Thanks for the welcome.
I have a certain grim respect for Elizabeth, and I don't that she was the worst mother in the world, but I don't think she was a good parent or guardian either. At best, she held her children at arm's length, except for Karl-Ludwig, whom she adored. Elizabeth, who was fighting for Karl-Ludwig and his restoration like a tigress, could not shut her tunnel vision off when she put her pen down for the day and the visitors were gone. She did not understand what her favoritism was teaching Karl-Ludwig, or what it was doing to the rest of her children.
In particular, Elizabeth did not understand that when she derided the younger Elizabeth, which she loved to do because she thought her namesake was ugly, she was making a catastrophic mistake. The younger Elizabeth, who was fighting a terrible battle with depression, had established herself as the caretaker of the younger siblings. While Elizabeth went to parties and plays or wrote letters, her namesake was nursing her siblings, encouraging them to study, or guarding their morals as best she could.
Additionally, through her brilliant mind, the younger Elizabeth had attracted the attention of many scholars of note, including Rene Descartes. The younger Elizabeth, who was well aware that she was her mother's favorite target, became a rather grim and serious young woman with a remarkably logical mind, who was, as she put it, surrounded by people who were not very rational.
The Winter Queen's contemptible behavior towards her namesake meant that some of her children refused to follow their eldest sister's often good advice, and jeered at her with their mother's approval. Other children backed the younger Elizabeth against their mother and siblings. The Winter Queen did not realize just how deep the divisions went, divisions she had inspired, or just how far her namesake and her supporters were willing to go if sufficiently provoked.
In time, the younger Elizabeth decided to scotch a scandal and simultaneously display her power to her bully of a mother. At the younger Elizabeth's nod, Philip killed a man who had boasted of his "bonnes fortunes" with the Winter Queen and Louise.
I can't say that Elizabeth was responsible for everything her children did, including the murder the younger Elizabeth planned, the execution of which Philip bungled, or Karl-Ludwig's bigamy. I do think she set up some ugly patterns of behavior that had serious ramifications as her children reached adulthood.
As for the port Rupert tried to blockade, it was indeed Kinsale.
