be felt to be reasonable. During the nearly half century of her reign, she never called for a single "benevolence." Only in two instances did she obtain a voluntary loan, and both were obtained under special circumstances, and were honourably repaid. To avoid such applications to her people, Elizabeth was known to give twelve and even fifteen per cent. for loans on her own responsibility. It was, indeed, a misfortune in the case of Elizabeth, as in the case of Henry VIII., that the life of the sovereign, and the stability of the throne as so occupied, were felt to be of such moment, that the wisest and most patriotic men were prepared to submit to much arbitrary action on the part of the crown, rather than set the dangerous example of resistance. That Elizabeth did not stretch her prerogative much further is greatly to her honour, for, had she done so, the best part of the nation would have borne it rather than take any course that might have endangered her authority. But what the English constitution was, in the judgment of sober Englishmen in the time of Elizabeth, we bear from the language of one of Elizabeth's bishops. "The regiment of England," says Aylmer, "is not a mere monarchy, as some for lack of consideration think, nor a mere oligarchy, nor democratie, but a mixed rule of all these—wherein each one of these have, or should have, like authority. The image whereof, and not the image but the thing indeed, is to be seen in the parliament house: wherein ye shall find these three estates, the king or queen, which represents the monarchy; the nobleman, which be the aristocratic; and the burgesses and knights the democratie. If the parliament use their privileges, the king can ordain nothing without them; if he do, it is his fault in usurping it, and their folly in permitting it." The good bishop adds, that on this ground, the men who, "in King Henry's days would not grant him that proclamations should have the force of a statute, were good fathers of the country, and worthy of commendation in defending their liberty.
The following passage from Castelnau, the French ambassador, who knew Elizabeth and England well, may be accepted as an impartial testimony to her character and reign:—"She has prospered in all her affairs, and continues to do so. Not from possessing great wealth, or from granting large donations, for she has always been a great economist, but without exacting from her subjects in the manner of her predecessors. Her great desire has been the repose of her people. Hence the nation has become exceedingly rich during her reign. But however unusual her ability, she has never undertaken great affairs on her own judgment, but has always conferred with her council. Careful to keep out of wars, she has thrown them upon her neighbours rather than drawn them upon herself. She has been taxed with avarice, but unjustly, and because she has refused to be free in her gifts. She discharged all the debts of her predecessors, put her own finances into good order, and amassed great riches without imposing any new tax upon her people. She has reigned eight years together without asking for a single subsidy, though her predecessors required one every three years; and in 1570, when her subjects offered her money, she thanked them, but declined it, and assured them that no levy of that kind should ever be made on them, except as the necessity of the state might demand it." Among the weaknesses of her later years we must reckon the favour shown to the earl of Leicester, and one of her latest sorrows was for the death of the earl of Essex. Elizabeth died on the 24th of March, 1603.—R. V.
ELIZABETH, Queen of Charles Robert of Hungary, was born in 1301. Her brother Casimir, subsequently king of Poland, having seduced Clara Zach, one of her maids of honour, the infuriated father of the victim. Count Felician, rushed upon the queen, and wounded her in the presence of the king in 1330. The savage revenge taken by Charles Robert on the family of Zach is one of the darkest spots in the history of Hungary. Elizabeth's son, King Louis of Hungary, having been elected king of Poland in 1370, she was sent by him to Cracow as regent. In order to establish the succession of the royal house of Hungary, Elizabeth allowed great political liberties to the Polish aristocracy. The historians trace, therefore, the beginning of Polish constitutional life to her weak and turbulent administration. She died in 1381 at the ripe age of eighty.—F. P., L.
ELIZABETH, sister of Louis XVI., daughter of Louis the dauphin of France and Marie Josephine de Saxe, was born in 1764. Her education was intrusted to the countess de Marsan, who seems to have shown herself well worthy of the charge. A country life, and a tranquil retirement spent among friends and books, formed the highest ambition of Madame Elizabeth; and this lot she enjoyed for some years at her villa of Montreuil previous to the outbreak of the Revolution. When the storm broke upon the heads of the royal family, Elizabeth met it piously but firmly, like a true daughter of France. She early saw through the whole weakness and irresolution of the king's character, and thence divined the hopelessness of the royal cause. After the return from the flight to Varennes, she wrote to a friend that all was lost. Yet, having resolved to cast in her lot with that of those she loved, she resisted all the persuasions of Louis to take refuge with her sister Clotilde at the court of Turin. In 1792 she was, with the king and queen, imprisoned in the Temple, and had to endure the agony of seeing each of them, in turn, led forth to execution. In May, 1794, she was brought before the revolutionary tribunal on the charge of keeping up a treasonable correspondence with her exiled brothers. She was condemned to the guillotine, and the sentence was executed the same day.—T. A.
ELIZABETH of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian II., was born 5th June, 1554, and married November 26, 1570, to Charles IX., king of France. Her goodness and beauty were alike conspicuous. The queen-mother, Catherine de Medicis, treated her with cruel indifference. Such was the influence of that clever and bad woman over her son, that Elizabeth was not allowed to take any part in public events. During the night of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, she was kept ignorant of the slaughter which was destroying so many of her best subjects, lest she should remonstrate with the weak-minded king. Her household occupied her chief attention. During her husband's indisposition she attended on him personally, praying for his recovery when she was not so employed. His respect for her was equal to his affection, and he boasted that he had the most gentle and patient, discreet and virtuous wife, not only in France, but the world. Elizabeth ranks among royal authoresses. She wrote a book on the Word of God, and another on the principal events that occurred during her residence in France. Retiring to Vienna, the home of her family, after the death of the French king, she died at the age of thirty-eight, in 1592, in the convent of St. Clair, which she had herself founded. She had only one child, a daughter, who died in infancy.—T. J.
ELIZABETH of Bohemia, daughter of Elizabeth Stewart, princess palatine and queen of Bohemia, was born in 1618. From an early age she manifested a peculiar fondness and aptitude for study, and attained to great proficiency both in science and in the languages. She became a pupil of the celebrated Descartes, whom she induced to take up his residence at Leyden for that purpose. He gave her instructions both in the most abstruse problems of geometry and the most profound metaphysical speculations. He dedicated to her his Principia, and declared that she was the only person he had met with who thoroughly understood his works. Her hand was sought by Wladislas IV., king of Poland; but she declined the offer, in order that she might devote herself wholly to study. She ultimately retired to the Lutheran abbey of Hervorden, where she gathered around her a number of literary persons of both sexes, Roman catholics as well as protestants, who were united by the common tie of the love of letters. This remarkable woman died there in 1680.—J. T.
ELIZABETH of Thuringia, Saint, daughter of King Andreas II. of Hungary, was born in 1207; betrothed in 1211 to Louis the son of Hermann, landgrave of Thuringia; was brought up at the court of her future father-in-law, the great protector of poetry. She became renowned all over Germany by her devout care for the sick and her boundless liberality to the poor. After the death of the landgrave, her husband, in 1227, she was persecuted by his brother, Henry Raspe, who, however, soon reinstated her in her rights. She lived henceforth at Marburg under the direction of her confessor, the Dominican Conrad of Strasburg, who, under her protection, tried to introduce the inquisition in Germany. Elizabeth died in 1231, and was canonized in 1235.—F. P., L.
ELIZABETH of Valois, daughter of Henry XI. of France, was betrothed to the ill-fated Don Carlos, son of Philip II. of Spain. But shortly after the death of Mary of England, Philip's first wife, Elizabeth became the wife of the king himself. The loss of his affianced bride—a woman possessed of the noblest qualities—was one source of those dissensions between
