ART. X.-1. Memoirs of Elisabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Daughter of King James I. By MISS BENGER. Two vols. London: Longman, Brown, and Green. 1825.

2. Lives of the Princesses of England, from the Norman Conquest. By MARY ANNE EVERETT GREEN. Vols. V. and VI. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longman and Roberts. 1857.

3. Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses, connected with the Regal Succession of Great Britain. By AGNES STRICKLAND. Vol. VIII. W. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1859.

4. Friedrich V., Churfürst von der Pfalz und König von Böhmen. Eine historisch-biographische Schilderung entworfen von F. J. LIPOWSKY. München: Fleischmann, 1824.

5. Elisabeth Stuart, Gemahlin Friedrich's V. von der Pfalz. Von DR SÖLTL. Three vols. Hamburg: J. A. Meissner, 1840. 6. Geschichte Kaiser Ferdinands II. u. seiner Eltern, etc., durch F. VON HUTER. Vols. VII., VIII., IX. Schaffhausen: Hurter, 1854-1858.

DESPITE follies and crimes, a peculiar fascination has ever attached to the house of Stuart. It almost seems as if the charms of Queen Mary had been perpetuated in her descendants. To this day our national poetry laments their misfortunes or anticipates their triumphs, and, while every sober-minded man thinks as a "Hanoverian," we are all content to dream as "Jacobites." We care not at present to discuss either the grounds of these sentiments, or their strict propriety; all the more so, perhaps, that portraying the Queen of Bohemia-the ancestress of our present monarch- we are face to face with at least one Stuart, whose title as "Queen of Hearts" can be vindicated against every objector. Not a fanciful but a real designation hers, given by the noble British volunteers during that hard ride from Prague, when her churlish father had refused even a shadowy name to one who had lost all else beside; and since ratified both by her cotemporaries and by history. How for a long time her name was the common watchword of Cavalier and Roundhead, how swords leaped from their scabbards in her cause, how the most cautious grew enthusiastic, and the most undecided energetic,-how her own and the rights of her family became the central question of European politics,-will appear in the sequel. But 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

Chroniclers and Romancists.

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in that Thirty Years' War, on the issue of which the continuance of the new church seemed to depend, Elisabeth Stuart forms throughout the central figure. Lastly, during the forty years of her weary exile, continued energy which sufferings never paralysed, 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 each 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 Elisabeth 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 cannot 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 partybias, it would perhaps have been unreasonable to expect the faculty of discerning the "signs of a time;" but the most moderate historical information might at least have prevented the ludicrous blunders which crowd her volume, from the vignette on the title-page 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 150 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 gaily 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 Elisabeth Stuart nor her youthful husband, Elector Frederic of the Palatinate, had completed their 17th year, their names were already the watchword of two great parties. In a court whose religious principles were sufficiently loose, Elisabeth 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 himself. His consort, Anne of Denmark, was a Papist, and as such had but lately communicated in the private chapel of the Spanish ambassador, Don Alonzo de Velasco. Prince Henry of Wales, the idol of the nation, and trained a staunch Protestant, had a few months ago been snatched by the hand of death; and the slender health of Charles, the only remanent member of the royal family, seemed not likely to interpose a lasting barrier between the Princess Elisabeth and the throne of Britain. All the more needful, then, that she should be saved from court intrigues and Popish machinations, and bestowed on one every way so worthy her hand as Frederic, the leading and traditional representative of continental Protestantism. Besides, this union between the most powerful prince of Germany, whose House had long headed the resistance to Papist aggressions and Hapsburg encroachments, with the daughter of the most puissant Protestant king, whose resources even at that time might have been almost unlimited, promised to complete the great antiPapal federation so long planned and essayed. In truth, this marriage was the most if 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.

Youth and Education of Elisabeth.

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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 councillors, instructors, officers, officials, or pedlars, they are exceptions whose keen glance can penetrate beyond that of the commonality, whose secret purpose can steadily follow its own object, or whose strong hand can manfully grasp and firmly retain its hold. However this may be, the early years of the royal children had passed pleasantly and usefully. Born at Falkland Palace 19th August 1596, Elisabeth had been baptized in Holyrood Abbey on the 28th November; Ambassador Bowes, representing the Virgin Queen of England, carried the infant to the font. Her first seven years were spent chiefly at Linlithgow and Dunfermline, under the charge of Ladies Livingstone and Ochiltree. Early in 1603, James succeeded to the throne of England, to which country his consort and family soon followed him. Our countrymen never again saw her, whom afterwards, by a special envoy, they claimed as the "eldest daughter of Scotland,"-in whose cause so much of our best blood was shed, and for whose deliverance and success rose so many and so earnest prayers. In October 1603, the education of the princess was confided to Lord and Lady Harrington. The affectionate child, to whom parting from Lady Ochiltree had been so great a calamity, found in Combe Abbey, the residence of the Harringtons, others to love; and the friendships formed in the home of her childhood continued through life. Between the princess and her brother Henry, to whom she clung with passionate attachment, tender, we had almost said romantic, letters passed. Nothing broke the quiet of her retreat except the Gunpowder Plot, the design 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 at all times a favourite pursuit with "the wisest of fools." Accordingly, before Elisabeth 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 Elisabeth 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 Elector Palsgrave seemed the most promising; and him, accordingly, James chose. Even Queen Anne, who at first had given the match a more than passive resistance, at last relaxed so far as to honour the wedding with her presence.

The beautiful and fertile domains of the Counts Palatine, presently forming part chiefly of the kingdom of Bavaria, were divided into the Rhenish or Lower, and the Bavarian or Upper Palatinate, which bordered on Bohemia. The residence of the Elector was fixed in romantic Heidelberg, at that time a populous and prosperous city. Passing through narrow streets, and across the market-place, a stranger would find himself at the entrance to a castle, of which each portion had its own romantic story. Successive Electors had added to its vast dimensions, till its size exceeded that of any British palace. From the windows the eye roamed over a smiling landscape of gardens and vineyards, of river and dale. The subjects of the Palatinate were an eminently peaceful and loyal race. Blessed with a succession of good sovereigns, they had been allowed to obey the dictates of their consciences to a greater extent than perhaps any of their German compatriots. Miss Strickland is entirely mistaken in asserting that "the Rhenish princes had been foremost in Luther's Reformation, and in the first religious war of Germany (can Miss S. say which?) 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." It happens that in this case the people were Lutherans before their princes left the old Church, and that the first Protestant Palsgrave-Frederic III. (ob. 1576)-whose singular piety and earnestness, at a period when such qualities were rare, were owned by friend and foe, was not Lutheran, but intensely Calvinistic. Louis VI., the son of Frederic, adopted Lutheranism; but with his successor, Frederic IV., Calvinism became again the religion of the State,the creed of Luther remaining, however, dominant in the Upper Palatinate. Frederic IV. was, on the whole, a good monarch, and his reign prosperous for his country. Without the deep principle of his sire, or the broad political sympathies which had induced him to give aid to the French Huguenots, in an age of braggards, sots, and bigots, he at least "saw and approved what was more excellent." Under his rule Mannheim rose, and the

1 Comp. C. Olivianus u. F. Ursinus von K. Sudhoff, and Struve's Pfälzische Kirchenhistorie.