Electress Elizabeth of the Palatinate - part 1

Not so well known as the famous Queen Bess of England, but far more beautiful was her namesake and relative, Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I of England, yet her lot became a sad as she was beautiful. The sad fate of her family, the Stuarts, seemed to hang over her. She became the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia, the "paschal lamb" of the Thirty Year's War.

She was born August 19, 1596, at the palace at Falkland, Scotland. Her early life was made happy by an idolized brother, Henry, who instilled into her young mind an antipathy to Rome, which was only intensified as she afterwards suffered so much from Romish powers. She was sent to school at Combe Abbey. When there she was hurried away when the gunpowder plot (1605) was discovered, because the conspirators hoped to capture her and force her to become queen. When the danger was over, she wrote to her brother a little note which concluded with this expression: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" At that time a lad of nine years sent her from the continent a note of congratulation on her safety. He was the little Count Frederick of the Palatinate, who afterwards became her husband. He declared in this note that he believed that the wicked conspiracy proceded from the direct agency of the Antichrist. Later she wrote to her guardian a poem in which she seems to have caught the devotional spirit of Lady Jane Grey. When she was sixteen years old, Frederick sued for her hand. It was deemed wise to unite two such prominent and Reformed powers as England and the Palatinate in marriage. So on October 16, 1612, Prince Frederick embarked for England to recieve his bride. The Protestants in England were very glad for the marriage of their beautiful princess to Frederick; although the Catholics opposed it, and Elizabeth's mother never lost an opportunity to remind her that she was marrying beneath her station by calling the Palatinate Prince Frederick "Goody Palsgrave." Elizabeth promptly replied, "I would rather espouse a Protestant count than a Catholic emperor." It happened that just as Frederick arrived in England, Prince Henry, the heir to the throne and idol of the people, died. So most fortunately Frederick came to England to take her brother's place with Elizabeth. And the nation seemed to transfer its interest from the dead prince to Frederick.

They were married on Valentine's Day, 1613, with great pomp. Dressed in a gorgeous robe of white and silver, studded with diamonds, a crown of gold on her head, her long hair woven with pearls and diamonds, her train carried by thirteen young ladies dressed in white, she was married to the prince. The archbishop of Cantebury married them, and a sermon was preached by the Bishop of Bath and Wells on the wedding at Cana. After the wedding Frederick visited Cambridge and Oxford, where he was recieved with great honor, and then prepared to take his bride back to his own land. Their journey through Holland and up the Rhine seemed a triumphal entry. Reception followed reception. At Amsterdam from her barge to the carriage she passed over a bridge richly carpeted, while on the front of the exchange was a beautiful arch, on which she was represented as Thetis, the goddess mother of Achilles. Every day there were military displays, so that her bridal journey seemed a victorious march. At Dusseldorf her husband had provided a yacht on which she was to sail up the beautiful Rhine to Heidelberg. When she arrived at the Palatinate, she was recieved by the towns of Oppenheim and Frankenthal with great rejoicing and honor. She arrived at Heidelberg on a beautiful day in June. Almost all the Protestant nobility of Germany was there to welcome her; and as they came with large retinues of followers, Heidelberg was full of gaiety and splendor. The Princess arrived before the city, having 374 in her company, among them English nobles, as the Earl of Arundel and Lord Lenox. As she proceeded to the castle in a carriage with eight horses, the streets were strewn with green-sward and the roofs crowned with boughs of May. Along the walls were hung festoons of flowers. The next day the court preacher, Scultetus, preached a sermon, and for twelve days the festivities continued. They were closed June 18, 1613, by a sermon by Scultetus on the subject of thanksgiving, based on the 119th Psalm. Nearly 300,000 pounds were spent, and 5,500 persons dined at the table every day at the castle.