Gelertic Magugiur

FOREIGN LITERATURE SCIENCE, AND ART.

V'EMBER. 1850

From the North British Review.

ELIZABETH STUART,
STUART, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA

salles nud crimes, a peculiar all the more so, perhaps, that portraying i was ever attached to the house, the Queen of Bohemia-the shenstress of It almost seems as if the ear present monarchs me face to face asen Mary had been perpe-with at least one Stuart, whese title as ker descendants. To this day Queen of Hearts" can be vindientesd jal poetry laments their mistor against every objecton. Not a fanbul aalicijates their triumphs, and, but a rent designation Lers, given by the sy sober-minded man thinks se noble British volunteers during that hard sation," we are all content to vile from Pragne, when her chulish "Jacobites." We care not at lather had refused even a shadowy nano cises either the grounds of to one who had lost all else beside; and machts, or their strict propriety;, sinen ratified both by her contemporaries and by history. How for a long time her the common watchword of Cavalier and Roundhead, how swords leaped from their grabbards-in her cause, how the most cations grew enthusiastic, and the most undecided energetic-how

Stuart, Gemahlin Friedrich's T. ton
Vea Dr, STL. Three vols. Ham

Missner. 1940.

Aduer Ferdinands II. und seiner
Conch F. VON HOTFR. Vols. VII, VIII,

hausen: Hurter, 1854-1858. ALVIL-NO. IIL

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her own and the rights of her family be- | faculty of discerning the "signs of a came the central question of European time;" but the most moderate historical politics-will appear in the sequel. But information might at least have prevented other and higher than merely political considerations were connected with her fate. In some measure, she may indeed be also regarded as representing the interests of entire continental Protestantism; and in that Thirty Years' War, on the issue of which the continuance of the new church seemed to depend, Elizabeth Stuart forms throughout the central figure. Lastly, during the forty years of her weary exile, continued energy which sufferings never paralyzed, and deepening meekness, gentleness, and faith which energetic action never put into the background, proved to friend and foe that this woman was always a princess, and that this princess always remained and felt as

a woman.

From materials such as these, to construct a history might appear no difficult task, especially considering the immense literature which German and British industry has accumulated in connection with the subject. Not a state-paper, letter, controversial tract, or secret negotiation, but will be found in the folios of Londorp or Khevenhiller, or has since yielded its contents to the patient analysis of Aretin, Wolf, Müller, and Mrs. Green; nay, of late, all the archives of Vienna have again been thrown open to F. v. Huter, whose neophyte zeal has undertaken the double task of defending Jesuit religion and Hapsburg policy. These vast chronicles have been condensed by numerous writers with more or less artistic skill and party bias. Unfortunately, however, while each according to the ability or diligence in him, has faithfully copied details, none has succeeded in drawing a portrait. Facts and chapters have followed cach other with unerring regularity, but the story wants unity, light, and life. "They have seen the trees, but missed the wood;" and the character both of Elizabeth and of her time remains yet to be studied. The last or anecdotal attempt at reading this period, made by Miss Strickland, need scarcely be noticed at great length, as it can not be ranked with the serious contributions to our history. "Smartness" in historical composition is the latest but the least promising development in literature. Considering Miss Strickland's party bias, it would perhaps have been unreasonable to expect the

the ludicrous blunders which crowd her volume, from the vignette on the titlepage to the end of the story. The MS. authorities to which our authoress so frequently refers, having been already sufficiently explored by Mrs. Green, we would advise her, in future editions, to bestow her attention on the less recondite but more useful subjects of Chronology and Geography. In that case she may, indeed, continue with lady-like négligence to throw about charges against persons and parties whom she understands not, and of whom she knows next to nothing, but she will at least avoid the smile raised by introducing the sect of the Taborites more than one hundred and fifty years after it had entirely ceased to exist, or by declaring that the road from the Upper Palatinate (which lay along the western boundary of Bohemia) to Prague led through Moravia and Silesia ! Thus much, then, for a volume in which the greatest assurance and the happiest ignorance are lovingly united in a "pictorial style;" thus much also for the literature of the subject generally. And now, with such help as we can get from any or all these sources, do we address ourselves to the history of the first and only "Protestant Queen of Bohemia."

For many a year had not more genuine national joy vibrated through the length and breadth of our island than on merry St. Valentine, A.D. 1613. Whitehall chapel was gayly decorated for a bridal ceremony: outside, the streets thronged with joyous, eager multitudes; inside, a royal procession, and by the steps of the altar, a very youthful couple, over which prelates are invoking the blessing of Heaven and the blessing of peoples. Although neither Elizabeth Stuart nor her youthful husband, Elector Frederic of the Palatinate, had completed their seventeenth year, their names were already the watchword of two great parties. In a court whose religious principles were sufficiently loose, Elizabeth was looked upon as the representative and the hope of Protestant Christianity. Without questioning either the zeal or theological acumen of James, the moral instinct of a nation awakening into deep religious earnestness, shrunk from the trifling pedant, as if it felt that his "lararium" was only large enough to

hold one statue in life-size that of him- twenty-eighth November; Ambassador self. His consort, Anne of Denmark, was Bowes, representing the Virgin Queen of a Papist, and as such had but lately com- England, carried the infant to the font. municated in the private chapel of the Her first seven years were spent chiefly Spanish ambassador, Don Alonzo de at Linlithgow and Dunfermline, under Velasco. Prince Henry of Wales, the the charge of Ladies Livingstone and idol of the nation, and trained a staunch Ochiltree. Early in 1603, James sucProtestant, had a few months ago been ceeded to the throne of England, to snatched by the hand of death; and the which country his consort and family soon slender health of Charles, the only re- followed him. Our countrymen never manent member of the royal family, again saw her, whom afterwards, by a seemed not likely to interpose a lasting special envoy, they claimed as the "eldest barrier between the Princess Elizabeth daughter of Scotland"-in whose cause and the throne of Britain. All the more so much of our best blood was shed, and needful, then, that she should be saved for whose deliverance and success rose so from court intrigues and Popish machina- many and so earnest prayers. In October, tions, and bestowed on one every way so 1603, the education of the Princess was worthy her hand as Frederic, the leading confided to Lord and Lady Harrington. and traditional representative of con- The affectionate child, to whom parting tinental Protestantism. Besides, this from Lady Ochiltree had been so great a union between the most powerful prince calamity, found in Combe Abbey, the of Germany, whose House had long residence of the Harringtons, others to headed the resistance to Papist aggres- love; and the friendships formed in the sions and Hapsburg encroachments, with home of her childhood continued through the daughter of the most puissant Pro-life. Between the Princess and her testant king, whose resources even at that brother Henry, to whom she clung with time might have been almost unlimited, passionate attachment, tender, we had promised to complete the great anti-Papal almost said romantic, letters passed. federation so long planned and essayed. Nothing broke the quiet of her retreat In truth, this marriage was the most-if except the Gunpowder Plot, the design not the only-popular act of James' reign. All Germany regarded it as a significant fact; all Britain, save Popish abettors and conspirators, rejoiced in it as a great national event, as a political triumph, and even a religious achievement.

Two very young people these, on whom to devolve such work, duties, and cares; whose training had indeed supplied all that artificial means could -mostly in eliciting what already existed-but whose native strength must, each of its own kind, be almost gigantic to carry this burden. Providence has destined the few for commanding, the many for obeying; and accordingly among the multitudes who, as circumstances indicate, become respectable councilors, instructors, officers, officials, or peddlers, they are exceptions whose keen glance can penetrate beyond that of the commonalty, whose secret purpose can steadily follow its own object, or whose strong hand can manfully grasp and firmly retain its hold. How ever this may be, the early years of the royal children had passed pleasantly and usefully. Born at Falkland Palace nineteenth August, 1596, Elizabeth had been baptized in Holyrood Abbey on the

of the conspirators being to elevate the Princess to the throne of England. As all other parts of the plot, so the attempt to gain possession of her person, failed through the vigilance of her guardians. It was on this occasion that the youthful Frederic penned his first epistle to his future father-in-law. Matrimonial projects were at all times a favorite pursuit with "the wisest of fools." Accordingly, before Elizabeth was more than seven years old, he had planned a double alliance with France to which the poor child was made privy. This was in due time followed by numberless other suits; among them, notably one with the widowed and intensely Popish monarch of Spain, strongly supported by Anne and the Papist party, and which the King contemplated with more zest than accords with his Protestant zeal. Had the temper of the people or the character of Elizabeth brooked it, James might not have found it very difficult to assuage his own scruples. The proposal of the youthful Gustavus Adolphus- the only suitor worthy her hand-was put aside from deference to the prejudices of the King of Denmark. Among all the other applicants, the