ELIS ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND. 



843 



ELIS ; a country in the west of the Pelopennesus, 

 where Olympia was situated. (See Olympic Games.) 

 It was bounded on the east by Arcadia, on the south 

 by Messenia, and ran along the coast, watered by 

 the river Alpheus. Elis was the capital of the coun- 

 try. Eleus, one of its kings in early times, is said 

 to have given origin to the name of the country. 



ELIXIR (from the Arabic al ecsir. a chemical me- 

 dicine, or from Xs<w, I help, or i/.xu, I draw out, or 

 from eligere, to choose, or rather from elixare, to boil.) 

 It is the name of several medicines, consisting of 

 wine, or spirits of wine, and various resinous, bitter, 

 vegetable substances. The word, however, is almost 

 gone out of use, and its place supplied by tincture. 

 Elixirs, indeed, differ from tinctures, by having a 

 thicker and more opaque consistence, and by con- 

 taining less spirit. The stomach elixirs of Frederic 

 H o!i ma mi and Stoughton are well known. The for- 

 mer (elix. viscerate, Fr. Hoffmanni) is prepared by 

 dissolving in Malaga or Hungary wine the extract 

 of card, ben., cent. min.,cort. aurant., cort. Chinae, 

 myrrh, aq., and adding to the solution a little tinct. 

 caryophyll. aromat. and tinct. croci. Stoughton's 

 elixir consists of absynth., gentian, rubr., rhubarb, 

 cascarilla and cort. aurant., steeped in spirits of wine. 



ELIZABETH, ST., of Thuringia, distinguished for 

 her piety and virtue, the daughter of Andrew II., 

 king of Hungary, was born at Presburg, 1207, and, 

 in 1211, was married to Louis, landgrave of Thurin- 

 gia, who was then eleven years old, and was edu- 

 cated at Wartburg, in all the elegance of the court 

 of Hermann, the abode of music and the arts. Louis 

 began to govern in 1215, and the marriage was com- 

 pleted in 1221. While the husband devoted him- 

 self to knightly exploits, the wife was distinguished 

 by the mild virtues of her sex. When Germany, 

 and especially Thuringia, was oppressed with famine 

 and pestilence, she caused many hospitals to be 

 erected, fed a multitude of the poor from her own 

 table, and supplied their wants with money and 

 clothing. She wandered about, in an humble dress, 

 relieving the sorrows of the wretched. Louis died 

 on a crusade, and her own life terminated, November 

 19, 1231, in an hospital which she had herself esta- 

 blished. She was regarded as a saint by her admir- 

 ing contemporaries, and, four years after her death, 

 this canonization was approved by pope Gregory IX. 

 A beautiful church and a costly monument were 

 erected over her tomb. The latter is now one of 

 the most splendid remains of Gothic architecture in 

 Germany. 



ELIZABETH, queen of England, and one of its 

 most celebrated sovereigns, was the daughter of 

 Henry VIII., by his queen, Anne Boleyn. She was 

 born in 1533, and educated in the principles of the 

 Reformation, and also in those classical studies into 

 which it had then become customary to initiate 

 females of distinction in England. In her lather's tes- 

 tament, she was placed the third in the order of suc- 

 cession ; but the duke of Northumberland induced 

 her brother, Edward VI., to set her aside, as well as 

 her sister Mary, to make room for Jane Grey. In 

 the reign of Mary, she was placed under circum- 

 stances of great difficulty, from her known attach- 

 ment to Protestantism ; and, notwithstanding her 

 great prudence, but for the politic interference of 

 her brother-in-law, Philip of Spain, she might have 

 been in great personal danger. On the death of 

 Mary, in 1558, she was immediately proclaimed 

 queen, and received in the metropolis with the loud- 

 est acclamations. She consigned to oblivion all the 

 affronts she had received during the late reign, and 

 prudently assumed the gracious demeanour of the 

 common sovereign of all her subjects. Philip of 

 Spain soon made her proposals of marriage, but she \ 



knew the aversion borne him by the nation too well 

 to think of accepting them. She proceeded with 

 considerable prudence and moderation to the arduous 

 task of settling religion, which was, in a great de- 

 gree, effected by the first parliament she summoned. 



It was not long before Elizabeth began that inter- 

 ference in the affairs of Scotland, which produced 

 some of the most singular events of her reign. Mary, 

 the young queen of Scots, was not only the next heir 

 in blood to the English crown, but was regarded by 

 the Romanists, who deemed Elizabeth illegitimate, 

 as the true sovereign of England. By the marriage 

 of tliat princess with the dauphin, and her relation- 

 ship with the Guises, Scotland was also drawn into 

 a closer union with France than ever. Thus great 

 political causes of enmity abounded, in addition to 

 the female rivalry, which was the most conspicuous 

 foible of Elizabeth. The first step she took in Scot- 

 tish affairs was to send a fleet and an army to aid the 

 party which supported the Reformation ; and this 

 interference, in 1560, effected a treaty, by which the 

 French were obliged to quit Scotland. On the re- 

 turn of Mary from France, after the death of her hus. 

 band, attempts were made to procure Elizabeth's 

 recognition of her title as presumptive successor to 

 the crown of England ; but, although unattended to, 

 and very disagreeable to the latter, the. two queens 

 lived for some time in apparent amity. 



In the mean time, Elizabeth acquired great repu- 

 tation by her vigorous conduct and political sagacity, 

 and had many suitors among the princes of Europe, 

 whom, consistent with her early resolution to live 

 single, she -constantly refused. Being regarded as 

 the head of the Protestant party in Europe, she made 

 a treaty of alliance with the French Huguenots in 

 that capacity, and gave them aids in men and money. 

 Her government at home also gradually grew more 

 rigorous against the Catholics, one of the mischievous 

 consequences of the incessant intrigue of the popish 

 party, both at home and abroad, to overthrow her 

 government. She did all in her power to thwart the 

 attempts to unite Mary in a second marriage, and, 

 besides a weak jealousy of the personal charms of 

 the queen of Scotland, she discovered another weak- 

 ness in a propensity to adopt court favourites, with 

 a view to exterior accomplishments rather than to 

 merit, as in the well known instance of Dudley, earl 

 of Leicester. 



The political dissensions in Scotland, which gave 

 Mary so much disquiet, were fomented by Elizabeth 

 and her ministers, but it was her own misconduct 

 that threw her into the hands of her rival. The man- 

 ner in which Elizabeth detained the unliappy queen 

 in captivity, the secret negotiations of the latter with 

 the duke of Norfolk, the rebellions in the north, and 

 the treasonable engagements made by the earls of 

 Northumberland and Westmoreland with the duke of 

 Orleans, in the Low Countries, are affairs rather ot 

 history than biography. 



In the midst of these events, the Puritanical party 

 gave much uneasiness to the queen, who was warmly 

 attached to the ceremonials of religion, and to the 

 hierarchy of which she had become the head. In- 

 heriting, too, all the maxims of royal authority main- 

 tained by her father, the spirit of civil liberty, by 

 which the Puritans became early distinguished, was 

 very offensive to her. Elizabeth, however, understood 

 the art of making practical concessions, while she 

 maintained her dignity in language; and sucli were 

 the general prudence and frugality of her administra- 

 tion, that she retained the affections even of those 

 whom she governed with a rigorous hand. Almost 

 the only cause of complaint, in regard to pecuniary 

 matters, in this reign, arose from the injurious grant 

 of monopolies, which formed a frequent subject of 



