Elizabeth Stuart (28 December 1635 – 8 September 1650) was the second daughter of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France.

[1] Elizabeth was born on 28 December 1635 at St James's Palace and was baptised there five days later, on 2 January, by William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 1647, Parliament allowed Elizabeth and her brothers Henry and James to travel to Maidenhead to meet their father Charles I and spent two days with him.

After the Parliament moved Charles I to Hampton Court Palace, he visited his children under the care of the Northumberlands at Syon House.

These visits ended when he fled to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight; ten-year-old Elizabeth supposedly helped James to escape once again, dressed as a woman.

[1] When she was eleven, the French ambassador described Elizabeth as a "budding young beauty" who had "grace, dignity, intelligence and sensibility" that enabled her to judge the different people she met and understand different points of view.

A Victorian-era examination of her remains revealed that she had suffered from rickets, which caused shoulder and back deformities, knock knees and pigeon toes.

When Parliament decided to remove Elizabeth's household in 1648, the 12-year-old princess wrote them a letter protesting their decision: "My Lords, I account myself very miserable that I must have my servants taken from me and strangers put to me.

However, the Commons demanded that the royal children be brought up as strict Protestants; they were also forbidden to join the Court at Oxford, and were held virtual prisoners at St. James's Palace.

And he desired me not to grieve for him, for he should die a martyr, and that he doubted not the Lord would settle his throne upon his son, and that we all should be happier than we could have expected to have been if he had lived; with many other things which at present I cannot remember.

The valuable jewel later became the centre of conflict between Dorothy and the Parliamentary commissioners appointed to oversee the late king's personal estate.

[5] Three days after she was found dead, the Council of State granted permission for Elizabeth to join her sister Mary in the Netherlands.

Two hundred years later, Queen Victoria, who had settled at Osborne House nearby, commissioned a white marble sculpture of Elizabeth by the sculptor Carlo Marochetti.

The Bible is open to words from the Gospel of Matthew: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

"[6] The plaque on the sculpture reads: "To the memory of The Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Charles I, who died at Carisbrooke Castle on 8 September 1650, and is interred beneath the chancel of this church, this monument is erected as a token of respect for her virtues and of sympathy for her misfortunes, by Victoria R., 1856.

"[7] The concluding lines from The Death of The Princess Elizabeth in the 1866 book Lays of the English Cavaliers by John Jeremiah Daniel commemorated Victoria's actions: And long unknown, unhonoured, her sacred dust had slept When to the Stuart maiden's grave a mourner came and wept.