The Royal Janitor
by
John Presco
Copyright 2023
Chapter: The Green Comet
Professor John von Bond took Victoria and Miriam to his mountain home up the McKenzie River, and through his telescope, looked at the green comet. It was coming their way – and was much larger than expected! It was putting on quite show.
“The Germans really owe us!” Johann von Bundhorst said, he alas revealing his true identity, and sharing images of the family estate in Germany.
“I knew you were a Kraut!” Starfish shouted for joy, she pleased as punch her intution was working – regardless of how much smoke Mr. Bund blew up her ass!
“Who do you mean by “we”?” Victoria inquired.
“Sit down. I have put together a slideshow! Have you heard of The Jay Treaty””
“I heard my parents talk about it before they got blown up by our butane tank!” offered Starfish. “It’s why we started wearing Native American apparel.”
“O.K. Now we are getting somewhere. Did you hear them talk about the comet?”
“Yes! They talked about it and The Coming American Messiah – who might be a Native American – or a half-breed! He – or she – appeared when the Willamette Meteorite was first seen/ Or, at least the linage.’
“Are – you a candidate for the American Messiah?” Professor Bundhorst asked, and Victoria watched her wife – blush!
“Answer the question”. John Bund demanded, he seeing an opening in the mind game he and Starfish have been playing – since they met!
“Yes! My mother is Scot-Irish. She claimed she was ca cousin of Princess Diana, who the Windsors accused of going Native on them. Now they accuse Prince Harry of the same thing! It makes me mad. She and my father followed the Royal Stuart Line – that was broken when William and Mary failed to have Issue. They had theory – they did born a child – who was whisked away to America, the Willamette Valley, to be exact! They said…..”The Willamette War, will never be over!”
Victoria’s eyes dug deep into her wife, who lowered her eyes. It was clear she had held back the core of her being, and was having a melt-down. then there are those missing hours when she went to the Knight Library. Did she meet someone?
“What did you mean by “The Germans owe us?”
“I mean, the Germans have controlled the West ever since the reign of the House of Hanover, and when William of Orange became King of England. The United States fought the German Royals in two world wars. They are holding back their Leopard Tanks to see if the Neo-Confederates in the Republican party – take total control – and sign a peace treaty with Russia. Did you know Czar Alexander signed a treat with Lincoln. Have you heard of The Swan Brethren?”
****
On September 22, 2022 I another historic-fiction novel titled ‘The Second Coming of Aunt Gooby’.Gooby is inspired by Betsy Johnson who was a candidate for Governor – and was backed by Phil Knight who got involved in a anti-Semitic myth that has appeared in several books that mention the Knight Templars. Along with Christine Drazen, these female candidates were doing a ‘Mayberry RFD’ revival that gave the impression there were Good White Roots in Oregon that we all should get back to.
I declared myself the Sheriff of Brownsville that is in my story of The Green Comet. Brownsville is ground zero for a nuclear attack my China, Russia, and Little Rocket Man. These three want to put the hurt on The Heart of America where the Silent Majority – and The Family – really matters. Kurt Vonnegut is my hero. Kurt understood the Demoralizing Cold War – THAT IS BACK!
There is MUCH FICTION that led to THE RESTURN OF NUCLEAR TERROR! Both parties are want to declare the other – DOMESTIC TERRORIST – while Putin targets civilians and destroys cities in Ukraine. This is – INSANITY!
A History Professor on Facebook asked me what Royal Rosamond – is? I suspect he is in favor of Two Oregons to go with the Two Republican Parties? For twenty years, I have been looking for a way to get young people interested in REAL history, verses, fake history. With the refusal of the Republican party, co-funded by my kin, John Fremont, – to sanction George Santos – anything goes!
John Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
The use of a MacGuffin as a plot device predates the name MacGuffin. The Holy Grail of Arthurian legend has been cited as an early example of a MacGuffin. The Holy Grail is the desired object that is essential to initiate and advance the plot. The final disposition of the Grail is never revealed, suggesting that the object is not of significance in itself.[8]
The “Maltese Falcon” statuette from the film of the same name
The World War I-era actress Pearl White used the term “weenie” to identify whatever object (a roll of film, a rare coin, expensive diamonds, etc.) impelled the heroes, and often the villains as well, to pursue each other through the convoluted plots of The Perils of Pauline and the other silent film serials in which she starred.[9] In the 1930 detective novel The Maltese Falcon, a small statuette provides both the book’s title and its motive for intrigue.
The name MacGuffin was coined by the British screenwriter Angus MacPhail.[10] It has been posited that “‘guff’, as a word for anything trivial or worthless, may lie at the root”.[11]
The mushroom cloud from Ivy Mike (codename given to the test) rises above the Pacific Ocean over the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1, 1952 at 7:15 am (local time). It was the world’s first test of a full-scale thermonuclear device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion.© Los Alamos National Laboratory, AP
It’s a reset of what has come to be known as the Doomsday Clock, a decades-long project of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists featuring a clock face where midnight represents Armageddon.
The Williamite War in Ireland (1688–1691; Irish: Cogadh an Dá Rí, “war of the two kings”),[4][5] was a conflict between Jacobite supporters of deposed monarch James II and Williamite supporters of his successor, William III. It is also called the Jacobite War in Ireland, Williamite Conquest of Ireland, or the Williamite–Jacobite War in Ireland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamite_War_in_Ireland
The immediate cause of the war was the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which James, a Catholic, was overthrown as king of England, Ireland and Scotland and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and nephew and son-in-law William, ruling as joint monarchs. James’s supporters initially retained control of Ireland, which he hoped to use as a base for a campaign to reclaim all three kingdoms. The conflict in Ireland also involved long-standing domestic issues of land ownership, religion and civic rights; most Irish Catholics supported James in the hope he would address their grievances. A small number of English and Scottish Catholics, and Protestants of the Anglican established Church in Ireland, also fought on the Jacobite side,[6][7] while most Irish Protestants supported or actively fought for William’s regime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Treaty
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay’s Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted war, resolved issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris of 1783 (which ended the American Revolutionary War),[1] and facilitated ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars, which began in 1792.[2] The Treaty was designed by Alexander Hamilton and supported by President George Washington. It angered France and bitterly divided Americans. It inflamed the new growth of two opposing parties in every state, the pro-Treaty Federalists and the anti-Treaty Jeffersonian Republicans.
American Indian rights
Article III states, “It is agreed, that it shall at all times be free to His Majesty’s subjects, and to the citizens of the United States, and also to the Indians dwelling on either side of the said boundary line, freely to pass and repass, by land or inland navigation into the respective territories and countries of the two parties on the continent of America, (the country within the limits of the Hudson’s Bay Company only excepted) … and freely carry on trade and commerce with each other.” Article III of the Jay Treaty declared the right of Indians, American citizens, and Canadian subjects to trade and travel between the United States and Canada, which was then a territory of Great Britain.[25] Some legal experts dispute whether the treaty rights were abrogated by the War of 1812.[26] Nevertheless, the United States has codified this right in the provisions of Section 289 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and as amended in 1965. As a result of the Jay Treaty, “Native Indians born in Canada are therefore entitled to enter the United States for the purpose of employment, study, retirement, investing, and/or immigration” if they can prove that they have at least 50% blood quantum, and cannot be deported for any reason.[27][28] Article III of the Jay Treaty is the basis of most Indian claims.[29] Unlike other legal immigrants, Canadian-born Native Americans residing in the US are entitled to public benefits and domestic tuition fees on the same basis as citizens.[27]
Professor Johann Von Bundhorst – Candidate for Governor of Oregon.
or The Second Coming of Aunt Gooby
Posted on September 22, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press
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Betsy Johnson (Aaron Lee)
When I was in the Governor’s race I was inspired to author a script for a Netflix series called;
Aunt Gooby
It was the way Betsy Johnson – looked! I thought about a remake of Mayberry RFD, with The Dukes of Hazard thrown in for good measure. Springtucky is the alternate name for Springfield, where I live. I posted my idea on Betsy’s Facebook, and was not un-friended – until two months later!
The Second Coming of Aunt Gooby
by
John Presco
Copyright 2022
ttps://rosamondpress.com/2022/09/25/mournful-trail-of-the-comet-kings/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_William_%26_Mary
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/King-James-1-and-VI-of-Scotland/
Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) and Scotland
Her Majesty the Queen was bound to Scotland by ties of ancestry, affection and duty. She was descended from the Royal House of Stewart on both sides of her family. Her relationship with Scotland and the Scots began in childhood, and deepened during her many private as well as official visits throughout the seven decades of her reign.
Her parents shared a common ancestor in Robert II, King of Scots. Through her father King George VI she was directly descended from James VI of Scotland. Through her mother’s family, the Bowes-Lyons, Earls of Strathmore, she could trace her ancestry back through generations of Scottish nobility to Sir John Lyon, Thane of Glamis, who married Robert II’s daughter in the fourteenth century.
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia
42 languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people with similar names, see Elizabeth Stuart and Elisabeth of Bohemia (disambiguation).
| Elizabeth Stuart | |
|---|---|
| Portrait by the Workshop of Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, c. 1623 | |
| Electress consort of the Palatinate | |
| Tenure | 14 February 1613 – 23 February 1623 |
| Queen consort of Bohemia | |
| Tenure | 4 November 1619 – 8 November 1620 |
| Coronation | 7 November 1619 |
| Born | 19 August 1596 Dunfermline Palace, Fife, Kingdom of Scotland |
| Died | 13 February 1662 (aged 65) London, Kingdom of England |
| Burial | 17 February 1662 Westminster Abbey, London |
| Spouse | Frederick V, Elector Palatine(m. 1613; died 1632) |
| Issue | showSee |
| House | Stuart |
| Father | James VI and I |
| Mother | Anne of Denmark |
Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. Since her husband’s reign in Bohemia lasted for just one winter, she is called the Winter Queen.[1]
Elizabeth was the second child and eldest daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and his wife, Anne of Denmark. With the demise of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the last Stuart monarch in 1714, Elizabeth’s grandson by her daughter Sophia of Hanover succeeded to the British throne as George I, initiating the House of Hanover.
Early life[edit]
Elizabeth at age 7 by Robert Peake the Elder
Elizabeth was born at Dunfermline Palace, Fife, on 19 August 1596 at 2 o’clock in the morning.[2][3] King James rode to the bedside from Callendar, where he was attending the wedding of the Earl of Orkney.[4] At the time of her birth, her father was King of Scotland, but not yet King of England.[5] Named in honour of Elizabeth I of England,[6] her godmother, the young Elizabeth was christened on 28 November 1596 in the Chapel Royal at Holyroodhouse, and was then proclaimed by the heralds as “Lady Elizabeth”.[3][7] During her early life in Scotland, Elizabeth was brought up at Linlithgow Palace, where she was placed in the care of Lord Livingstone and his wife, Eleanor Hay.[8] A couple of years later the king’s second daughter, Margaret, was placed in their care as well. Elizabeth “did not pay particular attention to this younger sister”, as even at this young age her affections were with her brother, Henry.[9]
Move to England[edit]
When Queen Elizabeth I of England died in 1603, Elizabeth Stuart’s father, James, succeeded as King of England and Ireland. The Countess of Kildare was appointed the princess’s governess. Along with her elder brother, Henry,[10] Elizabeth made the journey southward to England with her mother “in a triumphal progress of perpetual entertainment”.[11] On her father’s birthday, 19 June, Elizabeth danced at Worksop Manor with Robert Cecil’s son.[12]
Elizabeth remained at court for a few weeks, but “there is no evidence that she was present at her parents’ coronation” on 25 July 1603.[13] It seems likely that by this time the royal children already had been removed to Oatlands, an old Tudor hunting lodge near Weybridge. There was plague in London, and Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth were moved to Winchester.[14] Anne of Denmark produced a masque to welcome them.[15] On 19 October 1603 “an order was issued under the privy seal announcing that the King had thought fit to commit the keeping and education of the Lady Elizabeth to the Lord Harrington [sic] and his wife”.[16]
Under the care of Lord and Lady Harington at Coombe Abbey, Elizabeth met Anne Dudley, with whom she was to strike up a lifelong friendship. On 3 April 1604 Princess Elizabeth and her ladies rode from Coombe Abbey to Coventry. The Mayor and Aldermen met her at “Jabet’s Ash on Stoke-green“. She heard a sermon in St Michael’s Church and dined in St Mary’s Hall.[17]
Gunpowder Plot[edit]
Coombe Abbey painted in 1797 by Maria Johnson
Part of the intent of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was to assassinate Elizabeth’s father King James and the Protestant aristocracy, kidnap the nine-year-old Elizabeth from Coombe Abbey, and place her on the throne of England – and presumably the thrones of Ireland and Scotland – as a Catholic monarch. The conspirators chose Elizabeth after considering the other available options. Prince Henry, it was believed, would perish alongside his father. Charles was seen as too feeble (having only just learnt to walk) and Mary too young. Elizabeth, on the other hand, had already attended formal functions, and the conspirators knew that “she could fulfil a ceremonial role despite her comparative youth”.[18]
The conspirators aimed to cause an uprising in the Midlands to coincide with the explosion in London and at this point secure Elizabeth’s accession as a puppet queen. She would then be brought up as a Catholic and later married to a Catholic bridegroom.[19] The plot failed when the conspirators were betrayed, and Guy Fawkes was caught by the King’s soldiers before he was able to ignite the powder.[20]
Education[edit]
Elizabeth, aged about 10 years old, by Robert Peake the Elder
Elizabeth was given a comprehensive education for a princess at that time. This education included instruction in natural history, geography, theology, languages, writing, music, and dancing. She was denied instruction in the classics as her father believed that “Latin had the unfortunate effect of making women more cunning”.[21] By the age of 12, Elizabeth was fluent in several languages, including French, “which she spoke with ease and grace” and would later use to converse with her husband.[22] She also was an excellent rider, had a thorough understanding of the Protestant religion, and had an aptitude for writing letters that “sounded sincere and never stilted”.[23] She also was extremely literary, and “several mementoes of her early love of books exist”.[24]
Courtship and marriage[edit]
Suitors[edit]
As the daughter of a reigning monarch, the hand of the young Elizabeth was seen as a very desirable prize.[25] Suitors came from across the continent and were many and varied. They included:
- Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, son (and later successor) of the King of Sweden
- Frederic Ulric, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
- Prince Maurice of Nassau
- Theophilus Howard, Lord Howard of Walden, later second Earl of Suffolk
- Otto, Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Kassel, son of Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
- Victor Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont, the King of Spain’s nephew and heir to the Duke of Savoy
- Philip III of Spain, newly widowed in 1611.[26]
Each suitor brought to the proposed marriage the prospect of power and greatness for the young Elizabeth.
Marriage would cost Elizabeth her father and her father’s kingdom. When James had succeeded to the English throne in 1603, England had acquired a new role in European affairs. Unlike the childless Elizabeth I, James, by simply “having children, could play an important role in dynastic politics”.[27] The selection of Elizabeth’s spouse, therefore, had little to do with her personal preference and a great deal to do with the benefits the match could bring.
Most of her suitors were rejected quickly for a variety of reasons. Some simply were not of high enough birth, had no real prospects to offer, or in the case of Gustavus Adolphus, who on all other grounds seemed like a perfect match, because “his country was at war with Queen Anne‘s native Denmark”.[28] Furthermore, England could not face another religious revolution, and therefore the religious pre-requisite was paramount.
Portrait of Frederick believed to have been painted in 1613 the year of his marriage to Elizabeth by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt
The man chosen was Frederick (Friedrich) V, Count Palatine of the Rhine. Frederick was of undeniably high lineage. His ancestors included the kings of Aragon and Sicily, the landgraves of Hesse, the dukes of Brabant and Saxony, and the counts of Nassau and Leuven. He and Elizabeth also shared a common ancestor in Henry II of England. He was “a senior Prince of the Empire” and a staunch defender of the Protestant faith.[29]
Courtship[edit]
Frederick arrived in England on 16 October 1612, and the match seemed to please them both from the beginning. Their contemporaries noted how Frederick seemed to “delight in nothing but her company and conversation”.[30] Frederick also struck up a friendship with Elizabeth’s elder brother, Prince Henry, which delighted his prospective bride immensely. King James did not take into consideration the couple’s happiness, but saw the match as “one step in a larger process of achieving domestic and European concord”.[31] The only person seemingly unhappy with the match was Queen Anne. As the daughter of a king, the sister of a king, the wife of a king, and the mother of a future king, she also desired to be the mother of a queen. She is said to have been somewhat fond of Frederick’s mild manner and generous nature but simply felt that he was of low stock.
On 6 November 1612 Henry, Prince of Wales, died. His death took an emotional toll on Elizabeth, and her new position as second in line to the throne made her an even more desirable match. Queen Anne and those like-minded who had “always considered the Palsgrave to be an unworthy match for her, were emboldened in their opposition”.[32] Elizabeth stood by Frederick, whom her brother had approved, and whom she found to have the sentiments of a fine gentleman. Above all, he was “regarded as the future head of the Protestant interest in Germany”.[33]
Marriage to Frederick V[edit]
Portrait of Elizabeth by an unknown artist
Main article: Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate
The wedding took place on 14 February 1613 at the royal chapel at the Palace of Whitehall and was a grand occasion that saw more royalty than ever visit the court of England.[34] The marriage was an enormously popular match and was the occasion for an outpouring of public affection with the ceremony described as “a wonder of ceremonial and magnificence even for that extravagant age”.[35]
It was celebrated with lavish and sophisticated festivities both in London and Heidelberg, including mass feasts and lavish furnishings that cost nearly £50,000, and nearly bankrupted King James. Among many celebratory writings of the events was John Donne‘s “Epithalamion, Or Marriage Song on the Lady Elizabeth, and Count Palatine being married on St Valentine’s Day”. A contemporary author viewed the whole marriage as a prestigious event that saw England “lend her rarest gem, to enrich the Rhine”.[36]
Englischer Bau left of the “Thick Tower”, 1645 by Matthäus Merian
Electress Palatine[edit]
After almost a two-month stay in London for continued celebrations, the couple began their journey to join the Electoral court in Heidelberg. The journey was filled with meeting people, sampling foods and wines, and being entertained by a wide variety of performers and companies. At each place the young couple stopped, Elizabeth was expected to distribute presents. The cash to allow her to do so was not readily available, so she had to use one of her own jewels as collateral so that the goldsmith Abraham Harderet would “provide her with suitable presents on credit”.[37]
Elisabethentor (Elizabeth Gate) of Heidelberg Castle
Her arrival in Heidelberg was seen as “the crowning achievement of a policy which tried to give the Palatinate a central place in international politics” and was long anticipated and welcomed.[38] Elizabeth’s new husband transformed his seat at Heidelberg Castle, creating between 1610 and 1613 the Englischer Bau (i.e., English Building) for her, a monkey-house, a menagerie, and the beginnings of a new garden in the Italian Renaissance garden style popular in England at the time.[39] The garden, the Hortus Palatinus, was constructed by Elizabeth’s former tutor, Salomon de Caus.[40] It was dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by contemporaries.[41]
Gold medal made circa 1616 depicting Elizabeth, Frederick, and their son, Frederick Henry
Although Elizabeth and Frederick were considered to be genuinely in love and remained a romantic couple throughout the course of their marriage, problems already had begun to arise.[42] Before the couple had left England, King James had made Frederick promise that Elizabeth “would take precedence over his mother … and always be treated as if she were a Queen”.[43] This at times made life in the Palatinate uncomfortable for Elizabeth, as Frederick’s mother Louise Juliana had “not expected to be demoted in favour of her young daughter-in-law” and, as such, their relationship was never more than cordial.[44]
Elizabeth gave birth to three children in Heidelberg: Frederick Henry, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate (sometimes called Henry Frederick) was born in 1614, Charles in 1617, and Elisabeth in 1619.
Queen of Bohemia[edit]
In 1619 Elizabeth’s husband Frederick was one of those offered the throne of Bohemia.
The Kingdom of Bohemia was “an aristocratic republic in all but name”, whose nobles elected the monarch. It was one of the few successful pluralist states.[45] The country had enjoyed a long period of religious freedom, but in March 1619, on the death of Emperor Matthias, this seemed about to change. The Habsburg heir, Archduke Ferdinand, crowned King of Bohemia in 1617, was a fervent Catholic who brutally persecuted Protestants in his Duchy of Styria. The Bohemian nobles had to choose between “either accepting Ferdinand as their king after all or taking the ultimate step of deposing him”.[46] They decided on deposition, and, when others declined because of the risks involved, the Bohemians “pandered to the elector’s royalist pretensions” and extended the invitation to Elizabeth’s husband.[47]
Frederick, although doubtful, was persuaded to accept. Elizabeth “appealed to his honour as a prince and a cavalier, and to his humanity as a Christian”, aligning herself with him completely.[48] The family moved to Prague, where “the new King was received with genuine joy”.[49] Frederick was crowned officially in the St. Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle on 4 November 1619. The coronation of Elizabeth as Queen of Bohemia followed three days later.
Engraving by Balthasar Moncornet of Frederick and Elizabeth as king and queen of Bohemia, 1620
The royal couple’s third son, Prince Rupert, was born in Prague one month after the coronation. There was great popular rejoicing. Thus, Frederick’s reign in Bohemia had begun well, but only lasted one year. The Bohemian crown “had always been a corner-stone of Habsburg policy” and the heir, Ferdinand, now Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, would not yield.[50] Frederick’s reign ended with the defeat of Bohemian Protestant armies at the Battle of White Mountain (which ended the first phase of the Thirty Years’ War) on 8 November 1620.
Elizabeth is remembered as the “Winter Queen”, and Frederick as the “Winter King”, in reference to the brevity of their reign, and to the season of the battle.
Exile[edit]
Fearing the worst, by the time of the defeat at the Battle of White Mountain, Elizabeth already had left Prague and was awaiting the birth of her fifth child at the Castle of Custrin, about 80 km (50 mi) from Berlin. It was there on 6 January 1621 that she “in an easy labour lasting little more than an hour” was delivered of a healthy son, Maurice.[51]
Detail of 1636 family Triumph portrait, Elizabeth’s oldest daughter, Elisabeth of the Palatinate, and youngest son, Gustavus Adolphus of the Palatinate
The military defeat removed the prospect of returning to Prague, and the entire family was forced to flee. They could no longer return to the Palatinate as it was occupied by the Catholic league and a Spanish contingent. So, after an invitation from the Prince of Orange, they moved to The Hague.
Elizabeth arrived in The Hague in spring 1621 with only a small court. Elizabeth’s sense of duty to assist her husband out of the political mess in which they had found themselves meant that “she became much more an equal, if not the stronger, partner in the marriage”.[38] Her lady-in-waiting, Amalia van Solms, soon became involved with Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange and married him in 1625. The two women became rivals at the court of The Hague.[52]
While in exile Elizabeth produced eight more children, four boys and four girls. The last, Gustavus, was born on 2 January 1632 and baptised in the Cloister Church where two of his siblings who had died young, Louis and Charlotte, were buried. Later that same month, Frederick said farewell to Elizabeth and set out on a journey to join the king of Sweden on the battlefield. After declining conditions set out by King Gustavus Adolphus that would have seen the Swedish king assist in his restoration, the pair parted with Frederick heading back toward The Hague. He had been ill with an infection since the beginning of October 1632, and died on the morning of 29 November before reaching The Hague.
Widowhood[edit]
When Elizabeth received the news of Frederick’s death, she became senseless with grief and for three days did not eat, drink, or sleep. When Charles I heard of Elizabeth’s state, he invited her to return to England, but she refused. The rights of her son and Frederick’s heir Charles Louis “remained to be fought for”.[53] Elizabeth then fought for her son’s rights, but she remained in The Hague even after he regained the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1648. She became a patron of the arts, and commissioned a larger family portrait to honour herself and her husband, to complement the impressive large seascape of her 1613 joyous entry to the Netherlands. Her memorial family portrait of 1636 was outdone by Amalia van Solms, who commissioned the Oranjezaal after the death of her husband Frederick Henry in 1648–1651.
- Triumph of the Winter Queen: Allegory of the Just, 1636, by Gerard van Honthorst.
- Marble bust of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, circa 1641, by François Dieussart.
- Elizabeth Stuart as a Widow, 1642, by Gerard van Honthorst.
Elizabeth filled her time with copious letter writing and making marriage matches for her children. Between Frederick’s death in 1632 and her own 30 years later, she witnessed the deaths of four more of her ten surviving children: Gustavus in 1641, Philip in 1650,[54] Henriette Marie in 1651, and Maurice in 1652. Her brother Charles I, King of England was executed in early 1649, and the surviving Stuart family was exiled during the years of the Commonwealth. The relationships with her remaining living children also became somewhat estranged, although she did spend time with her growing number of grandchildren. She began to pay the price for having been “a distant mother to most of her own children”, and the idea of going to England now was uppermost in her thoughts.[55]
Death[edit]
In 1660, the Stuarts were restored to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland in the person of Elizabeth’s nephew Charles II. Elizabeth arrived in England on 26 May 1661. By July, she was no longer planning on returning to The Hague and made plans for the remainder of her furniture, clothing, and other property to be sent to her. She then proceeded to move to Drury House, where she established a small, but impressive and welcoming, household. On 29 January 1662 she made another move, to Leicester House, Westminster, but by this time she was quite ill.[56] Elizabeth caught pneumonia, bled from her lungs on 10 February 1662 and died soon after midnight on 13 February.
Her death caused little public stir as by then her “chief, if not only, claim to fame was as the mother of Rupert of the Rhine, the legendary Cavalier general”.[57] On the evening of 17 February, when her coffin (into which her remains had been placed the previous day) left Somerset House, Rupert was the only one of her sons to follow the funeral procession to Westminster Abbey.[58] There in the chapel of Henry VII, “a survivor of an earlier age, isolated and without a country she could really call her own”, she was laid to rest among her ancestors and close to her beloved elder brother, Henry, Prince of Wales.[38]
Issue[edit]
Elizabeth and Frederick had 13 children, six of whom outlived their mother:
- Henry Frederick, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate (1614–1629); drowned
- Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine (1617–1680); married Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel, had issue including Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, Duchess of Orleans; married Marie Luise von Degenfeld, had issue; married again Elisabeth Holländer von Berau (1659-1702), had issue
- Elisabeth of the Palatinate (1618–1680)
- Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine (1619–1682); had two illegitimate children
- Maurice of the Palatinate (16 January 1621 – 1 September 1652)
- Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate (18 April 1622 – 11 February 1709)
- Louis (21 August 1624 – 24 December 1624)
- Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern (1625–1663); married Anne Gonzaga, had issue
- Henriette Marie of the Palatinate (7 July 1626 – 18 September 1651); married Prince Sigismund Rákóczi, brother of George II Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania, on 16 June 1651
- John Philip Frederick of the Palatinate (26 September 1627 – 16 February 1650[54]); also reported to have been born on 15 September 1629
- Charlotte of the Palatinate (19 December 1628 – 14 January 1631)
- Sophia, Electress of Hanover (14 October 1630 – 8 June 1714); married Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, had issue, including King George I of Great Britain. Many other royal families are Sophia’s, and therefore, Elizabeth’s, descendants. Sophia came close to ascending to the British throne, but died two months before Queen Anne.
- Gustavus Adolphus of the Palatinate (14 January 1632 – 1641)
Ancestry[edit]
| showAncestors of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia |
|---|
Legacy[edit]
Under the English Act of Settlement 1701, the succession to the English and Scottish crowns (later British crown) was settled on Elizabeth’s youngest daughter Sophia of Hanover and her issue. In August 1714, Sophia’s son (Elizabeth’s grandson) George I ascended to the throne, with the future Royal family all his descendants and hence, also descendants of Elizabeth.
The Elizabeth River in colonial Southeastern Virginia was named in honour of the princess, as was Cape Elizabeth, a peninsula, and today a town in the United States in the state of Maine. John Smith explored and mapped New England and gave names to places mainly based on the names used by Native Americans. When Smith presented his map to Charles I, he suggested that the king should feel free to change the “barbarous names” for “English” ones. The king made many such changes, but only four survive today, one of which is Cape Elizabeth.[59]
According to legend, William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven, built Ashdown House in Berkshire, England, in honour of Elizabeth, although she died before the house was completed.
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