The Dictionary of national biography Volume 6 Stephen

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...v ivacity, wlio seems never to have either felt or provoked weariness. She was tenacious both of her affections and of her hatreds; her husband and children found in her a devoted wife and mother, whose life was one long self-sacrifitie to their interest. In return, though many princesses have been admired with equal ardour, none has ever been served with more unselfish fidelity than she; it was one thing to excite an enthusiasm such as that which on the morrow of the Bohemian catastrophe is said to have led thirty gentlemen of the Middle Temple to swear on their drawn swords to live or die in her service, and another to inspire a lifelong devotion of deeds in champions so different from one another as Christian of Halberstadt and Lord Craven. Lastly, amidst all the untoward experiences of her career she remained consistently true to the protestant cause which was dear to the great majority of the English nation, and of which that nation long regarded her as a kind of martyr. And it was their attachment to principles thus steadfastly maintained by their ancestress which raised her descendants to her father"s throne. Among the numerous family portraits by Honthorst, the Princess Louisa Holhnidina, and others bequeathed by the queen of Bohemia to Lord Craven and still preserved at Combe Abbey, those of herself, in many varieties of size and costume, but all displaying the same marked features, are the most striking and interesting. The picture, however, which is said to represent her and her husband as Venus and Adonis, shows no likeness to their portraits, and is probably misnamed. Other portraits of her are to be found in the National Portrait Gallery, at Herrenhausen and elsewhere; those in the first named are by Mireveldt and Honthorst. The best collectio... Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Dictionary of national biography Volume 6 (Stephen)