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 her girlhood, was exempted from the confiscation, because of the heir presumptive's interest in it.

The endeavours made by Craven in 1653, possibly with the aid of what he had saved out of the wreck, to obtain a reversal of the parliament's decision remained fruitless (see the intercepted letters addressed to him by Colonel Doleman, a creature of the Protector, and by William Cromwell,, State Papers, i. 513). Equally unsuccessful were the attempts made in the same year by the queen of Bohemia, who enclosed an urgent appeal in Craven's letter to President Lawrence (ib. ii. 139), and by the States-General (ib. ii. 449). Craven adhered to Elizabeth's fortunes, which had seemed likely to trench in some measure on the partial recovery of the Palatinate by her eldest son in the peace of Westphalia. But she was unable to quit the Hague, being deeply involved in debt there, while her son had no money to give her, and cherished no wish for her speedy return to the Palatinate, where she desired to recover her dower residence at Frankenthal. In 1653 Craven seems to have made more than one journey to Heidelberg on her behalf (see her letters to him printed by, ii. 38–40; and cf. a few data as to his movements in , State Papers, i. 237, 467, 704). In the latter part of 1654 he renewed his efforts to obtain a reversal of judgment, and much ineffectual discussion took place on his case (see the notices in, Memorials, iv. 156, 157, 159, 162). Nor was it until the eve of the Restoration that the first sign shows itself of a change of policy in the matter. Whitelocke, who notes (iv. 357) that a petition from Craven was read 11 Aug. 1659, records (ib. 404) that 15 March 1660 an order was issued ‘to stay felling woods in the Lord St. John's and Lord Craven's estates.’

Craven followed Charles II to England at the Restoration. He recovered his estates, though whether completely is not stated by his biographers, and he was loaded with honours and offices. He was lord-lieutenant of Middlesex and Southwark (1670–89), colonel of many regiments, including the Coldstream guards (1670–89), and lieut.-general (from 1667); he was named master of the Trinity House (1670), and high steward of the university of Cambridge (1667); was one of the commissioners for Tangier, and of the lords proprietors of Carolina; was sworn of the privy council (1666 and 1681); and in the peerage he was in March 1664 raised to the degrees of Viscount Craven of Uffington and Earl of Craven (for a full enumeration, see ; cf. ). But in prosperity as in adversity he remained faithful to the service of the queen of Bohemia, whose own return to England was delayed for several months by her pecuniary embarrassments. He corresponded with her, supplying her with the news of the court (, ii. 88); and when Charles II with undeniable indifference continued to leave her without the offer of any residence in England, Craven placed his own London mansion, Drury House, at her disposal, and thus enabled her at last to come back to her native land (26 May 1661). During nearly all the remainder of Elizabeth's life she was his guest, and he generally attended her when she appeared in public (, 17 Aug. 1661). As to the precise nature of their private relations even in this period, we are, naturally enough, without evidence. The office of master of the horse, which he had nominally held at her husband Frederick's court, he seems to have continued to fill at hers in his own house. In an account of a visit to the queen at Drury House by the Genoese Marquis Durazzo (extracted by, ii. 81, from his MS. Relation of his Embassy), he states that on entering he was met at the head of the stairs by Craven, ‘proprietor of the house where the queen lives, and principal director of her court.’ Not till 8 Feb. 1662 did she remove from Drury House to Leicester House, hired as a residence for herself; and here a fortnight afterwards (23 Feb.) she died. At her funeral the heralds who bore her royal crown were supported by Craven and his relative, Sir Robert Craven. To the former she had bequeathed her papers, together with her unique collection of Stuart and palatine family portraits. These Craven placed at Combe Abbey, where they are still preserved. It has been asserted that at the time of her death Sir Balthasar Gerbier was building for him at Hampsted Marshall in Berkshire ‘a miniature Heidelberg’ which was to be ‘consecrated to Elizabeth’ (, ii. 432–3). But this is erroneous, or at least inaccurate, since Lysons (i. 286), quoting the epitaph on the architect's tomb, states the mansion not to have been begun till the year in which she died (, ii. 75 n.) Drury House, where she had enjoyed his princely hospitality, was afterwards rebuilt by him, and renamed Craven House.

On the question of the well-known popular belief, according to which Craven was privately married to the queen of Bohemia, there is in truth extremely little to say. The ‘Craven MSS.’ might be supposed to furnish some clue; but Mrs. Green (ii. 66) states the late Earl of Craven to have been ‘of opinion that no such marriage took place, since neither