Abstract
Princess Elisabeth and Anne Conway were contemporaries whose lives present many striking parallels. From their early interest in Descartes’ philosophy to their encounter with Van Helmont and the Quakers in their maturity, both were brought into contact with the same sets of ideas and forms of spirituality at similar points in their lives. Despite their common interest in philosophy, and their many mutual acquaintances, it is difficult to ascertain what either knew about the other, and whether either knew anything about the other’s philosophy. This paper reviews the evidence for connections between them and their knowledge of one another. After outlining the parallels in their personal circumstances and the sources for their knowledge of each other, I discuss key intermediaries: Henry More, the Hartlib Circle, Francis Mercury van Helmont and the Quaker leaders Robert Barclay and George Keith. Although they were certainly aware of one another, the answer to the question of whether there was any philosophical inter-change between them remains especially elusive.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Elisabeth had a high opinion of Barclay, communicated to her brother Charles Louis (Karl Ludwig) in May 1677. See Hauck (1908), letter 312, 253–254.
- 3.
There is some evidence that copies of some of Elisabeth’s letters did circulate. See Bos (2010, 403). In 1661 for example John Worthington reports seeing an extract from them among Samuel Hartlib’s papers (Worthington 1855, 47–54). And Elisabeth herself made copies of her letters on the Apollonius problem available to Theodor Haak in 1665 (Elisabeth of Bohemia 1665).
- 4.
The reference to “Mrs. Dury”, must be to Dorothy Dury, née King (1612–1664) not to Dury’s daughter, Dora, as speculated by Marjorie Nicolson (Nicolson and Hutton 1992, 158). Friend of Katherine Ranelagh, Dorothy Dury married John Dury after the death of her first husband, Arthur Moore. She was in contact with both the Winter Queen and Princess Elisabeth in the Hague (Maxwell 2017). Unfortunately, Dorothy Dury’s letters post 1654 do not survive (Moore 2004).
- 5.
At a later date, Elisabeth sent Haak copies of Descartes’ letters to her on the Apollonius’ problem, apparently destined for More, but actually requested by John Pell (Bos 2010). See below.
- 6.
More’s writings were subsequently translated into Latin in 1678–1679.
- 7.
An intriguing reference to Anne Conway among the Hartlibians is a poem about the pain which she suffered by another of Hartlib’s correspondents, Adam Boreel, which ended up among Locke’s papers.
- 8.
These may be the letters on the Apollonius problem, which were printed in the third volume of Clerselier’s edition of Descartes’ correspondence. Worthington says nothing about the content of the extract which Hartlib had, beyond the fact that in it Elisabeth thought the arrangement of letters in Clerselier’s edition “might have been to better advantage”.
- 9.
A note of instructions to Haak on what to write survives among the papers of Robert Pell. See BL Add MS 4365, f.198.
- 10.
Van Helmont’s medical philosophy was very different from the Galenic medicine practised by most physicians (Hutton 2004). Its strong psycho-somatic element may well have chimed with Elisabeth’s preference for the kind of “hands off” approach recommended by Descartes.
- 11.
There were evidently two sets of arrears. The Calendar of State Papers (SP Dom., Car. II, 295, Nos. 55, 56, 57, 58) records a “pension of 400 l. granted the Princess by his Majesty, in lieu of two pensions of 400 l. And 500 l. granted her by the late King, but unpaid because of the civil wars”. Despite the renewal of this (at a cut price), it was evidently not paid. Helmont successfully petitioned for “nine years” arrears of her pension of 44 l. a year, granted 11 Aug. 1663, “to begin from 24 June, 1660” (CSPD 1860–1847). See also Carol Pal’s essay in this volume.
- 12.
Jacqueline Broad has suggested that Conway and Elisabeth entered into correspondence (Broad 2002). But there is nothing in Conway Letters to confirm this.
- 13.
According to Penn, the group included George Fox, Robert Barclay, G. Keith, G. Watts, John Furly, William Tallcoat, Isabel Yeomans, Elisabeth Keith (Hutton 2004). Conway must have been well aware of this mission, since a copy of Penn’s travels was found among Anne Conway’s effects after her death (ibid.). Another Quaker in the group was Benjamin Furly, the Quaker Merchant from Rotterdam.
- 14.
The Quakers—or at least Robert Barclay—saw the value of educated women in Quaker dealings with Elisabeth. In a letter introducing Keith’s wife to Elisabeth, Barclay emphasised her piety and her ability to understand and penetrate divine truth. Barclay also drew attention to her noble birth (Ferlier 2012).
- 15.
On 7 November 1679 she reports Van Helmont’s presence at Herford to her brother, observing that his Quakerism is evident from his observing the Quaker practice of not doffing his hat. Hauck (1908), letter 330, 272.
- 16.
Despite his antipathy for the Quakers, Henry More pronounced Keith “a good honest man according to his measure” and “absolutely the best Quaker of them all”. However, he did not endorse Keith’s ideas (Hutton 2004).
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Hutton, S. (2021). Princess Elisabeth and Anne Conway (1631–1679): The Interconnected Circles of Two Philosophical Women. In: Ebbersmeyer, S., Hutton, S. (eds) Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680): A Philosopher in her Historical Context. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71527-4_4
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