ELISAVETPOL

elisavetpol, a government of russia, transcaucasia, having the governments of tiflis and daghestan on the n., baku on the e., and erivan and tiflis on the w. and persia on the s. area, 16,721 sq. m. it includes: (a) the southern slope of the main caucasus range in the north-east, where bazardyuzi (14,770 ft.) and other peaks rise above the snow-line; (b) the arid and unproductive steppes beside the kura, reaching 1000 ft. of altitude in the west and sinking to 100-200 ft. in the east, where irrigation is necessary; and (c) the northern slopes of the transcaucasian escarpment and portions of the armenian plateau, which is intersected towards its western boundary, near lake gok-cha, by chains of mountains consisting of trachytes and various crystalline rocks, and reaching 12,845 ft. in mount kapujikh. elsewhere the country has the character of a plateau, 7000 to 8000 ft. high, deeply trenched by tributaries of the aras. all varieties of climate are found from that of the snowclad peaks, alpine meadows, and stony deserts of the high levels, to that of the hill slopes, clothed with gardens and vineyards, and of the arid caspian steppes. thus, at shusha, on the plateau, at an altitude of 3680 ft., the average temperatures are: year 48 deg., january 26 deg., july 66 deg.; annual rainfall, 26.4; while at elisavetpol, in the valley of the kura, they are: year 55 deg., january 32 deg. 2, july 77 deg. and rainfall only 10.3 in. nearly one-fifth of the surface is under forests. the population which was 885,379 in 1897 (only 392,124 women; 84,130 urban), and was estimated at 953,300 in 1906, consists chiefly of tatars (56%) and armenians (33%). the remainder are kurds (4.7%), russians and a few germans, jews, kurins, udins and tates. peasants form the great bulk of the population. some of the tatars and the kurds are nomadic. wheat, maize, barley, oats and rye are grown, also rice. cultivation of cotton has begun, but the rearing of silkworms is of old standing, especially at nukha (1650 tons of cocoons on the average are obtained every year). nearly 8000 acres are under vines, the yield of wine averaging 82-1/2 million gallons annually. gardening reaches a high standard of perfection. liquorice root is obtained to the extent of about 35,000 tons annually. the rearing of live-stock is largely carried on on the steppes. copper, magnetic iron ore, cobalt and a small quantity of naphtha are extracted, and nearly 10,000 persons are employed in manufacturing industry--copper works and silk-mills. carpet-weaving is widely spread. owing to the transcaucasian railway, which crosses the government, trade, both in the interior and with persia, is very brisk. the government is divided into eight districts, elisavetpol, aresh, jebrail, jevanshir, kazakh, nukha, shusha and zangezur. the only towns, besides the capital, are nukha (24,811 inhabitants in 1897) and shusha (25,656). elisavetpol (formerly _ganja_, alternative names being kenjeh and kanga), a town of russia, capital of the government of the same name, 118 m. by rail s.e. of tiflis and 3-1/2 m. from the railway, at an altitude of 1446 ft. pop. (1873) 15,439; (1897) 33,090. it is a very old town, which changed hands between persians, khazars and arabs even in the 7th century, and later fell into the possession of mongols, georgians, persians and turks successively, until the russians took it in 1804, when the change of name was made. it is a badly built place, with narrow streets and low-roofed, windowless houses, and is situated in a very unhealthy locality, but has been much improved, a new european quarter having been built on the site of the old fortress (erected by the turks in 1712-1724). the inhabitants are chiefly tatars and armenians, famed for their excellent gardening, and also for silkworm breeding. it has a beautiful mosque, built by shah abbas of persia in 1620; and a renowned "green mosque" amidst the ruins of old ganja, 4 m. distant. the persian poet, shah nizam (nizam-ed-din), was born here in 1141, and is said to have been buried (1203) close to the town. the persians were defeated by the russians under paskevich outside this town in 1826. elisha (a hebrew name meaning "god is deliverance"), in the bible, the disciple and successor of elijah, was the son of shaphat of abel-meholah in the valley of the jordan. he was symbolically elected to the prophetic office by elijah some time during the reign of ahab (1 kings xix. 19-21), and he survived until the reign of joash. his career thus appears to have extended over a period of nearly sixty years. the relation between elijah and elisha was of a particularly close kind, but the difference between them is much more striking than the resemblance. elijah is the prophet of the wilderness, wandering, rugged and austere; elisha is the prophet of civilized life, of the city and the court, with the dress, manners and appearance of ordinary "grave citizens." elijah is the messenger of vengeance--sudden, fierce and overwhelming; elisha is the messenger of mercy and restoration. elijah's miracles, with few exceptions, are works of wrath and destruction; elisha's miracles, with but one notable exception, are works of beneficence and healing. elijah is the "prophet as fire" (ecclus, xlviii. 1), an abnormal agent working for exceptional ends; elisha is the "holy man of god which passeth by us continually" (2 kings iv. 9), mixing in the common life of the people. it is impossible to draw up a detailed chronology of his life. in most of the events narrated no further indication of time is given than by the words "the king of israel," the name not being specified. there are some instances in which the order of time is obviously the reverse of the order of narrative, and there are other grounds for concluding that the narrative as we now have it is confused and incomplete. this may serve not only to explain the chronological difficulties, but also to throw some light on the altogether exceptional character of the miraculous element in elisha's history. on the literary questions, see further kings. not only are elisha's miracles very numerous, even more so than those of elijah, but they stand in a peculiar relation to the man and his work. with all the other prophets the primary function is spiritual teaching; miracles, even though numerous and many of them symbolical like elisha's, are only accessory. with elisha, on the other hand, miracles seem the principal function, and the teaching is altogether subsidiary. an explanation of the superabundance of miracles in elisha's life is suggested by the fact that several of them were merely repetitions or doubles of those of his predecessor. such were: his first miracle, when, returning across the jordan, he made a dry path for himself in the same manner as elijah (2 kings ii. 14); the increase of the widow's pot of oil (iv. 1-7); and the restoration of the son of the woman of shunem to life (iv. 18-37). the theory that stories from the earlier life have been imported by mistake into the later, even if tenable, applies only to three of the miracles, and leaves unexplained a much larger number which are not only not repetitions of those of elijah, but have an entirely opposite character. the healing of the water of jericho by putting salt in it (ii. 19-22), the provision of water for the army of jehoshaphat in the arid desert (iii. 6-20), the neutralizing by meal of the poison in the pottage of the famine-stricken sons of the prophets at jericho (iv. 38-41), the healing of naaman the syrian (v. 1-19), and the recovery of the iron axehead that had sunk in the water (vi. 1-7), are all instances of the beneficence which was the general characteristic of elisha's wonder-working activity in contrast to that of elijah. another miracle of the same class, the feeding of a hundred men with twenty loaves so that something was left over (iv. 42-44), deserves mention as the most striking though not the only instance of a resemblance between the work of elisha and that of jesus (matt. xiv. 13-21). the one distinct exception to the general beneficence of elisha's activity--the destruction of the forty-two children who mocked him as he was going up to bethel (2 kings ii. 23-25)--presents an ethical difficulty which is scarcely removed by the suggestion that the narrative has lost some particulars which would have shown the real enormity of the children's offence. we may prefer to imagine that among the homely stories told of him was one which had for its main object the inculcation of respect for one's elders.[1] the leprosy brought upon gehazi (v. 20-27), though a miracle of judgment, scarcely belongs to the same class as the other; and it will be observed that gehazi's subsequent relations with the court (viii. 1-6) ignore the disease, a fatal hindrance to intercourse. further, the healing of naaman (alluded to in luke iv. 27) presupposes peaceful relations between israel and the syrians, with which, however, contrast ch. vi. the wonder-working power of elisha is represented as continuing even after his death. as the feeding of the hundred men and the cure of leprosy connect his work with that of jesus, so the story that a dead man who was cast into his sepulchre was brought to life by the mere contact with his bones (2 kings xiii. 21, cf. ecclus. xlviii. 12-14) is the most striking instance of an analogy between his miracles and those recorded of medieval saints. stanley (_jewish church_, 4th ed., ii. 276) in reference to this has remarked that in the life of elisha alone "in the sacred history the gulf between biblical and ecclesiastical miracles almost disappears." the place which elisha filled in contemporary history was one of great influence and importance, and several narratives testify to his great reputation in israel. on one occasion, when he delivered the army that had been brought out against moab from a threatened dearth of water (2 kings iii.),[2] he plainly intimates that, but for his regard to jehoshaphat, the king of judah, who was in alliance with israel, he would not have interfered. whether he was with the army or was supposed to be living in the desert is left obscure. an interesting touch is the influence of music upon the prophetic mind (_v._ 15). his next signal interference was during the incursions of the syrians, when he disclosed the plans of the invaders to the "king of israel" with such effect that they were again and again baffled. when the "king of syria" was informed that "elisha, the prophet that is in israel, telleth the king of israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber," he at once sent an army to take him captive in dothan. at elisha's prayer his terrified servant beheld an army of horses and chariots of fire surrounding the prophet. at a second prayer the invaders were struck blind, and in this state they were led by elisha to samaria, where their sight was restored. their lives were spared at the command of the prophet, and they returned home so impressed that their incursions thenceforward ceased (vi. 8-23). this is immediately followed by the siege of samaria by benhadad which caused a famine of the severest kind. the calamity was imputed by the "king of israel" to the influence of elisha, and he ordered the prophet to be immediately put to death. forewarned of the danger, elisha ordered the messenger who had been sent to slay him to be detained at the door, and, when, immediately afterwards, the king himself came ("messenger" in vi. 33 should rather be _king_), predicted a great plenty within twenty-four hours. this was fulfilled by the flight of the syrian army under the circumstances stated in ch. vii. after the episode with regard to the woman of shunem (viii. 1-6), which is out of its chronological order, elisha is represented as at damascus (viii. 7-15). the reverence with which the foreign monarch benhadad addressed elisha deserves to be noted as showing the extent of the prophet's influence. in sending to know the issue of his illness, the king caused himself to be styled "_thy son_ benhadad." equally remarkable is the very ambiguous nature of elisha's reply (viii. 10).[3] the most important interference of elisha in the history of his country constituted the fulfilment of the third of the commands laid upon elijah. the work of anointing jehu to be king over israel was performed by deputy (ix. 1-3). during the forty-five years which the chronological scheme allows for the reigns of jehu and jehoahaz the narratives contain no notice of elisha, but from the circumstances of his death (xiii. 14-21) it is clear that he had continued to enjoy the esteem of the dynasty which he had helped to found. joash, the grandson of jehu, waited on him on his death-bed, and addressed him in the words which he himself had used to elijah: "my father, my father, the chariot of israel and the horsemen thereof" (cf. ii. 12). by the result of a symbolic discharge of arrows he informed the king of his coming success against syria, and immediately thereafter he died. the explicit statement that he was buried completes the contrast between him and his greater predecessor. on the narratives, see kings. in general those where "the prophet appears as on friendly terms with the king, and possessed of influence at court (e.g. 2 kings iv. 13, vi. 9, vi. 21, compared with xiii. 14), plainly belong to the time of jehu's dynasty, though they are related before the fall of the house of omri. we can distinguish portions of an historical narrative which speaks of elisha in connexion with events of public interest, without making him the central figure, and a series of anecdotes of properly biographical character.... in the latter we may distinguish one circle connected with gilgal, jericho and the jordan valley to which abel-meholah belongs (iv. 1-7? 38-44, v.? vi. 1-7). here elisha appears as the head of the prophetic gilds, having his fixed residence at gilgal.[4] another circle, which presupposes the accession of the house of jehu, places him at dothan or carmel, and represents him as a personage of almost superhuman dignity. here there is an obvious parallelism with the history of elijah, especially with his ascension (cf. 2 kings vi. 17 with ii. 11; xiii. 14 with ii. 12); and it is to this group of narratives that the ascension of elijah forms the introduction" (robertson smith, _ency. brit._, 9th ed., art. kings, vol. xiv. p. 186). this twofold representation finds a parallel in the narratives of samuel, whose history and the conditions reflected therein are analogous to the life and times of elisha. elisha is canonized in the orthodox eastern church, his festival being on the 14th of june, under which date his life is entered in the _acta sanctorum_. see especially, w.r. smith, _prophets of israel_ (index, s.v.), and the literature to elijah; kings, books of; prophet. (w. r. s.; s. a. c.) footnotes: [1] similarly elijah enforces respect for the prophetic office in i. 9 sqq. prof. kennett points out to the present writer that the epithet "bald-head" may refer to the sign of mourning for elisha's lost master (cf. ez. vii. 18, deut. xiv. 1); "go up" is perhaps to be taken literally (in reference to elijah's translation). [2] the method of obtaining water (_v._ 16 sq.) is that which still gives its name to the wadi el-ahsa ("valley of water pits") at the southern end of the dead sea (_old test. jew. church_, 2nd ed., 147). on the other hand, see burney, _heb. text of kings_, p. 270. [3] r. v. marg. is an alteration to remove from elisha the suggestion of an untruth. [4] the gilgal of elisha is near the jordan--comp. vi. 1 with iv. 38, [hebrew: shavim lefanaiv],--and cannot be other than the great sanctuary 2 m. from jericho, the local holiness of which is still attested in the _onomastica_. it is true that in 2 kings ii. 1 bethel seems to lie between gilgal and jericho; but v. 25 shows that gilgal was not originally represented as elisha's residence in this narrative, which belongs to the carmel-dothan series. on the other hand, for the identification with the gilgal (jiljilia) s.w. of shiloh, see g.a. smith, _ency. bib._ (s.v. gilgal); burney, _op. cit._, p. 264; skinner, _century bible_: _kings_, p. 278. elisha ben abuyah (c. a.d. 100), a unique figure among the palestinian jews of the first christian century. he was born before the destruction of the temple (which occurred in a.d. 70) and survived into the 2nd century. it is not easy to decide as to his exact attitude towards judaism. that he refused to accept the current rabbinical views is certain, though the talmud cites his legal decisions. most authorities believe that he was a gnostic; but while it is certain that he was not a christian, it is possible that he was simply a sadducee, and thus an opponent not of judaism but of pharisaism. his disciple, the famous pharisee meir, remained his steadfast friend, and his efforts to reclaim his former master are among the most pathetic incidents in the talmud. in later ages elisha (_aher_ "the other," as he was named) was regarded as the type of a heretic whose pride of intellect betrayed him into infidelity to law and morals. without much appropriateness elisha has been sometimes described as the "faust of the talmud." (i. a.) elixir (from the arabic _al-iksir_, probably an adaptation of the gr. [greek: xerion], a powder used for drying wounds, from [greek: xeros], dry), in alchemy, the medium which would effect the transmutation of base metals into gold; it probably included all such substances--vapours, liquids, &c.--and had a wider meaning than "philosopher's stone." the same term, more fully _elixir_ _vitae_, elixir of life, was given to the substance which would indefinitely prolong life; it was considered to be closely related to, or even identical with, the substance for transmuting metals. in pharmacy the word was formerly given to a strong extract or tincture, but it is only used now for an aromatic sweet preparation, containing one or more drugs, and in such expressions as "elixir of vitriol," a mixture of sulphuric acid, cinnamon, ginger and alcohol. elizabeth (1533-1603), queen of england and ireland, born on sunday the 7th of september 1533, and, like all the tudors except henry vii., at greenwich palace, was the only surviving child of henry viii. by his second queen, anne boleyn. with such a mother and with cranmer as her godfather she represented from her birth the principle of revolt from rome, but the opponents of that movement attached little importance to her advent into the world. charles v.'s ambassador, chapuys, hardly deigned to mention the fact that the king's _amie_ had given birth to a daughter, and both her parents were bitterly disappointed with her sex. she was, however, given precedence over mary, her elder sister by sixteen years, and mary never forgave the infant's offence. even this dubious advantage only lasted three years until her mother was beheaded, and by a much more serious freak on henry's part "divorced." elizabeth has been censured for having made no effort in later years to clear her mother's memory; but no vindication of anne's character could have rehabilitated elizabeth's legitimacy. her mother was not "divorced" for her alleged adultery, because that crime was no ground for divorce by roman or english canon law. the marriage was declared invalid _ab initio_ either on the ground of anne's precontract with lord percy or more probably on the ground of the affinity established between henry and anne by henry's previous relations with mary boleyn. elizabeth thus lost all hereditary title to the throne, and her early years of childhood can hardly have been happier than mary's. nor was her legitimacy ever legally established; but after jane seymour's death, when henry seemed likely to have no further issue, she was by act of parliament placed next in order of the succession after edward and mary and their issue; and this statutory arrangement was confirmed by the will which henry viii. was empowered by statute to make. queen catherine parr introduced some humanity into henry's household, and edward and elizabeth were well and happily educated together, principally at old hatfield house, which is now the marquess of salisbury's stables. they were there when henry's death called edward vi. away to greater dignities, and elizabeth was left in the care of catherine parr, who married in indecent haste thomas, lord seymour, brother of the protector somerset. this unprincipled adventurer, even before catherine's death in september 1548, paid indelicate attentions to elizabeth. any attempt to marry her without the council's leave would have been treason on his part and would have deprived elizabeth of her contingent right to the succession. accordingly, when seymour's other misbehaviour led to his arrest, his relations with elizabeth were made the subject of a very trying investigation, which gave elizabeth her first lessons in the feminine arts of self-defence. she proved equal to the occasion, partly because she was in all probability innocent of anything worse than a qualified acquiescence in seymour's improprieties and a girlish admiration for his handsome face. he or his tragic fate may have touched a deeper chord, but it was carefully concealed; and although in later years elizabeth seems to have cherished his memory, and certainly showed no love for his brother's children, at the time she only showed resentment at the indignities inflicted on herself. for the rest of edward's reign elizabeth's life was less tempestuous. she hardly rivalled lady jane grey as the ideal puritan maiden, but she swam with the stream, and was regarded as a foil to her stubborn catholic sister. she thus avoided the enmity and the still more dangerous favour of northumberland; and some unknown history lies behind the duke's preference of the lady jane to elizabeth as his son's wife and his own puppet for the throne. she thus escaped shipwreck in his crazy vessel, and rode by mary's side in triumph into london on the failure of the plot. for a time she was safe enough; she would not renounce her protestantism until catholicism had been made the law of the land, but she followed gardiner's advice to her father when he said it was better that he should make the law his will than try to make his will the law. as a presumptive ruler of england she was, like cecil, and for that matter the future archbishop parker also, too shrewd to commit herself to passive or active resistance to the law; and they merely anticipated hobbes in holding that the individual committed no sin in subordinating his conscience to the will of the state, for the responsibility for the law was not his but the state's. their position was well enough understood in those days; it was known that they were heretics at heart, and that when their turn came they would once more overthrow catholicism and expect a similar submission from the catholics. it was not so much elizabeth's religion as her nearness to the throne and the circumstances of her birth that endangered her life in mary's reign. while mary was popular elizabeth was safe; but as soon as the spanish marriage project had turned away english hearts elizabeth inevitably became the centre of plots and the hope of the plotters. had not lady jane still been alive to take off the edge of mary's indignation and suspicion elizabeth might have paid forfeit for wyat's rebellion with her life instead of imprisonment. she may have had interviews with french agents who helped to foment the insurrection; but she was strong and wary enough to avoid henry ii.'s, as she had avoided northumberland's, toils; for even in case of success she would have been the french king's puppet, placed on the throne, if at all, merely to keep it warm for henry's prospective daughter-in-law, mary stuart. this did not make mary tudor any more friendly, and, although the story that elizabeth favoured courtenay and that mary was jealous is a ridiculous fiction, the spaniards cried loud and long for elizabeth's execution. she was sent to the tower in march 1554, but few englishmen were fanatic enough to want a tudor beheaded. the great nobles, the howards, and gardiner would not hear of such a proposal; and all the efforts of the court throughout mary's reign failed to induce parliament to listen to the suggestion that elizabeth should be deprived of her legal right to the succession. after two months in the tower she was transferred to sir henry bedingfield's charge at woodstock, and at christmas, when the realm had been reconciled to rome and mary was expecting issue, elizabeth was once more received at court. in the autumn of 1555 she went down to hatfield, where she spent most of the rest of mary's reign, enjoying the lessons of ascham and baldassare castiglione, and planting trees which still survive. she had only to bide her time while mary made straight her successor's path by uprooting whatever affection the english people had for the catholic faith, roman jurisdiction and spanish control. the protestant martyrs and calais between them removed all the alternatives to an insular national english policy in church and in state; and no sovereign was better qualified to lead such a cause than the queen who ascended the throne amid universal, and the spaniards thought indecent, rejoicings at mary's death on the 17th of november 1558. "mere english" she boasted of being, and after englishmen's recent experience there was no surer title to popular favour. no sovereign since harold had been so purely english in blood; her nearest foreign ancestor was catherine of france, the widow of henry v., and no english king or queen was more superbly insular in character or in policy. she was the unmistakable child of the age so far as englishmen shared in its characteristics, for with her english aims she combined some italian methods and ideas. "an englishman italianate," ran the current jingle, "is a devil incarnate," and elizabeth was well versed in italian scholarship and statecraft. italians, especially bernardino ochino, had given her religious instruction, and the italians who rejected catholicism usually adopted far more advanced forms of heresy than lutheranism, zwinglianism, or even calvinism. elizabeth herself patronized giacomo acontio, who thought dogma a "stratagema satanae," and her last favourite, essex was accused of being the ringleader of "a damnable crew of atheists." a spanish ambassador early in the reign thought that elizabeth's own religion was equally negative, though she told him she agreed with nearly everything in the augsburg confession. she was probably not at liberty to say what she really thought, but she made up by saying a great many things which she did not mean. it is clear enough that, although, like her father, she was fond of ritual, she was absolutely devoid of the religious temperament, and that her ecclesiastical preferences were dictated by political considerations. she was sincere enough in her dislike of roman jurisdiction and of calvinism; a daughter of anne boleyn could have little affection for a system which made her a bastard, and all monarchs agreed at heart with james i.'s aphorism about "no bishop, no king." it was convenient, too, to profess lutheran sympathies, for lutheranism was now an established, monarchical and comparatively respectable religion, very different from the calvinism against which monarchs directed the counter-reformation from political motives. lutheran dogma, however, had few adherents in england, though its political theory coincided with that of anglicanism in the 16th century. the compromise that resulted from these conflicting forces suited elizabeth very well; she had little dislike of catholics who repudiated the papacy, but she was forced to rely mainly on protestants, and had little respect for any form of ecclesiastical self-government. she valued uniformity in religion, not as a safeguard against heresy, but as a guarantee of the unity of the state. she respected the bishops only as supporters of her throne; and, although the well-known letter beginning "proud prelate" is an 18th-century forgery, it is hardly a travesty of elizabeth's attitude. the outlines of her foreign policy are sketched elsewhere (see english history), and her courtships were diplomatic. contemporary gossip, which was probably justified, said that she was debarred from matrimony by a physical defect; and her cry when she heard that mary queen of scots had given birth to a son is the most womanly thing recorded of elizabeth. her features were as handsome as mary's, but she had little fascination, and in spite of her many suitors no man lost his head over elizabeth as men did over mary. she was far too masculine in mind and temperament, and her extravagant addiction to the outward trappings of femininity was probably due to the absence or atrophy of deeper feminine instincts. in the same way the impossibility of marriage made her all the freer with her flirtations, and she carried some of them to lengths that scandalized a public unconscious of elizabeth's security. she had every reason to keep them in the dark, and to convince other courts that she could and would marry if the provocation were sufficient. she could not marry philip ii., but she held out hopes to more than one of his austrian cousins whenever france or mary stuart seemed to threaten; and later she encouraged two french princes when philip had lost patience with elizabeth and made mary stuart his protegee. her other suitors were less important, except leicester, who appealed to the least intellectual side of elizabeth and was always a cause of distraction in her policy and her ministers. elizabeth was terribly handicapped by having no heirs of her body and no obvious english successor. she could not afford to recognize mary's claim, for that would have been to alienate the protestants, double the number of catholics, and, in her own phrase, to spread a winding-sheet before her eyes; for all would have turned to the rising sun. mary was dangerous enough as it was, and no one would willingly make his rival his heir. elizabeth could hardly be expected to go out of her way and ask parliament to repeal its own acts for mary's sake; probably it would have refused. nor was it personal enmity on elizabeth's part that brought mary to the block. parliament had long been ferociously demanding mary's execution, not because she was guilty but because she was dangerous to the public peace. she alone could have given the spanish armada any real chance of success; and as the prospect of invasion loomed larger on the horizon, fiercer grew the popular determination to remove the only possible centre of a domestic rising, without which the external attack was bound to be a failure. elizabeth resisted the demand, not from compassion or qualms of conscience, but because she dreaded the responsibility for mary's death. she wished paulet would manage the business on his own account, and when at last her signature was extorted she made a scapegoat of her secretary davison who had the warrant executed. the other great difficulty, apart from the succession, with which elizabeth had to deal arose from the exuberant aggressiveness of england, which she could not, and perhaps did not want to, repress. religion was not really the cause of her external dangers, for the time had passed for crusades, and no foreign power seriously contemplated an armed invasion of england for religion's sake. but no state could long tolerate the affronts which english seamen offered spain. the common view that the british empire has been won by purely defensive action is not tenable, and from the beginning of her reign englishmen had taken the offensive, partly from religious but also from other motives. they were determined to break up the spanish monopoly in the new world, and in the pursuit of this endeavour they were led to challenge spain in the old. for nearly thirty years philip put up with the capture of his treasure-ships, the raiding of his colonies and the open assistance rendered to his rebels. only when he had reached the conclusion that his power would never be secure in the netherlands or the new world until england was conquered, did he despatch the spanish armada. elizabeth delayed the breach as long as she could, probably because she knew that war meant taxation, and that taxation was the most prolific parent of revolt. with the defeat of the spanish armada elizabeth's work was done, and during the last fifteen years of her reign she got more out of touch with her people. that period was one of gradual transition to the conditions of stuart times; during it practically every claim was put forward that was made under the first two stuarts either on behalf of parliament or the prerogative, and elizabeth's attitude towards the puritans was hardly distinguishable from james i.'s. but her past was in her favour, and so were her sex and her tudor tact, which checked the growth of discontent and made essex's rebellion a ridiculous fiasco. he was the last and the most wilful but perhaps the best of her favourites, and his tragic fate deepened the gloom of her closing years. the loneliness of a queen who had no husband or children and no relatives to mention must at all times have been oppressive; it grew desolating in old age after the deaths of leicester, walsingham, burghley and essex, and elizabeth died, the last of her race, on the 24th of march 1603. bishop creighton's _queen elizabeth_ (1896) is the best biography; there are others by e.s. beesly (_twelve english statesmen_, 1892); lucy aikin, _memoirs of the court of queen elizabeth_ (1818); and t. wright, _queen elizabeth and her times_ (1838). see also a. jessopp's article in the _dict. nat. biog._ (a. f. p.) elizabeth [petrovna] (1709-1762), empress of russia, the daughter of peter the great and martha skovronskaya, born at kolomenskoye, near moscow, on the 18th of december 1709. even as a child her parts were good, if not brilliant, but unfortunately her education was both imperfect and desultory. her father had no leisure to devote to her training, and her mother was too illiterate to superintend her studies. she had a french governess, however, and at a later day picked up some italian, german and swedish, and could converse in these languages with more fluency than accuracy. from her earliest years she delighted every one by her extraordinary beauty and vivacity. it was peter's intention to marry his second daughter to the young french king louis xv., but the pride of the bourbons revolted against any such alliance. other connubial speculations foundered on the personal dislike of the princess for the various suitors proposed to her, so that on the death of her mother (may 1727) and the departure to holstein of her beloved sister anne, her only remaining near relation, the princess found herself at the age of eighteen practically her own mistress. so long as menshikov remained in power, she was treated with liberality and distinction by the government of peter ii., but the dolgorukis, who supplanted menshikov and hated the memory of peter the great, practically banished peter's daughter from court. elizabeth had inherited her father's sensual temperament and, being free from all control, abandoned herself to her appetites without reserve. while still in her teens, she made a lover of alexius shubin, a sergeant in the semenovsky guards, and after his banishment to siberia, minus his tongue, by order of the empress anne, consoled herself with a handsome young cossack, alexius razumovski, who, there is good reason to believe, subsequently became her husband. during the reign of her cousin anne (1730-1740), elizabeth effaced herself as much as possible; but under the regency of anne leopoldovna the course of events compelled the indolent but by no means incapable beauty to overthrow the existing government. the idea seems to have been first suggested to her by the french ambassador, la chetardie, who was plotting to destroy the austrian influence then dominant at the russian court. it is a mistake to suppose, however, that la chetardie took a leading part in the revolution which placed the daughter of peter the great on the russian throne. as a matter of fact, beyond lending the tsesarevna 2000 ducats, instead of the 15,000 she demanded of him, he took no part whatever in the actual _coup d'etat_ which was as great a surprise to him as to every one else. the merit and glory of that singular affair belong to elizabeth alone. the fear of being imprisoned in a convent for the rest of her life was the determining cause of her irresistible outburst of energy. at midnight on the 6th of december 1741, with a few personal friends, including her physician, armand lestocq, her chamberlain, michael ilarionvich vorontsov, her future husband, alexius razumovski, and alexander and peter shuvalov, two of the gentlemen of her household, she drove to the barracks of the preobrazhensky guards, enlisted their sympathies by a stirring speech, and led them to the winter palace, where the regent was reposing in absolute security. having on the way thither had all the ministers arrested, she seized the regent and her children in their beds, and summoned all the notables, civil and ecclesiastical, to her presence. so swiftly and noiselessly indeed had the whole revolution proceeded that as late as eight o'clock the next morning very few people in the city were aware of it. thus, at the age of three-and-thirty, this naturally indolent and self-indulgent woman, with little knowledge and no experience of affairs, suddenly found herself at the head of a great empire at one of the most critical periods of its existence. fortunately for herself, and for russia, elizabeth petrovna, with all her shortcomings, had inherited some of her father's genius for government. her usually keen judgment and her diplomatic tact again and again recall peter the great. what in her sometimes seemed irresolution and procrastination, was, most often, a wise suspense of judgment under exceptionally difficult circumstances; and to this may be added that she was ever ready to sacrifice the prejudices of the woman to the duty of the sovereign. after abolishing the cabinet council system in favour during the rule of the two annes, and reconstituting the senate as it had been under peter the great,--with the chiefs of the departments of state, all of them now russians again, as _ex-officio_ members under the presidency of the sovereign,--the first care of the new empress was to compose her quarrel with sweden. on the 23rd of january 1743, direct negotiations between the two powers were opened at abo, and on the 7th of august 1743 sweden ceded to russia all the southern part of finland east of the river kymmene, which thus became the boundary between the two states, including the fortresses of villmanstrand and fredrikshamn. this triumphant issue was mainly due to the diplomatic ability of the new vice chancellor, alexius bestuzhev-ryumin (q.v.), whom elizabeth, much as she disliked him personally, had wisely placed at the head of foreign affairs immediately after her accession. he represented the anti-franco-prussian portion of her council, and his object was to bring about an anglo-austro-russian alliance which, at that time, was undoubtedly russia's proper system. hence the reiterated attempts of frederick the great and louis xv. to get rid of bestuzhev, which made the russian court during the earlier years of elizabeth's reign the centre of a tangle of intrigue impossible to unravel by those who do not possess the clue to it (see bestuzhev-ryumin, alexius). ultimately, however, the minister, strong in the support of elizabeth, prevailed, and his faultless diplomacy, backed by the despatch of an auxiliary russian corps of 30,000 men to the rhine, greatly accelerated the peace negotiations which led to the treaty of aix-la-chapelle (october 18, 1748). by sheer tenacity of purpose, bestuzhev had extricated his country from the swedish imbroglio; reconciled his imperial mistress with the courts of vienna and london, her natural allies; enabled russia to assert herself effectually in poland, turkey and sweden, and isolated the restless king of prussia by environing him with hostile alliances. but all this would have been impossible but for the steady support of elizabeth, who trusted him implicitly, despite the insinuations of the chancellor's innumerable enemies, most of whom were her personal friends. the great event of elizabeth's later years was the seven years' war. elizabeth rightly regarded the treaty of westminster (january 16, 1756, whereby great britain and prussia agreed to unite their forces to oppose the entry into, or the passage through, germany of the troops of every foreign power) as utterly subversive of the previous conventions between great britain and russia. a by no means unwarrantable fear of the king of prussia, who was "to be reduced within proper limits," so that "he might be no longer a danger to the empire," induced elizabeth to accede to the treaty of versailles, in other words the franco-austrian league against prussia, and on the 17th of may 1757 the russian army, 85,000 strong, advanced against konigsberg. neither the serious illness of the empress, which began with a fainting-fit at tsarskoe selo (september 19, 1757), nor the fall of bestuzhev (february 21, 1758), nor the cabals and intrigues of the various foreign powers at st petersburg, interfered with the progress of the war, and the crushing defeat of kunersdorf (august 12, 1759) at last brought frederick to the verge of ruin. from that day forth he despaired of success, though he was saved for the moment by the jealousies of the russian and austrian commanders, which ruined the military plans of the allies. on the other hand, it is not too much to say that, from the end of 1759 to the end of 1761, the unshakable firmness of the russian empress was the one constraining political force which held together the heterogeneous, incessantly jarring elements of the anti-prussian combination. from the russian point of view, elizabeth's greatness as a statesman consists in her steady appreciation of russian interests, and her determination to promote them at all hazards. she insisted throughout that the king of prussia must be rendered harmless to his neighbours for the future, and that the only way to bring this about was to reduce him to the rank of an elector. frederick himself was quite alive to his danger. "i am at the end of my resources," he wrote at the beginning of 1760, "the continuance of this war means for me utter ruin. things may drag on perhaps till july, but then a catastrophe _must_ come." on the 21st of may 1760 a fresh convention was signed between russia and austria, a secret clause of which, never communicated to the court of versailles, guaranteed east prussia to russia, as an indemnity for war expenses. the failure of the campaign of 1760, so far as russia and france were concerned, induced the court of versailles, on the evening of the 22nd of january 1761, to present to the court of st petersburg a despatch to the effect that the king of france by reason of the condition of his dominions absolutely desired peace. on the following day the austrian ambassador, esterhazy, presented a despatch of a similar tenor from his court. the russian empress's reply was delivered to the two ambassadors on the 12th of february. it was inspired by the most uncompromising hostility towards the king of prussia. elizabeth would not consent to any pacific overtures until the original object of the league had been accomplished. simultaneously, elizabeth caused to be conveyed to louis xv. a confidential letter in which she proposed the signature of a new treaty of alliance of a more comprehensive and explicit nature than the preceding treaties between the two powers, without the knowledge of austria. elizabeth's object in this mysterious negotiation seems to have been to reconcile france and great britain, in return for which signal service france was to throw all her forces into the german war. this project, which lacked neither ability nor audacity, foundered upon louis xv.'s invincible jealousy of the growth of russian influence in eastern europe and his fear of offending the porte. it was finally arranged by the allies that their envoys at paris should fix the date for the assembling of a peace congress, and that, in the meantime, the war against prussia should be vigorously prosecuted. the campaign of 1761 was almost as abortive as the campaign of 1760. frederick acted on the defensive with consummate skill, and the capture of the prussian fortress of kolberg on christmas day o.s. 1761, by rumyantsev, was the sole russian success. frederick, however, was now at the last gasp. on the 6th of january 1762, he wrote to finkenstein, "we ought now to think of preserving for my nephew, by way of negotiation, whatever fragments of my territory we can save from the avidity of my enemies," which means, if words mean anything, that he was resolved to seek a soldier's death on the first opportunity. a fortnight later he wrote to prince ferdinand of brunswick, "the sky begins to clear. courage, my dear fellow. i have received the news of a great event." the great event which snatched him from destruction was the death of the russian empress (january 5, 1762). see robert nisbet bain, _the daughter of peter the great_ (london, 1899); sergyei solovev, _history of russia_ (rus.), vols. xx.-xxii. (st petersburg, 1857-1877); _politische correspondenz friedrichs des grossen_, vols. i.-xxi. (berlin, 1879, &c.); colonel masslowski, _der siebenjahrige krieg nach russischer darstellung_ (berlin, 1888-1893); kazinsierz waliszewski, _la derniere des romanov_ (paris, 1902). (r. n. b.) elizabeth [amelie eugenie] (1837-1898), consort of francis joseph, emperor of austria and king of hungary, was the daughter of duke maximilian joseph of bavaria and louisa wilhelmina, daughter of maximilian i. of bavaria, and was born on the 24th of december 1837 at the castle of possenhofen on lake starnberg. she inherited the quick intelligence and artistic taste displayed in general by members of the wittelsbach royal house, and her education was the reverse of conventional. she accompanied her eccentric father on his hunting expeditions, becoming an expert rider and climber, visiting the peasants in their huts and sharing in rustic pleasures. the emperor of austria, francis joseph, met the bavarian ducal family at ischl in august 1853, and immediately fell in love with elizabeth, then a girl of sixteen, and reported to be the most beautiful princess in europe. the marriage took place in vienna on the 24th of april 1854. in the early days of her married life she frequently came into collision with viennese prejudice. her attempts to modify court etiquette, and her extreme fondness for horsemanship and frequent visits to the imperial riding school, scandalized austrian society, while her predilection for hungary and for everything hungarian offended german sentiment. there is no doubt that her influence helped the establishment of the _ausgleich_ with hungary, but outside hungarian affairs the empress took small part in politics. she first visited hungary in 1857, and ten years later was crowned queen. her popularity with the hungarians remained unchanged throughout her life; and the castle of godollo, presented as a coronation gift, was one of her favourite residences. elizabeth was one of the most charitable of royal ladies, and her popularity with her austrian subjects was more than restored by her assiduous care for the wounded in the campaign of 1866. besides her public benefactions she constantly exercised personal and private charity. her eldest daughter died in infancy; gisela (b. 1856) married the prince leopold of bavaria; and her youngest daughter marie valerie (b. 1868) married the archduke franz salvator. the tragic death of her only son, the crown prince rudolph, in 1889, was a shock from which she never really recovered. she was also deeply affected by the suicide of her cousin louis ii. of bavaria, and again by the fate of her sister sophia, duchess of alencon, who perished in the fire of the paris charity bazaar in 1897. the empress had shown signs of lung disease in 1861, when she spent some months in madeira; but she was able to resume her outdoor sports, and for some years before 1882, when she had to give up riding, was a frequent visitor on english and irish hunting fields. in her later years her dislike of publicity increased. much of her time was spent in travel or at the achilleion, the palace she had built in the greek style in corfu. she was walking from her hotel at geneva to the steamer when she was stabbed by the anarchist luigi luccheni, on the 10th of september 1898, and died of the wound within a few hours. this aimless and dastardly crime completed the list of misfortunes of the austrian house, and aroused intense indignation throughout europe. see a. de burgh, _elizabeth, empress of austria, a memoir_ (london, 1898); e. friedmann and j. paves, _kaiserin elisabeth_ (berlin, 1898); and the anonymous _martyrdom of an empress_ (1899), containing a quantity of court gossip. elizabeth (1596-1662), consort of frederick v., elector palatine and titular king of bohemia, was the eldest daughter of james i. of great britain and of anne of denmark, and was born at falkland castle in fifeshire in august 1596. she was entrusted to the care of the earl of linlithgow, and after the departure of the royal family to england, to the countess of kildare, subsequently residing with lord and lady harington at combe abbey in warwickshire. in november 1605 the gunpowder plot conspirators formed a plan to seize her person and proclaim her queen after the explosion, in consequence of which she was removed by lord harington to coventry. in 1608 she appeared at court, where her beauty soon attracted admiration and became the theme of the poets, her suitors including the dauphin, maurice, prince of orange, gustavus adolphus, philip iii. of spain, and frederick v., the elector palatine. a union with the last-named was finally arranged, in spite of the queen's opposition, in order to strengthen the alliance with the protestant powers in germany, and the marriage took place on the 14th of february 1613 midst great rejoicing and festivities. the prince and princess entered heidelberg on the 17th of june, and elizabeth, by means of her english annuity, enjoyed five years of pleasure and of extravagant gaiety to which the small german court was totally unaccustomed. on the 26th of august 1618, frederick, as a leading protestant prince, was chosen king by the bohemians, who deposed the emperor ferdinand, then archduke of styria. there is no evidence to show that his acceptance was instigated by the princess or that she had any influence in her husband's political career. she accompanied frederick to prague in october 1619, and was crowned on the 7th of november. here her unrestrainable high spirits and levity gave great offence to the citizens. on the approach of misfortune, however, she showed great courage and fortitude. she left prague on the 8th of november 1620, after the fatal battle of the white hill, for kustrin, travelling thence to berlin and wolfenbuttel, finally with frederick taking refuge at the hague with prince maurice of orange. the help sought from james came only in the shape of useless embassies and negotiations; the two palatinates were soon occupied by the spaniards and the duke of bavaria; and the romantic attachment and services of duke christian of brunswick, of the 1st earl of craven, and of other chivalrous young champions who were inspired by the beauty and grace of the "queen of hearts," as elizabeth was now called, availed nothing. her residence was at rhenen near arnheim, where she received many english visitors and endeavoured to maintain her spirits and fortitude, with straitened means and in spite of frequent disappointments. the victories of gustavus adolphus secured no permanent advantage, and his death at lutzen was followed by that of the elector at mainz on the 29th of november 1632. subsequent attempts of the princess to reinstate her son in his dominions were unsuccessful, and it was not till the peace of westphalia in 1648 that he regained a portion of them, the rhenish palatinate. meanwhile, elizabeth's position in holland grew more and more unsatisfactory. the payment of her english annuity of l12,000 ceased after the outbreak of the troubles with the parliament; the death of charles i. in 1649 put an end to all hopes from that quarter; and the pension allowed her by the house of orange ceased in 1650. her children, in consequence of disputes, abandoned her, and her eldest son charles louis refused her a home in his restored electorate. nor did charles ii. at his restoration show any desire to receive her in england. parliament voted her l20,000 in 1660 for the payment of her debts, but elizabeth did not receive the money, and on the 19th of may 1661 she left the hague for england, in spite of the king's attempts to hinder her journey, receiving no official welcome on her arrival in london and being lodged at lord craven's house in drury lane. charles, however, subsequently granted her a pension and treated her with kindness. on the 8th of february 1662 she removed to leicester house in leicester fields, and died shortly afterwards on the 13th of the same month, being buried in westminster abbey. her beauty, grace and vivacity exercised a great charm over her contemporaries, the enthusiasm for her, however, being probably not merely personal but one inspired also by her misfortunes and by the fact that these misfortunes were incurred in defence of the protestant cause; later, as the ancestress of the protestant hanoverian dynasty, she obtained a conspicuous place in english history. she had thirteen children--frederick henry, drowned at sea in 1629; charles louis, elector palatine, whose daughter married philip, duke of orleans, and became the ancestress of the elder and roman catholic branch of the royal family of england; elizabeth, abbess and friend of descartes; prince rupert and prince maurice, who died unmarried; louisa, abbess; edward, who married anne de gonzaga, "princesse palatine," and had children; henrietta maria, who married count sigismund ragotzki but died childless; philip and charlotte, who died childless; sophia, who married ernest augustus, elector of hanover, and was mother of george i. of england; and two others who died young. bibliography.--see the article in _dict. of nat. biography_ and authorities there collected; _five stuart princesses_, ed. by r.s. rait (1902); _briefe der elizabeth stuart ... an ... den kurfursten carl ludwig von der pfalz_, by a. wendland (bibliothek des literarischen vereins, 228, stuttgart, 1902); "elizabeth stuart," by j.o. opel, in sybel's _historische zeitschrift_, xxiii. 289; _thomason tracts_ (brit. mus.), e., 138 (14), 122 (12), 118 (40), 119 (18). important material regarding the princess exists in the mss. of the earl of craven, at combe abbey. elizabeth [pauline elizabeth ottilie louise] (1843- ), consort of king charles i. (q.v.) of rumania, widely known by her literary name of "carmen sylva," was born on the 29th of december 1843. she was the daughter of prince hermann of neuwied. she first met the future king of rumania at berlin in 1861, and was married to him on the 15th of november 1869. her only child, a daughter, died in 1874. in the russo-turkish war of 1877-1878 she devoted herself to the care of the wounded, and founded the order of elizabeth (a gold cross on a blue ribbon) to reward distinguished service in such work. she fostered the higher education of women in rumania, and established societies for various charitable objects. early distinguished by her excellence as a pianist, organist and singer, she also showed considerable ability in painting and illuminating; but a lively poetic imagination led her to the path of literature, and more especially to poetry, folk-lore and ballads. in addition to numerous original works she put into literary form many of the legends current among the rumanian peasantry. "carmen sylva" wrote with facility in german, rumanian, french and english. a few of her voluminous writings, which include poems, plays, novels, short stories, essays, collections of aphorisms, &c., may be singled out for special mention. her earliest publications were _sappho_ and _hammerstein_, two poems which appeared at leipzig in 1880. in 1888 she received the prix botta, a prize awarded triennially by the french academy, for her volume of prose aphorisms _les pensees d'une reine_ (paris, 1882), a german version of which is entitled _vom amboss_ (bonn, 1890). _cuvinte sufletesci_, religious meditations in rumanian (bucharest, 1888), was also translated into german (bonn, 1890), under the name of _seelen-gesprache_. several of the works of "carmen sylva" were written in collaboration with mite kremnitz, one of her maids of honour, who was born at greifswald in 1857, and married dr kremnitz of bucharest; these were published between 1881 and 1888, in some cases under the pseudonyms _dito et idem_, and includes the novel _aus zwei welten_ (leipzig, 1884), _anna boleyn_ (bonn, 1886), a tragedy, _in der irre_ (bonn, 1888), a collection of short stories, &c. _edleen vaughan, or paths of peril_, a novel (london, 1894), and _sweet hours_, poems (london, 1904), were written in english. among the translations made by "carmen sylva" are german versions of pierre loti's romance _pecheur d'islande_, and of paul de st victor's dramatic criticisms _les deux masques_ (paris, 1881-1884); and in particular _the bard of the dimbovitza_, a fine english version by "carmen sylva" and alma strettell of helene vacarescu's collection of rumanian folk-songs, &c., entitled _lieder aus dem dimbovitzathal_ (bonn, 1889). _the bard of the dimbovitza_ was first published in 1891, and was soon reissued and expanded. translations from the original works of "carmen sylva" have appeared in all the principal languages of europe and in armenian. see rumania: _history_; also m. kremnitz, _carmen sylva--eine biographie_ (leipzig, 1903); and, for a full bibliography, g. bengescu, _carmen sylva--bibliographie et extraits de ses oeuvres_ (paris, 1904). elizabeth (1635-1650), english princess, second daughter of charles i., was born on the 28th of december 1635 at st james's palace. on the outbreak of the civil war and the departure of the king from london, while the two elder princes accompanied their father, the princess and the infant duke of gloucester were left under the care of the parliament. in october 1642 elizabeth sent a letter to the house of lords begging that her old attendants might not be removed. in july 1644 the royal children were sent to sir john danvers at chelsea, and in 1645 to the earl and countess of northumberland. after the final defeat of the king they were joined in 1646 by james, and during 1647 paid several visits to the king at caversham, near reading, and hampton court, but were again separated by charles's imprisonment at carisbrooke castle. on the 21st of april 1648 james was persuaded to escape by elizabeth, who declared that were she a boy she would not long remain in confinement. the last sad meeting between charles and his two children, at which the princess was overcome with grief, and of which she wrote a short and touching account, took place on the 29th of january 1649, the day before his execution. in june she was entrusted to the care of the earl and countess of leicester at penshurst, but in 1650, upon the landing of charles ii. in scotland, the parliament ordered the royal children to be taken for security to carisbrooke castle. the princess fell ill from a wetting almost immediately upon her arrival, and died of fever on the 8th of september. she was buried in st thomas's church at newport, isle of wight, where the initials "e.s." alone marked her grave till 1856, when a monument was erected to her memory by queen victoria. the princess's sorrowful career and early death have attracted general interest and sympathy. she was said to have acquired considerable proficiency in greek, hebrew and latin, as well as in italian and french, and several books were dedicated to her, including the translation of the _electra_ of sophocles by christopher wase in 1649. her mild nature and gentleness towards her father's enemies gained her the name of "temperance." see _lives of the princesses of england_, by m.a.e. green (1855), vol. vi.; _notes and queries_, 7th ser., ix. 444, x. 15. elizabeth [elisabeth philippine marie helene of france] (1764-1794), commonly called madame elizabeth, daughter of louis the dauphin and marie josephine of saxony, and sister of louis xvi., was born at versailles on the 3rd of may 1764. left an orphan at the age of three, she was brought up by madame de mackau, and had a residence at montreuil, where she gave many proofs of her benevolent character. she refused all offers of marriage so that she might remain by the side of her brother, whom she loved passionately. at the outset of the revolution she foresaw the gravity of events, and refused to leave the king, whom she accompanied in his flight on the 20th of june 1792, and with whom she was arrested at varennes. she was present at the legislative assembly when louis was suspended, and was imprisoned in the temple with the royal family. by the execution of the king and the removal of marie antoinette to the conciergerie, madame elizabeth was deprived of her companions in the temple prison, and on the 9th of may 1794 she was herself transferred to the conciergerie, and haled before the revolutionary tribunal. accused of assisting the king's flight, of supplying _emigres_ with funds, and of encouraging the resistance of the royal troops on the 10th of august 1792, she was condemned to death, and executed on the 10th of may 1794. like her brother, she had all the domestic virtues, and, as was to be expected of a sister of louis xvi., she was in favour of absolutist principles. hers was one of the most touching tragedies of the revolution; she perished because she was the sister of the king. the _memoires de madame elisabeth_ (paris, 1858), by f. de barghon and fort-rion, are of doubtful authenticity; and the collection of letters and documents published in 1865 by f. feuillet de conches must be used with caution (see the bibliographical note to the article marie antoinette). see le comte a.f.c. ferrand, _eloge historique de madame elisabeth_ (1814, containing 94 letters; 2nd ed., 1861, containing additional letters, but correspondence mutilated); du fresne de beaucourt, _etude sur madame elisabeth_ (paris, 1864); a. de beauchesne, _vie de madame elisabeth_ (1869); la comtesse d'armaille, _madame elisabeth_ (paris, 1886); madame d'arvor, _madame elisabeth_ (paris, 1898); and hon. mrs maxwell-scott, _madame elizabeth of france_ (1908).