e new precedents, and they did. In Noernberg they invited
themselves to a burgher wedding. The bride was a Welser, a distant
cousin of Philippine Welser. Both Elizabeth and her husband danced at
this wedding until after midnight. Prince Frederick, indeed, danced so
heartily, says an old chronicler, "that he did twirl some of the maidens
with him clean out into the street."

About this time died the Emperor Matthias, successor of Ferdinand I. The
Protestant Union earnestly wished to prevent the election of the
Catholic Ferdinand, King of Bohemia, as emperor. An opportune uprising
of Protestants in Bohemia served as a pretext for placing Frederick of
the Palatinate, head of the Protestant Union, upon the throne of
Bohemia. The whole world knows the story of that brief, brilliant,
winter reign of Frederick and Elizabeth in Bohemia.

The Stuart "Queen of Hearts" was more popular in Bohemia than her
Calvinistic husband. Rich presents of money and plate were made to her.
A delegation of the wives of the most prominent citizens waited upon her
in Prague. Behind them slowly moved nine large wagons loaded with gifts.
Among other presents was a baby's entire outfit, including a stately
cradle made of ebony and ornamented with gold and precious jewels. The
cradle was needed, for Elizabeth bore thirteen children.

The king and queen were too unconventional to please the stiff Bohemian
nobility. The young royal couple gave mortal offence once to the entire
court by coasting down hill with a lot of school children. The
conspicuous costume worn by his majesty on that unfortunate day seems to
have been an added injury to court etiquette. He wore, we are told, "a
satin fur-trimmed pelisse and a large white hat with long, floating
yellow plumes."

But days of childish gayety were well-nigh passed for Frederick and
Elizabeth. Sorrow, humiliation, poverty awaited them. Ferdinand II. was
triumphantly elected. One of the new emperor's first acts was to
confiscate Frederick's principality of the Rhine Palatinate and make it
over to a Bavarian Prince. His next act was to send a force under Tilly
to regain the Bohemian throne. Frederick made no resistance worthy of
the name. Instead, he fled with his family.

Never was royal fall more humiliating. Landless, penniless, almost
friendless, Frederick and Elizabeth suddenly found themselves the
laughing-stock of Europe. It was a brutal age, a vulgarly coarse age.
Minor incidents often show most