Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/244

 (Memoiren, 34). This might be interpreted as malice on the part of Sophia. But except in the case of Rupert, for whom she clearly had a warm affection (see e.g. the letter misdated 1655 in Royal Letters, 189), little cordiality of tone is observable between herself and the other members of that numerous family for whom she suffered so bravely. A large number of letters remain (see ib.) addressed to her by her son Charles Lewis, but he certainly gave her reason enough for discontent, both in his politic morigeration to the Commonwealth men in England and in his cold-blooded treatment of herself after his recovery of the palatinate (as to her opinion of his conduct in 1655 see Unpublished Letters to Nicholas, 235). Of her younger sons two became members of the church of Rome, and one of these, Philip, in 1646 incurred her deep resentment by his fatal affray with a Frenchman named De l'Épinay, who was in some way attached to her court, and who was suspected of being her lover. The incident moved Charles Lewis to address a letter to his mother craving forgiveness for his brother and implying a solemn reproof to herself (, Royal Letters, 133), and caused a lifelong breach between the queen and her eldest daughter, Elizabeth ('la Grecque'). Another daughter, Louisa Hollandina, several years afterwards (1658) escaped in secret from her mother's house to become a convert to the church of Rome and an abbess of a tolerably mundane type. The youngest daughter, Sophia, through whom Elizabeth was the ancestress of our Hanoverian line of kings, quitted the maternal roof after a less dramatic fashion, but no less willingly, in 1650 (Memoiren, 44. For a convenient summary of the fortunes of the family of Frederick and Elizabeth see, ii. 509 seqq.)

The death of Charles I deeply moved Elizabeth, who is said ever afterwards to have worn a mourning ring containing a piece of his hair, with a memento mori. Two of her sons had fought gallantly in his cause, but her own future, like that of her house, depended on their elder brother, the more politic Charles Lewis, to whom the peace ending the great European war had just restored part of his inheritance. In the peace the emperor had promised a payment of twenty thousand dollars to Elizabeth, and half that sum as a marriage portion to each of her daughters. The Rhenish Palatinate had, however, literally been stripped to the bone; its population was only a fragment of what it had been, and the elector Charles Lewis, who addressed himself loyally to the crying needs of his subjects, had neither money nor pity to spare for his mother. Nothing could be more painful than the correspondence which passed at this time between the elector and his mother (, ii. 448 seqq.; cf., Royal Letters, 148–60, et al.) The states, she wrote, had consented to allow her a thousand florins a month till she could relieve them of her presence, but heaven alone knew when this could be accomplished. Her son, she reminded him, had failed to keep his promise of supplying her with money till he could pay her the whole of her jointure. In reply to her bitter complaints he sent a little money and many excuses; and gradually her hopes of seeing the palatinate again vanished into nothing. Thus she had to remain in Holland, a dependent on the patient good-nature of her hosts, deserted by her daughters, but in friendly correspondence with her 'royal' court, exiled like her own. There was probably a good deal of general resemblance between the two courts at this season, when 'reverent Dick Harding' enlivened the queen's leisure and Tom Killigrew made 'rare relations' of Queen Christina of Sweden, whom for a variety of reasons Elizabeth hated almost as heartily as Cromwell himself, to her mind clearly 'the beast in the Revelations' (Letter to Nicholas, 4 Jan. 1655, in Diary, edd. Bray and Wheatley, iv. 223).

At last Charles II, whom in 1650 she had wished to marry to her daughter Sophia (Memoiren, &c., p. 42), was restored. But Elizabeth had still to wait for many weary months before she was able to follow Charles II to England. Her debts were the first obstacle in the way, though in September 1660 parliament voted her a grant of 10,000l., and in December an additional sum of the same amount. This aid was in all probability largely owing to the exertions of her friend Lord Craven. But no eagerness was manifested at the English court for her reception, and least of all by the selfish king. As late as the beginning of 1661 new overtures were made by Elizabeth to the elector palatine for establishing her at Frankenthal, but they were received as coldly as usual (, Royal Letters, pp. 228–9). In the end, her Dutch creditors consenting, very possibly with a view to expediting the payment of the 20,000l. voted to the queen, she announced to the Duke of Ormonde that she had resolved to come to England to congratulate the king upon his coronation. It is clear from this letter, dated 23 May 1661 (and quoted at length in, Original Letters, 1st ser. iii. 115; and by ), that no invitation had reached her from Charles II. When she was already on board,