Elizabeth Craven and Ashdown House, Oxfordshire
Ashdown House near Lambourn stands on the Berkshire Downs, although nowadays owing to boundary changes it is officially in Oxfordshire. It is a mid-seventeenth century house associated with two famous women, both of them called Elizabeth. One of them is the writer Elizabeth Craven and the other is Elizabeth Stuart, Princess of England, Queen of Bohemia, for whom it was originally built. Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I, married the Elector of Palatine who was crowned King Frederick of Bohemia in 1619. But after only a few months, he was driven from his throne, had to flee Bohemia, and soon he lost his domains in the Palatinate too. He and his young wife got the melancholy titles of the Winter King and Queen. Portrait of 1st Lord Craven between those of Frederick, King of Bohemia and Elizabeth his wife at Ashdown House. Elizabeth Stuart returned to England where eventually her brother King Charles I suffered an even harsher fate, losing hi...