Concept and Form:
The Cahiers pour l’Analyse
and Contemporary French Thought

This project is funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) research grant and is supported by the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) and Kingston University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

The eldest daughter of Frederick V and Elizabeth Stuart, Princess Elisabeth was a descendent of William of Orange and a major figure in the Protestant cause during and after the Thirty Years War. Noted for her remarkable intelligence and intellectual independence, Elisabeth refused marriage to the king of Poland due to his Catholicism. She spent her formative years in The Hague, where she established connections with many learned circles in the Netherlands, before returning to northern Germany in 1646. She was appointed Abbess of Herford in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1667, the execution of which resulted in her historical reputation for charity and kindness. In 1642, she began a correspondence with Descartes, which lasted until the latter’s death in 1650. Historians speculate as to the romantic nature of her relationship with Descartes; what their letters makes clear is the high esteem the correspondents held for one another. The excerpts from this correspondence reproduced in the Cahiers pour l’Analyse concern Descartes’ and Elisabeth’s contending assessments of the virtues, and demerits, of Machiavelli’s The Prince.