, daughter of the emperor Maximilian II. and wife of Charles IX. king of
, daughter of the emperor
Maximilian II. and wife of Charles IX. king of France, was
married at Mezieres, Nov. 26, 1570. She was one of the
most beautiful persons of her time, and her virtue is said
to have surpassed her beauty. The deplorable and fatal
night of St Bartholomew afflicted her extremely; on hearing
the news of what had past, when she rose in the morning,
bathed in tears, she threw herself at the foot of her crucifix to: ask mercy of God on the perpetrators of so atrocious a deed, which she detested with horror. Elizabeth
had but very little share in what passed in France under
the tumultuous reign of Charles IX. She attended to
pothing but her domestic concerns, and conducted her fat-niily by the principles of prudence and honour for which
she xvas highly remarkable. Sensible to the irregularities
of, her husband, whom she loved and honoured extremely,
she never let him perceive those jealous disquietudes which
often augment and seldom remedy the evil. She was mild
and patient Charles was lively and impetuous; the ardour
of the king was moderated by the serenity of Elizabeth
accordingly she never lost his affection and his esteem, and
he recommended her, when dying, to Henry IV. then
king of Navarre, with the utmost tenderness: “Take cart?
of my daughter and my wife,
” said he; “my brother, take
care of them; I recommend them to the generosity of
your heart.
” During his illness, Elizabeth spent all the
time when she was not attending upon him, in prayers for
his recovery. When she went to see him, she did not
place herself by his bedside, as she had a right to do;
but kept at a little distance, and by her modest silence, by her tender and respectful looks, she seemed
to cover him in her heart with the love she bore him
“then,
” adds Brantome, “she was- seen to shed tears
so tender and so secret, that a common spectator would
have known nothing of it; and wiping her watery eyes,
excited the liveliest emotions of pity in all that were present: for,
” continues he, “I was a witness to it.
” She
stifled her grief; she dared not let her tenderness appear,
fearing lest the king should perceive it. The prince could
not avoid saying, when speaking of her, that he might
boast of having an amiable wife, the most discreet and the
most virtuous woman, not in all France, not in all Europe,
but in the whole world. He was nevertheless as reserved
with her as the queen mother, who, apprehending that she
might have some power over the king, doubtless employed
her influence in preventing that prince from reposing in
her confidence, which would have disconcerted her schemes.
"While she was at the court of France, she honoured with
a tender affection Margaret queen of Navarre, her sisterin-law, though of a conduct so totally opposite to hers;
and, after her return to Germany, Elizabeth always kept
up an epistolary correspondence with her. She even sent
her, as a pledge of her friendship, two books of her own
composing: the one, on the word of God; the other, on
the most considerable events that had happened in France
in her time. Tins virtuous princess, after the death of
the king her husband, retired to Vienna, where she died
in 1592, aged only thirty-eight, in a convent of her own
foundation.