ELIZABETH 



2868 



ELIZABETH 



tobacco and fruit, especially melons, 

 being much cultivated. Pop. 

 75,800. x Pron. Yelizavetgrad. 



Elizabeth. City of New Jersey, 

 U.S.A., the co. seat of Union co. 

 Near the mouth of the Elizabeth 

 river on Staten Island Sound, it is 

 4 m. S.S.W. of Newark, and is 

 served by the Pennsylvania and 

 other rlys. There are large sewing- 

 machine factories, shipbuilding 

 yards, chemical works, foundries, 

 oil refineries, and tanneries. Its 

 port, 2 m. to the S.E., is on Staten 

 Island, and ships anthracite coal 

 and iron. Settled in 1664, it was 

 incorporated as a town in 1796 

 and became a city in 1855. Pop. 

 88,830. 



Elizabeth. Feminine Christian 

 name. It originated in a Hebrew 

 word, Elisbeba, meaning God hath 

 sworn, and became very popular 

 throughout the Christian world. 



It has various forms, one of which 

 is Isabella, and is common in 

 Russia and eastern Europe as well 

 as in the west. Eliza, Elsie, and 

 the Scotch Elspeth are among its 

 abbreviations. .. 1 



Elizabeth (1207-31). Hunga- 

 rian princess and saint. Daughter 

 of Andreas II of Hungary, she 

 was born at Presburg, and early 

 showed her love of the ascetic life. 

 Married in 1221 to Louis IV of 

 Thuringia, she was driven from the 

 court on his death in 1227. Re- 

 nouncing the world, she lived at 

 Marburg under the influence of 

 Conrad of Marburg, and subjected 

 herself to the severest penances 

 and self-denial. She died there on 

 Nov. 19, 1231, and was canonised in 

 1235, after many miracles reported 

 from her tomb at Marburg. See 

 Life, C. F. R. de Montalembert, 

 Eng. trans. F. D. Hoyt, 1904. 



ELIZABETH : HER REIGN AND ITS GLORIES 



A. D. Innes, Author of England Under the Tudors 



This biography is one of the most important of the series on the 

 sovereigns of England and Scotland. Further information is 

 under England : History; Mary Queen of Scots ; Armada. See 

 also biographies of Burghley ; Drake; Leicester; Philip II, etc- 



Elizabeth was the daughter of 

 Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, 

 whom he married before the Eng- 

 lish law courts had pronounced 

 his earlier marriage with Catherine 

 of Aragon invalid. Elizabeth was 

 born on Sept. 7, 1533 ; Catherine 

 did not die till 1536. According to 

 Roman Catholics, therefore, Ehza- 

 beth was not born in wedlock. In 

 1536 Anne was executed, after a 

 pronouncement of the courts that 

 her marriage had not been valid. 

 The title under which Elizabeth 

 succeeded her half-sister Mary hi 

 1558 was conveyed by the will of 

 Henry VIII. The actual legitimate 

 heir to the throne was her cousin 

 Mary Queen of Scots, the grand- 

 daughter of Henry's elder sister, 

 Margaret. 



Elizabeth's girlhood was hard 

 and loveless ; she lived hi an at- 

 mosphere of suspicion, in which she 

 learnt that duplicity was the condi- 

 tion of self-preservation. During 

 Mary's reign she was charged with 

 complicity in Wyatt's rebellion, 

 though it was found impossible to 

 bring the accusation home to her. 

 Throughout the reign she was kept 

 under suspicious surveillance, but 

 successfully evaded definite pro- 

 fession of her sister's religion. It 

 was imposed upon her by her posi- 

 tion that she should take her 

 stand as a Protestant. Her own 

 wisdom taught her that her strength 

 must depend upon the solid sup- 

 port of her Protestant subjects. 



From her accession in 1558 Eliza- 

 beth was herself the ruler of her 



country, though she chose and 

 trusted her counsellors with pro- 

 found insight. Public opinion de- 

 manded that she should marry, and 

 secure an undisputed succession. 

 She herself never had the slightest 

 intention of marrying, but under- 

 stood to the full the diplomatic use 

 that might be made of the fact that 

 it was open for her to choose a hus- 

 band. For five-and-twenty years 



from an engraving uy W. Rogers it 

 the collection of B..M. the King 



she played with marriage pro- 

 posals, the most notable of her 

 suitors being Philip of Spain,whose 

 offer she declined in the first 

 months of her reign ; the Austrian 

 Archduke Charles ; Henry of 

 Anjou, afterwards Henry III of 

 France, her junior by eleven years ; 

 and finally his younger brother, 

 Francis. Fears were at one time 

 entertained that she might marry 

 her undesirable favourite, Robert 

 Dudley, whom she made earl of 

 Leicester. It was not till she 

 reached the age of fifty that the 

 theory of her probable marriage 

 was finally abandoned. 



The antagonism between Eliza- 

 beth and Philip of Spain was the 

 controlling factor in her policy. 

 Elizabeth saw that Philip's hands 

 were tied ; if he struck at her 

 successf ully the succession of Mary 

 Stuart to the English throne would 

 be the inevitable result, and Mary's 

 association with France was so 

 intimate that her accession would 

 almost inevitably mean the close 

 alliance of England and France, to 

 the great inconvenience of Philip. 

 Hence for five-and-twenty years a 

 positive rupture between England 

 and Spain seemed always immi- 

 nent, but was always postponed, 

 which was precisely what Elizabeth 

 wanted. 



Elizabeth and Mary Stuart 



England had been weakened by 

 years of misrule, and Elizabeth 

 did not mean to fight until Eng- 

 land was strong enough to make 

 sure of winning. Year after year, 

 though she carried on and en- 

 couraged what was, in fact, a covert 

 war against Spain, she abstained 

 always from the last provocation 

 which would have compelled Philip 

 to open war. Primarily because the 

 life of Mary Stuart was an obstacle 

 to Philip, she kept Mary Stuart 

 alive and a prisoner, in spite of 

 the personal danger to herself. 

 But Elizabeth's hand was at last 

 forced ; in 1586 she was obliged 

 to give open official support to the 

 United Provinces of the Nether- 

 lands and sanctioned the execution 

 of Mary Stuart. 



The result was the coming of the 

 Spanish Armada, and its annihila- 

 tion in 1588. After its destruction 

 maritime war between England 

 and Spam continued through 

 the remaining ten yeais of Philip's 

 life and the five years by which 

 Elizabeth outlived him. For the 

 old queen those years were em- 

 bittered by the tragedy of the 

 young earl of Essex, Robert 

 Devereux, to whom she became de- 

 votedly attached, but whose arro- 

 gant folly led him into treasonable 

 acts, from the consequences of 

 which the queen could not save him. 





