerlin,^
to the hands of the fair Sophia ; and such was the friendship
established between the sage and this young Princess, that
various of his notes and letters, printed in the last edition of
his works, are really and truly addressed to her, and not to
either of her elder sisters. The following letter is a tolerably
strong dose of personal fiattery, to be exhibited by a philo
sopher ; — certes that philosopher was a Frenchman !
" When angels vouchsafe to visit raen, they can scarcely
leave behind them traces of deeper admiration and respect
than have been impressed upon my raind by the letter where
with you have favoured rae. I see by the same, that not
only do your highness's features deserve coraparison with
angels, and to be preferred as a pattern for those painters
who represent beauty celestial, but the charras of your mind
are such that philosophers are compeUed to confess their
exceUence." ^
Such were the notes of admiration that preceded her
entrance into the princely station she was born to fill, of
which her mother's miserable residence at the Hague was but
the mocking shadow. After the restoration of her brother,
Charles Louis, to the Lower Palatinate, and his subsequent
marriage with Charlotte of Hesse, he formed a court and
household ; and following the undeviating rules of royal
etiquette, he Invited his eldest sister, Elizabeth, to hold the
ofiice of first lady to the Electress. On the birth of his
daughter, he gave Sophia that of State Governess to the
1 At Clossen, with her father's sister, the Dowager Electress of Bran
denburg. ^ Vie de Descartes et Lettres. Fourth edition. That philosopher sent
his packets of letters to the Princess Elizabeth, then absent and in disgrace
with her mother, through the hands of her sisters Louisa and Sophia, and
often adds a complimentary epistle on their beauties and virtues. It is
scarcely possible to gather the least fact from his letters to Elizabeth,
excepting that she had lamented the great coldness of Christina of Sweden
to her. VOL. Vin. T

290 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
young Princess Elizabeth Charlotte, the practical duties of
governess being exercised by her friend Maderaoiselle Har
iing. The poverty under which the daughters of the Queen
of Boheraia had been oppressed from their infancy was
now alleviated by a certain stipend. Although the re
venues of the long-vexed Palatinate had been, during the
Thirty Years' War, terribly irapaired, yet the Princesses
found their circumstances greatly iraproved, and their rank
acknowledged among their equals. Thus passed away two
or three years, which were perhaps the happiest in Sophia's
life. That their mother wrote to them frora the Hague every
week, raay be ascertained by her raessage In one of her
letters to Lord Craven, in the winter of 1653, then sent,
as her ambassador, to Heidelberg, to extract, if possible,
some cash from the Elector. She says, " I write not this
week to ray daughters ; you may tell them so — for mere
laziness." '
About the same time It raust have been that Sophia, then
at the age of three-and- twenty, made the iraportant con
quest of the heir of Ferdinand IIL, — a Prince whose identity
under the high-sounding title of Ferdinand IV. is some
what obscure to the world in general. He had, however,
gone through the cereraonials of election to the throne of
Hungary In 1647, and was titular king thereof by the
appellation of Ferdinand IV. He had likewise been elected
King of the Eomans by the German Diet, In anticipation
of succeeding his father as Emperor, which he never did.
He was a prince of a kind and generous disposition, leamed,
sensitive, and a great admirer of talent in woraan. Although
religious and moral in conduct, he was so little bigoted as
to venture into the stronghold of Calvinism, at his friend's
court of Heidelberg, with his heart free and his hand disen
gaged. His heart he lost at first sight to Sophia, his hand
he was ready to offer. How the belligerent religions pro
fessed by the high contracting parties would have been
arranged, no mortal can tell, for before the matter had
1 Feder's Life of the Electress Sophia.

SOPHIA, EIJICTRESS OF HANOVER. 291
advanced farther than the unusual incident of an Eraperor's
son losing his heart In real love-earnest to a portionless
Protestant princess — death stepped in to forbid the bans.
The portrait of the young King of Hungary was long to be
seen at Heidelberg. Sophia's niece and friend, Elizabeth
Charlotte, thus speaks of it : "I often heard In ray youth
that King Ferdinand IV. was in love with my aunt Sophia
— death alone prevented him from marrying her. His
portrait Is in Fleldelberg, in the Glass Saloon. His com
plexion was very fine, white and red, but for all that his
features were very ugly." ^
Ferdinand IV. died some time In July 1654. Vienna
was shaken by a tremendous earthquake occurring quite
unexpectedly on the day of bis death ; and another cir
cumstance took place which was thought worth noting by
the superstitious.^ Ferdinand IV. had a tarae eagle that
had lived with him frora his childhood, raore. than twenty
years, seemingly quite reconcUed to his confinement. Either
afflicted by the absence of his master, who was expiring, or
disturbed by the earthquake, the eagle broke his cliain, and
soared upward to the highest tower on the Iraperial palace.
Here all the birds, small and great, in the vicinity, came
flocking and wheeling about him, but the feathered king
took no notice of them. Just as the spirit of Ferdinand
I V. departed, the eagle uttered a wild scream, and, darting
upwards In the air, was lost to sight In an Instant, and
never seen again.
The Gerraan Diet raet January 1654-5 to elect Leopold I.
King of the Romans. The dates of the shortlived Ferdin
and's dignities and death nearly define the period of his
attachment to Sophia. At the Hague, the seat of civil
and religious opposition, the son of the Eraperor could
not have raet her. But when she was holding office at her
brother's court. It was very likely, for Charles Louis, after his
restoration, affected great loyalty to the Eraperor Ferdinand
III., and was adraitted to intiraacy with the Iraperial family,
^ Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, to her brother's
daughter, edited by Louisa de Degenfeldt.
" Thurloe's Letters, August 4, 1654.

292 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
probably owing to the friendship his brother Rupert had
forraed with thera when prisoner at Vienna and Presburg
for two or three years.^
Throughout the year 1654 both Sophia and her sister
Elizabeth suffered cruel perplexity owing to the quarrels
of their brother, the Elector, and his wife, Charlotte of
Hesse, who was, though accused of furious ill-temper, most
bitterly wronged. Few women can endure open preference
given to a servant by their husbands with Griselda-like
patience.^ The Elector, handsome, hypocritical, and selfish,
had married, frora interest and policy, a woman he loved
not, and had cast his eyes on her raaid of honour, Louisa de
Degenfeldt. This lady was a yellow-haired fair-faced daugh
ter of the Rhine ; If she had any beauty. It was In utter
contrast to that of the Elector, who, Uke his raother Eliza
beth, was tall, dark, and elegant. The Gerraan Anne Boleyn,
who had stolen his heart^ from its rightful owner, was re
raarkable for her learning. She is the first, and perhaps
wUl be the last, lady who ever disturbed faraily peace hy
writing Latin love-letters. The Elector, who, as we haveseen,
had pursued no royal road at Leyden to the great learning
he possessed, had entered into correspondence with her in
hopes of finding the flaws usual to lady Latinity ; but her
epistles, which gradually warmed into love-letters, stood the
test of the schoolraaster. " There is a girl at my court,"
said the Elector one day at his table to his cousins, the King
and Queen of Denmark, and the brother of the latter, Ernest
Auguste of Brunswick, " who writes Latin letters as well
as any professor in my University of Heidelberg." The
Electress Charlotte next raorning paid a domiciUary visit
to the desks of her lord and her maid of honour, while
these delinquents were hunting with the royal guests. By
the help of sorae learned confidante, probably her first
lady and sister-in-law EUzabeth, Princess Palatine, who
was certainly at hand, and capable of construing the
raost abstruse speciraens of Latinity, the letters of the dam-
^ Bromley Letters.
* Polnitz Memoirs. The author was grandson of Prince Maurice the
Stadtholder, and related to all the parties.
¦¦' Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, his daughter.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 293
sel were discovered to be love-letters : worse than all, a rich
bracelet, which the Elector had once bought for his wife,
who had disdainfully refused It — or at least he said so —
was discovered in the sarae escritoire with the letters of
the Elector. An awful explosion of wrath took place that
day at dinner, which ended in the Elector boxing his
wife's ears before the royal guests and their staff of attend-
ants.i The Electress set off Iramediately to lay her wrongs
'before the Emperor at Ratisbon, whither her husband
was sumraoned to assist at a Diet. While this raatrl-
monial fracas was proceeding, Sophia wrote a narrative
of the wretched events to her mother ; but, let it be
marked, wrote it in a style satisfactory to her tyrannical
brother. In a letter to bis mother, still extant, ^ he thus
alludes to it in an off-hand tone of levity : " I believe
ray sister Sophia has acquainted your raajesty with our
crotchets here, which In several kinds are very troublesome,
and make me say the less of thera, lest I deter you frora
[coming] to this place, which, Itmay be, others have enough
disfigured to you abroad. But I am confident of your jus
tice, as far as that you will not conderan me before you have
examined on all sides. I shall only beg leave to say I have
had a great deal of patience ! "
Thus Sophia raust in this affair have acted the diplo
matic part of holding fair with all sides, which tendency to
selfish expediency is the only flaw her conteraporaries find
In her character. Yet the violence around her offers great
excuses for her endeavours to keep peace with all the raging
belligerents. One thing is certain, that the Ill-treated Elec
tress could not have pursued the part which she subsequently
acted, as it Is described by the relative of all parties. Baron
de Polnitz, If Sophia, who had the charge of her children,
had not been secretly her aider and well-wisher. The
"patience" of Charles Louis, on which he plumes himself in
his letter to bis raother, led him In a short tirae to the step of
marrying his mistress ; not as a second wife (forthe hapless
' Polnitz ; likewise Vie de Elizabeth Charlotte, prefixed to the French
edition of her first published letters.
^ Bromley Letters.

294 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
Electress was still living and not repudiated), but as a wife
nuraber two ; which iniquity this " patient " Prince, as an
iraproveraent on the conduct of Henry VIIL, thought fit to
carry out by the farce of a religious cereraony. He was
with his mistress proceeding to the castle chapel of Heidel
berg, where this profanation was to be acted, when the hap
less Electress, issuing out of a side-roora, dressed in the robes
worn at her raarriage, and leading her children In either
hand, interrupted her husband's procession, by throwing her
self at his feet, and with agonising tears " implored him, for
the sake of their little ones, not to put another woman in
their mother's place." There was some chord in the hard
heart of Charles Louis not altogether ossified by vice and
selfishness : he recoiled, and breaking the purpose of the
morning, retreated to his cabinet, where he sat for hours
in gloomy meditation, wrestling with his own conscience.
From sorae syraptoms it was supposed that conscience would
gain the victory. Such might have been the case if his
hapless wife had known how to govern herself or any one
else ; but while the courtiers and the intrusive candidate
for marriage honours were waiting In consternation the
result of the Elector's decision, Jhe suspense worked the
temper of the Electress to frenzy. Arraing herself with a
loaded pistol, she rushed out of her chamber, and, flying
along the state gallery of Heidelberg towards her husband's
cabinet, was Intercepted by his master of horse, Count
Schwartzenburg ; he seized her by the wrists, and, turning
the pistol out of an open window of the gallery, discharged
it harmlessly. The noise drew the Elector's attention ; and
on hearing that the Electress meant to assassinate him, he
ordered her into arrest. In a few days he renewed his pro
cession and reUgious preparations, and married Louisa de
Degenfeldt, to the scandal of all Christendom.
Sophia trimmed her course as well as she could, and
managed to retain his affections. But her sister Elizabeth,
suspecting that Charles Louis meant to carry his Imitation
of his collateral ancestor, Henry VIIL's, wife-discipline
somewhat further, aided the unfortunate Electress to escape
from durance to Hesse-Cassel; at the same time she withdrew

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 295
herself secretly to her usual harbour of refuge, the retreat of
her aunt Charlotte, where the constant hatred of her brother
ever after pursued her, as his letters, yet extant, bear wit
ness.^ Sophia, though she contrived to retain the Elector's
good-wUl, retreated to the Hague with her charge, the little
Electoral princess, Elizabeth Charlotte, then about four years
of age ; and there, with the assistance of the under-gover-
ness, Madame Hariing, her great friend, she commenced the
education of that extraordinary character. As Sophia de
rived a certain income frora her office of state-governess to
her niece from her brother, her return to her mother did
not increase the woeful penury she was then enduring.
Elizabeth Charlotte has given a droll account of her pre
sentation to Mary, Princess of Orange, of whose son, Wil
liam III., she demanded, pointing In the face of the Princess,
" Who Is that woraan with the monstrous long nose?" with
raany other childish outrages of etiquette. It Is clear that
Sophia was not on good terras with her royal English kins
woman ; for, when she heard the Queen of Bohemia relate
these peccadilloes of her little granddaughter at her pre
sentation at the Orange court, Sophia said, " I ara not sorry,
Lisette, you mortified that woraan ; for her pride and insol
ence are hateful to rae."^ A speech less edifying to her
pupil than useful to her biographer.
Woraanly jealousy was at the bottom of the enmity
between these couslns-german ; for a young prince had
made his appearance at the Hague as a candidate for
the hand of the youthful widow of Orange, who was
attracted from his allegiance by the youthful beauty and
charras of Sophia : this was Duke Ernest Auguste of Bruns
wick-Lunenburg. His fortunes were not more prosperous
than those of Sophia herself, whose raother was utterly ex
asperated at his preten.sions to either her niece or daughter.
Just after the death of her Imperial lover, Ferdinand IV.,
Sophia had an offer from Adolphe of Deuxponts (brother to
Charles X., and afterwards regent for his nephew Charles
^ This narrative is combined from Polnitz, and the family letters of the
Palatine family.
* Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte ; French edition.

296 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
XL, kings of Sweden), with which her mother closed directly.
According to her own marriage articles she was bound to
ask the consent of the King of Great Britain regarding the
disposal of her children in marriage. Charles II. was lead
ing a merry time in the depth of his misfortunes at this
period ; nevertheless, the Queen of Bohemia thus announced
her daughter's betrothment through his minister, —
The Queen of Bohemia to Secketakt Sie EDWAkD Nicholas,
(the trusted friend of Charles II.)
"Haqub, Oct. 2, 1654.
"Me Seoeetaey, — I send you here a letter for the King [Charles II.];
it is about a match betwixt Prince Adolphe, the King of Sweden's brother,
and Sophie. He has desired it very handsomely. My son [the Elector]
has consented to it, reservings the King of Sweden's consent and mine, who
am to acquaint the King with it. I do it now, and send you the copy of
Prince Adolphe's letter. I pray get an answer from the King [Charles IL]
as soon as you can. I have no more to say, but am ever your most affec
tionate friend, Elizabeth."'
Sophia was positively engaged to Prince Adolphe des
Deuxponts, nephew to Gustavus Adolphus, being the son
of his sister, Catherine Vasa. The betrothed of Sophia was
likewise younger brother of Charles Gustavus, in whose
favour Queen Christina had just resigned the crown of
Sweden. This union was so far advanced in the spring of
1655, the following year, that the wedding-dresses, both for
the Intended bride and bridegroom, which were prepared
at Paris, were all ready for transportation down the Rhine,
according to the information of M. de Choqueux," the envoy
of the Palatine Princes at the French capital. But the
bridal of Sophia with Adolphe never took place. Cromwell
manifested angry jealousy of the match to his ally King
Charles Gustavus, who gratified the policy of the usurper by
breaking off the marriage of the niece of the murdered
Charles, and forbade Adolphe to espouse her. It is to be
hoped that Sophia preferred another. Ernest Auguste had
been domesticated with her at Heidelberg. He was present
at the remarkable dinner when the Elector Palatine struck
his consort. The Queen of Denmark, In whose honour that
I Correspondence printed at the end of Evelyn's Diary.
" Bromley Letters, April 6, 1656.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 297
unique entertainment was given, was the only sister of the
young Prince of Brunswick. Sophia having thus seen her
beloved receive a fine lesson In the art of wife-taraing and
woraan-quelling, it seeras alraost extraordinary that she
should venture to accept Ernest Auguste, who was her
brother's intiraate friend and confidant. But her situation
in life was raiserable, and, like many others of her sex, she
thought the marriage yoke might be less Irksorae than
fraternal thraldora. Meantirae she had another suitor, but
did not wish him to be mentioned to her master and brother
the Elector. A raysterious notation in her raother's letter
to her brother Rupert, leads to the conclusion that this
naraeless wooer was one of the noble house of Fiirsten-
berg. Sophia was in April 1657 at her brother's court at Heid
elberg, whence she wrote to her mother to inquire " which of
the brothers Fiirstenberg wrote that pretty letter?"^ " I
never spoke of it to the Elector," observes her raother to Ru
pert, " nor will not, because I have given my word to speak
or take notice of it to none but those who are to know It ;
but I believe Mrs Hariing has told hira all, though he saith
nothing of it to me, nor I to him, Sophia having begged
me not to let hira know of it, of all others.''
The particulars regarding this Fiirstenberg, which were
to be concealed frora her brother the Elector, but confided
to Rupert and her raother, are lost. She was at Heidel
berg In the spring of 1657 ; and her trusted friend the Frau
Hariing, who had been her governess, had conferences with
the Elector, and told hira raatters which Sophia wished
concealed from hira. As Madarae Hariing was the practical
governess of his daughter, perhaps Sophia did not think
her culpable in this confidence. They were on the point
of a journey to the Hague, where Sophia, her niece, and
Madarae Hariing, spent part of every year with Queen
Elizabeth. Soon after, her engageraent to the youngest
Prince of Brunswick, patronised by her brother the Elector,
began to occupy the attention of the courts at Heidelberg
and of the Hague.
' Bromley Letters— "J. mMi Fits le Prince Rupert," Hague, April 29, 1637.

298 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
The house of Guelph, of which Ernest Auguste was the
youngest scion, was one of the most illustrious in Europe.
Under the sobriquet of Guelph, It raay be traced, almost from
the earliest ages of Christianity, as the faithful guardians
of the trembling flock in Southern Europe, when raolested
by the invasions of the Gerraan pagans. Before Charle
magne converted Germany by the edge of the sword, the
Guelphs were the leaders of warUke bands of German Chris
tians, valiant defenders of the paf5ses of the Alps and the
northern borders of Italy ^ from the furious heathens who,
blood-stained frora horrid rites of human sacrifice, came rag
ing from their black forests to extinguish the feeble Ught
of civilisation kept alive fearfully In desolated Rome. Peril
and hardihood being more wholesorae nurturers of human
greatness than peace and ease, the faraily of Guelph throve
accordingly; and, whether known by the territorial name of
Este, under which they guarded the Marches of Ancona, or
under their brave barbarian sobriquet of Guelph, or Wolfdog,
they became the most powerful family In Europe. In them
was fulfiUed the old Scriptural blessing, that they should
never want a man to stand before the Lord. These warlike
Marchers of Christendora were reraarkable for their fami
lies of nuraerous sons, tall and coraely in person ; and in
such overflowing nurabers, that the old tale of the Guelphic
countess, who had as raany children as there were days In
the year, three boys having been born on the night of
the 29th of December, In a year of our Lord unknown, is
a type of the family fertility. Nor was this Increase any
misfortune either in the dark or raediseval ages, for the
younger sons of the Wolfdog guardian led their bands
northward to extended conquests, and won broad lands from
the heathen hordes of Gerraany, alraost to the " surf-rocks
of the Baltic." At one tirae the line of Guelph extended its
sway frora Northern Italy through Bavaria, Saxony, even
to the present possessions of the male line of Brunswick.
For as Northern Christendora widened, the frontier of the
Christian defenders extended also.^
^ Leibnitz.
^ The long straggling dominions of Prussia, which show such a singular

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 299
When Gerraany became wholly a Christian land, the
Guelphs lost not their vocation of defenders ; they sup
ported the free election of the Church against the State
tyranny of the German Eraperors. Terrible corruptions, It
is true, had invaded the Christian Church after the year
1000 ; but bad as spiritual affairs might be, the general in
terests of humanity would not have been mended by the
head of the Church being always the slavish nominee of
the Gerraan Emperor. In fact, neither German popes nor
nominees of other great potentates^ bear the most odorous
names in history. The contests of the parties of Guelph
and Ghlbellne In the early medisBval ages, are oftener naraed
than understood : they were the struggles of the two great
elective powers of Europe, one ecclesiastical and the other
teraporal, being the Pope and the Eraperor, as to which
should norainate and influence the election of the other, each
putting forth some plausible claim on this point ; the par
tisans ofthe Emperor (and he had many in Italy as well as
in Gerraany) being called Ghlbelines, the supporters of the
free elections of the Popes, Guelphs. Political historians
have, according to custora, intruded their selfish present
interests Into the record of the past, until the modern reader
is utterly mystified.^
Otho the Guelph, son of Henry the Lion and Matilda
Plantagenet, being brother-in-arms and bosora friend of, and
likewise regent in Aquitaine for, his uncle Richard Cceur-de-
Lion, supported that hero successfully at the Vienna con
gress against his eneraies the Gerraan Eraperor, the Ger
raan Pope, Celestine, and his mortal foe the Austrian Duke.
Subsequently Otho the Guelph was elected Emperor of
Germany ; and though he bore his honours valiantly, yet
the fact of his being Emperor embarrassed his partisans,
and left him powerless. Nevertheless he sustained the
outline on the map of Europe, arise from the same cause. The house of
Brandenburg defended, as Marchers, the extreme north of Christendom.
^ Like the Spanish Borgia, who was tutor of Ferdinand of Aragon, and,
forced on the Church by his power, became the infamous Alexander VI.
2 This slight sketch of the position ofthe house of Guelph from an early
period of Christianity, is condensed from the five enormous folios of
L^bnitz's Origines Guelfisse, and those of Schedius.

300 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
fearful struggle, from his election in 1200, eighteen years,
dying broken-hearted in 1218, after the loss of the fatal
battle of Bouvines. From that hour the high and haughty
fortunes of his race declined In Europe for several centuries.
It is certain that the line occupied a lower rank after the
Imperial mantle had descended on their chief.
Although the Guelphic princes, at the era of the Refor
raation, had long ceased manifesting any partiality for the
court of Rome, or enthusiasm for the Pope — for indeed
most of them became Protestant — yet they were not zealous
in the cause, like raany of the potentates of Northern Ger
many. In truth, the hideous outbreak of John of Leyden, a
human demon wjio got possession of their ancient city of
Miinster, calling hiraself Anabaptist, and practising therein
every possible species of enorraity, had given thera a near
but unpleasant view ofthe consequences of violent change.
They adopted the Lutheran creed, and went no farther.
In that century the territories of the G uelphic family were
reduced to the duchy of Brunswick. This duchy was soon
after subdivided into two small sovereign dukedoms, Bruns
wick- Wolfenbuttel and Brunswick-Lunenburg, afterwards
called Hanover : the younger brother took the latter. But
when this potentate was blessed with nine brave sons, the
ruinous practice of division and subdivision became painfully
apparent. In a faraily council, held on the exigence by
this patriarchal band of brothers, eight of thera agreed to
reraain single, and that whatsoever was their due of landed
appanage sbould return to swell the dorainions of the heir
proceeding frora the brother who was to be the raarried man
of the family ; and they decided by lot who this should be.
The lot fell upon George, one of the youngest of the princes.
He raarried Anna, the daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse.
The rest of the Brunswick-Lunenburg princes either re
mained bachelors or made morganatic marriages with
women of lower classes, whose children were not eligible to
any princely succession in proud Germany. The order of
priraogeniture was not, however, altered. The unmarried
princes succeeded each other according to their ages, until
' Leibnitz. We follow the historian of the Guelphic line.

301
the small sceptre of Hanover fell to the progeny of Duke
George. By Anna of Hesse, George of Brunswick had four
sons and two daughters, which sons were expected to be
obedient to the new family marriage-laws, stipulating that
all the dominions of Brunswick-Lunenburg were to descend
undivided to the eldest son In sovereignty, excepting the
dukedom of Zelle, which was to be the appanage of the
second son. If there was one. Yet Zelle was not to descend
to his offspring, but revert back to the reigning faraily.
Thus a very strong entail of primogeniture was effected
out of the most liberal custom of free family division of •
lands and goods that can be cited from history. George
of Brunswick's three eldest sons were Christian Louis,
George Williara, and John Frederic. As for the youngest,
with whose fortunes our narrative is chiefly concerned, he
was born at the castle of Hertezberg,' Noveraber 30, 1630,
with a twin sister who died soon afterwards. He received
the narae of Ernestus Augustus, or. In German parlance,
Ernst Auguste.^ Nothing could be more forlorn than his
prospects — the youngest son of a younger son, by faraily-
corapact agreed to be an intruder into life even before he
drew Its breath. One beautiful sister, however, survived
araong this too nuraerous band of brethren — Amalie, after
wards Queen of Denmark, who never forgot to advance the
fortunes of her brothers. Scarcely had Ernest Auguste
attained his twelfth year before the whole faraily were
plunged Into tribulation by the raysterious death of the
father, Duke George of Brunswick-Lunenburg, who, par
taking at Hildesheira of a grand feast, April 2, 1641, at
which hiraself, the renowned Swedish General Bannier,
Christian of Hesse, the French Marshal Guebriant, and
several others of naraes historical in the Thirty Years' War,
were guests, the whole suffered frora the effects of poison ;
not one survived the fatal banquet. The blarae was laid
1 Leibnitz.
^ " One day I heard the late Elector Ernst Auguste say that when his
eldest brother Christian Louis was yet living, they had at least twenty
controversies with Hesse-Cassel on the subject of boundaries and other
affairs which often happen between neighbours, and yet the princes re-
¦ mained good friends."— Leibnitz to Baron von Obdam, Dec. 7, 1703.

302 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
upon a French monk; but if raodern science had Investi
gated the copper and brazen utensils In which the cooks of
forraer tiraes prepared their viands, different verdicts might
have been given to raost of these historical cases of whole
sale poisoning. Of the eldest sons of Duke George, Chris
tian succeeded to the sovereign duchy. As for the three
youngest sons, George, Williara, and Ernest Auguste, they
were, according to the Shakesperlan adage, " lords of their
presence and no lands beside."
In forraer days two would have become chevalier-errants,
leaders of mercenary forces, and the other entered the
Church ; and truly such was their destination, with some
raodification of tirae and place. When they were left
fatherless so disastrously, the Thirty Years' War was raging,
and during that period the warlike Princes of Orange main
tained a standing army, into which the elder of the three
brothers, George Williara, entered. MeantiraeErnest Auguste
was placed at the University of Marburg,^ in Hesse, by his
mother, with some Idea of devoting him to the Church, or
rather to the benefices of the Church, when It was settled
in Germany who should possess thera, for the land was then
shuddering under the latter horrors of the Thirty Years'
War. Thus Ernest Auguste, afterwards celebrated as a
warrior, received the education of a clerk. He imbibed a
great deal of the heavy learning of that era, was elected a
rector, and the coadjutor archbishop for that burnt and
tortured city, poor Magdeburg. His election occurred
while he was taking what was called the grand tour through
France, England, Spain, and Italy. He becarae a remark
able linguist, and returned to Gerraany with the reputation
of being one of her raost accomplished princes. He is
described ^ as of a lofty stature, strong, and well-propor
tioned, with a handsome face, on which sat a very pleasant
expression : so It might be in the eyes of his proteg^
Leibnitz, but the expression of his bewigged portrait is
selfish and sensual.
Meantime the family of Brunswick-Lunenburg, Instead
^ Geschichte der Hannover Landes.
2 Leibnitz — Funeral Paper.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 303
of having more brave sons than It knew what to do with,
began, about 1658, to be alarmed at the prospect of
being left entirely without heirs-male. The eldest prince.
Christian Louis, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg, had no
children.^ The next brother, John Frederic,^ was married
to a niece of Sophia, daughter of her brother Edward,
but had only feraale offspring. As for George William,
his love for Eleanore d'Olbreuse being raost constant, he
passionately refused to leave her, or to marry any German
princess deemed of sufficient rank to becorae raother of the
line of Brunswick. In this predicament the youngest brother,
Ernest Auguste, notwithstanding his ecclesiastical education
and prospects of a bishopric In reversion, was admonished. In
family conclave, to coramence wooing some fair princess, and
marry speedily for the good of the race. His choice, guided
by long previous attachment, feU upon Sophia, the sister of
his raost Intiraate friend Charles Louis, Elector Palatine.
There is reason to suppose, frora an expression In a letter
of that Prince, that Sophia returned the passion of the
handsome Brunswicker. Nevertheless Elizabeth of Bo
heraia offered the raost lively opposition to the raatch ;
her ambition had been excessively excited by the love of
the deceased Ferdinand IV. for her Sophia, on whose brow
she naturally deemed the Imperial crown would shine to
great advantage. The beauty and grace which had sub
dued the heart of the heir to the eneray of the Palatine line,
it was not unnatural for Elizabeth to suppose would make
other conquests nearly as valuable ; therefore the younger
son of a younger son of a younger branch was not an
acceptable match In the eyes of the raother. But Sophia
was approaching her twenty-ninth year, and thought delay
was dangerous.
1 Letters of Sophia of Hanover to Leibnitz : likewise Jacob's Peerage.
^ He succeeded in 1663 as sovereign Duke of Brunswick- Lunenburg,
having in his elder brother's lifetime possessed the appanage of Zelle. Under
the plea that the dukedoms of Brunswick-Lunenburg aud of Zelle were, even if
united, infinitely too small for him, Frederic refused to give Zelle up to his
brother George "WiUiam, who was, by the death of the eldest duke, the
second brother of the family, and consequently the rightful possessor of
Zelle. However, a threatened appeal to the Emperor righted this wrong,
and George William became for life the holder of the dukedom of Zelle.

304 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
A few days before Sophia gave her hand to Ernest
Auguste, her brother wrote to their mother, Elizabeth
Queen of Bohemia, regarding the bridal expenses, in excuse
for not forwarding the sums he ought to have sent to the
Hague for her use. According to his stateraent, no outiav
but for necessaries was incurred. He dates from Dignert-
ringen, Septeraber 10, 1658. " The expenses," he says,'
" about ray sister Sophia's raarriage (not for ceremonies or
porap, but for the realities fit for her), which I ara obliged
to defray, render me incapable of what your Majesty is
pleased to require of me concerning the 4000 rix-doUars—
for besides her due which I must advance, I am bound to
an extraordinary [advance], raore especially for the friend
ship she always showed rae, and because nobody else hath
done anything for her." Alluding to another irapending
marriage in the Hesse family, he continues : " I wish the
wedding at Tournhait may have better success than mine
at Cassel : they say the lady is haughty enough, and he is
my wife's cousin - gerraan. If Maderaoiselle Marie [of
Orange] gets my cousin of Sirameren,^ she wIU get a
precious piece. God bless us, they say he loves no com
pany but pages and footraen. Towards the end of this
month I hope your Majesty will hear an end of my sister
Sophia's romanza." At the end of September the event
her brotiier chooses to call " a roraance" actually took place,
although, when raentioning it in after life, she disdained to
reraeraber the date.
" I don't reraeraber the day of ray marriage," says Sophia
herself in one of her letters to Leibnitz ; but it took place
at the Castle of Heidelberg at the latter end of September
1658. -She was given to Ernest Auguste by the hand of
her brother, lord, and raaster, who was his intimate friend,
and actuaUy paid a sraall dowry of a few thousand florins,
which he subsequently subtracted out of the poor stipend
he paid his mother. Notwithstanding a sharp dispute with
her son, Elizabeth of Boheraia waived her objections to the
marriage, and received her son-in-law with great affection.
' Bromley Letters.
^ Son of his uncle, Louis Duke of Simmeren, lately dead.

305
She probably had kept up opposition to gratify her niece,
Mary Princess of Orange, who, when the bride and bride
groom carae to the Hague, refused to let hira salute her,
though It was his privilege as her cousln-gerraan by mar
riage. He was, raoreover, her second cousin, being the
descendant of her great-aunt Elizabeth of Denmark, Duchess
of Brunswick.
The Queen of Boheraia, when acknowledging Charles II.'s
letter of congratulation, asked for the Order of the Garter
to decorate Ernest Auguste, her son-in-law. " Sophia,"
she says, " was very handsomely received at Hanover,
where she is very well used, which raakes rae raake hurable
suit- to your Majesty that you will be pleased to give my
son-in-law the Order of the Garter : he will take it for a
great honour. I will answer for him he will seek to deserve
it In all he can by his hurable service, and It will oblige all
that house." ^ Charles II. granted the request, and joined
a faraily raeeting at Brussels soon after, whither carae So
phia, her raother his aunt, the sprite Elizabeth Charlotte,
and Ernest Auguste, who, already his kinsraan in the second
degree, was now his first cousin by raarriage with Sophia.
Sophia had no settled residence at this period of her life,
and her time was spent between her mother's house at the
Hague, and occasional visits to the Elector at Heidelberg
and at Hanover, where her husband possessed such apart
ments in the ducal palace as pertained to the very slender
appanage of a youngest brother. She mentions in her letters
how trying was the stupidity and ignorance of the old-world
German courts. Wheresoever she sojourned her niece Eliza
beth Charlotte lived with her. Notices of this period of her
aunt's life occur In her letters. When the birth of Sophia's
first child took place, the curiosity of this imp led her to
conceal herself In the wide chlraney of Sophia's lying-in
chamber, at the old ducal palace of Hanover. When the
infant (Prince George Louis) was born, Elizabeth-Charlotte
says that, encouraged by the nuraber of persons crowding
round the Princess Sophia her aunt, she eraerged out of her
'¦ State-Paper Letter, December 6, 1658.
VOL, VIII. U

306 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER,
covert to see the babe, her new little cousin. " Such was
the joy," she adds, " at the birth of an heir-male to the line
of Brunswick, the elder brothers of Ernest Auguste having
no sons, that I escaped the whipping I well deserved"— a
proof that such castigations formed part of the discipline
established under her weU-beloved aunt's regime. The future
King of Great Britain, Sophia's eldest son George, was born
May 28, 1660, an event which prevented the mother from
witnessing the triumphant departure of her first cousin
Charles II. for his restoration.
In the course of 1661, her husband's fortunes had mate
rially altered for the better. The Cardinal, who was Roman
Catholic incumbent of the bishopric of Osnaburg, died, and
Ernest Auguste succeeded to his benefice according to the
stipulations of the Treaty of Westphalia. The bishop re
moved with his wife and young infant to Osnaburg, where
the endowments of the old church enriched the youngest
son of the house of Brunswick. EUzabeth Charlotte still
formed part of her aunt's family, and all, exceedingly pleased,
fixed their residence at the old episcopal palace of Iburg,
which became ever after the favourite abode of the Duchess
Sophia and Bishop Ernest Auguste. " Ah, but these were
happy days at that dear old castle of Iburg, listening to all
the strange tales about It, and frightening ourselves with
the ghost-stories." ^ _ But It was Elizabeth Charlotte and
her playmates who diverted theraselves with this pleasant
exciteraent of fear supernatural; her aunt Sophia was not
given to belief In matters spiritual of any kind.
Sophia hastened to see her mother before her embarkation '
for England, and take that farewell which proved indeed to
be the last. With her came her pupil and inseparable com
panion, Elizabeth Charlotte. A letter from the Elector ^ to
the departing Queen, written in unusual good-humour,
hoping doubtless that he had now transferred her main
tenance to her English relatives, gives some personal parti
culars of his sister Sophia and her niece, both of whom had
' Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, to Louise and Amelia,
daughters of her father by Mademoiselle de Degenfeldt, vol. 6. Stutgord.
' Gargan's MSS., from Archives of Hanover — King's Library, British
Museum.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 307
just left Heidelberg. " My sister the duchess, before this
reaches your Majesty's hands, will have had the honour and
happiness to wait on you with ray Uttle Lisolette,^ who has
reason to have a good opinion of herself, since you are
pleased to grace her with the title of your favourite. She
has good nature, and wants not wit; cunning enough, as
St Ravy useth to say of hiraself. Your Majesty will find my
sister Sophia in the same condition as she was in when she
waited last on your Majesty. Body and mind Is stUl the
same; nothing affects her; at least she can hide it better
than I do." Sophia took a tender farewell of her mother
on board the very ship In which she saUed. She had soon
after the happiness of hearing from her, that though only
received privately in the royal family, she was so much
satisfied with Charles IL, who was in fact kinder to her than
any squ she had. " Stolsena (5 lieues from Hanover), Aug. 14.
" It is long since I had been honoured by a letter of your Majesty, or of
one of your court ; which would make me anxious, did I not know from
other sources that you are quite well, and that your Majesty are quite satis
fied in England. Being sure of this, I have nothing more to wish for, only
that you may continue towards me iu your good graces ; although I fear
that, on thinking of me, you will find me very homely, now that you see so
muck admirable ladies who fill your court every day. Here they do best
walking, and I am quite in despair not to be able to do so. The Abbess
of Herford is very ill, but I think she shows it only in order to see the
mien which my sister will make, who is now with her.
¦' Just now, thank God, I receive a packet of letters from London, by which
your Majesty did me the honour to think of me, which gives me the greatest
pleasure in the world  In the meanwhile, lam glad that your Majesty
have so much reason to be satisfied with the King your nephew ; which must
still be more pleasant to him. There will be certainly many festivals at
London at the coming of the fair Infanta. I hope the Dutchesse Richmond
will till then recover from her malady. I am sorry that in her age she is
troubled by it. At Heidelberg, Menz, and Stutgart, the dissentery kills
many people, but this laud is still safe of that plague. At the end of this
week we will return to Hanover. Wherever I am, your Majesty may be
lieve me your most obedient servant. The Duke my hufeband commands
me to present his most obedient respects to your Majesty, and to give you
the assurance of his being your Majesty's most faithful and obedient ser
vant, Sophia." "

' His daughter Elizabeth Charlotte.
' Bromley Letters, August 1661. Sophia's letter is written in English,
her idiom of which is not quite perfect.

308 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
Some weeks later, Sophia gave birth at Hanover, Oct. 3,
to another son, Frederic Auguste. Towards the end of
the sarae month she wrote from thence to express her hn-
patience at not having heard from her mother, who, how
ever, she implies, had occasional fits of epistolary silence.
" It is such a long time since I received a letter from Eng
land," she says, " that I should fear of being entirely
forgotten, were your Majesty not known to me. I hope
my brother Rupert has the honour of being now with your
Majesty. It Is such a long time since I heard of him, that
I do not know if he is still alive. He is still raore lazy to
write than I am ; but one does not know how to fill a letter
In such a place as this." Sophia was expected with her
charge, the young EUzabeth Charlotte, to visit the Elector
at Heidelberg. He wrote to his mother,^ Feb. 2, 1661,
that his sister had been prevented by the bad weather, and
the return of her " quasms " — whether he raeans spasms or
qualras is not easy to decide. But EUzabeth of Bohemia
had quitted this troublesome world before the letter reached
England. How Sophia bore the loss of a mother 'she
evidently loved ardently, no letter of hers has revealed—
when she felt deeply her pen was always inert. But In the
course of a few months her lively satirical spirit was
awake and active. In one of her letters she settled all
the disputes concerning the reasons wherefore her eldest
sister Elizabeth patronised and harboured the sect of the
Labadlsts, a species of Gerraan Quakers, at her Abbey of
Herford, declaring they Uved so poorly and abstemiously
" that her sister found thera the most econoraical guests '
possible, in an establishment expected to do something in
the manner of hospitality." Her sister Elizabeth was per
fectly conscious of her satire, yet was persuaded by her
proteges to address a letter to Sophia that she might join
her in intercession for Barclay and other Quakers, imprisoned
and tormented in England. It seeras Sophia replied to the
appUcation in a sarcastic spirit, for Elizabfeth, in one of her
letters to Penn, reminded hira that she anticipated the same;
yet she would act in a simUar manner if it exposed her not
¦¦ Bromley Letters.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 309
only to the mockeries of her sister the Duchess of Lunen
burg (for so Sophia was then caUed), but to those of the
whole world. Nevertheless, when Sophia heard It was Wil
liam Penn who had visited her sister, she condescended to
regret that his way home had not been through Osnaburg.
In those early days of her marriage, when life was fresh,
and the man she loved by her side, constant and true, the
spirit of Sophia was more than ever bright and joyous,
fearing no III that chance or change could inflict. Yet she
was tried with accidents that would have terrified most
woraen and many men. Her constant corapanion and
chronicler, her niece, Elizabeth Charlotte, preserved the
meraory of Incidents pertaining to the life of " Ma tante,"
as she, with farailiar homeliness, calls the Duchess Sophia,
and " M'oncle," the duke-bishop Ernest Auguste. " Ma
tante, courageous as a raan, is not easily frightened,"
writes she ; " I saw her once, at Klagenberg, issue coolly out
of a conflagration, saving herself in a night-gown frora the
flaraes which had nearly closed round her In her sleeping-
chamber, and she then was far advanced In pregnancy ; but
she only laughed, not being the least frightened. Another
time I was with her out in a carriage to which young horses
had been harnessed ; they of course ran away with us,
the coachraan thrown off and was rauch hurt, but oncle
sprang out of the carriage and seized the horses. There
was great danger, but ma tante cared not a whit." ^
Sophia's tirae was now spent at Iburg episcopal castle.
Here some of her children were born, and all were educated.
We have shown that she raentions, in one of her Leibnitz
letters, her forgetfulness of the date of her raarrlage-day,
with no little slighting conterapt, but proceeds to say, " Con
cerning the birth of my children, I noted the days in ray
book of genealogy which is at Hanover. My two eldest
sons, George Louis [George I.] and Frederic Auguste,
were born at Hanover ; Max and the twins at Osnaburg ;
Charles and the Electress of Brandenburg [her only
daughter], at Iburg ; Christian at Heidelberg, and Ernest
Auguste at Osnaburg."^ Her eldest son, afterwards
1 Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte : Stutgard. ^ Feder, p. 3.

310 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
George I. of Great Britain, was dwarfish, scarcely rising
to the height of five feet ; his low and rather deformed
stature, his shrewd temper and worldly cunning, joined, it
must be owned, to wit and bravery, gave hira great resem
blance to his ancestors of Nassau. His raother had small
love or liking for him, and the little she had decreased
with years. To the rest of her family she was a fond
parent; and truly her other five sons were a stalwart
group of warriors, raost of thera rivalling the colossal fig
ures of her insular ancestors, John of Gaunt, Edward IV.,
Lennox, and Darnley. Sophia and her learned brother,
the Elector Charles Louis, had agreed that the Brunswickers
were the descendants of that Herminius celebrated in Eoman
history, and they always called thera " sons of Herman."
Several of her raartial offspring were no unworthy ^ speci
mens of the race. Three of the coffins of her young heroes
who fell in battle, stretch their portentous length in the
vaults of the castle chapel at Hanover.
Troubles broke out in Osnaburg, owing to the religious
disputes of the people, whose numbers as Protestants and
Roraan Catholics were nearly equal. Of course they re-
vUed and torraented each other vigorously, and one of the
wars which mankind have agreed to call " civil," further
aggravated by polemics, was the consequence. The death
of the reigning duke. Christian Louis, led to another
faraily corapact of the house of Brunswick - Lunenburg,
strange as any which had preceded it, giving to the
ambitious Ernest Auguste the rights and precedence of his
elder brother George William, in return for certain indul
gence granted to the strong feelings of conjugal and pater
nal love which swayed the honest heart of that warrior.
George William stipulated thatif his beloved wife, Eleanore,
were received as Duchess of Zelle by his kindred, and their
little daughter, Sophia Dorothea, perraitted to succeed to
his personal property, he would be content with the Duke-
dora of Zelle, and yield all claira to the sovereignty of
Hanover to his next brother, John Frederic, who hav-
I Letters of Sophia, quoted by Feder, p. 176.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 311
Ing no sons, it was to pass finally to the youngest, Bishop
Ernest Auguste.
To explain his reasons for this species of abdication^ it is
needful to give a hasty sketch of his preceding life, the
tendencies of which had a peculiar Influence on the fortunes
of his youngest brother the Bishop, Sophia, and their de
scendants. George William, In bis youth, had a coraraand
at Breda In the Protestant cavalry of the Prince of Tarente,
the near relative of Sophia's father. In process of tirae he
becarae coraraander of the Gerraan raercenaries in the
employ of the Dutch. The Princess of Tarente, of the house
of Hesse, bis mother's relative, had a maid-of-honour, Elea
nore d'Olbreuse, the daughter of a Poitou Protestant re
fugee of noble rank. Duke George Williara, being much
domesticated with the Hessian princess, his relative, fell in
love with her maid, who was beautiful and virtuous ; but
she at last subraitted to a morganatic marriage. This,
it seems, is raeant for holy raatriraony, only the children
are not considered Illustrious enough to succeed to the
German sovereignties. Fortunately, George William and
Eleanore had but one fair daughter, whom they loved
passing well. Even If born with the full honours that
Zelle could give to her dukes, the young Sophia could
not have succeeded to that vast inheritance, which was
ruled by Salic law; but her father was willing to sacrifice
his claira on Brunswick-Lunenburg, if she were acknow
ledged as princess by his brother, and was endowed with
his personal property sans dispute.
And there were certain lands and baronies that were his
by purchase, which would follow the succession of the sover
eign dukedom of Brunswick-Lunenburg to Ernest Auguste.
It has been mistakenly supposed that the young Sophia was
to inherit the dukedom of Zelle, but that was as firmly a
male fief as Hanover. Her appanage was a rich one, being
the Island of Wilhelrasburg, in the mouth of the Elbe, near
Hamburg, acquired by her father, who was very rich, owing
to his campaigns and his wife, who was a most excellent econo
mist. Indeed, all the waste, extravagance, and folly for which

312 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
courts, large and sraall. In these days were reraarkable, had
been avoided by this virtuous and loving pair, for George
William needed not those expensive adjuncts, mistresses
and favourites. In the items of this family compact,
which was ratified and agreed upon by the three princely
Guelphic brethren, Ernest Auguste, Bishop of Osnaburg, the
reigning duke, John Frederic, and the Duke of Zelle, George
William, it is expressly agreed, that if the young daughter
ofthe latter should marry a prince ofthe line of Brunswick,
she was to be allowed all the rights and dignity of a prin
cess by birth, but not If she married into any other line.
Her father's arabition had already destined her to shine as
the first princess of the line, he having promised her hand
to the eldest son of his kinsman and brother-in-arms, the
poet-duke Antony Ulrlc, Duke of Wolfenbuttel. It is like
wise worthy of remark that the name of Ernest Auguste,
though the youngest of the three contracting brethren,
takes precedence of both ; but the reason Is sedulously ex
plained that such was his right as being an ecclesiasUcal
prince; and It Is carefuUy noted that such Is the sole cause
of the precedence of nomination, and that It Is not to form
a precedent in any other case. Frora this circumstance an
ignorant mistake has arisen, that Ernest Auguste was the
eldest brother, a supposition which would dislocate every
event in his life, and that of his consort.
In conclusion, the Duke Bishop, and the reigning Duke,
John Frederic, agreed to pay their demitting brother George
William, each a sura of money, very small when reduced
to English pounds, being less thau .£'3000. After this
treaty had been ratified, the reigning duke, John Frederic,
withdrew almost entirely from public life, leaving the man
agement of his state, his people, and his army, to his brother
the Duke-Bishop. The reason was, that John Frederic
had become a Roman Catholic, and was educating his three
daughters In the same reUgion, which it was unpopular, if
not illegal, for a Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg to profess.
John Frederic had married a Roraan Catholic princess;
Benedlcta, daughter of Edward, fourth son of Elizabeth of

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 313
Bohemia, who had married the French heiress of Nevers, and
left the Protestant religion ; and his affections, and those of
his wife and children, tended to the faith and interests of
France. For a long course of years, therefore, Ernest
Auguste and Sophia reigned over Brunswick-Lunenburg
before the actual succession raade thera, in the appreciation
ofthe world, the ostensible sovereigns.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER

CHAPTEE II.

SUMMAEY
Military importance of the Duke-Bishop, Sophia's husband— Sophia brings
her two eldest sons to Brussels — Her tour with Gourville, Louis XlV.'a
envoy — Makes him travel with her woman. La Marsilliare — Her life at
Iburg Castle — Birth of her daughter — Resides with her niece and Ma
dame Hariing — Enumeration of her sons — Devotes herself to the educa
tion of her family — Her friendship with Leibnitz — Becomes acquainted
at Aix-la-Chapelle with the Princess of Orange — Death of the reigning
Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg — Accession of her husband to the sover
eignty — Incognita visit to France of Sophia with her daughter — Arrives
at Maubisson, her sister's abbey — Rapturous meeting with her sister and
nieces — Meets Gourville — Assures him that her daughter has no religion
— He insinuates that Louis XIV. wishes her daughter to marry the
Dauphin — Sophia takes her to Italy for education — Joins her husband
at Venice, his headquarters — They return to Hanover — Death of the
Elector Palatine — Letter of condolence to Sophia from Princess of Orange
— Sophia sends her eldest sou to England to court the Lady Anne of
York — Recalls him to marry Sophia Dorothea of Zelle — Takes her daugh
ter to Italy — They are invited to the court of France — Given apartments
at Versailles — Stay for a year — Disappointed regarding the Dauphin-
Sophia marries her daughter to the heir of Brandenburg — Sophia left
alone at Hanover — Her letters to Ilten — Her only companion a Uttle
Turkish captive — Her letter concerning the invasion of England hy the
Prince of Orange — Her letter concerning Mary II. put into the hands of
James II — Her letter to Lord Halifax — She means to send her son
Frederic to England — His death in battle — Sophia sets Leibnitz to
design tapestry — Her sojourn at the baths of Loccum — Her corre
spondence on the religion of William III. — Her remarks to Leibnitz
on the petition of Heinson.
When the family compact of 1665 was settled, Sophia's
husband frequently left her, taking long absences on milir
tary affairs at Venice, that powerful state having hired his

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 315
troops to do battle with the Turks, who were encroaching
on every side. Bishop as he termed himself, Ernest Au
guste began to show great military genius and ardour ; the
worst was, his morals did not iraprove in his carapai'gns.
Louis XIV. had coraraissioned the Marquis de Gourville,
as a diploraat who knew Gerraan, to seek the acquaint
ance of the princely Brunswick brethren, and see whether
they could be induced to place their railitary forces at his
disposition. Through the raediura of the French habitues
ever swarraing round Eleanore d'Olbreuse, the consort of the
Duke of Zelle, the Marquis de Gourville was introduced to
that prince, and soon admitted Into his confidence, insomuch
that he Informed hira of his reasons for choosing the lower
rank of Duke of Zelle in the faraUy partition, " because It
was worth a hundred thousand crowns more than Hanover,
Gottingen, and 'Grubenhagen to boot."^ When the war
like Bishop Ernest Auguste arrived at Brussels, Gourville
learned forthwith that his sumraer sojourns at Venice had
been ruinously expensive to his dominions. In truth. It
was at Venice, then the sink of all iniquity both of eastern
and western Europe, that the bishop-soldier first began to
neglect the wife he had wooed and won, and cherish those
of his neighbours ; and such proceedings are usually ex
pensive. Gourville learned, in the course of his conferences with
the two princely Brunswick brothers, that they, Duke and
Bishop, had at their disposal ten thousand stout German
foot-soldiers and four thousand cavaliers (black Brunswick
legions) — for that is the information he sends to Louis XIV.
and de Llonne, his Minister of War — and these were to be
had for a consideration. Louis XIV. responded, that if the
said Duke and Bishop would fight against Spain, they
should have for their pains all the towns and cities they
could take' from the Spanish Netherlands, and many a
good bag of crowns to boot. These Intrigues commenced
some months after the death of the chUdless Brunswick
sovereign. Christian Louis. Towards the spring of 1667 a
great family council was held by the Guelphs at Brussels,
' Gourville's Memoirs : Maestricht.

316 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE.
for settling their affairs in general concerning wedlock and
dominion, and in it Sophia coraes on the scene. Gourville
exceedingly admired her beauty, grace, and lively good-
humour. But he added, that " she was much addicted to
laughing at people to their faces, only her skill in raillery
was such that they never found it out." Her Highness
seems, according to his delineation of her character, to have
been one of the early inventresses of persifiage and quizzing.
These accomplishraents, like raany other of the evil qualities
of the great, after flourishing through the last century and
part of the present, have becorae decidedly low-caste and
vulgar, and have fallen to the basest of the European popu
lation. Directly Gourville unfolded his raission to Duke George
WilUam and Bishop Ernest, the Duchess Sophia was seized
with an extreme wish to have the management of him entirely
in her own hands. There were two other duchesses of her
faraily, wives of her elder brothers-in-law — the French wife
of George WUliara, Duke of Zelle, whose morganatic mar
riage had just been enlarged into a princely and real one,
and likewise the wife of John Frederic, Duke of Hanover,
Benedlcta, daughter of Sophia's own brother Edward, and
the heiress of Nevers. Sophia had brought with her in her
travelUng-caleche the two hopes of the line of Brunswick,
her eldest sons, George and Frederick, then of the ages
of eight and seven.
Perhaps the fair Sophia, after having exhibited the heirs-
male with which she had adorned the family, wished to
escape from the precedence of her sisters-in-law, and like
wise to enter into diplomacy with M. GourvIUe ; " for," says
that statesman, " the Duchess of Osnabruck declared her sons
were ill ; that change of air was wanted for them ; and,
though nothing in the world ailed these two petit messieurs,
she planned a tour, and invited me to accompany her."
To this arrangeraent the French diplomat gladly consented,
supposing, doubtless, that he, " the valet Gourville," as
Michelet terms hira In his late briUiant work, was to be the
chevalier seul with the bright and lively Duchess, while her
boys and maid were to travel In the other calfeche, especially

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 317
as he had seen her spouse, his Highness the Bishop, set
off the preceding morning. He was, however, annoyed
and disappointed to the last degree ; for, early on the
morning appointed, out Issued the bright Duchess before
sunrise, and entered her calfeche, placing her two little raes-
sieurs on the seat before her — indubitably the said petit
messieurs were obliged to be raightily well-behaved — and
when she had wheeled off, up drew another caleche, with a
Poitevin demoiselle therein, MarsiUiare by name, who was,
it is true, excessively handsome, and, he adds, " was much
to the taste of Count de Waldeck," a renowned Dutch
general of Brunswick cavalry. With the Poitevin demoi
selle, who seeras to have been charaber-woraan to the
Duchess Sophia, the French diploraat was placed vis-d-vis
in calfeche the second, to his infinite raortification ; for he
declares he underwent great raillery (raeaning teazing and
tormenting) on all sides concerning this journey from every
one, even from his own King's minister, de Llonne.
The fair Poitevin was the countrywoman, and had pro
bably been the servant, of Eleanore d'Olbreuse, the recently
acknowledged Duchess of Zelle. Gourville takes care not
to explain his own antecedents, but Sophia knew thera well.
He had not always held the honourable office of envoy,
having begun life as valet-de-charabre to the great Condd, l
and It may be remembered that Condi's heir married
another of Sophia's nieces, sister of Benedlcta, Duchess of
Brunswick, to whom GourvIUe had long been a confidential
agent, though of lowly degree. Thus Sophia knew well
that the vain Frenchman, who, forgetting his humble origin,
thought himself a proper corapanion for her in a vis-d-vis
carriage, was much better disposed of as travelling associate
of her chambermaid. She seeras always to have acted
with sirailar caution ; and such exercise of tact and judg
raent led her through life with a narae unscathed, notwith
standing her vivacity of disposition.
Gourville was evidently enraged at having to do the
agreeable tete-Ortete for two long days as travelling cora
panion to La MarsiUiare, a girl of low degree. The Bishop
^ Dangeau's M^moires, vol. i.

318 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
of Osnaburg had ordered relays of horses for his consort
and her baggage. The Marquis de Gourville esperially
notes that the Duchess's two caliches were foUowed by a
charrette, on which were carried her trunks of clothes and
mattresses, therefore she did not trust her person to the
bedding she found at German inns on her journey. Her
tour ended at the Hague, and then de GourvIUe has more
to say touching troops and contingents than is pleasant to
record, conveyed In most cautious and tortuous phraseo
logy. The diplomacy ended fruitlessly at that time, for he
was in an evil mind concerning the prank played him by
the fair Duchess, although the princely Brunswickers made
him a present of six famous black mares, with white manes
and tails, for his coach and six ; and sorae saddle-horses of as
queer an appearance for his outriders — all which, being con
sidered very precious, de Gourville made over to his royal
master, Louis XIV., when he returned to him with very
angry feelings towards Sophia. He could not forgive her
clever arrangement of providing him — the valet raised to
the rank of Marquis and envoy — with the charabermaid from
his own province, to bear hira company. It was weU he
kept the Incident a secret frora his contemporary Moliere.
The martial Brunswickers, after all, determined against
France, and fought, until the peace of Nimeguen, on
the side of the Emperor. During these campaigns Sophia
reraained In the deepest retireraent, educating her little
ones, aided by her niece, Elizabeth Charlotte, and her for
mer governess, Madame Hariing. At Iburg the event
occurred which Sophia always considered as the most Im-
' Gourville had been in his youth valet-de-chambre to the Duke de la
Rochefoucault, author of the " Maxims ; " afterwards he attached himself
to the Prince de Conde ; he served him during all the civil wars
against the Court, called those of tbe Fronde. His efforts, aided by the
Princess Palatine, mother of the Princess de Cond4, effected the peace.
He made an immense fortune, but not inconsistently with respectable
conduct. The King loaded him with favour and marks of honour. When
be went to visit the Princess Palatine, tbe widow of Sophia's brother,
who was living in Paris, and found there Gourville, he used to order him
to sit at his card-table and join his play. Gourville had great talents iu
finance ; he showed himself worthy of his good fortune by his gratitude to
his benefactors. This is the flattering portrait drawn of him by Madame
de Genlis ; others have contemned him as an adventurer.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 3] 9
portant of her life, being the birth of her only and beloved
daughter, October 2, 1668. She named this child, who
possessed her entire and almost exclusive love, Sophia
Charlotte. The young Princess was beautiful, though petite
In person,! and her abilities and charra of raanner were
perceptible frora a very early period of life. As soon as
she could speak, the Duchess Sophia devoted herself to her
instruction. Madarae Hariing, who had educated her niece,
was now governess to the daughter. All attainments, all
knowledge, were remerabered, excepting the one thing need
ful, which German princesses of the seventeenth century
heeded not, and its savants contemned.
Sophia sometimes visited her lord in his winter quarters
on the frontiers of Italy, and sometiraes they raet at her
brother's castle of Heidelberg, and soraetiraes at his sove
reign's court at Hanover. But her establishment was
usually at Iburg or Osnaburg. These old episcopal palaces
she peopled with a numerous train of infant Brunswickers,
besides the two petit messieurs she brought In her caliche
to the family congress at Brussels. Three boys besides she
enumerates In the autograph list she gave to Leibnitz — ¦
" Max and the twins," as she calls them ; they had been
bom at Osnaburg in the two years the family had been
forced to retreat before the religious insurrection at Iburg.
Charles Philip was born the succeeding year, and another
rather unexpectedly at Heidelberg, on one of her journeys,
when she went with her niece EUzabeth Charlotte to
visit the Elector. She had afterwards a seventh, called
Ernest Auguste, created Duke of York on the accession of
his eldest brother George to the English throne. Sophia had
little time therefore to cultivate her tendencies to political
intrigue, for In the education of these infants she occu
pied herself with the utmost earnestness and delight. Her
daughter, whose petite person promised exquisite beauty,
was to be the most accoraplished princess In Europe.
Sophia Charlotte, at the earliest possible age, received
occasional instruction from Gotfried Leibnitz, even as her
aunts, the Princesses Palatine Elizabeth and Louisa, and
1 Histoire de Brandenburg, by Frederic the Great.

320 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
her mother herself, had In youth been the disciples of
Descartes. The favourite philosopher of Sophia was decidedly the
most extraordinary man In Germany. Yet his biographies
and correspondences known to the English^ are assuredly
the dullest of all conglomerations — abstruse with diagrams,
angles, and parallelograms, illustrated with the retrograded
English, written in the age of raaterlalisra. Who can ima
gine that Gotfried Leibnitz had a biography? — or that
he lived any life but in an old arra-chair working pro-
bleras, stimulated by heavy beer, until he crept into a
grave scarcely duller than his life ? Nevertheless, truth
compels us to view Leibnitz in a very different light, more
like the cabalistical Seni of whom Schiller has made such
poetical use in his magnificent Wallenstein. Several fine
portraits exist of Leibnitz ; they prove that he was a hand
sorae person, with watching eyes and a srailing mouth ; and
the eyes, though so piercing and observant, smile in unison
with the lips. Wigs defy the phrenologist, yet there iis
reason to suppose that the forehead of Leibnitz was as fine
as that of Newton, his rival and antagonist.
Sophia became acquainted with Leibnitz' when he filled
1 We cannot find in any of his biographies, not even in French, Sophia's
name mentioned, although the letters that passed between them, still
extant, give the most information concerning the incidents of both their
lives. ^ Leibnitz waa the son of a Lutheran clergyman, professor of law at
Leipsic. He was born 1646. His father died when he was about seven yeara
of age, leaving his widow aud children to the famine and miseries of the
Thirty Years' War. How they were supported no one knew, excepting from
the casual bounty of his uncle Paul, who rose to be a field-marshal in the
Emperor's service, and was ennobled. In 1664 Leibnitz became Master of
Arts at Jena ; but having a desperate quarrel with his professor's wife, he
went to Nuremberg, iu which ancient and necromantic city he wrote on
alchymy and the secret sciences, so well as to be appointed secretary to a
club or fraternity of alchymists. At one of their Sabbats he met the
Baron de Boinberg, a famous alchymist and magician, chancellor to the
ecclesiastic Elector of Mentz ; aud he in course of time introduced him
to John Frederic Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg, the most notorious
alchymist, astrologer, and magician among the princes of Europe. The
rest of the life of Leibnitz is intimately interwoven with that of Sophia, and
Ernest Auguste her husband, as in time he became their prime-minister.
He is termed in his French biographies Baron Leibnitz ; for his uncle,
Marshal Paul Leibnitz, was ennobled by Ferdinand III. for having fought
for the Empire aud Popery throughout the Thirty Years' "W&r. From him
the philosopher inherited rank and title.

321
the respectable offices of alchymist, and we fear conjuror and
astrologer, to John Frederic, her husband's elder brother
and sovereign. Of course all his biographers have glossed
over and explained away such a queer entry into public as
rauch as possible ; but there, at the portal of his life, the
real circurastance stands ; and it is as true that Leibnitz
was not at all asharaed of it, and often looked back to his
occupation as secretary to a club of alchyraists and astro
logers, in his half-starved youth at Nureraberg, as his raer-
riest and happiest days. No doubt they were, and raany
a lively tale the brilliant alchyraist had to tell of that
strange period. Leibnitz was as warraly patronised by
Sophia's lord, the Bishop Ernest Auguste, as by the reigning
Duke of Brunswick, who, withdrawing as much as possible
from public life on account of his unpopular Roraan Catholic
religion, and tendency to the occult sciences, left the arabi
tlous Bishop In the government of his dorainions, and sov
ereign In all but name. Under the patronage of Sophia,
the philosopher Leibnitz shone as physician, astronoraer,
mathematician, herald, historian, poet, genealogist, theolo
gian, besides his original employraents of alchymist and
astrologer. Ah ! unfortunate phUosophy, what odd steps
you had to put your feet upon to climb into notice in
days not so very distant from our own ! '
^ An anecdote of the times connects the name of Leibnitz again with
alchymp, and at the same time with one of the most curious discoveries iu
legitimate chemistry. A German alchymist, of the name of Brant, who
claimed the honours of a learned mediciner, but after whose name it is to be
feared Q.D., and not M.D., ought to have been inscribed — discovered a won
drous concoction which, he aifirmed, would turn the baser metals at pleasure
into gold or silver. The origin was a profound secret, but the article was sold
to the alchymist Duke of Hanover, Jolm Frederic. That prince sat in con
clave ou the same with his factotum Leibnitz, who advised his patron to
consult Charles II. and bis Royal Society as to its composition. Accordingly,
John Frederic sent Leibnitz to England. Here King Charles II. and his
cousin Prince Rupert, both good chemists, assisted by the learned Boyle,
examined the precious matter ; but its wonderful effects, they agreed, were
not for transmuting the baser metals into gold or silver. Leibnitz did not
take the merit of the discovery ; he freely owned it belonged to Brant.
When Leibnitz returned to Hanover, his Duke was by no means inclined
to give up the idea of the gold and silver transmutation ; be sent for Brant
to his court, and before himself and Leibnitz induced him to work his new
discovery : the result was — phosphorus. — Vie de Deibrdtz, Neufville.
VOL. Vin. X

322 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
Among the Incidents of Sophia's life at this time, it is
certain that she made personal acquaintance with her cousin
Mary Princess of Orange, daughter of James II. ; and soon
after the marriage of the forraer, kept up with her an
intiraate and famUiar correspondence by letter, as likewise
did Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans ; but the diffi
culty is to mention with precision when these three prin
cesses first became known to each other. Every hour of the
short life of Mary, Princess of Orange and Queen of Great
Britain, seeras so far accounted for, that no tirae or date
for the visits of Sophia and Elizabeth Charlotte at the
Hague can be pointed out. But they raight have become
personally acquainted when Mary went to Aix-la-Chapelle
for her health, which she did in August 1679 ; and as it
was during the treaty for the peace of Nimeguen, and all
the poUtical powers were astir, Sophia was there ; indeed,
she seldom passed a year without visiting Aix.
The death of John Frederick, the reigning Duke of
Brunswick-Lunenburg, who expired suddenly when journey
ing to Eome, called the husband of Sophia to sovereign
rank, according to the family compact raade with George
William, Duke of Zelle. Sophia, now the wife of a reigning
prince, becarae extremely anxious to visit Paris, where
Louis XIV. then set the pattern to all European royalty.^
Her journey to Paris was planned and eagerly awaited
by the colony of German princesses of her house, located at
that gay city. Her nieces, Elizabeth Charlotte Duchess of
Orleans, and the Princess of Condd,'^ bore the first rank
araong the ladies of France. Anne, Duchess of Mantua,
sister to the Princess of Conde, wrote to her the plan of
marchjS beginning with a burst of affection to her she caUed
" chfere soeur," whom she entreats " with great passion to
make a little journey to France — Madame [her niece of
Orleans] wishes it too so much. She speaks ofit every day,
and aU day long." She believes " that if Sophia keeps an
1 George IV. MSS., edited by Gargans. Add. MSS., Brit. Museum.
^ Daughter of Edward, Palatine Prince.
3 George IV. MSS., 140. Add. MSS., Brit. Museum— Anne of Mantua to
tbo Duchess of Osnabruck.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 323
entire Incognita, nothing could be easier than coming as far
as the Abbey of Maubisson, where there can occur no diffi
culty as to cereraony (or etiquette). There you will have the
feUcity of passing sorae days without restraint with Madarae
Louise, your sister, who wiU be transported. As for me, I
shaU have joy more than I can express, and how we shall
talk and enter into the real depth of all matters ! The
Duchess of Hanover^ wUl corae to see us when Monseigneur,
your husband, at Venice, coraes here."
Sophia travelled In corapany with the Duchess of Meck
lenburg, one of the Galliclsed princesses of Gerraany,
of her brother Edward's family. The young daughter of
Sophia was of the party. In order to learn French graces
at the fountain-head. They safely arrived at the Abbey
of Maubisson, where Sophia was clasped to the bosora
of her long lost sister, the Abbess Louisa. Thither carae
the Duchess of Orleans,^ Sophia's friend, pupil, and cor
respondent, when she heard her aunt had arrived. Their
loving erabraces and rapture of raeeting drew a remark
from the correspondent at Paris of Henry Sidney, the ex
quisite of his day, that the meeting of these princesses
" did savour raore of the heartiness of Gerraany than the
gentleness of France,"^ — meaning evidently the gentility
of France. However, Louisa, Sophia, and the Duchess of
Orleans, loved one another with an honest open-heartedness
incomprehensible to this coxcomb, and were not ashamed
of showing their affection. Sidney affirms that Madame
de Mecklenbourg wished rauch to pass through Holland,
1 Benedlcta, wife of .Iohn Frederic. She is mentioned as his young
widow in another letter dated November 1680. She was at Paris educating
her three little daughters as Roman Catholics. One became Empress of
Germany. ^ The Elector Palatine Charles Louis had, notwithstanding his grimace
of Protestant profession, obliged his only daughter, Elizabeth Charlotte, to
marry Philippe, Duke of Orleans, and at the same time to renounce her
Protestant rehgion. When she announced to him that she had professed
herself a Roman Catholic on her way to be married at Metz, (as indeed he
had agreed she should), he answered her with great affection and satisfac
tion, advising her attention to those points in which both religions agreed
with general Christianity. His letter, dated 1671, may be seen. — Geo.
IV. MSS., Gargan. Additional MSS., British Museum.
^ SaviUe to Henry Sidney, August 28, 1679 ; Sidney Diary, &c., edited
by Mr Blencowe, vol. i., p. 102.

324 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
but Sophia would not go there, because she did not like to
recall the scenes of her youth, where she suffered Infinite
deprivations and raortifications.
The Court of France was occupied at this time with pro
cessions, congratulations, public entries, and solemn f^tes in
honour of the marriage of the beautiful Maria Louisa^ of
Orleans with the imbecile Carlos II, King of Spain. Sophia
witnessed these high cereraonials as the aunt of the royal
bride's step-mother, and near cousin of the bride herself
She was guest In the Orleans palaces, and sometimes in
those of her great niece, the Princess of Condd, for she
was closely connected with all these princesses at Paris,
who at that period were flourishing in close vicinity to the
throne. When the Brunswick princesses were the guests of the
Princess de Conde, the old retainer of that house, M. de
Gourville, carae to renew his horaage to the Duchess So
phia. He opened a new scheme of flattering diplomacy,
insinuating that his royal master adraired the princess, and
the young opening beauty of her accoraplished daughter,
with such sincerity, that, if religion did not oppose the plan,
he knew not where he could find a consort better worthy
of the hand of the Dauphin. ;^ If the following anecdote
is true — and as it is raentioned by the German Duchess
of Orleans, her niece, as well as Gourville, it must be so —
reUgion would not have stood long In Sophia's way, where
any object of ambition was concerned. When Gourville
first was permitted to see the young daughter of Sophia,
then in her twelfth year, he said, " This is a fair and beau
tiful princess, worthy of the highest destiny. May I ask
what religion she has been brought up in ?"
" She has none at present," answered Sophia. " When
we know what prince will be her husband, she will be in
structed In his religion."
Certainly this was no bad arrangeraent for peace and
quiet in a royal household ; but the Inventor of a scheme
which has given raany a matrimonial convert to the Greek
and Roman creeds — as empresses of Russia and Germany,
' History of the House of Brandenburg, by Frederic the Great.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 325
or Austria — was by no means likely to have added herself
to the Ust of Protestant martyrs. Her flatterers in the
reign of Queen Anne revived the story of her own conquest
of Ferdinand IV. titular King of Hungary, claiming for
her a sort of minor martyrdom in having refused the Ira
perial crc^wn In order to preserve her Calvinist principles.
But her teraporlsing practice In regard to her daughter's
religious training surely settles that historical question
beyond dispute.
Sophia was attended to Paris by Leibnitz, who, no longer
Irapeded by the fantastic shadowings which had hung over
hira since his debut In the old necromantic Nuremberg, leav
ing alchymy and astrology to the owls and bats in the fune
ral vault of John Frederic, stepped out Into the light of
modern philosophy as the leader of its progress. Thence
forth Leibnitz may be considered as the minister, friend,
and factotum of the reigning Duke Ernest Auguste, and
his brilliant consort.
After Sophia's visit to her loving relatives had passed, the
Abbess Princess Louisa wrote' to her cousin, the Duchess of
Mecklenburg : —
" Since I have been nun professed, I have never shed so many tears as I
have done at my parting with my sister, the Duchess d'Osuabruc. Since
then I feel as if a stone laid on my heart, the dead weight of which op
presses me, and I know not how to east my eyes round this place where I
saw her last without sadness. All which proves to me that I am yet too
much attached to those creatures who are good enough to testify friend
ship for me, and that it was for my spiritual good that God has separated
me from a sister so amiable. I am obliged to your Highness for letting
me know her news, for they are the flrst I heard about her since her de
parture. It seemed long to hear that she had arrived at home safe and
well, with her dear little princess. I fear they suffered as much from cold
on their homeward journey as they did from beat when they came here.
. . La Mere Gabrielle is going fast — she cannot utter another
word through weakness ; but the last she said to me was a fervent prayer
for the conversion of my sister, the Duchess of Osnabruc. If such prayers
are heard, I shall be content ; for, if never moi'e to see my dear sister in
this world, I should see her in a better — 1 should meet her in Paradise."
Sophia, after leaving the French court, pursued her
journey to Italy, whither she took her young daughter to
^ Gargan's MSS., British Museum.

326 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
complete her education with the practical attainments
gained by travel in the acquirement of languages, and the
study of the fine arts. Ernest Auguste awaited his wife and
daughter at Venice, which republic, finding that the Turks
threatened the Italian possessions in the Morea, had nego
tiated for the hire of the Brunswick army to defend the
sarae. While Sophia and her daughter were traveUing
In Italy, the Duke-Bishop established his headquarters at
Venice. He took the horaeward route with his princesses
In the winter, and wrote to his brother-in-law, Charles
Louis the Elector Palatine, a letter announcing, with no
Uttle satisfaction, that they were home safely from Italy.^
Sophia was left with the reins of government in her hands
the ensuing spring of 1680, when her lord departed for his
Venetian coraraand. She enacted the regent with sorae
eclat, aided by Leibnitz ; but whether by her fault or that
of her lord's extravagance in the seat of Italian luxury-
Venice — the treasury at Hanover presented an alarming
vacuity at the end of the year ; and as even the philosophy
of Leibnitz had not raade sufficient progress at that period
as to call debt and deficiency " funds, " the prospect was
considered disheartening.
Sophia and Mary II. raet on terras of friendship when
the latter, as Princess of Orange, was the guest of the Elec
tor Palatine, Charles Louis — a fact to which the Princess
bears testimony in her letter of condolence to Sophia on the
death of her brother, dated ^ De Turhaut, September 20,
1680. Mary's letter is exceedingly kind, though ceremoni
ous. She writes " not only as a person who has the honour
to be allied to her, but," she says, " who had received many
kindnesses and honours from the Elector when she had the
happiness to stay with him^ — where she does not say, but pro
bably at Heidelberg. " I assure you, Madame," writes she,
" that the little differences we have had on affairs could not
hinder me from acknowledging the merit of this great
prince, or hinder my gratitude for all the courtesies I re
ceived from him " Probably Sophia was the only person
1 Gargan's Recueil des Pieces. MSS. Hanover. British Museum.
2 Ibid.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 327
In the world who wept for the death of the great Elector
her brother ; and Mary of Orange writes as if she really
required consolation. The Princess concludes with phrases
which were very fashionable in her youth ; we meet them
constantly in the early letters of the Marlboroughs, and her
sister Queen Anne, where they have been III understood.
She says that she is with " rauch passion," and " more than
any one, her very hurable cousine and servaute, Marie,
Princesse d'Orange."
At the baths of Pyrmont, Sophia and her young daughter,
then thirteen years old, passed the autumn pf 1681. Here
they met, for the first time, Frederic, the Electoral Prince
of Brandenburg, who brought to the baths his dying wife
for the amelioration of her health."^ The most briUiant hopes
having been awakened in the heart of Sophia concerning
the disposal of her accomplished young daughter, perhaps
she would have shuddered could she have supposed that the
petite beauty would have no better offer than the rever
sion of this very queer and odd-tempered crookback's hand.
At the death of his wife, some months afterwards, the
Brandenburg Prince avowed himself in despair, and, de
voting himself to life-long widowerhood, assumed a ring in
memoriam, expressing this laudable Intention.
Great blame has been cast on the meraory of Sophia
in reference to the wretched fate of her daughter-in-law,
Sophia Dorothea of Zelle, by those who have not exarained
such evidence as Is extant connected with that dark histo
rical tragedy. It Is certain that Sophia, by one active
stroke of diploraacy, broke the raatch between the heir of
Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel and the daughter of her brother-
in-law of Zelle. If that were a crirae, she did it ; but she
behaved unexceptionably to the poor bride after she had
won her for her son. The under-current of events which
forced Sophia Into playing a part much like the prima
donna in operatic comedy, has never been entirely deve
loped. The fact was, that the hopes of Protestant Europe
being fixed on her family, as the Prince of Orange was hope
lessly childless, likewise her nephew the Elector Palatine
^ Lebender Konigin von Preussen. Varnhagen von Ense, p. 19.

328 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
Charles Theodore, it was needful that the house of Han
over should support its utmost dignity among the potentates
of Europe ; but the marriage between the Duke of Zelle's
daughter and the heir of the chief of Brunswick would reduce
it to Very narrow means. Moreover, there was a circum
stance which, although not promulgated for years afterwards,
Sophia knew well would Impair the Protestant influence
of the Guelphs ; Antony Ulric, the Duke of Brunswick-
Wolfenbuttel, was secretly a Roman Catholic.^ Not that
either Bishop-duke Ernest or his Duchess cherished any
personal antipathy against Papists, though their political
interests were In violent opposition to them ; indeed, they
were marvellously remiss in making anti-Popish demon
strations. Yet how could they conceal frora themselves
that, if their elder brother's daughter wedded the heir of
Wolfenbuttel, the head of their faraily, he would throw his
weight into the interest of the Roraan Catholic Stuarts, and
Impede their Protestant kinsman's hopes of the British
erapire? Besides, the Duke of Zelle, upon whose do
rainions the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel had strong
claims, would prefer surrendering them to his grandchildren
to fulfilling the faraily corapact he had made with Bishop
Ernest, his younger brother. Then would the aspiring
branch of Hanover be Jimited to Its domains In possession,
the revenues of which were nearly exhausted. All family
interests — as well on her side as on her husband's — whether
Immediate or distant, were at stake.
The wishes of Sophia for a daughter-in-law had. In the first
Instance, pointed to England. In her own breast there had
at a forraer day once existed a desire of reigning in Great
Britain, not as a supplanter of the heir, but as his wife ;
and there lurked in her raind sorae secret resentment that
her cousin-german, Charles IL, had never sued for her
hand.^ Careless Charles had not given the raatter a thought
' Polnitz Memoires. He says, "that it was by the intrigues of
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, that the wretched Princess of Zelle was
married to her son George Louis [afterwards George I.], and that the
mother of the bride was as much opposed to the -n edlock as the bride
herself." ^ Lord Dartmouth's Notes on Burnet's History.

SOPHIA, ELECTRIi;SS OP HANOVER. 329
when it was feasible, at the earlier tirae of his exile ; he
might have supposed first cousins were too near aldn. So
did not Sophia, It seems ; and she, in 1682, sent her eldest
son to England to woo the daughter of her cousln-gerraan,
the Lady Anne of York. He was likewise charged with
letters frora his lady -raother to both the royal Stuart
brothers, asking if they reraembered her ?
How heartily the merry monarch received his young
kinsman — how he remerabered his cousin Sophia at the old
gladsome times at the Hague and Breda, when they were all
exiles penniless together — how cordially he inducted hira
Into a suite of Whitehall apartraents, and introduced hira to
kiss the hem of his queen's robe, and (according to cousinly
privilege), the Ups of the Lady Anne of York — has been
already told by the author in another biography, by the
assistance of a raost arausing French letter which Duke
George Louis hiraself wrote to his raother.^ English diarists
of the day have noted his visit to Oxford, and his induction
as Doctor of Laws. Modern writers have displayed their
own ignorance by sneering at George Louis as an uneducated
raan. How the Oxford dons and the Hanoverian Prince set
tled the reraarkable discrepancy between the Continental
pronunciation of Latin and the English, we are not pre
pared to say; but George the First was no ignoramus. He
could speak Latin as a vernacular language, and wrote
sprightly French letters to his learned lady-raother. We
only wish we had the boulting of thera all in the biogra
phical sieve. These are acquireraents out of the reach of
any dunce, howsoever sedulously he raay be crammed.
In the raidst of Duke George's English honours, courtly
and acaderalc, he suddenly ceased his courtship to the Lady
Anne, and returned home. He had arrived, it seeras, in
the very height of the notable Popish plot concocted be
tween William of Orange, Titus Oates, and Shaftesbury.
The island was convulsed with political agony. The judi
cial murder of the aged Viscount Stafford was perpe
trated alraost in the sight of the foreign wooer. His cora-
I Additional MSS. British Museum. Hanoverian Papers, transcribed
by Secretary Gargan ; given by George IV.

330 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
raents upon it, In his letter to the Duchess Sophia, lead
to the conclusion that the sceptre of Great Britain was not
to be coveted. His own observations on the development
of the Popish plot, together with his confidential com
munings with his uncle. Prince Eupert, had the effect of
convincing him that the times of 1640 were recurring in
1682. The Prince of Orange has the credit. In history, of break
ing the match between his sister-in-law, the Lady Anne of
York, and Sophia's son. Assuredly his desire to break the
match between the Duke of Zelle's daughter and the heir
of Wolfenbuttel raust have been Intense. His own views
on the British crown would have been Irapeded by Roman
Catholic Influence ruining the Protestant branch of Han
over. William of Orange, therefore, brought all his politi
cal engineering to bear upon the mind of bis old instructor
in the art of war, George Williara, Duke of Zelle, for the
purpose of inducing hira to give his wealthy daughter to
the heir of Hanover, and thus consolidate the Protestant
interest. The question was, whether the highly-born
Duchess Sophia, who boasted so raany royal and imperial
ancestors, would condescend to receive as a daughter-in-
law the child of a raorganatic marriage ?
There was no difficulty with the Duke of ZeUe. It is
true he was much attached to Antony Ulric, the Duke of
Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, both as his old friend and com
panion in arms, the head of the Guelphic line, and withal a
prince highly distinguished In Europe for genius and learn
ing, and every grace of mind and person ; but a man's line
of politics usually sways him beyond all influences of private
affection and friendship. We have shown George WiUiam,
Duke of Zelle, as a noted Protestant champion, a com
mander from his youth upwards among the knot of Tre-
raouIUes, Rohans, Solras, and Waldecks, with a host of
French Protestant refugees, led by the Nassaus, who had
held Breda and its sister fortresses against the whole puis
sance of Catholic Europe. As for his beloved Duchess, she
was French Calvinist and refugee. How were such life
long ties to be broken asunder, to follow Antony of Wolf-

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 331
enbuttel, whose new religion would reverse all the ancient
predUections ?
Such was the real state of affairs when the Duchess
Sophia, acceding to the request of her husband that she
would In person ask the hand of his niece for their son,
ordered her travelling-carriage late In the evening of Sep
tember 14, 1682, and, ploughing through the roads of deep
sand for the distance of about twenty miles, In the night,
crossed the frontier of the brother potentate, and presented
herself at the Briickhausen palace of ZeUe betimes In the
morning. Sophia won her way througli all the officials
to the very bed-chamber of her brother-in-law, by declar
ing, in her debonnaire manner, that she had come incog
nita for the purpose of pleasantly surprising the Duke and
Duchess of Zelle In bed, in order to wish them joy of their
only child's birthday — the young Sophia Dorothea having
completed her sixteenth anniversary, that loth of Septem
ber. With this intiraation she entered her brother-in-law's
chamber. Having made her sprightly congratulations, she
asked for his wife. The Duke, pointing to the door of com
munication between the matrimonial apartments usual in
continental arrangements, said, " She is there." Then the
Duchess Sophia went in, and greeted her astonished sis
ter-in-law with unwonted familiarity on the joyful anni
versary. Whosoever expected the wooing expedition of
the Duchess of Hanover, it Is certain her French sister-
in-law did not ; for the poor lady hastened her toilette, to
the danger of infringing many princely etiquettes, Gerraan
and French, when she found that the Duchess, with the
easy amenity of near relationship, had glided back Into the
Duke of Zelle's apartment, and commenced an eager con
versation with him In Dutch. Sometiraes Frenchworaen,
with all their tact and acuteness, lose the dear delights of
having their own way, owing to the exclusive admiration
they have for their own language, and their distaste for all
others, especially for the Teutonic tongues. Not so our
brilliant Sophia. Mistress as she was of the French lan
guage to perfection, she did not disdain horaely Dutch when
it served her purpose, although perhaps not fond of the

332 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
reminiscence that she was by birth a Dutchwoman. Never->
theless, in the polyglot comraanded by her powerful mind
and meraory, Dutch maintained Its place. George William
now held discourse with his cousin In the old famiUar tongue
they both talked at Breda, when Ufe was young and as yet
uncumbered with riches and sovereignties. Duchess Eleanore
had been Ukewise a refugee at Breda, but having scorned
to acquire the language of the people who protected her,
she was placed in the odd dileraraa of having her daughter
disposed of before her face, without being able to put in a
negative ; for the fluent reasons of Sophia prevailed entirely,
and the Duke of Zelle had proraised his daughter's hand to
his nephew before the raother of the young lady had ascer
tained the drift of the lively dialogue in Dutch.
All the gossips chronicling this event agree — Pblnitzi
(the near relative of the parties) being at their head— that
the Duchess of Zelle was adverse to the raarriage, and that
she had prevailed on her husband to announce his inten
tion of betrothing their daughter to the heir of the Duke of
Wolfenbuttel that very anniversary of her sixteenth birth
day. Perhaps this was with a proviso stipulating unless
her hand was not previously deraanded by the son of his
brother ; for it is certain that never was marriage more
speedily proposed or agreed to. The young lady was
dutifully quiescent, according to her autograph, extant in
the British Museura ;^ a pretty letter in French, expressed
with siraplicity that looks genuine : It Is addressed to Sophia,
saying,— " I have so much respect for my Lord Duke, your husband, and for my
Lord my own father, that I shall always be content in whatever manner
they agree to act in my behalf ; and your Highness will do me the justice
to believe so, aud that no one can be more sensible than I am of the many
proofs of your goodness. I will carefully endeavour, all my life long, to
deserve the same, and to make it appear to your Highness, by my respect
and humble service, that you could uot choose as your daughter one who
better than myself knows how to requite you. In which duty I shall feel
great pleasure, and iu showing you, by my submission, how much I am
your Highness's very humble aud obedient servant."

' Descended by a morganatic marriage from the great Prince of Orange,
Maurice. 2 Royal MSS., vol. lix., folio 230.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 333
Either Sophia Dorothea, or some one of her faraily dic
tating, is here very grateful for being " chosen by the
Duchess of Hanover as her daughter-in-law" — a clause
rather unusual in ceremonial letters of the kind. It is in
strong accordance with the customs of France, where ma-
dame la mhre of the bridegroom Is always acknowledged as
the raost iraportant person In the whole process of wooing
and wedding, and therefore seems to have emanated from
the French Duchess of Zelle, represented by bold guessers
as In despair on the occasion. Yet there was a climbing
parvenu spirit in the whole career of this lady, leading to
the supposition that the circurastance was a pleasant though
unexpected realisation of all the arabitlous hopes entertained
by the ZeUe family.
The betrothal and wedlock took place with all possible
celerity. Sophia saw her eldest son married to the young
lady of. Zelle, 21st Noveraber 1682. It was observed that
the festivities over which the Duchess Sophia presided, at
the reception of her daughter-in-law, at Hanover, were far
more briUiant and expensive than those at Zelle during
the nuptial celebrations. But It was the careful econoray
of the bride's mother that had saved the enorraous dower
which raade her daughter an acceptable wife to the heir of
Hanover. Henceforward the name of her daughter-in-law
frequently occurs in the letters Sophia wrote to Leibnitz
or Ilten. She is always raentioned therein kindly and cor
dially, just as her own mother might have named her.
After this successful terraination of her diploraatic scherae,
connected with the raarriage of her son, Sophia turned her
attention to realising the high hopes for her daughter with
which she had been flattered by her kindred in France.
The utmost polish was to be given to the young beauty by
a prolonged visit to Italy, and then she was to be shown in
all her charms and graces at the court of Louis XIV. From
the raarriage festivities of George Louis of Brunswick and
his luckless partner, Sophia went, with her young Princess,
on a long tour in Italy, which occupied the year 1683.
The extrerae desire of the Princess Colonna to convert
Sophia and her daughter to the Roraish religion, is the only

334 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
incident that has transpired of their stay at Eome and
their travels in Italy. To aid In this work, which the
Roman Princess, of course, thought a good one, she Intro
duced to Sophia one of the Italian literati, Abbate Mauro
by name, likewise called by Sophia, Signor Hortensio,
who was appointed librarian and instructor to the mother
and daughter In the delicacies of the Italian language.
Letters often occur between Dr Mauro and his padrona;
and now and then the learned Italian endeavoured to sow
the seeds of his faith, but they fell fruitless on the polished
marble of the Illustrious savante's mind.
All the European wars, aggressive and defensive, came to
a pause in 1683, when the awful advance of an enemy, who
gave no quarter, and who treated the women and children
of those who resisted invasion with systematic atrocity,
called all Christendom to the defence of Vienna, then he-
sieged by the Turks. Ernest Auguste and his two eldest
sons were among the foreraost in this brave work; and
although their naraes were lost in the blaze of Sobieski's
glory, yet all Gerraany knew that George Louis, equally
with his gigantic younger brother. Inured to combat with
the savage Moslera frora the age of fifteen, had done their
devoir as gallantly as any Guelph who defended Chris
tianity in the early ages. Sophia, in her letters to Leibnitz,
liad previously expressed great doubt whether her tall
handsome Frederic would ever be good for anything as a
soldier, his devotion to the basset-table and other vicious
Indulgences having given her great uneasiness. Now she
had the raaternal pleasure of finding that the hardships of
this terrific carapaign had Iraproved hira every way. He
was looked up to as a martialist of renown, and he received
an appointment as major-general in the Imperial service.
Just at this time, her court was visited by a Scotch poli
tician, who drew Sophia and her husband as he saw thera.
" Sophia has the character of the ' merry debonair Princess
of Germany,' a lady of extraordinary virtue and accom
plishraents. She is mistress of Italian, French, High and
Low Dutch, and of EngUsh, which languages she speaks to
perfection. Her husband has the title of the ' Gentleman

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 335
of Germany,' a graceful and comely Prince both on foot
and on horseback. They have a numerous offspring. Two
of their sons signalised themselves at Vienna; and as proof
of their valour they brought home three Turks to their
parents' court as prisoners."!
Under the auspices of her family laurels, newly won in
the defence of Europe, Sophia hoped the debut of her young
daughter In France would make the Important conquest of
the Dauphin's heart; for every grace had been acquired,
and every page of knowledge had been conned. One only
had been left purposely blank in her mind. In hopes that
the first prince in Europe might not find aught written
therein contrary to the faith he professed. Sophia deter
mined to try her daughter's luck at Paris, for the hopes
Gourville had infused into her heart had never left It. The
least hint, after these brilliant actions at Vienna of Sophia's
husband and sons, procured a flattering invitation frora the
Grande Monarque to both mother and daughter, and again
they took their way to Paris ; no longer Incognita this
time, but royally welcomed to VersaUles, where apartments
were assigned them for a long stay. The winter of 1683,
and a large part of 1684, were passed by them either
there or in Paris. All success, but the grand success of
achieving the conquest of the Dauphin's heart, was attained.
And it is a little surprising that the match did not take
place, because the eldest son of Louis XIV. afterwards raar
ried a Gerraan princess without charras of person or mind,
the daughter of the Elector of Bavaria. 2 Perhaps the real
reason was that previously Duke Ernest Auguste and his
martial brother, during their eraployraent by the Emperor,
had fought against France, and actually beat a small array
of the great Louis at Treves, under the coraraand of the
Duke de Crequi.^
One trifling matter of etiquette was Infringed by Sophia
and her daughter. The French monarch should have been
1 Ker's Remarks on the Govemment of Germany.
'^ History, by Frederic the Great, of the House of Brandenburg.
' Just before the negotiation with Gourville took place, which settled
the Peace of Nimeguen.

238 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER;
addressed as " Sire ; " but they used the title of " Majesty."
SUght as the mistake was, it vexed him, and he had it
mentioned and rectified. There is no great parade in the
epithet "Sire;" but it seems pecuUar to the head ofthe
French nation, and survives the French monarchy. Napo
leon clairaed it, and the successor in his dynasty is addressed
by It.
" There would have been no difficulty on Sophia's part
concerning religion," observes Gourville, alluding to the
hoped-for raarriage, " if her husband had entered Into it.
But nothing could shake his fidelity to the Eraperor. Hav
ing heard all the French envoy had to say on the matter,
he replied, ' he was too old to change his religion, and
however advantageous the scherae raight be to his house,
it was useless to discuss It farther.' " Presents of great
magnificence were offered to Gourville by Sophia, with the
declaration that she meant to dispose of several beautiful
diamonds, and wished to hear which among them he thought
the finest. These she directly pressed on his acceptance.
After a twelvemonth's participation Inthe delights ofthe
French court, the mother and daughter were recaUed home
to fulfil a treaty of alliance that Duke Ernest Auguste had
been negotiating at Berlin. All the beauty and accora
pUshments of Sophia Charlotte drew for her no better prize
In the matriraonial lottery than the hand of the deformed
and odd-terapered heir of Brandenburg. Her raother was
extreraely anxious for her marriage ; and notwithstanding
all the opposition of the Electress of Brandenburg (a
Princess of Holstein-Glucksberg), Grote, the Hanoverian
minister, managed so well that the Electoral Prince of
Brandenburg arrived at Hanover, September 1684, on
matrimony intent, leaving at Berlin his sire III with the
gout, and his Inimical stepdame malcontent. ^ The day
before her nuptials, the Princess Sophia Charlotte made
public profession of the religion of her betrothed.^ The
bridegroora was a widower, aged twenty-six, crooked,
dirainutive, and cross ; hypochondriac withal, having taken
1 Life of Sophia Charlotte, by Varnhagen von Ense, from the German.
^ Calvinism.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER, 337
it into his head that his stepdame, the Electress, had one
day poisoned hira in a cup of coffee, In order that her tall,
handsorae sons. Margraves of Anspach-Brandenburg, raight
Inherit his dignities, and that he should never get over the
effects of the said noxious cup of coffee.^ Such affections as
this oddity possessed were buried in the grave of his first
wife. During the raarriage ceremony with Sophia Charlotte,
a strange accident occurred. The bridegroora wore a gold
Ting, on which was embossed the Initials of his deceased
wife, and the motto d jamais. As he gave his hand to the
Hanoverian bride, to his Infinite alarm aud astonishment,
this ring broke and fell to the ground.^ Sophia Charlotte
was in her seventeenth year, much too beautiful and good
for hira, as their grandson, Frederic the Great, expressly
avers. She had never before been perraitted to express
any preference for one of the Protestant formulas of faith,
although supposed to be educated as a Calvinist like her
mother. The pomp and glitter of the bridal at last passed away,
though long protracted, for the Electoral Prince and Princess
did not raake their entry into BerUn until Noveraber 14.
Sophia, to her surprise, and, as her confidential correspond
ents say, her deep raortification, found herself keeping her
lonely state at Hanover or Herenhausen in the Christraas
ensuing. Duke Ernest Auguste hiraself held winter-quarters
at Venice while his young heroes battled the Turks. Fre
deric, his second son, coraraanded in the Morea, assisted
hythe same Charles, Count Konigsmarck, who had attained
an unenviable notoriety In England as the suborner of the
assassins of Tora Thynne of Longleat Hall. Sophia's other
sons were ready to start from her court for the field. Her
letters at this period, addressed to M. Ilten, one of the
Hanoverian state ministers In Italy, were meant to give her
husband an Idea of how the world went in Gerraany. Her
eldest son, Duke George, was still with her, and his wife,
Sophia Dorothea, but ready to set out for his Hungarian
' Polnitz. ^ Varnhagen von Ense.
VOL. VIII. Y

338 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
campaign. The birth of their eldest child (George H. of
Great Britain) had taken place at Hanover the preceding
year, Oct. 30, 1683.
Letters from the Electress Sophia to Mr Ilten In Venice,
during Ernest Augustus's sojourn there In the years 1684-85,
occur as follows : — " Hanovek, sth Felrucm/, 1685.
" Sik, — I am much indebted to you for having given me news of my son
at Frankfort. As his appetite has held good hitherto, by your example I,
hope it will remain so till he reaches Venice. From you only we heard of
the battle between the Elector Palatine [Charles Theodore, her nephew]
and the Landgrave of Darmstadt. I trust that it wiU not be a veiy
bloody one. To-day Prince Maximilian ^ left here in excellent spirits. He
joins his regiment at Minden, where he, the lieutenant-general, ought to
harangue it. Madame Klenk gave us a supper, when we drank to the
health ofthe travellers, and I lost my money a la Mte. Prince Christian'
has had the small-pox. He suffered much, but is now out of danger.
My daughter-in-law [Sophia Dorothea] has taken Miss Wieg into her
service. This is all the intelligence 1 can send you from hence, and that
I shall always remain your affectionate friend, Sophia."
Her daughter-in-law Sophia Dorothea, wife of Duke
George, accompanied her husband as far as Zelle, whither
Sophia went, and her next letter to Ilten is dated from
thence : — ¦ " Celle, the &th March, 1685.
" Sir, — I am much obliged to you for constantly informing me that the
Duke [Ernest Auguste, her husband] keeps in good health. God grant
that he may always enjoy it. I fear he will suffer on learning the death
of his sister the Queen,^ which has much distressed us. Her Majesty has
soon followed the King of England.* 1 believe the doctors can only say
that those who die in February are not ill in March, for a vast number
were consulted. Still the world will not fail of population while you and
Madame Ilten continue in it. She has just been confined again of a fine
boy, without having suffered in the least. This babe will fill the place of
that you lost in Hungary. My eldest sou wishes to leave with the infantry
on March 16. We have an idea of following him to Herzburgh. I do not
know whether it will be realised.
" I bave no doubt that the Duke Ernest Auguste would be delighted with
our dear daughter's [Sophia Dorothea] prospect of au increase. She keeps
very well. I came here at general entreaty to pass half the period of the

Third son of Sophia and Ernest Auguste.
Fourth son of Sophia.
Sophia Amelia, wife of King Frederic the Third of Denmark.
Charles II.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 339
Carnival. The young people wished to make a ' mlrthshaft,' but the mourn
ing has spoiled everything. Mr Klenk's ball has caused a great sen
sation in all the papers. I am delighted that you and Prince Charles have
such good appetites. We are charmed here to receive letters, and yours
are always very welcome to me. Sophia."
Sophia again renewed her correspondence with her hus
band's minister, Ilten, in the new year of 1686. From her
letters we may learn that she was then at Hanover, keeping
rather lonely court ; for her daughter-in-law, Sophia Doro
thea, was at Osnaburg, and her own faithless absentee,
Duke Ernest Auguste, steeped to the lips in the intoxicating
pleasures of Venice. Sophia had no better arauseraent
than a captive child her son George had spared from
the sword, and sent to her court from the seat of war
on the Hungarian border. " I have," she says to Ilten,^
" no companion but a little Turk, presented to me by ray
eldest son. I had hira baptised on Twelfth Day. I hoped
that fete would pass off gaily, but by 111 luck Madarae
Thoren burgh, who bad lost her eldest son, was Queen ofthe
Bean, and a Huguenot exile, who had lost all bis property,
was King ; so the whole affair was a melancholy one."
The continental Twelfth Cake contains two beans, and
those who find thera are king and queen. These lots had
fallen very unluckily, and spoiled the pleasures of the even
ing to the ever gay Duche.ss Sophia. " Madarae Grote,"
she continues to Ilten, " never leaves the house. She has
not so good a reason for It as your Madarae Ilten, who will
rejoice you in Italy with a little Italian. Say all that Is
kind to her frora rae, and thank her for her reraembrance.
It is like being at the antipodes here, except when by
chance one gets one's letters. The dispute between the
Iraperial post and M. de Platen Increases Instead of di
minishes. The mistress of the latter has married M. de
Bar. And this is all of news I have." She adds as post
script : " What has becorae of Signor Hortensio ? I never
have any letters frora hira." This was Abbe Mauro, her
priest-librarian, then absent at Venice. The same year she
had a little granddaughter born, the child of her son
' Letters of the Electress Sophia to Ilten,

¦340 £OPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
George and Sophia Dorothea, afterwards Queen of Prussia;
mother of Frederic the Great.
Sophia again renewed her diplomatic acquaintance with
GourvIUe.'' She was with her spouse In the summer, taking
the waters of Wiesbaden. The Hanoverian party were
situated at the lower spring of Wiesbaden, from whence the
water was drawn every night to be mixed with Rhenish
wine for the Duchess, who presented to Gourville a golden
pitcher or siphon, curious and beautiful, in which was
contrived an apparatus for refreshing Rhenish wine with
ice, invented by one of Sophia's philosophers, which she
could arrange herself without the aid of any one. Madame
de Montespan, on Gourville's return, so much coveted this
invention, that she gave 9000 Uvres for having one like it
made for her.
Europe, now recovering from the panic caused by the
Inbreak of the Turkish hordes, was banding Itself into two
great parties, for the enjoyment of another Thirty Tears'
War, and the warlike brothers, the Duke of Zelle and the
Duke-bishop Ernest Auguste, were worth wooing as to the
scale into which they might throw the weight of their
veteran troops. Sophia's Interest had hitherto been for
France, where she had been flattered with the ideSc that
her charming daughter might one day wear its crown.
She had found the hope was only a political illusion, and
with natural pique preferred the cause of the Emperor of
Germany to that of Louis XIV. The sage Leibnitz had
written frora Berlin to Hanover, congratulating her on the
birth of the Efectoral Prince Frederic Williara, her daugh
ter's second child. The Electress of Brandenburg had
lost her first boy previously. She was travelling with all
speed to her raother's court, where she hoped to get over
her first accouchement ; but she was taken ill only a few
miles frora BerUn, and put to bed at a sraall schoolmaster's
house by the roadside. The child dled.^
The Carnival tirae was always distinguished at Sophia's
court with the sarae species of raerry and mad glee which
had astounded the Puritans and the Dutch at the exiled
' Gourville's Memoirs. He says this was in 1686. ^ Piilnitz.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVERi 341
court of Elizabeth of Boheraia. In February 29, 1688,
while the Brunswick Princes were, as Sophia soon after
writes to Leibnitz, " waiting with folded arras" and wonder
ing what was to befall in Europe for the encourageraent of
their trade of war, she was presiding over a notable festi
val of the kind, thus described In a letter addressed to the
Landgrave Ernest of Hes.se-Rheinfels : It serves to show
the manners of the nation she reigned over, and how
curiously the sovereign and people In her time comraingled
after the old Gerraan custora. " I carae before the gates of
Hanover at seyen in the evening, just tirae enough to save
rae from being shut out and passing the night at an inn
in the suburbs. On hearing the raasks were asserabled at
the Hotel de Ville I bought a mask, and went at eight
o'clock from the Castle, before which 'pitch rings' of all
colours were burning, raaking the street as light as day.
Before the H&tel de Ville stood a guard of rausketeers,
who exarained every one to ascertain If he wore a mask ;
no one was admitted without. I entered the saloon of
homage, adorned with three great glasses, three lustres,
and many candles in brass sconces round the walls. On
the left of the entrance, in two galleries, stood the musicians
and pipers, who played, from music-books, many pieces, as
ballets and minuets for dancing. The masks danced in
three places — naraely, in one circle danced Ernest and
Sophia and their court ; in another, the burghers ; and
the canaille In a third, who in their diverse masks were
frightful to behold. The Duke of Hanover and the Duchess
Sophia were already there, and with thera George the he
reditary Prince, and his Princess Dorothea. The father of
the latter and her mother, the Duke and Duchess of Zelle,
were there; and the Brunswick chief, Antony Ulric, Duke of
Wolfenbuttel, his son, and his son's princess ; likewise the
two Hanover Princes, Max and Charles. At last these illus
trious guests of the Brunswick family, twenty-one In number,
all entered a side-room, assembled round a large table and'
played the game of Zeid, whereby the Duke of Hanover won
fourteen thousand doUars." While this desperate gambling
was going on with the Bishop-duke and his sons and kins-

342 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE.
men at the garae of Zeid,i it Is well to find It noted that
Sophia withdrew her daughter-in-law and ladies to another
table, where they likewise araused themselves with a round
game ; but as neither their gains or losses are mentioned,
It Is evident that they did not play viciously, though the
friend of Hesse-Ehelnfels says, " I saw huge heaps of ducats
and new silver money piled on both the tables." We have
already seen Sophia's opinion to Leibnitz of such doings,
and that she deemed herself bite when she joined them.
" During the game all the ladles and princes put off their
masks : the Duke of Hanover wore a night robe, or domino,
with gold flowers. The young Princesses of Zelle and
Wolfenbuttel wore cardinals ; the ladies red dominoes, em
broidered caps and casquettes, with high feathers. Some
of the ladies wore men's cravats, others neck handkerchiefs,
like those used by the comraon people. There was a great
display of pearls and jewels. A few steps higher was a
sraaller room, where Italians sold confitures, lemonade, and
maccaroni cakes. Others sold wine, spirits, beer, white
bread and brown, and sold all for ready raoney. The mas
querade had begun at four in the afternoon and continued
until ten at night, during which tirae the coraraon people
araused theraselves with chattering, joking, and tickling,
when not dancing. All these raasks of lower degree left
the Hotel de Ville when the ducal trurapets sounded for
supper. Then the Duchess Sophia returned to the castle
with her ladies : the next day she gave a public dinner,
and at four in the afternoon went to her theatre, where
her French comedians played."
This sketch gives a picture of Sophia's life In Hanover
when she was presiding over her husband's court and
people at festival time. The gambling perpetrated by the
warrior-bishop, her spouse, was not a very edifying ex
araple to his people; but WUliam, Prince of Orange, carried
his exploits in that way much higher the year he took
possession of the British empire.^
1 The German verb zeideln means to cut.
Lamberti, Bentinck's secretary, mentions William's stakes of 4000 louis
at bcttel f,£ if they were acts of virtue.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 343
The Invasion of England by the Prince of Orange now
drew nigh. As early as September 15, 1688, Sophia per
fectly understood the destination of the armaraent collect
ing on the coast of Holland. Her letter to Leibnitz on the
subject, guarded as it was under the raask of playfulness,
is an historical curiosity. The Electeess to Leibnitz.
" Heeenhausen, 16i/i. September, 1688.
" As your prophecy^ has been more intelligible than Apollo's, I ought to
prize it more, and I think one may consider you a, magi, bearing incense
in the shape of the beautiful letters you wrote to my daughter and to me,
on the birth of the little Prince Electoral. I sent them to her by this
post, and do not doubt that they will be most acceptable.
" Since my return, I have replied to the Bishop of Neustadt.^ I dare say
he will show you my letter. If I had thought he would let the Emperor
see my letter I would have tried to make it a more interesting one. People
say that the Prince of Orange will cross the sea shortly with a formidable
fleet to protect the reformed religion in England. France threatens Hol
land to enter her territories with S0,000 men, if she allows the Prince
of Orange to cross the water with an army. The Dukes of Zelle
and Wolfenbuttel send 40,000 men to the Dutch. The Elector of
Brandenburg supplies them ; the Landgrave sends people too. As to
Hanover, it awaits like Jupiter in heaven with crossed arms the smoke of
some sacrifice, until it is pleased to assume another attitude ; for it will
not fail to levy soldiers to prevent a surprise. This does not prevent one
from making a great building of your library to get up operas this winter.
It is Signor Hortense who composed the play of Henry the Lion. I
believe they have chosen this subject in order that posterity may not forget
the states wbich once belonged to this line. My sou Prince Charles has in
formed me that his brother, with a detachment of four regiments, is sum
moned to join Prince Louis of Baden. It is a proof that he is not thought
incapable of commanding. I shall have the pleasure of seeing you on my
return here, and'of assuring you myself of the esteem in which I hold you.
" Sophia."
When the English Revolution was accoraplished and
developed, many traits concerning it made Sophia wince
and writhe In spirit. Her sister Louisa perpetually wrote
to her interesting particulars of the banished royal faraily,
and of their disinherited son. Sophia wished to reconcile
Jaraes II. and his eldest daughter, her friend, who after her
coronation in 1689, reraained under the soleran malediction
' Leibnitz' Letters.
^ Neustadt had urged the Electoral family to turn Catholics one and all.

344 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
of her sire. Sophia's correspondence with her niece the
Duchess of Orleans was more frequent than ever; some
of their letters possess high historical interest, especially
that in which the Duchess of Orleans recites to her aunt
the success of a letter in extenuation of the conduct of
Mary IL The letter was to be placed by the Duchess of
Orleans In the hands of James II. , then an exile at the
court of Louis XIV. Whether this mediation was a hit
of gratuitous peacemaking on the part of our Sophia, who
might peradventure as a parent shudder at the example
set her children. Is not revealed. " I showed the King
of England," writes her niece of Orleans, " that part of
your letter in which you mention his daughter. He said
— ' No one can write better than she does ; but If she
wished to prove that she had no share In my misfortunes,
she ought not to have taken the crown.'"l The words are
arabiguous. Jaraes seeras to have lost the idea of Sophia,
and concludes as if answering a raessage frora Mary her
self The unhappy father was violently agitated, for the
Duchess of Orleans continues to Sophia : " Your letter
touched him, for he turned fire-red. It raay be believed
that the English prefer the Prince of Orange for their King.
I wish only that the Prince, having no issue, would adopt
the Prince of Wales for his successor." What then would
have been the use of the foul Intrigues and false tales
impugning the hapless child's identity, patronised by
Williara, his wife, and the Princess Anne ? Although it
was Sophia's interest equally to adopt these Inventions, she
never heard thera without raanifesting open scorn, and we
have under her handwriting how irapatiently she loathed
thera.^ The zeal of Lord HaUfax for the Revolution Impelled him
to write to Sophia, urging her to testify some sympathy with
its measures. Her answer has been preserved ; 3 it is date
less, but must have been written sorae time In 1689. She
seems anxious that her second son, Frederic, should win the
' Vie de Sophie, Feder. From the Stutgard Collection of Elizabeth
Chnrlotte's Letters.
^ Ibid., and a Letter to Leibnitz, hereafter given. ' Stepney Papers.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 345
good graces of the new king, Williara III. As for age pre
venting her frora taking any place In the succession, it was
a raere excuse. Sophia was not In her sixtieth year.
" My Lokd, — As I ever had a most particular esteem for your merit, and
have fancied myself acquainted with you by your writings, you may easily
judge by that how agreeable the marks you have given me of your friend
ship must have been. I assure you I esteem them in a very particular man
ner, and am very grateful for the warmth you have been pleased to testify
for my interests, whicli is as great a personal satisfaction to me as if your
good intentions had been more successful. For I am no longer of au age
to think of any other kingdom than that of heaven ; and as for my sons,
they ought always to be devoted to the Empire and Emperor. Mr Schutz has
informed me that you were of opinion that his Majesty would be pleased if
I sent one of them iuto England ; and as my second son [Frederic] had
already acquainted me that he should be glad to go, after tbe campaign, to
congratulate the King [William III.] upon his accession to the crown, aud
that he would ask the Emperor's leave for it, being a major-general in his
service, I dare beg you to assist him with your advice how to make his
court well when he takes that journey. If he would have changed his
religion, he might have succeeded well iu his affairs atthe Imperial court ;
but he has too much of his uncle, Prince Rupert, not to be firm iu his
religion. It is true it bears the name of Luther, but our divines at
Hanover say it is conformable to that of the Church of England, and
would have given me the holy sacrament iu the belief I am in. But I
would not give any scandal to those of my religion, which I believe you
will approve. However, I ought to congratulate you upon its having
pleased God to give you a King aud a Queen of infinite merit. I pray Him
to preserve them to you, and to give me the satisfaction of testifying to
you, and every one that is dear to you, by agreeable services, how much I
am most affectionate to serve you, Sophia Palatine."
In the same year, Ernest Auguste had taken a fancy to
have hiraself, his ancestry and descendants, portrayed In
tapestry, probably In Imitation of Louis XIV.'s patron
age of the celebrated Gobelins. Somehow the matter did
not work well, and Sophia had recourse to the versatile
talents of Leibnitz, who was either to draw patterns himself,
or inspire the slow German artist, raaking the designs, with
requisite skiU and spirit. We think Leibnitz found the first
requisition the easiest. Why not? St Dunstan, prime-
minister to King Edgar, our famous Bretwalda, drew pat
terns for the gowns of Saxon princesses, besides exerting
his skill in goldsmithery and blacksmlthery. It is a curious
bit in Sophia's life to find her setting the Gerraan Newton

346
thus to work. " The Duke^ wishes to Iraraortalise himself
by tapestry, and as I have ordered a picture in it, like that
you have seen in ray antechamber, he wishes one of the
same kind of his late father, mother, and their children,
and his grandfather and his children. It only wants a good
artist to carry out the designs according to their times [cos
tume of their period]. Our artists are by no means ferdle
in Invention, and It seems to me you will be able to supply
it well. At least do not make them knitting and drinking
' brahan,' ^ as they were wont to do In those days. But
draw the late Duke George at the battle of Haraelin, and
his wife and children according to their ages then. My
eldest son and his wife [Sophia Dorothea], and their son
and daughter, will make one group In the piece. I trust
you will spirit up our painter somewhat, for he Is much
cast down since the death of his wife." Of course. If we
were writing romance, we could Inforra our readers how
the great philosopher proceeded with this reasonable requi
sition ; and we own it irks us that such an arausing begin
ning must be left a story without an end. These peeps
into the life Interior of historical characters may be strange
and amusing, yet are no romances of our Invention. Those
who have that idea had better turn to our authorities, and
test the truth — a work of infinitely less labour than the
research of finding thera. j
Two of Sophia's sons actually fell in battle against the
Turks In the same fatal year 1690. Frederic Auguste, her
second, was killed In a skirmish with a Tartar band at
Pristina; — this was on the New-year's Day of 1690.^ His
death was the first that had occurred In her faraily. She
had in vain accepted for hira the invitation of WUliam
III. When he rested frora his miUtary toils, his rest was
to be long and deep, unvexed by the turmoils of English
politics. The death of her second son had been sustained
by Sophia with her usual phUosophy, aided, perhaps, by
her remerabrance of the costs of his basset-playing and
1 Sophia to Leibnitz — Ilten's Collection.
'^ So written. Ibid.
" Leibnitz, Fuuebria, &c.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 347
Other extravagances. But when the last day of the year
of 1690 took away her best-beloved son, Charles PhiUp,
shot In forcing the pass of St Georgen In Transylvania,
her firmness and health sunk together. Her brave boy
was but nineteen, and chevalier sans reproche. The ensu
ing AprU she spent at Carlsbad. Here Leibnitz attended
to cheer her with his conversation, and report her state
of health to the Electress of Brandenburg, who wrote
to Leibnitz^ on the announcement of her raother's conval-
esence,— " I ara greatly obliged to you for having informed
me of the entire recovery of my mother, for although she
wrote to rae continually with her own hand, still I could
not suppress my apprehensions."
The whole Court of Hanover went, in the sumraer of 1691,
to the baths of Loccura,2 where, while drinking the waters,
they camped out In tents — a custom which, odd as it may
appear, was in the seventeenth century part of the medical
etiquette of taking mineral waters. Sophia's uncle, Charles
the First, with his queen and court, did the sarae at Well
ingborough. Leibnitz wrote to Sophia all sorts of gossip
frora BerUn — doraestic, literary, political, and religious.
He says,' " The Landgrave Ernest of Hesse sent rae a good
Capucin from the Low Countries, who had been with him.
He is thoroughly persuaded that King WiUiam [III] Is
Catholic In his soul ; that he heard mass in secret, but that
he dares not make It evident for fear of the English. All
that the Landgrave has said to undeceive him on this mat
ter goes for nothing. Far frora believing hiraself in error,
he derides the simplicity of those who do not understand the
finesse of King WilUam. He is assured that the most en
lightened persons in the Low Countries (folk like himself)
are persuaded of it. Meantime the report, absurd as it raay
be, may not be useless In the affairs between WiUiam and
the Spaniards." Leibnitz thus Insinuates that the Protestant
charapion was playing with his Spanish eraployers. " It is
1 Varnhagen von Ense. ,. , .
" Likewise called the Baths of Retsburg and Kloister, Loccum being
near the latter town.
= Letter of Leibnitz to Sophia, June 30, 1691— Ilten s CoUection.

348 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
a pity," he continues, " that a politician like the Capucin is
not at Loccura ; he might aid the good effect of the waters.
I pray God they may be salutary to your Serene Highness,
Monseigneur the Duke, the Prince George, Madame the
Princess [Sophia Dorothea], and all the serene drinkers."
Thus Leibnitz shows that Sophia was accompanied by
some " buveurs serene " of her faraily. These were her
son George and his consort Sophia Dorothea, associates
likely to excite historical curiosity. Nor Is her answer re
garding the garae Williara III. was playing with his
Spanish employers less likely to amuse the reader, although
she swerves from the supposed facts with diplomatic tact.
Sophia to Leibnitz.' " At the Baths, lith July 1691.
" Your letter, sir, has given me more pleasure to read than to answer;
because it is healthier to exercise tbe legs than the head here, and the
latter is necessary in order well to describe our opinion upon the Euch
arist. I expect a miracle to happen to me as it did toPelisson's mother, to
conflrm me in the views which Mr Pelisson 2 has placed before you, and to
fully understand them. For without divine inspiration I do not see how
we can believe a thing when one sees it is quite the contraiy. What we
are commanded to do, is to believe that which we do not see. However,
pray assure Mr Pelisson how much pleasure it gave me to learn from you
his good opinion of me. But I fancy it is like that of miracles and other
objects, that are more admired at a distance than near, where the truth is
more easily discovered. Such is not the case as regards Mr Pelisson, for
his writings show tbe beauty of his soul. From the history that you write
to me, I see there are many mad people in the world. There was one lately
who killed a man engaged in his devotions at a church in Paris, after asking
a priest, who was near the holy water, ' which was the Prince of Orange V —
who, for a joke, pointed out that man, whom tbe madman killed on the
spot, before any oue could interfere. Since then he has been placed in
irons, which tbe good Capuchin father of the Low Country says he did not
deserve, for it seems he is more simple than furious. The waters will not
allow of my writing more. Sophia."
No class suffered more in the sraall warlike states of Han
over and Osnaburg than the clergy, strange as it might
seem with a bishop reigning. The sustenance of the clergy,
even of the reforraed persuasions, was cut down to the most
raiserable stipend. So far frora the Church being able, from
' Ilten's Collection.
2 Leibnitz discusses Pelisson's works in the commencement of his letter.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE. 349
Its once raunificent endowraents, to raaintain the miserabl-e
poor. Its ministers might Indeed be reckoned araong such.
On one of these occasions Sophia expressed her opinion to
her confidant, when Heinson, a distinguished Protestant,
who called hiraself " Superintendent-general of the Protest
ant Church In North Gerraany," had ventured reraonstrance;
and this was the raessage sent by the wife of the Protestant
bishop, Ernest Auguste, bj' her philosopher, Leibnitz, who
was himself, if not a Protestant rainister, the son of one :
" Please to write to hira on my part, that in our church the
Lutheran princes are the popes who raust be Iraplicitly
obeyed ;"^ — a burst of arrogance which is echoed in raany a
refrain through the letters of her pupil and niece, Elizabeth
Charlotte. But Sophia had the wisdom to recomraend her
factotum Leibnitz to comraunicate this precious sentiraent to
the intrepid Heinson in the most courteous manner possible.
There is too much apparent self-interest in the tendency
of a Princess, the wife of a rich bishop, whose sole pastoral
care was to shear his flock to the quick, for her biographer
to overwhelm this trait in her correspondence with praises,
though such Ideas were hailed as actual virtues by raost of
her contemporaries at that era, and wiU find adrairers In
our own. ' Feder, p. 56.

SOPHIA, ELECTEESS OF HANOVER

CHAPTEE III.

SUMMAEY
Sophia's retirement from her own court, and its causes —Letter to Leibnitz
— Her life at Herenhausen — Incident there — Sophia visits William III.
for her family advancement — Her husband declared Elector of Hanover
by tbe Emperor — Sophia is henceforth Electress — She undertakes the
education of her grandson Frederic William — Glad to restore him to
his parents — Her granddaughter born — Her personal kindness to her
daughter-in-law in sickness — Her advice neglected by that Princess-
Misfortunes of her daughter-in-law — Sophia mentions her to the Duchess
of Orleans — Ernest Auguste, the Elector, iU and desirous of his wife's
society — Sophia amuses bim with the game ofthe goose — Sophia receives
the visit of Czar Peter — Seats him between herself and daughter — Their
conversation — He dances Russian dances witb her and her daughter —
Letter of Sophia to Leibnitz on the Czar — His presents to her of sables
and damask — Sophia's anecdotes of Peter and his Russians — Her kind
ness to her dying husband — Letters from her daughter concerning his
illness — Death of the Elector Ernest Auguste — Burial — Letter of the
Electress Sophia, as widow, to Ilten — Curious letters by her on Madame
de Maintenon — Sophia's canvass for the kingship of her son-in-law-
Sets out with her daughter for the Low Countries — ^Visits Brussels—
The Elector of Bavaria's courtesy — Sends the Sophias by sea to Eotter
dam— Great storm— Courage of Sophia — Visit to Bayle — Successfully
canvasses "William III. at Loo — Letter of Leibnitz to Sophia— Her
daughter crowned Queeu of Prussia — Gay visits and masquerade of the
latter — Sophia's grief for the deatb of Madame Harliug — Has her own
portrait engraved by Pfalz — Her friends' dislike to portraits in age.
The sojourn of Ernest Auguste at his raUitary court at
Venice effected the destruction of his wife's conjugal happi
ness : his life and raanners becarae utterly depraved and
sensual. He had for years surrendered his heart and
honour to a raistress who bears the raost diabolical character
of any among such of that vile class whose deeds stain the

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE. 351
pages of history. Sophia scorned to dispute possession of
her husband with Elizabeth Meissenburg, wife of Count de
Platen, and treated her tacit divorce as a raatter usual
among personages of high rank. Her Indifference was ac
companied with such politeness and easiness of manner, that
she retained some influence over her faithless lord — raore
than she cared to use. She was always naraed by hira as
" his Sophie," the queen-mother of his children. Likewise
she might have been queen-sultana of his establishraent ;
but such ofiice Sophia disdained. Hitherto she had concealed
her contempt In her fears lest she might be deprived of
the society of her daughter. When that princess was safely
married, and raother of the heir to the Brandenburg Electorate,
Sophia graduaUy withdrew frora her depraved husband's
court, leaving hira with Madarae de Platen, whose unworthy
husband, Count de Platen, acted at once as prirae-rainister
of his pleasures and dominions. Sophia then retired to
Herenhausen, an old country palace of the Dukes of Lunen
burg, two or three railes from Hanover, and belonging to
the demesne of her dower. Here she assuraed to be entirely
devoted to philosophical investigation and literature, but
actuaUy araused herself with creating a paradise around
her — cultivating her gardens, pleasaunces, and palace-farra,
according to the taste with which her grandfather, James
I, had imbued her mother, Elizabeth Stuart. She set a
good example of econoray, having araple nourishraent and
many luxuries for her household, the produce of her own
well-cultivated land ; and by living within her incorae, she
showed her husband's people frora what quarter arose the
extravagance they were goaded to support. Sophia still
possessed raany charms of person ; and when the malignant
spirits that presided over her husband's evil-minded estab
Ushment are remembered, it Is surprising that some shafts of
scandal or other were not aimed at her, such as worked the
tragedies connected with her daughter-in-law not long after
wards— aU proceeding frora the sarae persons. Perhaps the
vicious Platens were afraid of Sophia's strength of character
and cool judgraent, for certain it Is she passed through life
without the sUgbtest scandal attaching itself to her name.

352 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
The manner In which she checked the presumption of M.
GourvIUe Is an instance of her adrairable presence of mind
in such cases. She assigned hira his fitting place with excel
lent proraptltude, putting herself personally under the pro
tection of her own young children. So, at the trying time of
her husband's alienation, which had occurred, in truth, some
years previously, her own beloved young daughter, her
companion and friend, gave and took protection from her
wise and far-seeing parent. It was not till after the young
princess was transferred to a neighbouring sovereignty, and
presided over a court of her own, that Sophia withdrew her
self frora the daily routine of her own court at Hanover.
Circurastances were favourable to Sophia. One child's
frail life ^ alone stood between her recognition as heiress to
the throne of Great Britain by every Protestant in the
island. Sophia was a great political personage in Europe ;
her husband therefore contented himself with neglect ; out
rage would not have been expedient. It is not every for
saken wife who is perraitted to possess her soul in peace
as the Inhabitant of a paradise of her own creation. From
this retirement she never scrupled to emerge if any illustrious
stranger visited her husband's court, or If the advancement
of her family required her assistance.
There is a shade of melancholy perceptible in the letter
she wrote Leibnitz, soon after she had ostensibly retired from
her court. The Duchess Sophia to Leibnitz.^
" Hakoveb, 14ft May 1691.
" If it had pleased God at once to endow mankind with all perfections,
and spared them the failings of humanity, it seems to me that His work
would have beeu more perfect, and oue would bave less trouble in believ
ing that He had created man after His own image. But it appears that all
passes away, and that He alone exists for ever.3 For the changes that go on
here, as they neither concern you nor me, I only know what people say of
them ; and amuse myself by listening to the nightingales in my garden of
Herenhausen, to divert my mind from thoughts which might distress me."
One day at Herenhausen, when Sophia was walking
with Leibnitz and several other learned friends who shared
'¦ The Duke of Gloucester, theu a sickly infant. ^ Ilten.
* From this expression it seems that Sophia was so unfortunate as not
to believe in the immortality ofthe soul.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 353
In her tastes and pursuits, ladies as well as the more learned
sex, their conversation turned upon the theme of the vast
variety in the operations of nature notwithstanding the
general uniforraity of plan. Sophia affirraed that not one
leaf In all her groves and thickets of shrubs and trees at
Herenhausen could be found exactly sirailar to another,
upon which the whole learned company betook thera
selves with baskets to gather leaves for comparing with
each other. The result is not given by our author, but
doubtless It was in coincidence with the opinion of the illus
trious savante. Any one raay try the experiraent, and see
whether her opinion and facts agree.
In the great historical work of Leibnitz, Sophia took the
warraest interest. " I hope," she says,^ " the Duke will
furnish you with the means of accomplishing your history
at your leisure, and that the brave descendants of Herminius,
as my brother the Elector-Palatine [Charles Louis] used to
call the Brunswickers, will help In maintaining the liberty
of Germany under our devout Emperor, who meanwhile
may raake his prayers In expectation of the success of our
arms." A passionate desire for advancement In the degrees of
rank had seized the minds of most of the German poten
tates since the siege of Vienna. Sovereign dukes wished to
be electors, and electors craved to be kings — which they
were in fact, if not In narae. Ernest Auguste wanted to be
recognised by his Imperial suzerain as Elector, and his son-
in-law Frederic, who was already Elector of Brandenburg,
sighed to be a king, although the name of his kingdom
was not yet invented.^ Williara IIL, the generalissimo of
Spain and Austria, was deemed all-potent on these Impor
tant points ; and accordingly the Elector of Brandenburg,
escorted by the Elector of Bavaria, who appears to have
^ Sophia to Leibnitz.
2 Frederic the Great — History of the House of Brandenburg. The first
idea of Frederic I. of Prussia was to be declared King of the Vandals ; but
his wife, her mother, and Leibnitz, persuaded him from that amusing freak,
and adopted the well-sounding name of Prussia.
VOL. VIII. Z

354 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
been viceroy of the Spanish Netherlands, came to canvass
WiUiam at the Hague on these matters In the year 1691.
But they were not civilly treated.
William III. kept Bavaria waiting three-quarters of an
hour among his courtiers. The Elector of Brandenburg
thought he would not act In like manner towards him ; but
he kept hira half an hour the next day in the antechamber,
after promising him audience. Then, when they dined with
hira, Williara first seated hiraself very ostentatiously in a
vast arra-chair, while the two Electors, to their great sur
prise, had but joint-stools, though the Emperor at his table
always gave thera fauteuils ; neither had they silver-gilt
plate, but were only accoraraodated with a silver spoon,
knife, and fork. WUliam pretended that such was the
English etiquette towards electors, not explaining that the
English were perfectly innocent of all ordinances concerning
any electors but those who voted to return members for
their House of Coraraons. Our Hanoverian manuscript^
evidently suspects that his own pride and malice were lurk
ing beneath all these joint-stools, knives, forks, and silver
spoons. After these discouraging circurastances, Ernest Au
guste despaired of success In his arabitious wishes, unless "his
Sophie " could be enticed from the retireraent Into which
she had settled herself to try her diplomatic success with
WiUIam III. for his advancement. With this mission Sophia
travelled to the Hague ; and William, although some con
temporary letters say he was enraged at her indifference to
the English succession,^ yielded quickly to the wishes of
one who had often led him by the hand, and carried him in
her arms, during his sickly infancy. Sophia succeeded in
obtaining William's good word for her husband's Elec
torate, while Bavaria and Brandenburg were sent empty
away, with the petty raortifications rankling In their hearts
which our authority has pathetically described.' Sophia
^ Recueil des Pieces, Gargan MSS. Add. Brit. Museum.
' Stepuey Papers.
¦* Gargan MSS., from the Hanoverian archives. Additional MS. Brit.
Museum. The paper is entitled " What passed at the Hague between
King William ill. and the Electors of Brandeuburg and Bavaria ; " and
there is much more well Avorth attention.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 355
put off the Brandenburg regaUty to a more convenient
season, and returned to her home with the advantage she
had gained for her lord.
The closer proximity Sophia held to the disputed EngUsh
succession, the more anxiety was manifested by Eoman
Catholics to Induce her adoption of their faith. She was the
only Protestant surviving among her mother's once numer
ous faraily. Madame de Brinon, a friend of her sister Louisa,
the Abbess of Maubisson, thought herself qualified to argue
her into the pale of their Church. Sophia thus expresses
herself on the matter to Leibnitz, who seeras to have pres.sed
for an answer to the French lady-controversialist. Sophia's
definition of the office of the favourites of teraporal princes
is remarkable, considering her rank, and that she had fre
quently held the reins of government. It is historlcaUy
true In raost Instances. The Duchess Sophia to Leibmitz. "J. 1691.1
" I think, to compare God to a prince does not accord. The faults of
princes make the people run to their favourites, and to their ministers,
because they have not capacity enough to supply so many audiences and to
satisfy so many demands. But these faults are not to be found in God, for,
as we believe. He never considers our prayers importunate, and listens to
them without any trouble. Thus one can pay one's respects to Him without
either applying to His raother, who is not regent, or to the favourites. She
does not control His mind, because it is to be believed that the heavenly
court is governed very differently to those of earth. However, 1 do not
condemn iu the least those who like to amuse themselves with idle dis
course. People do so many stupid things in the world, they may at any
rate do that which causes neither good nor evil."
Leibnitz in answer.
" It must be owned that Madame de Brinon expatiates perfectly well on
saints and images, and that she talks like a doctor of the Sorbonne. If the
thoughts and the expressions of the people were regulated thus, there would
be no harm ; but things of the kind are exaggerated in a strange manner,
and I am well assured (although they say the contrary) that the people love
the Virgin more than God himself, for whom they have more fear yet less
afiFectiou. God knowing perfectly all our wants, the honour that one does
to saints ju claiming their intercession can serve but to prove our humility
and our desire to please Him by our honouring those with whom we sup
pose He is well pleased."

¦ Ilten. The initial means June or July.

356 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
Leibnitz proceeds to argue the "for" and "against" of this
vexed question, in terras leaning more to the "for" than could
be expected from the antagonist of Newton, concerning the
sustaining influence of the Creator among the starry host.
If we were not admitted behind the scenes, and pretty well
aware that his actual motives were rather to ascertain which
ritual was the most effective for governing the population,
rather than which was the truth, some doubt raight exist as
to his sincerity as a Protestant. Like the illustrious ladv
with whom he corresponded, all sects were indifferent ex
cepting in a political point of view. He concludes his letter
to Sophia, however, with this inforraation: —
" I see that Madame de Brinon considers the worship rendered to the
Virgin as of a different species from that which is offered to the other
saints. Nevertheless, the pre-eminence attributed to the Virgin is founded
on an after- thought. Our- Lord appears to elevate St John the Baptist
above all other human beings; and the ancient church considered the
angels above the Virgin. St Epiphanius says so in express terms. The
title of Queeu of Heaven is not well enough founded to be employed, in
public worship." '
The civil contempt with which Sophia dismissed this
dogma of the Eoraan Catholic Church did not, however,
prevent her from raaking a present of sorae of her needle
work to the chapel of the convent in Italy to which her old
servant and friend, the librarian Abb^ Mauro, belonged.
Here is her note of acknowledgraent to his rapturous
thanks. No doubt he saw in every stitch a hope of the
Protestant princess's conversion.
Sophia to the Abbate Mauko. " Uth January 1692.
" Sir, — You have fully rewarded me for the present I made to your
convent, in giving me the contentment which has been very agreeable.
I might expect that your fervent prayers would be blessed by God. I see
that I never occupied my hands better than on that work, and that I am
the only princess whose labours have called forth such a reward from your
convent, by which you would immortalise me. But I fear, when the worms

1 Ilten's Collection, p. 211.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE. 357
have eaten me, they will not spare my work. Thus you aud your capitu-
laires will do more for me than I have done for you, as you will contribute
by your prayers iu procuring me inestimable gifts. This insures my affec
tion to you whilst I live. — Always your attached " Sophia,
" Princess Palatine, Duchess of Brunswick and
" Lunenburg, Princess of Osnaburg."
Such was the usual official style of Sophia's signature
after she becarae reigning Duchess of Brunswick-Lunen
burg, and before the elevation of her husband, if eleva
tion it were, to the electoral dignity had officially taken
place. To her friend Leibnitz she raerely signs " Sophie."
Their correspondence was now frequent, because Leibnitz
was resident at Berlin, having followed the Princess Sophia
Charlotte to Brandenburg, and taken office at her court.
The title of Elector of Hanover was at last given to
Ernest Auguste in 1692. When the valiant defence of Chris
tendora by Ernest Auguste and his brother the Duke of Zelle,
the bravery of his eldest son George at the siege of Vienna,
the deaths in battle against the Turks of his two young
heroes — his second son Frederic and his fourth son Charles,
In their bloora of life — and the unceasing fidelity ofthe whole
family to their Imperial suzerain, are all considered, It must
be owned that the coveted reward was grudgingly and im
perfectly bestowed.-^ In March 1692 the Emperor declared
Ernest Auguste the ninth Elector, yet he was not given
the liberty to vote. The honour was raerely titular, al
though added to it was the well-sounding dignity of hered
itary standard-bearer of the Holy Eoraan Erapire. Forth
with Sophia changed her title of Duchess of Brunswick-
Lunenburg for Electress of Hanover.
Sophia, about the suraraer of 1692, clairaed of her daugh
ter and son-in-law a forraer proraise, that their little son
Frederic William should be consigned to her care, for educa
tion with her other grandson George, afterwards George II.
^ Remius,in his Memoirs ofthe House of Brunswick, most truly observes,
— " The whole Empire ought to have personally returned thanks to Ernest
Auguste."

358 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
The next visit her daughter paid, she brought the boy for ,
this purpose^ to Herenhausen ; but the education plan, howso
ever well meant, was a failure. The infant Frederic William
and the sraall heir of Hanover, the moraent they beheld each
other, manifested that extraordinary and mutual antipathy
whicli continued through their lives. Infants as they then
were, a regular personal contest took place whenever they
met. Frederic Williara was wild and savage beyond all
that could be iraagined, and Sophia began to regret having
undertaken the responsibility of so irapracticable a cha
racter. The daily battles between him and little George
of Hanover were as fierce as two children of four years old
could engage In ; and when not fighting his cousin, the imp
of Brandenburg flew from mischief to mischief with aston
ishing celerity. Great was the general consternation when
one day he swallowed a sUver buckle. All In his grand
mother's household mourned with her, excepting the wilful
patient hiraself, who was more turbulent and audacious than
ever when he found hiraself the object of general solicitude
and the tearful attention of the Electress Sophia. In a fortu
nate hour, while watching him devouring more voraciously
than usual, the natural good sense of Sophia prevailed;
she burst out laughing, and declared the Brandenburg
prince convalescent from all ill effects of the buckle, and,
tired of the trouble she had laid on herself, she sent him off
to Berlin, and surrendered him to his rightful owners.
He and his cousin George hated each other ever after
through life.^
The retreat of Sophia frora the daily routine of her own
court to the peaceful shades of Herenhausen had one tragic
effect, on which perhaps she had not calculated. Sophia
Dorothea, her young daughter-in-law, was left ostensibly
to sustain the honours of the first princess there. She was
really without power of any kind, either derived from great
ness of character or strength of position. Of course she
becarae the victira of the malice of the evil women he-
' Varnhagen von Ense. 2 jijij_
' Margravine of Baireuth.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE. 359
fore whose Intrusion the Electress Sophia had retreated.
Hitherto the young wife of the hereditary prince, George,
had lived an exemplary life, possessing the entire friendship
of her mother-in-law and the respect of the people. Her
husband, like her father-in-law, had been absent constantly
with the army, excepting In the season called that of winter-
quarters ; therefore his InfideUtles had not been noticed by
her. But when Europe had fought itself out of breath, and
the Brunswick troops were not so actively eraployed, the
Elector-Bishop and his eldest son returned to Hanover,
where their lawful partners soon perceived that others
usurped their proper places.
Two sisters, Elizabeth and Katharine de Meissenburg,
had made their appearance at the court of Hanover many
years before, In search of eligible establishments. The
eldest married M. de Platen, the governor ofthe hereditary
prince, Duke George ; the other sister raarried M. Busche,
the tutor of Duke Max. Scandal affirmed, that when EUza
beth became the all-powerful and avowed raistress of the
Bishop-duke, Ernest Auguste, her sister, Madarae Busche,
obtained the attentions of his son George. Madarae Busche
lost her husband, but soon married General Weycke. Th(>
partiality of both father and son gave these sisters un
bounded power at the court of Hanover, and they took
Into their unholy alliance a handsome girl of rank. Made
moiselle de Schulenburg, considered the beauty of the court,
and greatly preferred by the hereditary prince, George, either
to his lawful wife or to Madame Busche. About the com
mencement ofthe year 1694 these vile persons were installed
in all the public distinction of feminine dishonour which
raakes the annals of the courts of Charles II. and Louis XIV.
detestable. Madarae Platen had her opera-box at the left
hand of that of the Bishop-Elector, In the magnificent new
opera-house he had built, and the other woraen had propor
tionate distinctions. M. Platen was the minister of state
who had stepped into the Influential station of Leibnitz,
then absent at the Brandenburg court ; and M. Platen,
the minister, was ready to back any iniquity his woman-

360 SOPHLi, ELECTRESS OP HANOVEE.
kind and their allies might devise. Such was the strong
alliance of wickedness before which Sophia, Electress of
Hanover, had previously retreated, and her daughter-
in-law, Sophia Dorothea, was finally destined to suc
cumb. The kindness of the Electress Sophia had been great
towards the unfortunate young lady, when her life was
despaired of by the court physicians during her illness
after the birth of her daughter. The Electress took her under
her care when supposed to be dying, and prevailed on her
to stay with her at Herenhausen, where she nursed her
convalescent, and then put forth the whole powers of her
mind to deUght her.i Every day produced some enter
tainraent in grove, bower, or on the lake — conversaUon,
music, dancing, and fishing, were by turns the prevalent
amusement. Health and vivacity, after a time, returned to
the drooping Princess, although her husband no longer paid
her the least attention. He had a healthy heir for succession,
and a daughter to extend his alliances ; by the example of his
brothers, he saw the expense and trouble of a large family
of princes, and without any other reason he abandoned his
consort. As a still greater injury, he permitted the evil
woraen of the Platen faraily to Irritate and aggravate her
In every possible manner.
Thus George, the Hereditary Prince, had forsaken and ne
glected his wife ever since the birth of his daughter, without
alleging the slightest reason. He could not deny that she
was sweet-tempered, obedient, and virtuous — dutiful and
attentive to his mother, and an excellent parent to their
two children. But when he returned from his campaigns,
and she found herself left lonely at court to sustain its
tiresome routine, and do its daily honours, the object of
scorn to rivals not so handsome as herself, she lost sorae of
these good qualities — all, if the scandals of that time are to
be beUeved — and became so furious in temper that, when
' Authentic Narrative of the Sufferings, &o., of Sophia Dorothea, Princess
of Zelle, from the German .

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE. 361
mutual aggravation ran too high, she and the Hereditary
Prince bar husband fought, and even scratched. His chief
excuse was, that she gave him long loud scoldings In
French every tirae they raet — not without due deservings.
If all tales are true. The poor outraged one obtained Uttle
syrapathy on any side, excepting frora her raother-in-law ;
but then the Electress Sophia's counsels were, to follow her
exaraple, bear all such wrongs with quiet dignity, and fix
her heart on calmer pleasures than those of court life. At
twenty-five her daughter-in-law could not learn this wise
lesson. She flew to her father and mother at Zelle with
her children, implored their protection, and an asylum
with them. All their ambitious ends had been answered
by having placed her, the daughter of a raorganatic alli
ance, as the consort of a European sovereign, their grand
son as its heir, and a boundless reversionary prospect of
grandeur for their descendants In the succession to Great
Britain. Sophia Dorothea received cold corafort frora her
once-adoring parents, who merely advised her to go home
and behave herself placidly. She was so rauch enraged
that she took thera at their word, and returned directly
to Hanover. That day there was sorae family festival
at Herenhausen, at which the Electress Sophia received
her husband and sons, George and Max, as her guests.
The outriders of the hereditary princess announced her ap
proach, and were sent back to Invite her to the fete. But
her carriage never paused, and carried her p.ast Heren
hausen to Hanover. Her husband manifested great rage,
although his mother suggested that his princess went on
merely to rearrange her dress. From this trifiing pro
vocation another scene of violence followed, when the
Hereditary Prince George and his consort met; and soon
after he betook himself to his Hungarian carapaign,
leaving his young wife forlorn in her difficult position
at the Hanoverian court, surrounded by the worst and
wickedest of her sex, whose Interest It was to destroy
her. Antony Ulric, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, the

362 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE.
head of the house of Brunswick, who had been rather
eclipsed by the warrior-bishop, now Elector of Hanover,
and his aspiring branch, seems to have Interfered rather
Injuriously in the numerous famUy feuds of his cousin,
Two of Sophia's tall handsorae sons, Frederic and Charles,
had already found soldier's graves. Her third son, Duke
Maximilian, who was secretly a Eoman Catholic, and openly
a general In the Emperor's service In 1694, sustained the
place of second prince at the court of his father, the
Elector Ernest. He was a great friend of his cousin,
Antony Hlric, and was spirited up by him to litigate the
old claim for division of the Guelphic possessions among the
sons of the family. There was another person of the same
party, the handsorae Philip Count Koningsraarck, colonel
of the Elector Ernest's guards, who had been brought
up In Infancy with Sophia Dorothea. To this friend, and
to her brother-in-law Max, Sophia Dorothea Imprudently
complained of her wrongs, and clairaed their protection,
entreating them to help her to escape to the court of her
kinsman, Antony Ulric, whom she considered in the light
of a father, as she had been betrothed before her present
wretched wedlock to his eldest son, deceased, and accord
ing to the custoras of those times, she had been brought up
at his palace. W^hatsoever was the meaning and conduct
of the unfortunate princess, it is indisputable that Count
Koningsraarck, a vain and vicious young man, put the worst
construction on her confidence, and boasted of it, so that it
came to the ears of Madame Platen. Between that evil
woman and Koningsraarck the greatest Intimacy had ex
isted ; but he had recently forsaken her. Furious jealousy
led her to the destruction of Koningsraarck. She flew to
her infatuated old lover, the Elector Ernest Auguste, and
placed before him the notes she had intercepted between
his daughter-in-law and Philip of Koningsraarck. Madame
Platen easily obtained frora the Elector orders for a party
of his trabants or guards to intercept and arrest Konings-
marck, who, they found, was to have an interview with the
princess that evening. There Is not the slightest evidence

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE. 363
that Ernest Auguste meant to have Count Koningsraarck
assassinated, but only Iraprisoned for future trial or exami
nation. Madarae Platen, however, had her private mo
tives for carrying out vengeance to the height. She sta
tioned the trabants In the places most convenient for seiz
ing Koningsraarck ; ' but whether his death was occasioned
by his own resistance or her murderous directions, there
exists no evidence that can be depended upon. That
Madame Platen was near the spot, and saw her faithless
lover and caluraniator die. Is asserted, and that she stamped
her vengeful foot on his face. By her orders, his body, in
his rich dress, was thrust into a sewer, the place walled up,
and all signs of the homicide obliterated so corapletely that
no traces were discovered of Koningsraarck until the reign
of George II. , when alterations were making in the palace,
and his skeleton, to which some tatters of rich clothing still
adhered, was discovered in its unholy lalr.^
The Hereditary Prince George, the husband of Sophia
Dorothea, had not the least knowledge or concern with this
murder ; he was far away with his troops on the frontiers of
Hungary, doing hard battle with the Turks. His father was •
grieved and deeply perplexed by the untoward accident, as it
was represented to hira by the she-keeper of his conscience,
such as it was. The guilt of the father and son was not that
of the death of Koningsraarck, but In their systeraatic practice
of vice, which led thera to put confidence and power in the
worst hands they could fall Into. The subsequent persecu
tion ofthe unhappy young wife of George, and her lifelong
Imprisonment, if she were innocent, were far worse than
the slaughter of Koningsraarck in a scuffle, even if the
father and son had ordered It. Unfortunately for her, the
boastful tongue of KonIng.sraarck at the table of Augustus,
Elector of Saxony, and letters he had written to his com-
1 This young man had been educated in England, at Foubert's boys'
school, at the top of the Haymarket. He and his tutor were examined at
his elder brother's trial for assassinating Tom Thynne in Pall Mall. Count
Charles Koningsraarck was acquitted : he died during his campaigu in the
Morea against the Turks.
^ Horace Walpole, both History and Letters.

364 SOPHIA, ELECiTRESS OF HANOVER.
panions In iniquity, weighed heavily against her, although,
untried and conderaned without hearing, both might be
false wituess ; and her conduct in after Ufe would lead to
that conclusion.
Many persons who have the coraraand over their tempers,
and are watchful as to the words that pass their lips, seem
to have no control over the expression of their feeUngs by
the pen. When under irritation, they give vent to their
resentraent In written taunts, and these, of course, rise up
against thera when anger has passed by. The unfortu
nate Sophia Dorothea's worst raisfortunes arose from this
species of folly. She wrote her coraplaints in notes to
Koningsraarck, while her resentraent was warm, turning
withal Into ridicule and abusing those she thought neglect
ful or unkind to her. Among the objects of her satire were,
of course, the Elector, her uncle and father-in-law, and all
his evil familiars, of both sexes. What was worse, she
attacked her own father, whose devotion to herself and to
her raother had been previously most admirable. These
fatal notes were found in the apartments of Koningsmarck,
and placed before her father, the Duke of Zelle. '^ He never
forgave her the stinging satire with which she had men
tioned him. He had loved her too fondly to endure such
conduct. From the moraent he saw these letters he aban
doned her, his only child, to the raercy of her enemies. It
was said that letters proving grosser crirae on her part were
found, but that was decidedly false, or they would have been
urged against her. It Is highly to the credit of her mother-
in-law that she conducted herself humanely in the disastrous
affair. In the papers she left, the poor prisoner spoke
highly of the Electress Sophia.
The hapless Princess was ultimately forsaken by her
father, and never again saw her children,^ though her
tender mother sometimes visited her. She was immured
thirty-one years In the fortress ofAhlden, In her father's
^ Authentic Narrative of the Sufferings, &o. of Sophia Dorothea, Princess
of Zell, from the German.
^ Afterwards George IL, and Sophia Dorothea, Queen of Prussia.

SOPHIA, ELECTEESS OF HANOVER. 365
territory of Zelle ; therefore she was rather her father's
prisoner than her husband's. At Ahlden she died 1725,
a few months before George I.'s death, summoning hira
with her last words before the judgraent-seat of God.
And what part did her raother-in-law, Sophia Electress,
take in this tragedy ? She had done all for her that she
was able to do before it carae to the cliraax. She tried per
suasion, actuated by quiet, good sense ; had advised her to
hide calmly until the bad time passed by : she had nothing
else to offer. Sophia herself had retreated, in expectation of
a similar storm beating against her defenceless head frora
the same quarter. Her principal eneray was the sarae as
that of her daughter-in-law, Madame Platen ; but Sophia,
as the mariners say, gave her a wide berth, and thus sailed
clear of her.
A question of some importance raay occur, relative to the
opinion held by Sophia concerning her daughter-in-law's
guilt or Innocence. Two or three years afterwards, the
Duchess of Orleans wrote a passage in one of her letters^
answering one of Sophia's, in which she had evidently been
discussing the fate of " Madarae d'Ahlen" — the narae by
which the Hereditary Princess went after her iraprison
ment. For when George her husband, Ernest Auguste her
father-in-law, and the Duke of Zelle her father, with their
satellites Platen and Bernstorf, had agreed on the confine
ment of the hapless lady, she was called after the domain
in which she was incarcerated, as a blind to the public.
The Duchess of Orleans wrote to her aunt Sophia : " I have
just corae from church, and frora the holy coraraunion ; and
having done ray duty to God the almighty, am now doing it
to my dea^ aunt. Gallantries here are very comraon, but
they do not all end In so tragic a manner. Had the Princess
d'Alen been educated like us in Germany, and not d la
Frangaise, she would not have experienced so much trouble.
I still know all the Lutheran hymns I learnt at Hanover.
What we learn In our youth we do not easily forget."
1 Ilten's Collections, from the inedited letters of Elizabeth Charlotte,
Duchess of Orleans, December 25, 1698.

366 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
There is no want of kindness or good sense in this remark :
from It may be gathered that the unfortunate wife of George
I. had been brought up without religion, Protestant or
Catholic. Gallantry, in the court language of that day,
was the polite terra for guilt. That various degrees of
guilt might be attributed to every person engaged in this
frightful transaction there is no doubt, excepting to the
unfortunate victim herself, whose passionate and Ufelong
assertions of Innocence, her virtual divorce before it was
pretended that she deserved It, for no reason excepUng to
obviate the inconvenience of her bringing too numerous a
faraily of princely Brunswickers, ought fo be considered in
hei' exoneration.
It was not very long after the mysterious catastrophe
which led to the lifelong Incarceration of their unfortunate
daughter-in-law, that decline and ill health visited the
stout frame of the Electress Sophia's consort, the wanior-
bishop, now universally termed the Elector Ernest of Han
over. He had never previously known what sickness
was. The strong raan was beaten down alraost into im
becility at once. His first idea was to desire the society of
his neglected wife, who did not disdain to arause him with
the hurable means which he In his childishness craved for.
What this was may be learned by an answer that the
Duchess of Orleans wrote to her aunt In 1697, describing
the occupations of her sick prodigal, who had returned tohe
nursed and comforted. " I should be very sorry If ma tante
no longer nurabered me among her children. I ara grieved
to hear that Oncle has still such Inflamed eyes. AU the
bad feeling Oncle manifests against me. Is the work of the
false reports of wicked people, for Oncle Is the most good-
humoured man in the world. I am, notwithstanding, glad
that Oncle arauses himself so greatly with playing with
your ' Liebden' the game of the goose, as I know that of
late years he has not liked to be In your society." ^
' In the letters of the Duchess of Orleans, the word " your Liebden" is
often used instead of " your Highness," apparently by agreement. It way
be translated " your Love," or " your delectability." •

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 367
Perhaps the most remarkable circumstance In Sophia's
Ufe, to the historical reader, is the personal friendship she
and her daughter forraed with that extraordinary and un
accountable hero, Peter the Great. Voltaire vigorously
resisted the authentic documents that Frederic the Great
Insisted on supplying him with, in order that he might tell
truth, and shame whosoever ought to be shamed by that
ratherrare historical process.^ Our Sophias, both motherand
daughter, wrote what they observed to their friend Leibnitz,
without caring for any political bias. And we see in their
lively letters the Czar in bis youth, afflicted, It is true, with
his family malady of epilepsy, but with his stately figure
as yet unscathed by bodily torture, and his fair fresh
features, which Sophia Electress describes most truly as
"verypretty," free from the irapress of crirae and agonising
passions. The Elector of Brandenburg had been courting the
young Czar for his good-will regarding the erection of his
Electorate into a kingdora. He had received hira on his
March of Brandenburg with great hospitality, and passed
him forward to the Guelphic dominions, where he had
perforce to pass through the district of Coppenbriiek in
Zelle — " a fief of ours," as the Electress of Hanover says,
'' but belonging to the Prince of Nassau." Here the two
Sophias, mother and daughter, regularly waylaid Peter, and
Insisted on his coming to a stand and accepting their
acquaintance and hospitality at the Castle of Coppenbriiek.
Peter at last entered Into treaty, declaring that if he did as
desired, no one must look at hira excepting the Serenities to
whom he chose to be visible, for he had an intense objection
to be looked at by strangers, and still greater to .speak
German. The Sophias promised, and vowed that the
" Illustrious Czar should have his own way entirely." And
accordingly his enormous cortege drew nigh, July 17, 1697,
In which traveUed ostensibly three Eussian ambassadors,
^ Voltaire said he dared not use the preuves fdstoriques which Frederic
sent him, regarding the dark tragedy of the death of Peter's eldest son.
— Lettr& de Voltaire et Frederic.

368 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
amongst whom figured the faraous Le Fort, a young
Genevese tradesman, favourite and factotum to Peter the
Great. The most profound Incognito veiled the movements
ofthe Czar, who journeyed thus through Europe in the train
of his own ambassadors.
Before the great event occurred of the Czar's Lssuing
out of his obscurity, a parley took place, for his Majesty
found that the Duke of Zelle, and all the princes of the
house of Hanover, excepting the Invalid Elector, Ernest
Auguste, to say nothing of the little Sophia Dorothea,
daughter of the sad captive at Ahlen, expected to make his
acquaintance besides the two Electresses, and he had not
bargained for such a crowd. However, the old warrior Duke
of Zelle, whom he previously knew, was admitted to the
czarish presence ; and he talked Dutch with Peter, and pro
mised that he should not be looked at too rauch ; and finally
escorted him incognito through the crowd which had
assembled In the courtyard of Coppenbriiek, by a side-doorj
into the presence of the assembled " Serenities" of the house
of Hanover. Nevertheless, Peter's self-command nearly
broke down in the awful raoraent of presentation. " My
raother and I," says the Electress of Brandenburg,^ "be
gan to raake our bows, but the Czar covered his face with
his hands, exclaiming, ' Ich kenn nicht sprechen ' [I cannot
speak], and suraraoned Le Fort to his side, whora he called
his right hand, and ordered hira to reply. He seemed in
deed very bashful ; but we soon calraed hira, and got him
to a seat at the supper-table between ray mother and my
self, where each amused hira In turn. Soraetiraes he himself
answered us very pleasantly ; soraetiraes he called on his
interpreters, of whom he had two. Really he said nothing
but what was very proper on all the subjects discussed.
My lively mother put many questions to hira, which he
answered with great promptitude. And I ara amazed
that he was not annoyed by this style of our conversa^
tion, for, as his people said, it is not customary In his
country. As to his grimaces, I had expected them to
' Letter to Leibnitz by the Electress of Brandenburg. '

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 369
be much worse than they really are. It is evidently quite
out of his power to correct or alter them." The Electress
here alludes to the epileptic contortions which ever and anon
passed over Peter's features, marring their regular beauty.
But the portrait is not deforraed with the disgusting traits
shown . by her granddaughter Frederica, Margravine of
Baireuth, when Czar Peter, twenty years older, was pre
sented before her young astonished gaze. These were better
tiraes for the great Czar, before sorrow, crime, and cruelty
had left their Irapress upon hira, and perhaps kinder hearts
and brighter rainds were coramuning with hira that July day
at Castle Coppenbriiek. " One can see he had no master,
who taught him to eat nicely," resumes the Electress of
Brandenburg, " yet he has a natural raanner, which pleased
me much. He soon felt himself quite at home, and per
mitted every gentleman on service to enter, and at last the
ladies, regarding whom he at first raade some difficulty.
Soon after, he ordered all the doors to be shut, and calling
his favourite Le Fort,^ he coraraanded him not to suffer any
one to leave the room. Then, demanding great glasses to
be brought, he filled flowing bumpers with his own hands,
and sent round for every one to drink, saying ' that he did it
to their honour.' Some one would have had Quirini (her
Electoral Highness's chamberlain) fill the glasses, but the
Czar took them into his own hands, filled them himself, and
then gave them to Quirini to distribute — a great condescen
sion,^ of which we could not have thought hiin capable. I
made ray rausicians perforra several pieces, in order to see the
impression Italian music produced on him. He said he liked
particularly the voice of Ferdlnando, whom he rewarded, like

' Le Fort was the son of a Genevese tradesman, and brought up to trade
himself. While he lived he was Czar Peter's better angel, but the career
of this interesting young man was now drawing to a close : he died in 1699.
His great master mourned for him with all the savage strength of his cha
racter, and gave him a royal funeral.
^ Raumer, in his " Contributions to History," describes exactly this
national custom of the Czars, as performed by the Empress Elizabeth,
Peter's daughter, at the revolution that placed her on the throne.
VOL. VIII. 2 A

370 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
the gentieraen of the court, with a flowing glass. In order
to please him, we reraained four hours at table, and drank
healths d la Muscovite — that is, all at once, ahd standing.
Frederic was not forgotten." This was her only chUd, that
impracticable little one whose pranks had lately thrown her
mother and her Hanoverian court into consternation. " In
order to set the Czar dancing, I requested Le Fort to let
the Muscovite musicians enter, who accordingly made their
appearance after supper was concluded. The Czar, however,
would not begin until he saw how we danced, which we
did, to induce him to do the sarae. But he said he could
not, and he would not dance, for he had no gloves, and he
sent in quest of a pair, and had his whole luggage turned
over without success. My lively mother danced with the
big Commissary, and opposite danced Le Fort with the
daughter^ of Countess Platen; the Chancellor danced with
the mother. All went on very gravely, and the Musco
vite dances were found delightful. Every one was greatiy
pleased with the great Czar, and no one looked better
pleased than hiraself." " It was scarcely possible, though, to
resist laughing," the Electress of Brandenburg adds in a
postscript, " when the Czar's fool saying soraething too
saucy, his czarish Majesty seized a broom and swept him
out of the room " — as bad rubbish.
Frora the narrative of her daughter. It Is evident that the
Electress of Hanover, when she received guests of her own
rank, was surrounded by all the Ill-disposed women whom
she had retired to avoid contact with, at least In everyday
doraestic life ; for these Platens and Schulenbergs filled offi
cial places at the courts of her hu.sband, her son, and her
grandson George 11.,^ and by an astounding arrangement, of
alraost patriarchal descent. In vice, they were the disgraces of
her children and grandchildren's courts, and the pests of her
own household whenever, as on this occasion, she received
her equals. The Electress has a fling at the painted Jezebel
' This scion of a corrupt tree was afterwards the infamous Countess
Kilmansegge, mistress to George I.
' The Countess of Yarmouth was one of the descendants of Madame
Weycke.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 371
Platen in the ensuing letter, which coraprlses another nar
rative of the great Czar's visit. As the rainds of the two
Sophias were decidedly various in quality, and therefore
each sketched from different points of view, the letter of the
iUustrious mother Is given as weU as that of the daughter,
without much fear of fatiguing the reader by repetition of
circurastances ; for Sophia, Electress of Hanover, is by no
means the heroine of her own pen, howsoever she may be
that of her daughter.
Sophia, Electress oe Hanover, to Leibnitz.^
" Herenhausen, Aug. 11, 1697.
" Now I must tell you that I have seen the illustrious Czar. His Ma
jesty's expenses were defrayed by the Elector of Brandenburg until Wesel,
but he was compeUed to pass through Coppenbriiek, which is a fief of our
house, belonging to the Prince of Nassau. We requested his Majesty for an
audience, for he keeps everywhere bis incognito, and his three ambassadors
represent him. He consented to see us if in a private room, and only
accompanied by my daughter of Brandenburg, and my three sons, George,
Christian, and young Ernest Auguste. Although Coppenbriiek is distant
from here [Herenhausen] four great German miles, we hastened thither,
having sent Court-Marshal Koppenheim^ before us, in order to raake the
necessary arrangeraents. We arrived before the Muscovites, who reached
Coppenbriiek about eight in the evening, and we alighted at the house of a
peasant. Despite of our agreement, there was such a multitude assera
bled that the Czar declared he could not pass. A negotiation forthwith
was carried on between our party and him for a long time. At last my
eldest son was forced to scare away the intruding spectators by the help of
our guards. Whilst the Russian ambassadors entered Coppenbriiek in
state. Czar Peter stole to the side-stairs, escorted by the Duke of Zelle.
We went into the roora to visit his Majesty, and the first ambassador,
M. le Fort, of Geneva, became our interpreter. The Czar is high in stature,
his face very pretty, and his whole expression is noble. He manifests great
liveliness of spirit, and answers quickly and well. He derives no advan
tages from aught but nature, for his manners are untaught and uncouth.
We went to table directly: M. Koppenheim performed the office of marshal.
He presented the serviette or table-napkin to his Majesty, who was embar
rassed with it, for, instead of the serviette, he is served with the ewer and
basin' after dinner. His Majesty sat at table between myself and my daugh
ter, having on each side an interpreter. He becarae very gay and chatter-

' Gottingischeu — Historische Magaziu, vol. ii. part i.
" Koppenheim does not appear in the younger Sophia's letter.
^ Such were the customs in the courts of Charles V. and Francis I., and
at Windsor Castle, when Queen Anne received the Gerraan King of Spain,
afterwards the Emperor Charles VI.

372 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
ing, and we contracted a great friendship together. The Czar and my datigh-
ter exchanged tabatiires [snuff-boxes] : that of the Czar was adorned with
his crest in diamonds ; my daughter was much pleased witb it. We remained
rather a long tirae at table, and would willingly have reraained much longer,
feeling not tbe least fatigued, the Czar being in a most cheerful mood, and
amusing us very much. My daughter ordered her Italians to sing ; their song
pleased the Czar, although he confessed he loved not music. I asked him
' if he liked the chase ?' He replied : ' His father [Czar Alexis] did ; but as
for himself, he had had from his youth the greatest inclination to naviga
tion and feu d'artifice.' [This last probably comprised all sorts of artilleiy
and combinations of gunpowder.] The Czar added, that he himself worked
at the construction of ships. He showed us his hands, and made us feel the
calosities formed on them from hard work. After dinner his Majesty's
fiddles came, and we danced Russian dances, which I prefer to the Polo
naise. The ball lasted till four iu the morning. We had formed a plan of
sleeping at a neighbouring castle, but when moming broke we preferred
returning here without having slept, and came home very happy with Our
excursion. It would be too long to tell you in detail all we saw. M. Le
Fort and his nephew both wore French dresses ; tbey are very clever. I
could not speak to the two other ambassadors, nor to any of the princes who
formed the Czar's suite. His Majesty, not knowing that the neighbourhood
was without accommodations for us, earnestly pressed to see us again the
next morning. Had we been previously acquainted with his wishes, we
would have arranged so as to have been lodged in the vicinity, for his com
pany greatly delighted us. He is a raost extraordinary man. I cannot give
you a description of him, nor can you form an idea of what he is without
having seen him. His heart is good, and full of noble feelings. He gave
way to uo excess in drinking when in our presence ; but as soon as we with
drew, his suite fully indemniiied themselves. Our Court-Marshal Koppen
heim has well deserved the superb sable he was presented with forholdiDg
their heavy heads. He said that the Russian nobles, even in the depths of
intoxication, remained gentle and amiable."
The Electress of Hanover, about a month afterwards,
announced ^ to Leibnitz that the Czar had sent her a pre
sent of four fine sable skins and three pieces of damask,
but the damask was too small for any use except chair-
cushions. And then she says "that Czar Peter was on
his progress to Amsterdara, where he went to pubhc-
houses and araused himself with the sailors, besides assist
ing at the construction of his ships building there. He
declares that he performs fourteen handicrafts very com
pletely. I would not lose- for a great deal the advan
tage of having seen him : he Is most amusing In all his
I Historische Magazin, &c., Septeraber 15, 1697.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 37^
ways. He seems to feel the charm of beauty, but not
to be Inclined to gallantry : If we had not taken such
great pains to meet him, he would have thought little
enough about us. In his country the natural complexions
pf the women cannot be seen for white and red. One of the
marriage-presents consists of paint for the face. Madame
Platen, on this account, was Iraraensely adraired by the
Muscovites. Czar Peter took our stiff corsets of whalebone
for our persons : he mentioned with great surprise the
hardness of the German women's bones." Thus It is evi
dent the IUustrious Czar had joined in the waltz. He was
accorapanied to Holland by four dwarfs ; and these Sophia
describes, saying, " that two of thera were well propor
tioned and well educated. The Czar kissed and patted one
of the dw'arfs, whom he likes the best. He likewise took
the head of our little princess between his hands, and kissed
her twice : her top-knot was much disordered ; he kissed her
brother as weU." These children were George Augustus
(George II. of Great Britain), about ten years old, and the
little princess with the top-knot was young Sophia Dorothea
(daughter to the poor prisoner at Ahlen), afterwards Queen
of Prussia, whose little daughter In her turn was frightened
and discomposed by Peter the Great, and told the world
what she thought of him — not quite so leniently as her
grandmother, and her ancestress the Electress of Hanover,
have done, when In his youth he was passing to his far-
famed shipbuilding work at Saardara.
Soon afterwards the Sophias, mother and daughter, sepa
rated, and each went their way^ — the daughter to her palace
of pleasures, near her new city of Berlin, and her mother to
nurse her sick husband. Whatsoever raay be thought of
the orthodox Christianity of Sophia, Electress of Hanover,
her practice is not to be decried, for she received her hus
band without reproaches when he returned, in the irabecil-
Ity of sickness, to be soothed and cared for. Her daughter
mentions him with tenderness in the following letters to
her inother, in which Indeed she shows a feeUng heart for
other sufferers as well as her sick lord and father : —

s

374 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEK.
Sophia Charlotte,^ Electress of Brandenburg, to her Mothie,
Sophia, Electress or Hanover.
" A Berlin, ce 15 Octdbre 1697.
" Our good Madame Klenck needs no excuses for not replying, for it
is very natural in the sad state she is, which tirae alone can remedy," pro
vided her health does not suffer. That of my lord and father, of which
your Electoral Highness did me the honour to tell rae, seeras in a case
which ouly gives cause for sorrow. I bave always feared that he would
injure hiraself by taking so many remedies, for then the original strength
will not return, the want of which is his sole malady. That ought to con
sole him, if he can carefully restore it. Dear to me as are the news from
Hanover, I tremble lest every post should bring rae afflicting intelligence.
I see well that the correspondence of Madame [Duchess of Orleans] is the
sole pleasure of your Electoral Highness. The news she sends from the
Spaniard bas been found worthy by La Rosifere to be sent to the Prince of
Conti I will not close my letter before I have tidings from Poland :
they will divert some moments of your Electoral Highness. The poor
king ^ is in a great labyrinth. I wish him tranquil possession of his king
dom, because he has shown so much compassion for M. Klenck. His
envoy here is a beau blondin, well made, who has very white hands, and
dresses hiraself like a doll ; but that is all, for no one can extract a word
from hira. La Rosifere always raounts guard on him. M. Albensleben is
here, and very good company he is for rae, being a most estimable person.
He is still sad for the death of his brother, whom I also much regret.
Thus, without thinking, I have recurred to the same theme, from which I
would have diverted the mind of your Electoral Highness. For fear of
saying anything more of that kind, I will no raore but entreat her to be
lieve rae all ray life her very hurable daughter, " Sophie Charlotte."
The Electress op Brandenburg to the Electress op Hanover.'
" A Berlin, ce 25 Oetobre 1697.
" At the same moment I have received two of your Electoral Highness's
letters, and I am not surprised to find you touched with the death of
M. de Klenck. I am so to a degree which 1 cannot express, for it ia re-
gretable for a thousand reasons. Monseigneur my father has lost a very
honourable and agreeable man, who loved him. As for his poor wife, I
know not how to think of her without heartache, for I know the state the
loss will throw her into, and with her malady, affliction will bring her to
the torab. 1 avow that I ara particularly her friend, and I was so of M. de
Klenck ; being two persons worthy of esteera, therefore ray affliction is the
greater. Poor Madame de Mart is much to be pitied also, and I take all the

' Recueil des Pieces. MSS. from the archives of Hanover, copied by
Gargan, librarian, and presented by George IV.
^ Augustus Frederic, Elector of Saxony.
^ Recueil des Pieces. MSS. King's Coll. Brit. Mus. Gargan.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 375
part imaginable with her misfortune. It is most true, as your Electoral High
ness finds, that estiraable people become scarce at Hanover. Such losses
as thosa of M. Grotte and M. de Klenck are irreparable. God preserve to
us Monseigneur my father, to afford us consolation. But your Electoral
Highness has given me new alarm since the good news — brought here by
Prince Christian — that the sweat had done hira good. I would send news
from Poland to your Electoral Highness, but I know nothing particular.
M. Ham said that the affairs of the king went well. My mind is so full of
sad things, that which I know otherwise I tell but confusedly. Your
Electoral Highness will then excuse rae, I hope, if I finish bnt in assuring
her that I am her very humble "Sophie Charlotte.''
The affliction of Ernest Auguste was long and trying, as,
in coraraon with many tremendous sinners, it fell upon his
nerves awfully. More than once he died apparently, and
awoke again to agonising vitality. The strength that he had
wasted in a career of vice had perhaps been given for the
purpose of carrying him on to painless death in a ripe old
age, which he scarcely reached. At last Sophia saw her
prodigal sinner finally depart this life. Singular as it ap
pears, no differences had occurred between him and his
brother George WiUiara, Duke of Zelle, on account of the
hapless wife of George of Hanover. The Duke of Zelle
came to assist Sophia in nursing Ernest Auguste, who ac
tually expired In his arms. Nor did the father of the
wretched prisoner ask or plead for any clemency in regard
to his only child.
The lying in state of Sophia's consort In the castle-
chapel of Hanover presented a curious blending of his
ecclesiastical and temporal sovereignties. The electoral
hat was on a gold embroidered cushion on one side of
the head of his coffin, his ducal crown on the other ; his
warrior sword by his right hand, his bishop's staff on the
left. Five banners were placed round him. When the
funeral service was concluded, sixteen of his veteran colonels
took up his coffin and carried it to the vault In the castle-
chapel, where it at present rests. His bishopric was taken
by his youngest son and name-child, Ernest Auguste ; his
temporal dominions by his eldest son George ; whUe Max
and Christian, his two other sons, continued to murmur and
quarrel with their eldest brother regarding the, Illegality of

376 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
primogeniture among the sons of Guelph, until Christian
was silenced by the bullet that passed through his head
araong the waves of the Danube, when leading on the
Brunswick contingent for the Emperor against France.
Duke Max declared himself a Roman Catholic, and re
tired to the court of the Emperor, where he lived and died
holding high raiUtary rank.
The Elector of Hanover was buried, March 18, 1698,
leaving Sophia to assume the widow's veil, In which we
see her authentic portraits depicted, and which she never
laid aside. There is a letter extant from her to her friend
Ilten, who. It will be remerabered, was one of her hus
band's ministers of state. She speaks of Ernest Auguste
as if all resentraent of her wrongs had departed, and the
pleasant reraembrance of the loving spouse and protector
of her youth only remained. Sophia was a genuine cha
racter : she did not. In a very corrupt and malicious era,
say always what she thought, but she never made a parade
of feelings she did not experience.
The Electress Sophia to Mb Iltbn.^
" Herenhausen, February 15, 1698.
" I did not doubt. Sir, that you would feel for me, and regi'et the
beloved master, to whora you were very dear. We ought to have been
long since prepared for this misfortune ; but one always hopes for the
thing one desires. I least expected my raisfortune the day on which it
arrived, and thus my loss and ray surprise equally overpowered my feel
ings, which time alone can restore ; and as I have now little left, it is to be
hoped that the beneficent Creator will soon summon me to join my dear
Elector in the other world. Still I ought to rejoice in my children, and
in my brother-in-law, 2 who do all in their power to console me, which in
truth is a great comfort to me. My friends also, araongst whom you are
included, sympathise in my trouble. I am truly grateful, as always very
affectionately youi-s, "Sophia."
Sophia returned calraly to her dower -palace as a real
widow, having been previously driven there by the usurpa
tion of her place and functions by Madarae de Platen and
her allies. At Herenhausen she betook herself to the ciil-
1 Ilten's Letters. a Duke of Zelle.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS UF HANOVER. 377
tivatlon of her flowers, trees, animals, and philosophers,
never raore to suffer Interruption. She was very fond of
her swans and waterfowls, feeding thera with her own
hands, and observing all their pretty tricks. She says to
Leibnitz, in one of her epistles, " I have made my swans
and fowls a house in my garden. You see I have becorae
a good housekeeper, having now my tn^nage entirely In
my own hands." Three days afterwards she gives Leibnitz
the news that her dear swans have hatched three young
ones, and that It is truly a pleasure to watch the old ones
passing over the surface of the lake carrying their young
on their backs, when the cygnets are weary of swimming.
In her letters to Leibnitz she discusses philosophy, coins,
mineralogy, and literature, and sometimes mechanics. In
history she was herself a character, and whatsoever discu.s-
sions she enters Into, are stamped with certain value. For
instance, the letters between herself and the Duchess of
Orleans would settle the point, were It still disputed, of the
marriage of Louis XIV. with Madame de Maintenon.
No persons seem to have cast greater scorn at first on
that lady than these two princesses ; but the part taken by
the Dauphin settled the fact in their mind that she was the
lawful spouse of Louis. Her appearance at chapel in the
seat of the Queen of France assured the people, but the
court and foreign royal farailies were convinced by the
homage of her son-in-law, to which Sophia, Electress of
Hanover, bears the following testimony : —
The Electress to Leibnitz.'
" LiNSBURGH, Zd August 1699.
" I thought I should better repay you for your letters by sending you
the Journal of the literati, thau by writing to you myself. I thought
these lines might be accompanied by the two which have just arrived,
although you "will not find anything particular in them. I believe the
exhortations in the Magdalene^ have been written by a mind a la mode de
Madame Maintenon, who probably takes Mary Magdalene for a patron.
Madame 3 does not complain any longer of the 'tabouret' that she
offered to her since she heard the Duchess of Burgundy received the same

• Ilten's Collections, p. 238.
2 Apparently some literary magazine published in Paris.
3 Her niece, the Duchess of Orleans.

378 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
treatment from her, as well as the Dauphin and all his children. They
hold the plates for her when she eats, with a napkin upon the arms, and
do her raore honour than any queen. You will see by the last journal
that they raake Plato a good Christian. If the people in France were like
him, no one would be ill-used for his religion. It seems that the negotia
tion to satisfy Duke Maximilian i will not take place. I have spoken to
the Duke of Zelle of what you told me respecting the watches, which
went on tbe same as the other, when two were suspended from the same
cord ; but as I have forgotten tbe circumstances, I wish you would inform
me of them. I have sent a drawing of the rye to Madame,^ to show the
fruitfulness of this climate, and have sent her a portion of your letter
regarding her son. She is preparing to visit her daughter. I hope Count
Ranzau is satisfied with me. 1 wish you may be so too, if ouly for this.
.... Mademoiselle Schulenbourg tells me you are coming here. I
am very happy that such is the case."
From the reply of Leibnitz^ may be gathered^ that the
paper sent him by the Electress Sophia was called the
Journal des Savants, and that. In regard to the great hon
ours now paid to Madame de Maintenon, he tells Sophia
that he well reraembered he had heard her Eoyal Highness
of Orleans say how much she should prefer to see that lady
declared queen at once, than to be forced to pay her the
deference due to one, while she appeared In an ambiguous
character. This was good sense ; yet her conviction of
Madame de Maintenon's respectabUity did not hinder her
frora hating her unweariedly, and raanifesting that hatred
to all her princely correspondents. Yet the ministers of
France regularly read the epistles she wrote to her aunt
Sophia, and all the other "Llebdens," as she termed them;
nevertheless they transmitted the missives to their several
addresses. Once more was the widowed Electress disturbed from
her beloved paradise of Herenhausen at the call of family
ambition. Her son-in-law, the Elector of Brandenburg,
sighed to be called king ; his peculiar character gave him
no chance of a success which was only to be obtained by
propitiating his equals and superiors of the great German
Bund. His consort cared a great deal for pleasure, but
very little for the noise, parade, and pomp, considered as
I Her third son, then contesting the family compact of the house of
Brunswick. ^ Her niece of Orleans. ^ Ilten's Collections,'

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 379
such by her lord. However, as she had observed some
symptoms of alienation in her spouse, and seen a painful
family exaraple in the fate of her sister-in-law, the poor
prisoner of Ahlen, she implored the aid of her mother In
the grand affair, and, announcing a poUtical fit of indisposi
tion, departed to Aix-la-Chapelle, where the Electress' of
Hanover hastened to join her In the autumn of 1699. The
two Sophias planned proceeding to the Low Countries,
where William III. was to be canvassed in his retreat at
Loo by his cousin and old friend. On their way they visited
the Elector of Bavaria, governor of the Austrian Nether
lands, and he was sued hy thera to sanction the title that
the Elector of Brandenburg was about to assurae. He
complied, and treated them with every distinction, although
left to do the honours of his court unassisted by his consort
(a daughter of John Sobieski, the heroic king of Poland),
who would not appear. Leibnitz says the Electress of
Bavaria was a very fair woraan — so vain of her beauty
that she was afraid of rivalry frora the lovely Electress of
Brandenburg, and therefore kept her charaber during the
Hanoverian visit. The Elector of Bavaria speeded his
guests on by sea to Eotterdam, where. In a violent autum
nal tempest, their lives were In danger. However, they
landed safely at Eotterdam, and no sooner recovered from
their fatigues than they extended their literary patronage
to one who was not desirous of the favour. Sophia of
Hanover sent for Bayle, the free-thinking philosopher of
the age. Bayle, who probably had not a presentable coat,
sent word that he had gone to bed early, being III, and
could not corae. The zeal for literature of the two Elec
tresses was not abated by this reply. They wanted to visit
him in person next morning ; and this, as philosophers have
seldom their dens in the raost orderly arrangement, was
stUl worse. Bayle pleaded the continuance of the violent
headache that had oppressed him the previous evening. He
was forced to keep his bed, the only refuge, poor man, he
had. Count Dohna then arranged that, when Bayle was
better, he would wait on the Electresses at the Hague

380 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER,
castle, where they were staying. It is quite clear that the
philosopher would rather have done anything else. He
was raolested. Speaking of them In his version of the
visitation, his disturbance Is evident.' Nevertheless they
received him with the utmost graclousness at the Hague
palace. Sophia of Hanover conversed with him, asking
him the most abstruse and, as he said, unaccountable ques
tions. It Is to be hoped her Electoral Highness did not
wait for answers. His friend Basnage, another philosopher
conversed meantime with the Electress of Brandenburg
who took an opportunity of complimenting Bayle, by telling
him she always carried his works with her wherever she
went. The Electresses urged Bayle to accompany them
to Delft. He could not resist their urgency, but put his
journey off so many times that at last they departed with
out hira. This exploit of philosopher-hunting being re
ported to Leibnitz, he, a better broken-In courtier than the
lion of Eotterdara, answers, giving us a little more light
on accidents by field and flood : ^ "It is very pleasant to
make projects. The best of all wUl be that which her Elec
toral Highness of Brandenburg planned with rae to visit
your Eoyal Highness In England. She would be very glad
to meet you there ; as glad as when you sailed in hei'
corapany between Antwerp and Eotterdara. She admires
your high courage when the waves furiously tossed about
your ship. She then told you that you were destined to be
the sovereign of the seas."
The Electresses finished their tour after propitiating
WUliara IIL, who had nothing to say against the exalta
tion of the Elector of Brandenburg as Frederic I. of Prussia ;
and, their mission performed, they returned to their respec
tive palaces.
Frora Bayle's crustiness on this grand occasion the anec
dote arose of his remark on the propensities of the Electress
of Hanover for asking questions ; the philosopher complain
ing that she wanted to know the pourquoi de pourquoi, the
very why of the wherefore. The censure has been attri- ,
• Tract by Bayle.
* Letter of Leibnitz to the Electress of Brandenburg.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 381
buted to Leibnitz, and as if passed upon her daughter, yet
by those who knew nothing of their relative situations.
The young Electress of Brandenburg had looked up to
Leibnitz as tutor and friend from the hour she could speak,
perhaps even earlier. He loved her dearly, and would
never have sneered at her questions, however teasing.
But Bayle was dug out of his own sanctum of study —
threatened with princely visits that would have Involved
the necessity of book-dusting and paper-sorting — forced
to put on a best coat, perhaps to buy one on purpose
—to run the gauntlet of all the officials in corridors
and at doorways, in making his way to the presence-
chamber of the two Sophias, and, when he got there,
tormented with unanswerable questions ; and finally per
suaded into promising to hook hiraself on their train, and
be dragged to Delft. And this unwilling lion of the seven
teenth century was forced into much manoeuvring to get
clear of the last infliction. No wonder he was cross and
censorious. But what would Bayle have said or done, if he
had been expected not only to write the amusing narrative
that follows, but even to take a part in this rude play of
the German magnates? — yet a greater raan did it, but at
the same tirae a better-tempered philosopher. Every one
must admire the real good-nature of Leibnitz.
Leibnitz to the Electress Sophia. " July 1700.
'¦' Madame, — Although I imagine that our Madame I'Electrice will give
your Electoral Highness a description of our comic masquerade of tbe
village fair represented yesterday at her palace-theatre of Lustenberg, I can
not help telling you something about it. Everything was got up in haste to
celebrate the Elector of Brandenburg's birthday, — that is to say, the 12th of
this month for the Ilth. The real natal day fell on the previous Sunday.
The stage represented a village fair, with shops and all their signs, where
they sold, for nothing, ham, sausages, tongue, wine, lemonade, tea, coffee,
chocolate, cakes, and sugar-plums. Margrave Christian, M. Opdam, M.
du Hamel, aud other nobles, kept tbe shops. M. Osten (late master of the
revels to the King of Denmark), was the quack doctor, and superintended
a numerous staff of harlequins and rope-dancers, amongst whom shone peer
less Monseigneur the Margrave Albert. The quack doctor had also admir
able vaulters, who were, if I do not deceive myself, the Count de Solms
and M. de Wassenaar. But nothing was prettier thau his player of gob-

382 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER,
lets [Anglice, thimblerig'], no other than Monseigneur le Prince Electoral,
who has learned effectively to play hocus-pocus."
Sophia's grandson Is the personage to whora this compli
ment Is due — the Prince Electoral, Frederic WilUam, only
child of her daughter the Electress of Brandenburg, who,
having been born In 1688, was, when Leibnitz thus men
tions him, in his twelfth year ; it is to be hoped somewhat
tamer than when his iUustrious granddarae was forced to
send him home for cuffing his cousin George, and swallow
ing the silver buckle.
" Your illustrious daughter, Madame I'Electrice, was the doctor's wife,
and kept her shop of orvietan.^ M. des AUeures represented very well the
tooth-drawer. Ou the front of the stage was displayed the solemn entry
of Monsieur the quack doctor, raounted on an elephant made up for the
occasion, followed by her Electoral Highness the doctress, who was car
ried iu a chair borne by her Turks. The goblet-player, the vaulters,
tumblers, merrymen, and the tooth-drawer, followed in procession. When
all the suite of the quack doctor had passed by, there entered a dance of
Bohemiennes, ladies of tbe court, led by Madame the Princess of Hohen
zollern, and they formed iuto a pretty gypsy ballet. An astrologer, with
enorraous spectacles on nose aud telescope in hand, was the next mask
That character was destined for your Royal Highness's faithful servant
Leibnitz, but Count de Wittgenstein charitably relieved me of it. Aud he
poured forth incessant predictions in favour of our lord the Elector, who
listened to them from the nearest box."
And these foretold the Prussian royalty, now fast ap
proaching. " As for the Princess of Hohenzollern, iu the character of first gypsy or
Bohemienne, she predicted the best good luck in the world to our Elec
tress in the raost agreeable raanner, sung in German ballad verse very
pretty, in the style of M. de Besser.* M. de Quirini^ was valet-de-chambre
to tbe illustrious doctress ; and as for me, I placed myself where, through
my own moderate-sized spectacles, I could observe the whole, and make
report thereon to your Electoral Highness. The maid of the Princess of
Hohenzollern now had the toothache, whereupon the tooth-puUer, with
blacksmith's pincers, laid hands upon her, and soon drew a tooth as long as

' This seeras the shop of dried herbs, such as many of our readers will
remember in Paris.
' German poetry was not then so completely out of fashion as it became
iu the middle of the last century, when it was scoffed down by Frederic
tbe Great and Voltaire. Perhaps the German lyrist, praised thus by Leib
nitz to Sophia of Hanover, is worth looking after.
^ He has already appeared as chamberlain in the visit of Czar Peter.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 383
one's arm, or that of a sea-horse, which indeed it was. The quack doctor
loudly lauded, in a solemn harangue, the prowess of his tooth-drawer, who
could pull a tooth of that size without the least paiu, and advised every one
who had teeth not to lose such an opportunity. Upon which several sick
boors stepped up for remedies. These were M. d'Alefelt and M. de Flem
ing, the Polish and Danish envoys, aud our M. d'llten, each dressed in pea
sant costume of his native country. M. d'Alefelt, as a Flemish boor, and
M. Fleming, in good Pomeranian, sung verses of excellent omen to the
Elector of Brandenburg, aud every verse finished thus —
' Vivat Frederic and Charlotte,
And he who bears them ill-will
Is a heriot. ' i
There was a refrain of the Tower of Babel, every oue present singing
this elegant chorus in his own language. And M. Opdam, to please Ma
dame the doctress, sung the song of L'Amour Medicin, in praise of the
grand remedy of orvietan.^ At last in came a trouble-fSte, iu the sem
blance of tbe regular court physician, who attacked the empiric, and then
ensued a verbal contest full of fun. The quack doctor bustled out all
sorts of testimonials, papers, parchments, privileges, and attestations from
emperors, kings, electors, and princes. The state physician mocked at all
that, and displayed the medals of gold hanging round his neck. Then
our lord the Elector of Brandenburg descended from his box, disguised
as a Dutch mariner, and bought here aud there at the shops of the fair.
The music played from the orchestra, and every one present — which
were indeed only the court, and persons of distinction abiding there
— declared that no opera, although produced at the cost of thousands of
doUars, ever gave so much satisfaction."
And none the less, peradventure, for the tone of coarse
ness which certainly pervaded this princely celebration.
Did Leibnitz, when detailing to the illustrious Sophia, his
patroness, the humours of the erapiric and all his raerry
men, cast a thought on his own antecedents at Nureraberg?
Assuredly the character he declined of the astrologer carae
a little too near his forraer vocation in right good earnest
as astrologer and alchymist to the Brunswick duke, John
Frederic, of necromantic raeraory.
After the Prussian royalty had been achieved by the
personal influence of the two Sophias, the coronation com
pleted at Berlin, and all set going In prosperity to the
delight of Frederic I., his beautiful queen took some
liberties that had been hitherto grudgingly allowed her.
' Perhaps a helot, or slave, or serf.
^ From Moliere's coraedy of " L'Amour Medicin,'' not in the raost refined
taste.

384 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
She extended her visits at her mother's court, and thei-e
recreated herself with masquerades and other delights not
considered orthodox at the Calvinist court of her husband.
She was her mother's guest at Herenhausen, in February
1702, with her husband's sister the Duchess of Courland.
Sophia of Hanover likewise entertained there the son and
daughters of her deceased brother Charles Louis and Louise
de Degenfeldt. They had been given rank by her father as
Count and Countesses of the Ehine, and called the Rhine-
grave and the Rhlnegravines.-' The two.ladies, Louisa and
Amelia, were at this time the principal attendants of their
,aunt the Electress Sophia, placed about her by the^influ-
ence of her niece of Orleans, who kept up a constant corre
spondence with these half-sisters: their brother, Charles
Maurice, was brave and handsorae, highly accomplished,
and full of learning and elegant courtier-like graces ; but
was a reveller and bon-vivant, to the great injury of his
health and character. To her nephew, the Rhinegrave
Charles Maurice, did the Electress Sophia confide the
mastership of the revels that were to, entertain her daugh
ter and their guest of Courland. The Feast of Trimalcion
was the raask arranged by Charles Maurice, and all the
arrangements were Eoraan, to the utraost rigour of cos
turae. Couches, such as the Eomans reclined upon at meals,
were arranged round the banquet-table, and the principal
places were occupied by those who represented Trimal-
cion's guests. These were the Queen of Prussia, the Elector
George of Hanover, and his younger brother the Bishop
Ernest Auguste. As for the Electress Sophia, she con
tented herself with viewing the scene frora her box with
her old friend and brother-in-law the Duke of Zelle, who
was thus sharing in all the amusements and festivities of
his son-in-law's court, while bis own daughter was kept a
prisoner. Trimalcion was acted by the Ehinegrave Charles Maurice,
and Fortunata, his wife, by Maderaoiselle de Polnitz, one
of the ladies of the Queen of Prussia. When the guests
entered the Roraan dining-roora, a slave proclaimed, " With
^ Polnitz.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 385
the right foot first." They were already reclining at the
table when Trimalclon's procession entered : he was borne
on a litter, preceded by huntsmen blowing horns and slaves
singing In chorus. Fortunata was summoned several tiraes
before she carae : then the guests were welcomed in forra ;
pies were cut open, out of which issued flights of birds, a cus
tom still prevalent In Spain. An ass was brought in loaded
with olives. Trimalcion and Fortunata had a quarrel; but
the learned Leibnitz, who records the scene,^ does not re
veal whether In Latin, French, or good homely German.
Out of due consideration regarding the frailty of human
life, Trimalcion had his will read ; his slaves all the time
howling and sobbing, and making grimaces of grief.
Several slaves were freed. It was observed that the
noble Ehinegrave, Trimalcion, drank nothing but right
Falernlan wine at that memorable festival, whereas his
usual potations were of strong Hungarian wine, from
which he abstained, and was carried off in procession
with his Fortunata in actual sobriety, keeping up to his
exit the classical costume of the scene irreproachably.
The whole affair appears pedantic to frigidity, yet, on the
return of the fair Queen of Prussia to her own court, her
mother was startled at hearing that a violent quarrel had
taken place between her and his Prussian Majesty. He
bad heard a bad character of the carnival masquerades at
Hanover ; 2 that they were not consistent with good morals ;
and, moreover, he professed hiraself jealous of the Rhine-
grave Charles Maurice. The Electress Sophia hastened to
Berlin, and, in consequence of her judicious manner of
dealing with the suspicions of King Frederic, a reconcilia
tion took place with his queen. The Duchess of Orleans
wrote by every post to the Electress Sophia,^ entreating
her to remonstrate with Charles Maurice on the fatal ten
dencies of his Inebriety. If the Rhinegrave would ob
stinately drink himself to death, he certamly departed this
^ Letter of Leibnitz to Louise, Princess of Hohenzollern, Feb. 25, 1702.
^ Polnitz.
' Leijters of the Duchess of Orleans, Stutgard.
VOL. VIII. 2 B

385 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
life at a very convenient period for the success of his aunt's
diploraacy with her son-in-law.
Sophia had the distress of seeing her faithful Madame
Hariing, the friend of many a year of varied fortunes,
decline most painfully at the cl6se of the year 1701.
" There Is," she wrote to her niece, October 15,^ " In
finite sorrow In witnessing the sufferings of such a per
son as Madame Hariing, to whom I am Indebted for life
long kindness, overwhelraed as she is with sickness. The
deep syrapathy I feel for her may truly be called a sickness
of the raind. I doubt if any martyr ever suffered more
than she has done : very meek and sweet-tempered she is
through it all. Nevertheless, if I have my portrait engraved
by Pfalz It must be now or never, for on the recovery of
Madarae Hariing she never would let rae spend money on
these old features of mine.'' Madame Hariing was per
fectly right — the last portrait painted of any Illustrious
character Is always the one which is Identified by posterity.
Often it is drawn when disease or age has rendered the
persons totally unlike themselves.
The ensuing March released Madarae Hariing from her
sufferings, as the Duchess of Orleans thus writes: "The
death of our good Madarae Hariing caused me severe pain.
Although the poor sufferer is happier now, for her exist
ence could not have continued without perpetual anguish,
still It is always sad to see good friends depart. The
Queen of Prussia will be as much grieved as myself, as this
good woman educated her as well as me."
1 Feder.

SOPHIA, ELECTEESS OF HANOVER

CHAPTEE IV.
SUMMAEY
Sophia recognised as the next Protestant heir to England after Princess
Anne of Denraark — Her letter on the subject — Toland's visit to her
court — Accession of Queen Anne to the throne of Great Britain — Con
fidential discourse with Lord Dartraouth — Sophia's letter to Leibnitz —
Victory of Blenheim — Supernatural appearance connected with it men
tioned by Sophia — Dedication to Sophia of a freethinking book —
Sophia's indignation at abuse levelled at James Stuart — Visit of the
Duke of Marlborough and Lord Raby — Her portrait (see Frontispiece)
— Sophia reviled to Queen Anne by the Duchess of Marlborough — Queen
of Prussia eagerly desires her mother's royalty in England — Her visit
to stimulate her raother's indifference — Her sudden death — Illness and
deep grief of the Electress Sophia — She loves as her daughter Caroline
of Anspach-Brandenburg — who marries the Electoral Prince — Sophia's
granddaughter married to the heir of Prussia — Sophia rejected as heiress
by the Scotch Parliament — Union of Scotland and England — Ceremony
at Hanover of her recognition — She avoids the sight of James II.'s pic
ture — Letters of her niece of Orleans— The Abbess Louise paints a picture
for Sophia — Descriptions of the princes of her race — Letters to Leibnitz
on his return to Hanover — Sophia's last reception of Czar Peter — Dances
the taper dance with hira — Queen Anne's letter to Sophia— Sophia's
death — ^Burial.
The death of the young Duke of Gloucester had removed
the last reversionary Protestant heir between Sophia and
the throne of England. Lord Halifax, a great leader of the
English literati, sent her on the happy occasion a compli
ment, as It Is called In the phraseology of those times.
Sophia answered In these words : —
" Heeenhausen, lid Jwne 1701.
" Tou are very obliging, ray Lord, to take part in everything that
regards the grandeur of the house into which I am married ; and I ought
to thank you in particular for the affection which you have testified to me

388 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
in the affair of the succession, which excludes, at the sarae time, aU Catholio
heirs, who have always caused so many disorders in England. I am un
fortunately too old ever to be useful to the nation and to my friends,
which, if I could be, it would make me much in love with life. However,
I shall wish that those who are to come after me may render themselves
worthy of the honour they will have ; and that I may at least find some
occasion of testifying, by my sei vices, the esteera I have for your merit.
" Sophia, Electress."
Amongst Lord Somers's papers was the copy of a letter
frora the Princess Sophia to Mr Stepney, then rainister at
Vienna, In which she expresses her apprehensions that her
own faraily, if they were called to the succession, might
not give satisfaction, and rather recommends the making
choice of the son of James IL, who had done no injury,
¦Vvas young, and might receive what Impressions we pleased
to give him.
Julian Toland, one of the heroes of Pope and Swift's
Dunciad, whose undesirable reputation as a raaterialist or
freethinker has reached all Its readers, was among the
numerous worshippers of the rising sun In Hanover, and
after the death of the young Duke of Gloucester sent in
formation concerning that unknown realra to his party in
Great Britain. Much to the benefit of most of his insular
readers, to whom even the geographical situation of Hanover
was a mystery only defined to them by the saucy refrains of
sorae of the Jacobite songs of Eobertson of Struan, Toland
begins his lesson methodically thus : " Hanover is situated
In a sandy soil upon the river Lalne, which Is navigable
only by small boats. It is regularly fortified, and divided
Into the new and old towns. The palace was In old time a
monastery, but so much metaraorphosed that no footsteps
reraain of Its original. There is a pretty theatre, with
handsome stalls for all quaUties." And Toland lets us into
a secret of the old German mode of managing the good
citizens of the miniature raetropolises of such states. " No
body pays raoney for going to a play there ; the prince, as
in sorae other courts of Germany, Is at all the expense of
the entertainment. But the opera-house, within the palace
or castle, Is visited as a rarity. Strangers of figure or of
quality are commonly Invited to the Elector's table, where

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 389
they are amazed to find such easy conversation. At court
hours all people of fashion raeet there without any con
straint. The ladies are perfectly weU-bred, and raany of
them handsorae. The Electress's maids of honour are
worthy of the rank they enjoy, especially Mademoiselle
Schulenberg, who is a lady of extraordinary raerit." Ex
traordinary, Indeed, her merits were, for she is identical
with the Infamous Duchess of Kendal, prime-mistress to
George I. Toland's ideas of female merit. It must be
owned, were extraordinary.
Sophia's recognition as heiress to the chUdless and in
valid Queen Anne had passed as a law, at the accession of
that Princess. By act of Parliament, she was prayed for
as such wherever the service of the Church of England was
celebrated. The people at large were thus prepared for
her succession or that of her line. Even her kinsraan,
Antony Ulric, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, who had
professed himself a Roraan Catholic since the marriage of
his daughter Amelia to the heir of the Eraperor, compli
mented her on this prospect.^ Duke Antony was very
iU, but his wit, learning, and poetic genius remained un
impaired. Sophia, in the sumraer of 1704, visited and
cheered her old friend with her lively conversation so much
that he recovered ; whereupon he addressed to her some
elegant verses, in German, on the subject of her assuming
the privilege of her royal Anglo-Saxon ancestry in healing
the sick.
At the period of the accession of Queen Anne, Lord
Dartmouth, Privy Seal, carae on sorae diploraatic mission
from the English Court ; with him the Electress Sophia was
on confidential terms, for his father had been an old friend
in the times of the banished Cavaliers.'' To him, when
discussing the misfortunes of the royal line of England, she
confided the fact that she had been deeply disappointed in
her youth that Charles II. had not thought of marriage
with her. " All the miseries arising frora another Roraan
CathoUc marriage would have been avoided," she observed,
I Letters of Leibnitz to Rothmar, 1702. _ .
Dartmouth MS. Notes to Burnet's History of Great Britain.

390 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
" and the fine family of which I have been the mother would
have been his heirs." ^
Sophia received a gay visit from her daughter, the
Queen of Prussia, at the coraraenceraent of 1702. The
Queen always chose that season of the year, in order to
enjoy her favourite diversion of the Carnival masquerades
free frora the remarks and control of her husband's preachers
of the Calvinist sect, who hated masquerades ; and no great
wonder. Sophia saw her daughter and the Duchess of
Courland arrive at Herenhausen, escorted In a manner
greatly marvelled at In Berlin and Hanover in the com
raenceraent of the eighteenth century. It would have been
no marvel in the nineteenth — the costume of the princely
charioteer excepted. The Margrave Albert, half-brother
to the King of Prussia, insisted on performing the office of
coachraan to his sister of Courland, and sister-in-law the
Queen of Prussia. In spite of the entreaties of the Queen
and the Intense severity of the weather, he raounted the
coach-box, and drove the whole way from Berlin to her
mother's palace at Herenhausen, skilfully guiding the horses,
with all the reins in his hands, the whole forty miles be
tween Berlin and Hanover. During the perforraance of
this successful feat he wore the full evening-dress of the
period — silk stockings, thin shoes, suit of erabroldered velvet,
and full flowing periwig,^ reaching to his waist, which ap
pendage. It Is to be hoped, kept hira from freezing; only
another for each leg would have been desirable.
All Europe now rang with the fame of the Marlborough
victories ; the war through the year 1 704 had become
gigantic. Brunswick troops had partaken in the great
victory of Blenheim, which occurred in the succeeding year,
where Sophia's third son, Duke Max, comraanded the Em
peror's left wing. Maternal pride led her to exult in his
glory, although he was nowRoman Catholic professed, and on
ill terms with his brother and sovereign, the Elector George.
Of course, the victorious Marlborough and his captains were
received as welcome guests at her court. But before their
arrival she thus wrote to her confidant Leibnitz: —
1 Dartmouth MS. " Varnhagen von Ense.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 391
The Electress Sophia to Leibkitz.i "Sept. 13, 1704.
" I have forgotten, Monsieur Leibnitz, to thank you for the plan of the
battle. The Elector [George] thinks that he has one more particular, where
all is better raarked. Destiny has ordained that the French defended them
selves badly. They were so advantageously posted, that if they had held
their own, they could not bave been routed.
" I know not if the Landrost Busch has confided to Luxbourg the revela
tion he had from his son, who was killed there ; he appeared to him and
prayed him not to be afflicted at his death, because he is very happy, &c.
I fiud this very extraordinary, to have known of the battle so positively.
The Elector says, above all, ' What judgraent will M. Leibnitz pass on this
subject ? ' "
A very curious question it is, as propounded by the philo
sophic Electress to her high-priest in those matters. The
three persons concerned in the discussion of the above ghost-
story — the Electress Sophia, her son George I., and the
German Newton Leibnitz — had each their different opinions.
The Elector (George I.) believed implicitly In ghosts, vam
pires, and all the diablerie to which his countrymen seri
ously incline.^ He suffered superstitious notions to guide
him In his course of conduct, and, if we raay believe bis
contemporaries, lost his life through the sudden shock of a
summons^ to the tribunal of God. Sophia, It may be
seen, although she mentions the apparition of the young
Blenheim soldier In the briefest words. Is startled fairly out
of her infidelity. " For Busch," she says, " knew the death
of his son so positively" — her meaning being, before any
inteUigence of this world could have brought It.
The Infidel Toland had been petted at the court of Sophia,
where he was sent, indeed, on a diploraatic mission. And her
gracious reception of this savant encouraged one of the same
clique to inflict on Sophia the injury of this dedication: —
" To her Royal Highness the Princess Sophia, Electress, this Discourse
of Freethinking, in testimony of the author's sincere devotion (coramon to
¦' Ilten's Collections.
^ George II. fancied he bad seen vampires, and has left a judicial account
of these supematurals. The trial happening when he was at Trieste, is
quoted by Lord Byron, on whom it made a strong irapression.
= Sent by his injured wife frora her deathbed. He did not receive it until
six months afterwards, travelling to Osnaburg. He was iu good health,
but being suddenly shocked by reading it, be never spoke after. The letter
was in his carriage when he was taken out dead.

392 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
him with all English freethinkers) to her Koyal Highness's person and
family, as heirs by law to the Crown of Great Britain, and more particularly
of his high esteem for those noble endowraents of mind so rare in princes,
so peculiar for so many ages to the House of Hanover, and so conspicuous
in her Boyal Highness, is raost humbly presented by her Boyal Highness's
raost obedient servant, " Anthont Collins." ^
Those who are deep In the literature of the era of Pope,
Swift, and Arbuthnot, wUl reraeraber the narae of this free
thinker Collins In their Dunclads and satires, in company
with Julian Toland, Leonard Welsted, Dennis, and Old-
mixon. Notwithstanding the full-blown hopes of her faraily rela
tive to the great succession, which every wave of events
heaved nearer In reach, Sophia's good taste and feelings
were corapletely outraged by the vulgar abuse with which
the English press bespattered her kinsraan, the unfortunate
son of Jaraes II. She wished to put an end to it, and
thought that If her opinion was made known on the matter,
her partisans would desist — would be less abusive. Here are
her ideas on the raatter, expressed, as usual, to Leibnitz : —
The Electress to Leibnitz. '
" Herenhausen, 20(A Sept. 1704.
" When I have nothing pleasant to relate, I prefer reraaining silent;
above all, when I see that Hattorf or Count Platen, who govern the affairs
of the Church, have more power to assist you than I have. However, I find
that the abbey is neither given nor asked until this time. The master
[Elector George] seems to lament that your merits, which he prizes ex
tremely, are of no use to him ; that he never sees you ; and of the His
tory you have undertaken to write, he hears nothing, although he pro
mised you should be rewarded for it — at least this is what he says. With
regard to the Vice-Chancellor, he could not believe that it would suit
your genius to take upon yourself such disagreeable affairs, instead of the
" Indian " correspondence. However, I believe, if the Queen [of Prussia]
writes to the Elector and Count Platen about it, the thing would be done;
and I believe that the Queen would regret that your sojourn with her had
done you harm. As for any journey, it would be far from agreeable
during this bad weather, if I did not hope it would bring about the
Queen's visit for the Carnival. I prefer that it should be with the
Countess of Wartenberg rather than not at all. I think the discus
sions ' too violent ; tbey are only fit to amuse the populace, for the com
parison of the Prince of Wales with Perquin ^ is too absurd. It is not ho
' Sophie Thurfdrstin von Hannover, by J. G. H. Feder.
^ In the Parliament of England.
^ Perkin Warbeck, the impostor, pretended son of Edward IV., in the
reign of Henry VII.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. ' 393
who has the right of taking the crown frora me. If they do not wish a
Catbohc king, it belongs of right to me. Without him there are raany
ijearer to the succession than I am. Then I don't like them calling the Prince
of Wales bastard, for I like the truth. I am going to tbe Vorbereits-Predigt,
and thus conclude abruptly. Speak of this with the Queen."
Disgust at the proceedings of her parrisans, and some
disposition for asserting an hereditary right to the crown
of England, are visible in this epistle. The Duke of Marl
borough paid her a visit soon afterwards, accorapanied by
her grandson the Prince of Prussia, and the English ara
bassador Lord Raby. She thus alludes to these distin
guished guests in a confidential letter to her favourite cor
respondent. The Electress to Leibnitz. " Oct. 6, 1704.
" I have been too much occupied to have had an opportunity of replying
to your letter; and I believe you will not think it wrong if I confess that I
have had more plea-sure iu seeing the Prince-Royal and the Duke of Marl
borough than in taking the trouble of entertaining you with my letters,
which would not have given you half the entertainraent that I have had.
Now all is over, I ara not sorry to be able to speak to you of it, which
is all that remains of the past. I confess readily that Lord Raby has not
the same polish as the Duke of Marlborough ; but as he is a friend, I easily
overlook his little defects, which he-has perhaps contracted from his sym
pathy for one who, from her birth ^ and position, should not have had
much ; at least I am fully persuaded that the husband of this one alluded
to, will always do all in his power to merit the Queen's good graces. The
Duke [of Marlborough] would never sit in ray presence, even at a ball. I
have made him play, that he might be seated. He kissed my hand kneel
ing. I never saw a man raore cheerful, more polite, or more obliging,
besides being as good a courtier as a brave captain. They say he left
dehghted with this place, although nothing was found worthy of offering
to him ; but that wEl follow in Holland. He is against the bill for pre
venting occasional conformity, ^ and I consider him as reasonable in every
thing as he is agreeable iu his raanners."
The Electress presented Lord Raby^ with one of her por
traits, painted at a time of life so displeasing to her friend,
^ The Countess of Wartenberg, wife of the King of Prussia's prirae-
minister, had been a ferryraan's daughter. The Electress alludes to some
scandal concerning the Countess and Lord Raby.
^ BiU for preventing occasional conformity between the Non-conformists
(Dissenters) aud the Church of England, which caused much quarrelling
in its time.
' He was representative of a brother of the great Lord Strafford, and bore
the title of Raby until Queen Anne gave him the family title of Earl of
Strafford, by which he is well known in history as one of the plenipoten
tiaries of the Peace of Utrecht.

394 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
Madame Hariing : It Is the original of our'frontlsplece.^ It
represents Sophia in widow's dress — not In the German cos
tume, but the French, with a large square of black crape, one
corner drawn over the top of her head, the rest drooping on
the shoulders and back. According to the rigour of mourn
ing, this corner ought to have fallen low on the forehead, and
the point, as disposed of by widows of very ostentatious afflic
tion, might even have reached to the bridge, and In some
Instances, to the tip, of the nose. In Sophia's case it only
peeps — a very little corner — over the summit of a high head
dress of curled hair. The dress is tight to a fine slender
figure, the stomacher of bars of erraine and jewels. There is
great reserablance In her delicately chiselled features to her
ancestress, Mary Queen of Scots. The expression Is ani
mated, but satire mingled with finesse lurks under the
bright sraile.2
A little sarcasm seems mingled with the observation of
the Electress Sophia on the conduct of the Duke of Marl
borough. That he was not satisfied, may perhaps be rea
sonably surmised from the furious attack on Sophia made
by the Duchess of Marlborough soon after this interview.
At the same period the word went araong the Hanoverian
party In England that the Electress Sophia ought to be
invited to the court of Queen Anne. This party movement
was used as a threat by the Duchess of Marlborough to
torment her royal mistress, over whora she was then tyran
nising with the most unrestrained malice. When Queen
Anne feebly hinted some jealousy of her cousin and
heiress Sophia, the female Marlborough thus made her
comraent : " I heartily wish the Queen may discover her
true friends before she suffers for the want of that know
ledge ; but as for the business of calling the Princess Sophia
over, I don't think that will be so easily prevented as per
haps she may flatter herself It will ; though I can't think
^ See Frontispiece.
2 There are four trifling engravings of Sophia in the Print-room, British
Museura. One, the best, resembles this portrait in costurae and features,
but is several years older ; the cheeks have become flaccid, and have fallen.
Like the mezzotinto from the Raby portrait, it is surrounded with a ribbon
or band setting forth her recognition to the throne of England.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEE. 395
there can be many at least that know how ridiculous a
creature the Princess Sophia is, that can be in their hearts
for her ! " ^
The Court of Hanover was expected to be unusually
brilliant that Carnival, crowded with English nobles and
diplomatists from all the Gerraan Protestant courts. The
Queen of Prussia set off January 15, 1704-5, expected
eagerly by the politicians to conciliate all differing spirits,
and bring, by her Influence, her raother up to the raark,
for the future aggrandisement of the House of Han
over. The Duchess of Orleans wrote on this expected
visit to the Rhinegravine, her half-sister, then about the
person of the Electress Sophia : " I have just received
my aunt's gracious letters of January 16, whereby I learn
that the Queen of Prussia Is expected at Hanover that
evening. This will give great joy to you all, and I do not
doubt that you and Amellse'' will describe to me all the
briUiant doings and gay amusements during the Carnival,
and especially when the Queen of Prussia has her masquer
ade, and all about It."
Very different were the pageants that were to take place
at that Carnival. The Queen of Prussia had set out from
Berlin under an attack of sore throat. She sedulously con
cealed her Indisposition, lest she should be disappointed of
her favourite recreation : she however met her favourite
brother Ernest Auguste on the road; he thought her very
unwell, and persuaded her to rest and refresh at a small
inn, where she slept. Here she was exceedingly IU, yet
taking the attack only for the effect of the weather, which
was extremely severe ; and being much cheered by the
I Coxe's Collections of the Marlborough MSS. This passage occurs in
a browbeating epistle, written to Queen Anne herself two or three years
after — written in the third person, that the Duchess of Marlborough may
give vent to her insolence with the more effect. The offence, whatsoever
it was, that entailed on the Electress Sophia the vulgar epithet of " ridi
culous creature," probably was given at this period. Perhaps the present
which Sophia mentions as sent after Marlborough, was considered beneath
the merits of the Duke.
" Letter of the Duchess of Orleans to Louise the Rhinegravine.— Stut
gard Collection.
' The other Rhinegravine, sister to Louise, likewise iu the household of
the Electress Sophia, her aunt.

396 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
presence of her brother, she went on through the snow the
next day, and arrived at Hanover, where she found her
mother, the Electress Sophia, very ill with a violent cold, and
keeping her bed.^ The Queen of Prussia did not adopt
the like prudent course. She gave receptions to diplo
matists, dined In pubUc, and went to a grand court-haU ;
from thence she was carried to bed, and never rose from It
again. A violent quinsy showed Itself; but wheresoever
the disease of the throat was situated, it did not impair
her speech, for she talked incessantly. Her beloved brother,
Ernest Auguste, never left her; and her sole concern, when
death drew near, was that he should guard her from aU
rainisters of religion, " that she raight not," as she expressed
herself, " be harassed with controversy." ^ She expired
Feb. 1, 1704-5. .
Instead of the merry and raad carnival masquerade, so
lemn raourning and bitter weeping ensued. The suspense
since the first attack of quinsy on her daughter had made .
the Electress Sophia dangerously 111 ; she was confined to
her bed when the final blow cara«. Of her feelings she
has left no record, but It may be seen by her niece's
pen that they were those of au Individual who loses the
person best loved on earth or heaven. She was un
able to write to Leibnitz, then at Berlin ; a few words of
message only were dictated by her to Abb^ Mauro, charg
ing him " that If he had in his possession any letters from
her to her daughter, the Queen of Prussia, he should keep
them carefully, so that they fell not Into other hands."
Sophia was cautious regarding her son-in-law, Frederic
I., who, it Is probable, was not spared In the correspond
ence with her lively daughter, whose talent for satire is
remerabered in her well-known bon-mot to Leibnitz. The
philosopher was discussing his theory of atoms, and asked
the Queen " whether she could forra an idea of the infinitely
little ?" " Of course I can," repUed her majesty ; " what a
superfluous question to ask the wife of Frederic I. ! "
The dreary custom of hanging the rooms of royal per-
^ Baron de Polnitz's Memoirs.
' Memoirs of Brandenburg, by Frederic the Great.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 397
sonages with black cloth in case of death, still continued to
that period; It was not likely to cheer hearts oppressed with
grief AU the dwelling-rooms of the Electress Sophia at
the castle-palace of Hanover were muffled in this dolorous
covering. Leibnitz wrote soon after : " God give us all more
firmness ; for the Electress and the princes are quite dispir-
,ited." The consternation the death of the Queen of Prussia
occasioned at the courts of Hanover and Berlin Is reflected
in the letters of the Duchess of Orleans, who writes to the
Ehinegravlne : " I am quite startled at the sad news I have
from my aunt, as well as your letters of the 3d of Feb
ruary, which I received this morning. Such an awful loss
— the death of the Queen of Prussia ! I cannot express,
dear Louise, how I ara grieved from the depths of my soul.
And I am greatly anxious for ray aunt the Electress ; I
have no rest for the thought of all she suffers. My eyes
aehe so that I can hardly open them. Until now I have
never ceased from weeping."
Sophia either could not or would not leave the castle at
Hanover, where the remains of her lost daughter were lying
in state previously to removal to Berlin. Again her niece
writes frora Versailles : ^ " I cannot understand why ray aunt,
after the fatal event, was left in the same house. It Is quite
frightful to remain in the same house with a corpse. Thus
the grief Is renewed every moraent. Ten nights, at least,
elapsed before I could find rest. Until I heard of her
am.endment, I was continually anxious for my aunt the
Electress. Tell my aunt, dear Araelise, it is far better to
let her tears flow freely ; their suppression will only destroy
her health." The date of this letter is as late as March 5,
when Sophia was but just convalescent, and had not yet
arrived at the relief of weeping freely for her Irreparable loss.
The grand funeral procession of the Queen of Prussia left
Hanover for Berlin February 9th j but we must refer the
reader to the curious narrative of the cereraonial preserved
by the pen of Leibnitz. That true friend had grieved much
for the loss of his pupil, and his anxieties were now great
concerning her mother, who was suffering under the most
^ Letter to the Rhinegravine Araelise, Feb. 24, 1 705. — Stutgard Collection.

398
acute afldictions that had ever befallen her in mind or
body. A distant kinswoman of the house of Brandenburg,
CaroUne of Anspach, the protegee of the deceased Queen,
was by her death thrown on the protection of the bereaved
Electress Sophia. CaroUne was daughter of John Ferdi
nand, Margrave of Brandenburg- Anspach. She was bom
in 1681-2, March 1, of his second wife, a princess of Saxe-
Elsenach. At six years of age, Caroline, having been left
an orphan, was adopted by the great Elector Frederic-
William, and brought up at the Court of Brandeiiburg
When Sophia Charlotte married Frederic, afterwards King
of Prussia, she received the little Caroline into her care,
educated her, and bequeathed her at her death to her
mother the Electress Sophia. Caroline, who was very
handsome, stately In figure, clever in attainment, and
fascinating In manner, and was wIthaT of the steady age
of twenty-three, soon won the heart of the aged Electress,!
who not only treated her with maternal tenderness, but gave
her high place at the Court of Hanover, near her own person.
A more exalted position courted the acceptance of Caro
line. Charles of Austria (afterwards Emperor Charles VI.)
offered to marry her. If she would declare herself Roman
Catholic. She refused the chance of becoming Empress
on those terras. The Prince Elector of Hanover was so
exceedingly struck with the sacrifice that he offered his
cousin his hand, although she was utterly without dower,
and two years older than himself. They married without
great pomp at Herenhausen, August 22, 1705. Caroline
bore an heir to Hanover and Great Britain the year after,
who was brought up on the knees of Sophia, and was the
doatlng-piece of his grandfather, the Elector George. This
Prince was Frederic the good-natured Prince of Wales,
afterwards father to our George III.
The alliance between the houses of Brunswick and Bran
denburg was destined to be knit still closer by the marriage
between the Prince-Royal of Prussia, Frederic -WiUiam,
^ Lord Hervey's Meraou-s.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER, 399
and his cousin-german, the only daughter of the Elector
George and the hapless prisoner at Ahlden. This child, who
had not seen her mother since her eighth year, had been
bronght up by her grandmother at Herenhausen. She is
occasionally mentioned in the correspondence of the Sophias
with Leibnitz as " our little Princess." Her narae, like
her poor mother's, was Sophia Dorothea. Not a year
had elapsed from her good aunt of Prussia's death, when
Frederic I. demanded her of her grandmother In these
words : —
Frederic I., King of Prussia, to the Electress Sophia oi'
Hanover. "January 16, 1706.^
"Mt Cousin, — As I have felt myself so happy in my raarriage with the
late Queen my dear and incomparable wife, I think of forming a similar
one between the Prince-Royal, ray son, and tbe daughter of the Elector of
Brunswick, my brother ; and my visit to this place has given me an oppor
tunity of seeing and informing myself of the merits and virtues of this
princess, and has entirely confirmed me in this intention. But as it is
necessary for your Highness's consent as grandmother, I corae to demand
it of you, not doubting that you will give it with pleasure. I pray to God,
as if for myself, that you may enjoy long years of prosperity, which so
happy an alliance will infallibly promote. — I assure you that I am always
your Highness's good cousin, " Frederic R."
The ceremonial of betrothal took place soon after at
Herenhausen, under the auspices of the Electress, an
early day being then named for the raarriage. The Elec
tress Sophia brought her granddaughter frora Heren
hausen the day before the marriage^ to the castle of
Hanover, and Installed her In the apartraents which had
pertained to her sister-in-law, the late Queen of Denmark,
where her bridal toilette was to be perforraed. At six
o'clock next morning she received the Prussian embassy,
and at seven the state visits of the whole of her faraily, the
Electress Sophia at their head. Then her procession was
forraed, and proceeded to the great saloon of the castle,
where an altar was erected. The Court Marshal led the
Crown Prince of Prussia to the right side of the altar, and
1 llteu. ^ Leibnitz.

400 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
the Princess was conducted to the left : after the cereraony
the whole court defiled into the dining-roora. The Princess-
bride danced with her spou.se, then with his father, and
then with her own brother. What dances they could have
perforraed, passes modern comprehension ; for the most
notable proceeding of the whole cereraony Is, that as the
bride danced, the young ladies who bore her train danced
too, still bearing it, and following all her raotions. Such
manoeuvring would not have been difficult or Inelegant in
the stately promenade called the Polonaise, or taper dance, ¦
nor would they have been irapossible in the minuet ; but in
the waltz, or in the cotillon, or great quadrille, the train-
bearers and their Princess must have been dangerously
in each other's way.
Under the eager Influence of her granddaughter-In-law,
Caroline of Anspach-Brandenburg, Sophia overcame the
scruples that had hitherto prevented her frora publicly
accepting the reversion of the crown of England. As to
that of Scotland, she never had the offer of it. The Scotch
Pariiaraent or Convention had thrown out the bill for the
Hanoverian succession, and the streets of Edinburgh rang
with political songs against her, the refrain of which was, —
" The Lutheran dame shall begone ! "
So little was North Britain aware of the religion professed
by the lady they were rejecting.
The great event called the Union of England and Scot
land was carried in order to obviate the terrible national
disaster of South and North Britain being once more
separated Into two inimical sovereignties — one ruled by
Sophia or her son, and the other by the representative of
the Stuarts. The final settlement of the United Eingdoms
by the first Pariiaraent held of Great Britain took place in
the session of 1707 ; and Lord HaUfax was, with other
nobles, coraraissioned to announce to her at Hanover its
recognition of Sophia as heiress of the British throne. The
ceremonial was opened In a forraal speech in the great
saloon of the castle-palace at Hanover. Just as the reply of

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 401
the Electress was expected, the English arabassadors were
astonished to see her run frora her place to a corner of the
roora, where she reraained until the whole was over. Lord
Halifax, by dint of questioning her officers, discovered
the reason of this strange freak. She had caught a glance
of a fine portrait of Jaraes IL, and her conscience feeling
uneasy, she had placed herself where she could not see the
likeness of her old friend and relative while she was In
staUed as successor to his throne.-^
Death had raade great havoc araong Sophia's conterapora
ries and correspondents. Leibnitz and her niece of Orleans
were all that reraained. Generally, Sophia and the Duchess
of Orleans wrote to each other every post ; yet posts, we
must recollect, ran not often and quick, as they do In these
days. Once the Duchess of Orleans writes to Sophia, " If we
were acquainted with persons who are so eager to read our
letters, we would gladly send them copies. If they would not
detain thera so long." It was no trifle to decipher epistles
written In German, and In the Gerraan character ; and the
high corresponding ladies ought to have considered the diffi
culties of the poor clerks on secret service. "I have just
received your letter of the 9th Instant," writes the Duchess
of Orleans twenty days afterwards. " It Is quite a sharae
how long they keep our letters : in the tiraes of M. Louvois
we know they always read thera as well as now, but they
nevertheless delivered thera in decent time. Torcy keeps
thera an uncomraonly long tirae, and I feel it severely now,
I am so anxious about my aunt." To Sophia herself she
says : " I cannot understand how your Liebden can write
in bed ; that must be rather tiresome for the loins. Yet
all gives me so much pleasure that Is written by your own
hand. I am astonished that his Liebden the Elector has
kiUed but fifty boars, as this year the acorns have been so
very plentiful. In Gerraany I never heard of any boar-
chase without one or raore peasants being hurt or killed.
It was very generous of the Elector to give to the mairaed
peasant forty dollars — a great present for such a person.
1 Lady Mary Wortley Montague ; last published letters.
VOL. vni. 2 0

402 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
As for news, I must tell you that Gourville Is still living,
but he is quite childish. I thank you for the receipt of
sour-kraut with pike you have sent me. I would have
Uked It as It Is prepared usually, without fish. I can eat
sour-kraut well, for I have still a good appetite."
To Louise the Rhinegravine she says : " My aunt gives
me an account of the comedy with the children of the
Countess Platen ; I hope they will becorae more honour
able than their father Is, whom I cannot esteem. This
raorning I had the pleasure of receiving two packets at
once frora my aunt. It is not enough that they kept the
first so long, and this was done probably at Hanover ; but
they also played a clumsy trick with thera, exchanging two
pages of the first letter with one of the other. Such could
only have been done by a drunkard, and so I Iraagine it
was the deed of the Count de Platen, who may read his
part In this letter of raine. If he likes."
" Death," says the Duchess of Orleans to her aunt Sophia
— " death Is an awful expedient to find tranquillity ; your
Liebden has no reproach to raake to yourself with regard
to ray position. You did all you could to raake rae happy,
and therefore I am as much indebted to your kindness as
if you had made me really happy." ^ Perhaps, from this
rather touching coraraent on her own destiny, may be
gathered that the Duchess of Orleans owed her raost un
enviable distinction as the second lady In France to some
negotiation of her aunt Sophia.
The raessages sent concerning the sister of Sophia, the
Abbess of Maubisson, are exceedingly Interesting, and show
her at a great age stUl pursuing her artlstical tastes.^ " I
visited my aunt, the Abbess of Maubisson. She is weU;
better-humoured, more lively, sees, hears, and walks better
than I do. She is now painting a beautiful piece for our
dear Electress of Hanover. It is a copy of the " Golden
Calf,"by Poussin. She Is adored by her cloister; she leads
a very strict as well as a very quiet life. She never tastes
meat except in Illness, sleeps upon mattresses as hard as a
stone, and rises at midnight to the convent prayers. She
i Stutgard Collection of Letters of Duchess of Orleans. ^ Ibid.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 403
has no chairs but straw ones in her room. I hope ray
aunt, the Electress, will be like her sister [the Princess-
Abbess of Maubisson], who this April is turned of eighty,
and still is able to read the smallest print without spectacles,
has all her teeth coraplete, walks better than rayself, is
always cheerful, and quite popierlich^ like my father, the
Elector Palatine, when he was in a good humour."
Since the domination of Caroline of Anspach, the English
had thronged the Court of Hanover more than ever. One of
them, Mr Uvedale Price, has left a MS. letter of his observa
tions there in 1710 : "The Princess Sophia Is fourscore and
one, and bears her age so well that she will outwalk her raaids
of honour ; has a very good set of teeth, and not a wrinkle in
her face, and walks as uprightly as I can ; has a great deal
of wit. Is always pleasant and familiar, loves the English,
and is very civil to them, though she receives all nations
agreeably, and can entertain each in his own language ; for
she speaks seven tongues to perfection." Then follow de
scriptive portraits of hpr family. " The Elector is middle-
sized" [Fie! five feet and one Inch raiddle-sized In an
EngUshraan's eyes], " well-built, and seeras to be of a very
strong constitution. He shows the greatness of his birth by
the nobleness of his mien, which is mistaken by a great
many for pride, though I must own he does not care for
entering into conversation with a new face, nor does he
affect the formality of making a low bow. When he has begun
to discourse, he shows a great deal of judgraent, a great
apprehension, and what the poets call humour. He loves a
man that will take the liberty to discourse with him, and
will show him marks of distinction. He is very vigilant in
his affairs, increasing his treasure without oppressing his
people ; is charitable and corapassionate, and sets an admi
rable exaraple by the wise conduct which he hath shown
both In peace and war. His son, the Prince Elector, is
about twenty-one years of age, very gay, full of fire, and
perfectly well-bred. He loves music, but his greatest in
clination is for war. He distinguished hiraself extraordin
arily at the battle of Oudenarde, where he endeavoured
Full of fun.

404 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
to find the Pretender, and put an end to his small hopes.
He seems to be very good-humoured, though 'tis hard to
judge of a son In his father's company. His lady, the
Princess, is so charming In ber person, so wonderfully]
obliging In her conversation, that all men, if they durst
confess it, raust own that she wins their hearts. She has
a son and daughter, which are fine lively children. Here
are a great many second-rate beauties, most of them paints,
and they dress their heads as we do [meaning " as our
English ladies do;" for the writer is a man, and dressed
his head in a tie or bob wig]. " Here is no great magnifi
cence, but everything is decent and agreeable. The Elector
has a brother who deserves very well to be heir to a crown,
for he has all the good qualitys we cau wish for In a prince;
he Is called Duke Ernestus. It's with the greatest joy
imaginable I see this illustrious faraily, for I consider them
born to be so many blessings to our nation." ^
Such were the portraits of the whole electoral family,
drawn and tinted couleur de rose by the flattering hand of
a would-be courtier, anxious to look out for a little good
on his own account, and raake signals to bis countrymen
concerning the raanner and whereabouts of the rising sun
and all surrounding planets. Yet a kindred hand does not
hold quite so flattering a pencil, when sketching George I.
Her Royal Highness of Orleans says, " He is not a better
man than Oncle,^ and not near so agreeable. I cannot
wonder ray aunt says that Hanover is not found plea
sant, as in forraer tiraes. The [Elector George I.] is so
dry and cold that he changes us all to Ice about him.
His father [Ernest Auguste] and the Duke of Zelle were
quite different. It wUl be still worse when the Electoral
Prince [George II.] comes in power, for he really does not
know what princely behaviour Is, as I occasionally find
in all his doings. I think my aunt likes the Electoral
Princess better than her own grandson ; and she Is right,
for he lives as if he had not the honour of being her
1 Kennet MS., Brit. Mus. ; Uvedale Price, MS. letter, dated from M.
Chappareau's house in Hanover, January 21, 1710.
^ The late Elector, Ernest Auguste.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 405
descendant.! Hanover and Herenhausen have now be
come quite a little England, all these being fuU of Eng
lish visitors.^ I thank my aunt for the portrait of the little
prince. He Is as like his grandfather, George William,
Duke of ZeUe, as two drops of water are to one another ;
may he be like hira In kindness."^ The Duchess here speaks
of Frederic, afterwards Prince of Wales, great-grandson
to Sophia, who had a numerous family of infant great
grandchildren round her.
The severest reraarks on George the Elector frora her
pen are, however, where she brings to memory an interview
she had with him when he paid a visit to Paris, just before
the terrible European war that coraraenced with the reign
of Queen Anne. " He is a great drinker," she writes frora
Versailles ; " and I noticed It full well when he was here.
In spite of the kindness I showed hira, he would neither
trust me, nor speak openly to me. I had forcibly to extract
every word from hira, which is a very unpleasant process.
His greatest fault consists, however, in his behaviour to his
mother, to whora he owes every respect. He Is mistrustful,
haughty, and addicted to avarice. I often see this in my
aunt's letters ; although she does not clearly mention It,
stUl she Is discontented with hira, for the Elector is not
good-terapered, as may be seen In his intercourse with his
brothers." Leibnitz reraained away from Hanover until the year
1711 ; notwithstanding his friendship for the Electress, he
did not like the service of the Elector George : this letter,
written to him by Sophia, had the effect of bringing hira
home : — The Electress to Leibnitz.
" Hanover, 11*^ March 1711.
" I have received your letter frora Brunswick, which I read to the
Elector. It will be as well if you write direct to him, for he laughed at
the fall you had, and at preferring being at Berlin to this place. It is not
the feet one esteems in you, but the head. But we are very glad that

' Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, in the library at
Stutgard, vol. vi., original German.
2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. The Duke of Zelle was just dead.

406 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
the one which supports the other is now cured, as the Princess-Royal i in
forms us ; and perhaps the fall you had serves a little to conceal the gout
which keeps you in bed. Madarae Sartot tells me that the war in Hildes
heira will soon be terminated. We know nothing of it here. The people
entered Peyne and Hildesheira without striking a blow ; and the citizens
are irapatient at not being called upon to give tbeir oath to the Elector.
They are delighted that he is able to do thera justice. It is true that the
King of Prussia has offered to do justice to the canons, but what the
house of Brunswick can do herself does not require a third. However, it
appears that his Majesty is not satisfied, and thinks you are acting as a spy
at Berlin, although we are not at all curious about other people's affau:s.
" The Duchess of Orleans wishes to have the medals which you will
find marked on the paper I send you. I beg you to inquire if the King's
antiquary knows them ; and if they are to be raet with, I shall be delighted
to pay for thera, and to send them to her. S."
The Idea of Frederic I. of Prussia that the learned Leib
nitz was a spy at Berlin must have been greatly relished
by Sophia, who had long wished his return. But Leibnitz,
for some reasons best known to hiraself, preferred the new
capital of the new kingdora of Prussia as an abiding-place ;
yet he did return to Hanover sorae time before the death
of his illustrious patroness. When there, Leibnitz was
directed. In 1712, by the Elector of Hanover (George I.)
and Sophia, to complete a treatise for the purpose of recon
ciling the Church of England with the Roraan Catholic
religion. Many allusions to this work are Indisputably to be
found In Sophia's correspondence with Leibnitz from 1701.
It was never promulgated, because the Elector of Hanover,
on Inquiry, found the majority of their poUtical friends in
Great Britain were opposed to any such tendency.^
Czar Peter paid a final visit to his old friend in March
1713 ; he could have scarcely expected to find her In health
and spirits as when her daughter described her as " my
Of Prussia, the daughter "of George, Elector of Hanover, and the un
fortunate Sophia Dorothea.
2 Vie de Leibnitz, par Neufville, 1724. This MS. of Leibnitz was found
among his papers, and published in 1803 by an emigrant French Catholio
priest, who, perfectly ignorant of Leibnitz's court functions as literary
factotum to the Hauoverian Governraent, writing to order on any subject
given him by his master or mistress, from the arrangement of a supper or
funeral, to theology aud history, very innocently commends Leibnitz's
almost Catholicity, and bewails the calumnies which pursued him as an
atheist. Some account of it will be found in an early number of Bevv£ des
deux Mondes ; yet the editor is ignorant of Leibnitz' reasons for writing it.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER. 407
lively mother," now leading off dances — the Eussian mas^Mr-te,
we suppose — with him and Le Fort, and now deep In dis
cussion with them on philosophic and historical questions.
Yet unbent by tirae, uninjured by indulgence or excess,
the Electress Sophia, in her eighty-third year, was as ready
to be led out by the gigantic Czar in the stately Polonaise,
as ever. Goldsraith declares that French woraen can "frisk
beneath the burden of fourscore," but Sophia could dance
with three years added to that burden.
The Elector George went frora Hanover to Weisen to
meet and escort the Czar to his mother's court. Peter was
accorapanied by bis Chancellor, Golofkih, two aides-de-camp,
and thirty Muscovite guards ; he was travelling on a Utter,
swunglike a palanquin on poles borne by two horses, one be
hind and one before, as English queens went on progress in
the middle ages; the horses were driven along by two rough-
looking fellows. His guards wore hats sunk down over their
ears ; their sabres, slung round them without sheaths, were
rusty ; they wore grey uniforras edged with red ; and scamp
ered pell-mell together, without any attempt at orderly pro
gress. The Czar arrived araidst the roar of a hundred-cannon
salute. He alighted from his litter, and went directly to
the apartraents of the Electress Sophia, without any of the
furtive arrangements occasioned by his bashfulness, which
had so much amused her and her daughter in days long gone
by. He supped In her apartment, and behaved like any
other gentleman until he entered his sleeping apartment,
when he flatly refused to lie down In the splendid bed pre
pared for hira, as he said " he might spoil it," and com
manded his guards to spread his camp-raattresses on the
floor, on which he slept soundly till seven the next raorning,
when he called for " tea," and drank it directly. The raeal
he considered breakfast he ate at ten In the morning ; he
then looked at the court chapel, and inspected " the holy
relics." It seems the Brunswickers had retained relics
in the Lutheran chapel. " At dinner tabourets were set
round the table covered with crimson velvet ; no fauteuils
were brought forward — he was served on gold plates and
dishes. After dinner he conferred with the Electress until

408 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
It was time to go to her opera at Herenhausen, and led
her to her box. A masquerade succeeded the operatic per
formance, when Czar Peter put ou a mask, and led offthe
Polonaise with the Electress Sophia as his partner.
The Polonaise Is a stately but peculiar dance ; It marked
etiquette and precedence in the middle ages. Indivi
duals, of whatsoever rank they might be in the royal
court or baronial haU, joined in It on festal days or times
of high cereraonial, yet they were rigorously kept In their
own places and degrees. It was a proraenade round a
great hall to spirited martial music. The king, kaiser,
or emperor, led the queen or erapress, or the lady next to
his rank, each carrying a long lighted taper in one hand,
while the other was locked In that of the partner. The
next pair In rank followed, keeping the sarae step, and
likewise bearing their tapers ; and so. In gradation of rank,
each couple paired off behind their superiors according to
the dignity of their functions, until the court-fools and
jesters, and, last of all, the little absurd dwarfs, raopping
and raowing, brought up the rear of the long lighted pro
cession. It moved round and round sorae vast apart
ment, until there was danger of the tapers burning the
dancers' fingers, when they threw the candle-ends into the
fireplace as they passed it, and whirled off Into the coranto
or waltz, but all In perfect order.i What with the raoving
lights and varied costuraes of office, the taper-dance was
one of the finest pictorial tableaux that could be presented
by historical personages. Czar Peter and the Electress
Sophia finished their Polonaise by nine o'clock, when he
supped in bis own apartraent. Next day, March 3, aU was
repeated precisely In the sarae course, excepting that, after
the masquerade. Czar Peter took leave of the Electress, as
he announced his Intention of departing from Hanover at
six on the foUowing morning. The Electress and all her
court escorted him to his apartments.
' This historical dance of bis native country was minutely described to
us by our late learned and lamented friend, Count Valerian Krasinski,
whose knowledge of historical costume was surpassed by few persons.
The taper-dance is described by Casanova in his " Memoirs of the Last
Century." The promenade of a few steps that sometimes precedes waltzing
is supposed to be connected with it.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVEK, 409
If Sophia was contented to see her own portrait go forth
to the world after the loss of beauty and the acquisition of
age, she was by no means pleased with the thought that
her philosopher and friend Leibnitz should be thus repre
sented In the work of sorae unskilful artist, which she thus
indignantly criticises : " Your portrait is worth nothing ; he
has drawn you with a great drunken nose, and the whole
appears very heavy." i
Caroline, the Electoral Princess, was now looked up to as
likely to becorae the presiding star of European literature.
Unfortunately, raost of the men of genius in England were
in the Jacobite interest, although Gay the poet resided for
some months as attacM to the envoy from England to
Hanover. Caroline asked Gay for one of his publications :
he had not one to present to her Highness. " Is he not a
true poet," asked Arbuthnot of Swift, " who had not one
of his own books to give to the Princess that asked for
one?"' An attack of IUness, which occurred Noveraber 17, 171.3,
alarmed all the friends of the Electress. One of her house
hold, M. Coch, wrote to Leibnitz from Wetzlar : " A few
days before my departure, the Electress got an illness
which made us all anxious for her precious life; it was
a species of St Antony's fire, to which you know she is
subject. She recovered, however, soon enough to save
the post, by writing a long letter with her own hand to
Madame In France. The Elector of Hanover, her son,
could not help remarking that his mother ought to attend
better to her diet, which is only regulated by her appetite
— she chiefly infringing medical rules by eating fruit.
The Electress replied calmly, ' How, my son, do you find
It an extraordinary case for an old woraan of eighty-three
years to faU IU? You ought to think It still more extra
ordinary to see me still alive, and usually enjoying such
good health.' And, truly, I think she will not give up yet."
The close of the year of 1713 again brought some symptoms
of interruption In the usual bright health and spirits of the
Electress Sophia. She surprised those around her by ex-
' Ilten, 1713. 2 Arbuthnot to Swift, August 1713.

410 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
pressing wishes to go to England, her indifference to that
crown having always been a marked feature In her previous
life. She now and then said she wished to go there, " to go
horae ; she wanted to go horae." Singular as these expres
sions were — for Sophia had never been In England — yet
they are capable of explanation. The longing desire of
her mother, Elizabeth queen of Bohemia, to return home
to England at the close of her life was naturally expressed
In these words ; and when intellect a little wavered, So
phia repeated them.
The ambitious views of Caroline of Anspach, and her
consort, the Electoral Prince, raight also perhaps have ex
cited the mind of the aged Electress on the subject of the
English succession. The Electoral Prince and bis aspiring
spouse had eagerly given ear to their numerous English
courtiers of the Whig party, who proposed Introducing a
motion in the EngUsh Pariiaraent inviting the Prince to
take his place as Duke of Carabridge in the House of Peers,
and be ready to look after his own interests on the expected
deraise of Queen Anne ; for the fiat had evidently gone forth,
and the death of that sovereign was expected speedily.
Queen Anne, who equally dreaded the approach of her
expatriated brother and his German rival, appealed to the
good sense and humanity of her aged relative by the fol
lowing letter : — ¦'
Queen Anne to the Princess Sophia, Dowager Electress
OF Brunswick. " St James's, May 19, 1714.
" Madame, Sister, Aunt, — Since the right of succession to ray kingdoms
has been declared to belong to you and your family, there have always
been disaffected persons who, for private views of their own interest, have
entered into raeasures to fix a prince of yom- blood in ray dominions even
while I am yet living. I never thought till now that this project would
have gone so far as to have made the least impression on your mind. But
(as I have lately perceived, by public ruraours which are industriously
spread, that your Electoral Highness has come into this idea) it is impor
tant, with respect to the succession of your faraily, that I should tell you
such a proceeding will infallibly draw along with it sorae consequences
which will be dangerous to the succession itself, which is not secure any
otherwise than while the sovereign who actually wears the crown main-

^ Boyer's Annals, May 19, 1714. It was likewise circulated in pubhc
from the press of F. Baker, Black Boy, Paternoster Row.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 411
tains her authority and just prerogative. There are here — such is our
misfortune — a great many people who are seditiously disposed, so I leave
you to judge what tumults they may be able to raise if they should have a
pretext to begin a commotion. I persuade myself, therefore, you will
never consent that the least thing should be done that may disturb the
repose of me and my subjects.
" Open yourself with the same freedora that I do to you, and propose
whatever you may think may contribute to the security of the succession.
I will come into it with zeal, provided that it does not derogate from my
dignity, which I am resolved to maintain. — I am, with a great deal of
affection, your sister and cousin, Anne."
This letter was followed by an epistle to the Electoral
Prince, in which Queen Anne roundly advises him to give
up his intended visit to her, " as nothing could be raore dis
agreeable to her than such a proceeding at this juncture."
Reports flew about London that, although In her eighty-
fourth year, the Electress expected to outlive Queen Anne,
and that she was heard to exclaim, " that she should die
content If the words ' Sophia, Queen of England,' could be
written on her tomb" — words which yrere probably uttered
for her.
Neither Sophia nor her son, the Elector George, altered
the course of conduct they had held for nearly thirty years,
which was ever the most honourable abstinence from politi
cal Intrigue concerning the English succession. Whatsoever
derelictions George I. raight have made on the score ot
morality, yet his high honour as a gentleman, and that of
all his relatives, forms a noble contrast to the conduct of
WUUam III. The appeal of his dying kinswoman. Queen
Anne, was scrupulously regarded, both by himself and his
mother. And after the deaths of both the Queen and the
Electress left hira successor, he suffered the throne of Great
Britain to wait raany weeks before he came to take posses
sion of it, thus giving an opportunity for James Stuart to
be caUed peacefully to the succession of his ancestors, if the
people chose to reconsider their verdict.
Meantime the aged Electress Sophia showed no symp
toms of affliction of raind or body. She took her daily
walks at Herenhausen araong her trees and flowers. The
morning of June Sth, 1714, had been sultry, with fltful
claps of thunder ; nevertheless Sophia took her usual walk

412 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.
when the sun declined, attended by her granddaughter-in-
law, the Princess Caroline. A hasty summer-shower, wUh the
sun still shining, began to fall. Sophia threw the train of
her open robe over her head for shelter, and hurried for
wards. The Princess said, "Is not your Royal Highness
walking too quickly ? " "I believe I am," replied the Elec
tress, and with these words sunk down. The Princess
caught her as she fell, but life had fled. Her death occurred
by the sun-dial In the garden at Herenhausen just as the
shadow fell on the hour of six.
The corpse of the Electress was carried into her apart
ment In the palace of Herenhausen, and as she had always
forbidden embalming, it was dressed in full dress^ by her
ladies, and lay in state the very first night, a watch being
set round her consisting of these persons,-^the chamber
lain Bernstoff and the gentlemen of the bedchamber,
Nonus, Schiitz, and Steinburg, besides all her own ladies,
and cavaliers, and many of her pages. Next day, the
9th of June, the corpse was put Into a wooden coffin, and
brought from Herenhausen to Hanover in this raanner:
four gentlemen of the bedchamber, and eight gentlemen
on service, entered at midnight the charaber of the dead,
and carried her in her coffin through the great hall, down
the front staircase, putting the coffin on the funeral car
riage which stood at the foot of the stairs. The fune
ral procession was opened by the chief court-deputy, on
horseback, six footmen with lanterns came behind him;
then came the Castellan of Herenhausen, and the Electress's
cupbearer, likewise mounted. The four gentlemen of the
bedcharaber followed ; next the coffin, upon a funeral-car
hung with black cloth, and drawn by six black horses,
driven by a coachman, postilions, and outriders bearing
torches. On one side of the coffin walked the Electress's
chamberlain, Weind, and on the other her equerry, Rheden.
Behind these came four gentlemen on service, two cavaliers
of the Garde du Corps, and six pages carrying lanterns.
' Such death-toilets are customary at Vienna. The late Emperor
Francis, in his uniform and orders, thus lay in state, and all his subjects
passed through tbe room who chose to see him. At Hamburg the corpses
of the citizens, male and female, are dressed in their best, painted white
and red, and exhibited before burial, usually at the bottora of a great chest.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 413
The cortege was followed by a mounted corporal and six
privates, cavalry of the Garde du Corps.
At footfall this procession proceeded from Herenhausen
along the " allde," through the Clevergate over the New
bridge, along the Berg Street to the Castle of Hanover.
On arriving in the middle courtyard, the cortege stopped
before the entrance of the chapel. The gentlemen who put
the coffin on the carriage took It again, and carried it
through the chapel into the vault. At the door waited the
Superintendent of the Castle, with twelve footmen, all car
rying great wax-candles ; they handed thera to the late
Electress's twelve pages, who forthwith lighted the corpse
to its place In the vault.
All the ladies at court mourned in black robes and veUs,
the rooms and carriages were hung with black, and music
and song-singing were forbidden throughout the land; yet
minutely as all these funeral pomps and forraalities are de
tailed by Leibnitz,^ not one word is left frora which we can
affirm that the slightest religious service was perforraed over
the corpse of Sophia.
¦' Leibnitz did not long survive his patroness ; he died at Hanover, No
vember 11, 1716, in harness, for a pen was in one hand, and a book in
the other, and proofs before hira. He was seventy years of age, a great
sufferer with gout and stone, although abstemious in his habits. No
wonder he suffered, for he has been known to be three weeks without
leaving hi^ arra-chair even to go to bed. He was of middle stature, thin
in person, very pleasing in face, with a mild studious air. About the age
of fifty he began to think of marriage — made an offer to a lady, who said
"she would further consider the matter." "So will I," replied the
German Newton ; but he never renewed his love-suit to her or any other
fair demurrer. He was buried on the esplanade at Hanover — not in con
secrated ground, we fear ; — yet that broke no squares with Sophia's philo
sopher. A monument, in the form of a small Grecian temple, was raised
over his remains by command of Caroline when Princess of Wales, which
hears this simple inscription, " Ossa Leibnitii." He loved money, and left
60,000 crowns, only 20,000 of which were put out at interest ; the rest of
his treasure was fouud hoarded among chaff and other horse-food in corn-
sacks about his store-room and granary. The house that Leibnitz died in
had beeu purchased for him by his generous old master, Ernest Auguste,
who likewise settled a stipend to keep it in repair. It is one of the
quaintest and raost curious buildings in the ancient part of an old city,
remaining still an object of veneration to the citizens of Hanover, and is
pointed out elevated above the noise of the main street, Schmiede Strasse,
on which it is nevertheless situated. The philosopher studied and wrote
in a garret which looks out from under a gable. In tbe royal library is
the chair in which he was found dead, and before it is the book he held
when the last summons came. In 1790 a public monument was raised
by the people of Hanover to their sage, surmounted with a portrait bust.
It stands on a mound fenced off by a railing on one side of Waterloo Place.

414 SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER.
Epitaph of Sophia in tlie Castle-Church of Hanover.
SOPHIA
D. G. EX STIKPE EL. PAL.
ELEC. VID. BEUN. ET LUN.
MAG. BEIT. HARES,'
NATA
XIII OCT. IIDCXXX. NUPTA MENSE SEP. MDCLVIII.
AD SUCCESStOXEJI JIAG. BRIT. XOMISATA MDCCI.
SUB VE3PERAM VIII JUNII MDCCXIV. IN HORTIS
HEEENHAUSANIS ADHUC VEGATA ; ET FIEMO PASSU
DEAMBULANS, SUBITA ET PLACIDA MORTE EEENTA.^
One heart truly mourned for Sophia ; it was that of her
niece and former pupil, Elizabeth Charlotte, whose epis
tolary lamentations on the death of her beloved have
the pathos, however simply expressed, of true feeling.
" The dear Electress, by her consoling letters, enabled me
to bear all the troubles I found in this land of France ; bnt
she is gone, and I am living without consolation, and none
have I to hope for ! Tou may then Imagine, dear Louise,^
what a sad and lonely life I have to look forward to untU
the end. I know not if I have already told you that I fore
knew the sad Intelligence. My confessor came to announce
it to me, but before he spoke I began to trerable, as If in the
access of a violent fever. I turned pale as death, and shed
no tears for a quarter of an hour. I could not breathe; I
was suffocated. Then came the tears in torrents, and I
wept for days and nights, till I could shed no more, and
now again I feel suffocated.'' Ten days afterwards she
writes to Louise : " My grief is so Increased by being forced
to keep it in when I ara in public, for the King [Louis XIV.]
does not like to see sorrowful countenances around him; I
must go to the chase against my will. The other day the
Elector of Bavaria came up to my carriage to offer his con
dolences, when I burst out Into bitter weeping. I saw aU
the courtiers laughed at my sorrow, but I could not do
otherwise. Ah, ray dear Louise ! what a great distance
1 History of the House of Guelph — Halliday.
2 Letter to Louise, the Rhinegravine, her half sister, dated Marly, July
1, 1711 ; vol. vi., Stutgard.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. 415
exists between rae and my aunt, in regard to virtues and
attainments. No, she cannot be corapared to any one in
this world l"^
With all her virtues, her high attainments and really bril
liant and noble qualities, the Electress Sophia was unfor
tunately deficient In that which adds the truest lustre to a
throne — religion. The exaraple of her elder brother and
sovereign, the Elector Palatine, under whose tutelage she
had spent her early life, was not favourable to its develop
ment in the mind of a young princess of her lively and satiri
cal genius. She viewed with secret scorn his grimace of
zeal for the service of God, coupled with his violation of
every moral law and natural affection ; and she shrunk
from religion because he professed it.
In riper years, Sophia's intimate association with the
leaders of the school of false philosophy, which presump
tuously exalted the poor blind powers of human reason
against the Divine teaching of revelation, was productive
of scepticism. Hence her well-known wish for sudden
death without preparation, for she was wont to express a
hope that, when she died, " neither priest nor physician
might be near her." ^ If this were a favour, it was granted,
and more than she asked, for she entered the dark valley
of the shadow unassisted by huraan prayer, and without the
power herself of uttering one petition for mercy.
With the life of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, we close the
present series of royal biographies, written expressly, though
not, we trust, exclusively, for the use of the readers of the
" Lives of the Queens of England." The proraise we gave
at the conclusion of that work, to fill up several unavoidable
chasms In the history of feraale BriUsh royaUy, by the
necessary adjunct of " Lives of the Queens of Scotland and
English Princesses connected with the regal succession of
Great Britain," has been falthfiUly perforraed. The parallel
^ Letter to Louise, the Rhinegravine, her half sister, dated Marly, July
10, 1714.
' Frederic the Great, Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, and
Feder's Life of the Electress Sophia.

416

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OP HANOVER.

links of the chain are here carried down to the death of
Queen Anne, and the accession of the reigning dynasty
to the throne of the Britannic Empire In the person of
George I., the eldest son of Sophia, Electress of Hanover,
on whose posterity the regal succession was settled by
Pariiaraent as the only Protestant branch of the royal
house of Stuart, now happily represented by their august
descendant, our sovereign lady Queen Victoria.

'^nnL^

THE END.

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