Elizabeth Petrovna

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

Empress of Russia; born in 1709. She was daughter of Peter the Great. In 1741 she usurped the imperial throne, by dethroning the infant Ivan. At her accession, she made a vow that no capital punishment should take place in her reign. But she afterward inflicted on the Countesses Bestuchef and Lapoukin the punishment of the knout, and had their tongues cut out for betraying some of her secret amours. Though ugh dissolute in her manners, she was extremely suher devotions perstitious, and performed with rigorous exactness. In 1756 she joined Austria and France against Prussia. She died in 1762. ELIZABETH, SAINT, daughter of Andreas II., King of Hungary; born in Pressburg, in 1207. She early displayed passion for the severities of the a tian life, despising pomp, ambition, and exhibiting the most self-denying benevolence. When only 14 years old, she married the Landgrave of Thuringia, Louis IV., who died in 1227. Great misfortunes soon befell her. She was deprived of her regency by the brother of her deceased husband, and driven out of her dominion on the plea that she wasted the treasures of the state by her charities. The inhabitants of Marburg, whose miseries she had frequently relieved, refused her an asylum, for fear of the new regent. At last she found refuge in the monastery of Kitzingen, and when the warriors who had attended her husband in the Crusade returned from the East, she gathered them around her, and recounted her sufferings. Steps were taken to restore to her her sovereign rights. She declined the regency, however, and would accept only the revenues which accrued to her as landgravine. The remainder of her days were devoted to incessant devotions, almsgivings, mortifications, etc. She died Nov. 19, 1231, and was canonized four years later.