Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/155

Rh of ladies followed her dressed in white, and she was guarded on each side by ﬁfty gentlemen pensioners, carrying gilt battle-axes. A few years afterwards we see the eclipse of all this splendour and servility. Towards the end of March , Elizabeth was seized with her mortal illness. She became restless and melancholy, refused medicine, and sat for days and nights on cushions, silent, her finger pressed on her mouth. “'hen asked by Cecil who should succeed her on the throne, she characteristically answered, ‘.\Iy seat has been the seat of kings; I will have no rascal to succeed me.” She afterwards, when speechless, joined her hands together above her heal, “in manner of a crown,” to signify, in answer to another interrogatory from Cecil, th it she wished the King of Scots to be her successor. She expirel on the 24th of March. And thus calmly passed away the last of the Tudors, the lion-hearted Elizabeth. She was in the seventieth year of her age aml forty-fifth of her reign—a period of brilliant prosperity and advancement, during which England had put forth her brightest genius, valou r, and enterprise, and attained to the highest distinction and glory among the states of Europe. The “ golden (lays of good queen Bess ” were long rememberel in contrast to those of her pusillanimous suc- cessor, and this traditional splendour, in spite of historical research and juster views of government, has scarcely yet “ faded into the common light of day.” Horace \Valpole has assigned to Elizabeth a place in his Catalogue of Royal and Noble -1 Ill/(07‘s, and a list of thirteen productions, exclusive of letters and speeches, is attached to the queen’s name. They consist chieﬂy of translations from the Greek, Latin, and French, with a sonnet printed during her own lifetime, and some prayers and meditations. The learning of Elizabeth is undoubted : it was consider- able evcn in that age of learned ladies; but her style is still, involved, quaint, and full of Conceits—the whole evincing rathir a predilection for literary and scholastic studies than literary taste or power.  ELIZABETH, undefined (–), of Hungary, daughter of Andrew l[., king of Hungary, was born in l’resburg in. At four years of age she was betrothed to L mis [V., land-grave of Thuringia, and conducted to the 'l‘huringian court ta be educated un lcr the direction of his parents. From her earliest years she is said to have evinced an aversion to worldly pleasures, and, making the early Christians her chief model, to have devoted her whole time to religion and to works of charity. She was married at the age of fourteen, an .l acquired such inllucnce over her bus- band that he adopted her doctrines aml zealously assisted her in all her charitable endeavours. On the death of Louis in, Elizabeth was deprived of the regency by his brother Henry ltaspe, on the pretext that she was wast- ing the estates by her ahns; aml with her three infant children she was driven from her home without being allowed to carry with her even the bar-3st necessaries of life. She lived for some time in great hardship, but ultimately her uncle, the bishop of Bamberg, offered her an asylum in a house adjoining his pal-ace. Through the intercession of Some of the principal barons, the regency was again offered her, and her Son Hermann was declared heir to the throne; but renouncing all power, and making use of her wealth only for charitable purposes, she preferred to live in seclusion at Marburg under the direction of her Confessor Conrad. There she spent the remainder of her days in penances of unusual severity, and in ministrations to the sick, especially these afflicted with the most loathsome diseases. She died at Marburg, 19th November, and was canonized by Gregory IN. on account of the frequent miracles reported to have been perfirmed at her tomb.

1em  ELIZABETH PETROVNA (1709–1762), empress of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great and of Catherine I., was born on the 5th September 1709. In consequence of a law of her father, by which the sovereign had the power to choose his successor, she had no legal claim to the throne. The empress Anna Ivanova died in 1740. She had appointed Ivan, son of her niece Anne duchess of Brunswick, 3. child only a few months old, to the throne, with Biron, her favourite, regent. Elizabeth was quite con- tented with this arrangement. She declared that love was the supreme good, and that she had no desire for the cares and honours of a crown. But the prestige of her father’s name, and the favour in which she stood with the Russian people, rendered her an object of jealousy to the regent and t0 the mother of the presumptive heir; and on her refusing a proposal of marriage with the duke of Brunswick, brother- in—law of Anne, it was hinted to her that she should take the veil. She might not even then have listened to the suggestions of those who counselled a conspiracy, had she not been persuaded by Lestoeq, hcr physician and favourite, that the suspicions of the Government were so much aroused that to go back or to delay was no longer compatible with safety. Yielding to those representations, she resochd to make the venture, and on the 6th December 1741 entered the barracks of the Preobrajcnsky guards and endeavoured to induce them to sWear allegiance to her. Notwithstanding her powerful appeal and the promise of high rewards, all hesitated with the exception of a single company—old Soldiers of Peter the Great; but placing her- self at the head of this small hand, she entered the imperial palace and made prisoners of the regent and of Anne and her son. She possessed already the affections of the people, and at once her authority was ﬁrmly established. Her administration was successful both at home and abroad. Although she was ruled by worthless favourites, who fol- lowed each cther in rapid succession, her reign was very popular with the people, who surnamed her the Clement. She was indolent and sensual, but she possessed con- siderable abilities, and an energetic will when it was roused to exertion. She had some taste for literature and the fine arts, and founded the university of Mos- cow, and the Academy for the Fine Arts of St Peters- burg. In 17-13 she brought the war with Sweden to a close by an advantageous treaty. She successfully assisted Maria Theresa against Frederick the Great, aml in this way con- tributed to the peace of Aix—la—Chapelle in 1748. After this, irritated, it is sail, by a reported witty remark of Frederick, she took part in the Seven Years’ War, and by suc- cessive victories reduced that monarch to great straits, from which he was only delivered by her death (Jan. 5, 1762).  ELIZABETH, originally, a city of the , capital of Union county,, is situated eleven W.S.W. of , on the Elizabeth river, near its junction with Staten Sound. It is a well-built and ﬂourishing place, and possesses twenty-eight churches, a Roman Catholic nunnery, a Court-house and county jail, a city hall, two high schools, a business college, a Collegiate school, an almshouse, and an orphan asylum. Besides a great establishment for the manufacture of the “Singer” sewing machine, there are breweries, foundries, potterics, and factories for edge-tools, saws, stoves, carriages, oil-cloth, &c. The port, which is open to vessels of 300 tons, is one of the greatest coal-shipping depots in the, forming, as it does, the outlet for the n ﬁelds. The town dates from 1665; it was the