ness was such that he offended the queen, through whose influence he was removed. For a while civil war raged as the result of this. Finally the offended lord was reinstated in his office and reconciled to the king, but hating the queen all the more.
Elizabeth’s refusal to consent to the bartering away of her country, although approved of by all the lords, nevertheless was now used as a pretext to set the king against her. Lord Henry succeeded in making him believe that Elizabeth aimed to deprive him of the crown in favor of her son Václav, a child three years old. King John hurried to Bohemia in great wrath, seized the unsuspecting queen, and cast her in prison in the city of Melnik. The infant son was sent, with two nurses, to the fortress of Loketsky, and there kept in a dark tower for two months. Finally the queen was rescued by some lords, and taken back to Prague, where a suitable residence was provided for her. Two years later (1321), a reconciliation was effected between the royal couple, but it was not of long duration. The lords unfriendly to the queen succeeded in rousing the king against her, and this time she was obliged to flee for her life. She found refuge at the court of Bavaria, the Duke of Bavaria having been betrothed to her oldest daughter. Margaret. The boy Václav was then taken to the court of France, where he remained for many years. At his confirmation he was named Charles, alter his uncle Charles, the King of France, and it is by this name that he is known in history.
Two years after the queen’s flight to Bavaria, King John, learning of her innocence, gave her permission to return to Bohemia.
