Descendants of the Stuarts

102 THE DESCENDANTS
to which his family had hitherto so tenaciously
clung, rather than abandon her? Whether he
would have done so could he have foreseen that it
would deprive his descendants of the triple crown
of Britain, it is difficult to determine ; but it must
be remembered that his abjuration was, at the time,
an event apparently most conducive to his temporal
interests. From being penniless, obscure, and
despised, he found himself courted, respected, and
in affluent circumstances ; for, glorying in the con-
version of this son of a Calvinist queen, king and
courtiers vied with each other in caressing him,
and in drawing the happiest omens from what they
termed this auspicious event for the Palatine House ;
expectations unfortunately destined to be speedily
realized. Edward himself ascribed his conversion
to the arguments of Am able de Bourseil, a learned
priest ; but even supposing such to have been the
case, there can be no doubt that it was the fair eyes
of Anne de Gonzague which primarily influenced
him to enter the arena of controversy. It was
Edward's wife, who, under the designation of the
Princess Palatine, played so prominent a part in
the stirring times of the Eronde, as the confidential
agent of Anne of Austria, in her negotiations with
Cardinal de Betz, who was also a friend of the
Princess Anne's. In them she is said to have dis-
played so much astuteness and sincerity that the
cardinal deliberately expressed it as his opinion
" that Queen Elizabeth had not more capacity for