Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/546

538 ELIZABETH STUART ELK spiracy, which being seconded by the favor of the national Russian party, and the intrigues of the ambassador of Louis XV., terminated in a military insurrection, the overthrow of Anna and Ivan, and the proclamation of Elizabeth as empress (December, 1741). Anna and her husband, as well as many other victims, were punished by confinement, and the young prince was imprisoned in the fortress of Schlusselburg, which he never again left ; while the successive favorites of Elizabeth, like herself destitute of character and talent, ruled the court and Rus- sia. Her vanity equalled her gross sensuality ; but, though sometimes exceedingly cruel and barbarous, she often showed humanity, and even generosity. Subsequently some abler Russians obtained the management of affairs, among them Rumiantzeff, Bestuzheif, and Vo- rontzoff. Peter, son of h er deceased elder sister Anna, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, was ap- pointed heir to the throne. A war with Swe- den was successfully conducted, and terminated in the peace of Abo (1743). A plot against her was detected, and the parties implicated were severely punished. An army sent to assist the empress Maria Theresa against Frederick the Great contributed to the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Influenced by Shuvaloff and Bestuzheff against Prussia, and mortified by a sarcasm of the witty Prus- sian king, Elizabeth allied herself against him with Austria and France in the seven years' war ; and her armies, under Apraxin, Fermor, Soltikoff, and Buturlin, contributed not a lit- tle to the distresses of the almost isolated Prussian monarch. They won the battles of Gross-Jagerndorf and Kunersdorf, took Col- berg, and even occupied Berlin. The death of the empress not only freed Frederick from a dangerous enemy, but also promised to give him in her successor, Peter III., an ardent sup- porter. The licentious disorder in her court lasted till her death. Razumovski, originally an obscure Cossack, successively her servant, chamberlain, and field marshal, finally became her secret husband, and is regarded as the father of three of her children. The founding of the university of Moscow and of the academy of fine arts at St. Petersburg are among her greatest merits. She patronized the fine arts, and carried on a correspondence with Voltaire, furnishing him with materials for the history of her father. ELIZABETH STUART, queen of Bohemia, born in the palace of Falkland, near Edinburgh, Aug. 16, 1596, died at Leicester house, London, Feb. 13, 1662. She was a daughter of James I. of England, and a highly accomplished princess. She had many suitors, among whom the most eminent were the young king of Spain, Philip III., Charles Emanuel I., duke of Savoy, and Frederick V., elector palatine; but as a Prot- estant Frederick was preferred. The marriage was celebrated with great pomp in Whitehall chapel, Feb. 14, 1613. To defray part of the expenses of the ceremonies the king levied new taxes to the extent of 20,500. The total expense amounted to about 53,000, ex- clusive of the bride's portion of 40,000. Her husband was the head of the Protestant in- terest in Germany, and when in 1619 the crown of Bohemia was tendered to him by the in- surgents, she urged his acceptance of it, with the remark that he should not have married a king's daughter if he had not the courage to become himself a king. Her entrance into Prague and her coronation were magnificent pageants, but her sovereignty soon came to an end. The imperialist forces advanced into Frederick's hereditary dominions and into Bo- hemia, and after the battle of Prague (Nov. 8, 1620) he and his queen were compelled to flee. A refuge was offered to them by her husband's uncle Maurice of Nassau, at the Hague, where most of her children were born. One of her sons was Prince Rupert, so well known in the history of the English civil wars. Her youngest child, Sophia, afterward electress of Hanover, and ancestress or the present Eng- lish royal family, was born in 1630, soon after the birth of her nephew, Charles II. Eliza- beth went to England in 1660, and resided for about six months in the house of Lord Craven, whose acquaintance she made after the death of her husband (1632), and with whom she lived on terms of the greatest intimacy. Her charms are celebrated by Sir Henry Wotton, in his famous lines beginning, " You meaner beauties of the night." ELIZABETH OF VALOIS, or Isabella, queen of Spain, born at Fontainebleau, April 13, 1545, died in Madrid, Oct. 3, 1568. She was a daughter of Henry II. and Catharine de' Me- dici. By a treaty concluded at Angers in 1551 she was betrothed to Edward VI. of England, but the marriage was prevented by his prema- ture death. By the preliminaries of the treaty of peace of Cateau-Cambr6sis, her hand was as- signed to Don Carlos, infante of Spain. The treaty was ratified April 3, 1559 ; but the fa- ther of Don Carlos, Philip II., being left a widower by the death of his wife, Queen Mary of England, and fascinated by a portrait which he had seen of the French princess, sub- stituted himself for his son. After a wedding by proxy celebrated at Paris in June, she was united to Philip in February, 1560, the mar- riage ceremony being performed with great splendor at Toledo. Just before her death she was delivered of a daughter, who lived only to be baptized and was buried in the same coffin with her mother. Romantic accounts have been given of the relations between Elizabeth and Carlos, but Prescott in his "History of the Reign of Philip II." proves their groundlessness. ELK, a name properly applied to the alcine division of the deer of the snowy regions, con- stituting the genus alces or alee (II. Smith). In this genus the muzzle is very broad, and cov- ered with hair, except a small bare spot in front of the nostrils ; the upper lip is 4 in. longer than the lower, and answers for pre-