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 ELIZABETH 535 interest, and in whose theology she had no belief. She resented the necessity while she submitted to it, and her vacillations are ex- plained by the reluctance with which each successive step was forced upon her, on a road which she detested. Her keenness of insight was not combined with any profound concern for serious things. She was without the in- tellectual emotions which give human charac- ter its consistency and power. One moral quality she possessed in an eminent degree : she was supremely brave. For 30 years she was perpetually a mark for assassination, and her spirits were never affected, and she was never frightened into cruelty. She had a proper contempt also for idle luxury and indulgence. She lived simply, worked hard, and ruled her household with rigid economy. But her vani- ty was as insatiate as it was commonplace. No flattery was too tawdry to find a welcome with her ; and as she had no repugnance to false words in others, she was equally liberal of them herself. Her entire nature was satura- ted with artifice. Except when speaking some round untruth, she could never be simple. Obligations of honor were not only occasion- ally forgotten by her, but she did not even seem to understand what honor meant. Vain as she was of her own sagacity, she never modified a course recommended to her by Burghley without injury both to the realm and to herself. She never chose an opposite course without plunging into embarrassments, from which his skill and Walsingham's were barely able to extricate her. The great results of her reign were the fruits of a policy which were not her own, and which she starved and mu- tilated when energy and completeness were needed. That she pushed no question to ex- tremities has been interpreted by the result into wisdom. She gained time by it, and her hardest problems were those which time alone could resolve satisfactorily. She wished only to reign in quiet till her death, and was con- tented to leave the next generation to settle its own difficulties. Mercy was the quality with which she was the most eager to be credited. Her tenderness toward conspirators was as re- markable as it was hitherto unexampled. Un- like her father, who ever struck the leaders and spared the followers, Elizabeth could rare- ly bring herself to sign the death warrant of a nobleman ; yet without compunction she could order Yorkshire peasants to be hung in scores by martial law. She was remorseless when she ought to have been most forbearing, and lenient when she ought to have been stern; and she owed her safety and her success to the incapacity and the divisions of her enemies, rather than to wisdom and to resolution of her own." ELIZABETH, queen of Spain, born at Fon- tainebleau, Nov. 22, 1602, died in Madrid, Oct. 6, 1644. She was the daughter of Henry IV. of France and Maria de' Medici, and was mar- ried to Philip, infante of Spain, Oct. 18, 1615. Philip, having in 1621 succeeded to the crown as Philip IV., surrendered the administration to the count of Olivarez, and gave himself up to pleasure. Elizabeth made vain efforts to rouse him from his supineness, and to counter- act the ruinous policy of his minister. In 1640, when Catalonia revolted, when Portugal separated from Spain, and French armies co- operated with the rebels, the queen appealed in person to the Castilians, and succeeded within a few weeks in raising an army of 50,000 men. Then, proceeding to the king's pleasure house of Buen Eetiro, and holding her son by the hand, "Sir," said she, "this boy, our only son, is doomed to be the poorest gentleman in Europe, if your majesty does not forthwith dismiss a minister who has brought Spain to the verge of ruin." Olivarez was thereupon exiled, and Philip roused to momen- tary energy. Elizabeth broke off all relations with her own family, now become the worst enemies of Spain, and took into her own hands the administration of the kingdom, while Philip at the head of his armies vainly endeavored to retrieve his fortunes. She displayed equal wisdom and patriotism in her management of public affairs, allayed party strifes by her elo- quent appeals, and set the example of gener- osity by sacrificing her jewels, and reducing her household expenses to the lowest figure. Her death was mourned as a national calamity. ELIZABETH (Elisabeth Philippine Marie Helene), madame, called Elizabeth of France, a French princess, sister of Louis XVI., born in Ver- sailles, May 3, 1764, guillotined in Paris, May 10, 1794. At an early age she distinguished her- self by charity and a taste for study, especially of botany. When the revolution broke out, she shared her brother's trials and misfortunes, evincing in all circumstances unfaltering firm- ness, courage, and sweetness of temper. On Oct. 5, 1789, she succeeded in preserving the lives of several of the royal body guard, threat- ened by the infuriated mob ; in June, 1791, she accompanied her brother to Varennes, and sus- tained his spirit in their dangerous journey back to Paris; on June 20, 1792, when the populace broke into the Tuileries, her life was in danger from being mistaken for the queen ; and in all the perils of that period she retained her wonted composure, and thought only of the safety of her brother and his family. She was incarcerated with them in the Temple, but was separated from the king on his trial before the convention, and afterward from the queen and the dauphin ; and finally, although nothing could be adduced against her except her devo- tion to her brother, was sentenced to death by the revolutionary tribunal. She met her fate with the patience and intrepidity which had marked all her life. ELIZABETH, Saint, called Elizabeth of Hun- gary, landgravine of Thuringia, daughter of Andrew II. , king of Hungary, born in Presburg in 1207, died in Marburg, Germany, Nov. 19, 1231. At four years of age she was betrothed