Elizabeth of Bohemia

Elizabeth Stuart
Queen consort of Bohemia; Electress consort Palatine
The widowed Elizabeth Stuart, 1642
Consort in Palatine Consort in Bohemia	14 February 1613 – 1623 4 November 1619 – 8 November 1620
Consort to	Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Issue	Frederick Henry von der Pfalz Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine Prince Rupert of the Rhine Louise Marie of the Palatinate Prince Maurice von Simmern Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern Sophia of Hanover
Royal house	House of Palatinate-Simmern House of Stuart
Father	James VI of Scotland, I of England
Mother	Anne of Denmark
Born	19 August 1596 Falkland Palace, Fife
Died	13 February 1662 (aged 65) England

Elisabeth, Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia (born Princess Elizabeth Stuart of Scotland; 19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was the eldest daughter of James VI of Scots, I of England and Ireland and his Queen consort Anne of Denmark. She was thus sister to Charles I of England and Scotland and cousin to Frederick III of Denmark. With the demise of the Stuart dynasty in 1714, her direct descendants, the Hanoverian rulers, succeeded to the British throne.

Princess Elizabeth Stuart, 1606, by Robert Peake the Elder.

Frederick is shown wearing the rarely-seen Crown of Saint Wenceslas, and other Bohemian Regalia. He is shown wearing the ceremonial collar of the exclusive Order of the Garter and holding the Sovereign's Orb. On the table is the Cap representing his separate office as Elector of the Palatinate. Painted by Gerrit von Honthorst in 1634, two years after Frederick's death.

At the time of Elizabeth's birth at Falkland Palace, Fife, her father was still the King of Scots only. She was named in honor of the Queen of England, in an attempt by her father to flatter the old queen, whose kingdom he hoped to inherit. When the younger Elizabeth was six years old, in 1603, Elizabeth I died and James succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland, making his daughter a much more attractive bride.

Part of the intent of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was to put the nine year old Elizabeth onto the throne of England (and, presumably, Scotland) as a Catholic monarch, after assassinating her father and the Protestant English aristocracy. At the time of the plot she was staying at Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire, from where the conspirators planned to kidnap her.

On 14 February 1613, she married Frederick V, then Elector of the Palatinate, and took up her place in the court at Heidelberg. Frederick was the leader of the association of Protestant princes in the Holy Roman Empire known as the Evangelical Union, and Elizabeth was married to him in an effort to increase James's ties to these princes. In 1619, Frederick was offered and accepted the crown of Bohemia, but his rule was extremely brief, and thus Elizabeth became known as the "Winter Queen." She was also sometimes called "Queen of Hearts" because of her popularity.

Driven into exile, the couple took up residence in The Hague, and Frederick died in 1632. Elizabeth remained in Holland even after her son, Charles I Louis, regained his father's electorship in 1648. Following the Restoration of the English & Scottish monarchies, she travelled to London to visit her nephew, Charles II, and died while there. Her youngest daughter was known later as Sophia of Hanover; pursuant to the English Act of Settlement 1701, the Electress Sophia and her issue were made heirs to the English, Scottish and Irish thrones (later British throne), so that all monarchs of Great Britain from George I are descendants of Elizabeth.

1. Frederick Henry von der Pfalz (1614-1629) - (Drowned)
2. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine (1617-1680), married Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), had issue; Marie Luise von Degenfeld, had issue; Elisabeth Hollander von Bernau, had issue
3. Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine (1618-1680)
4. Rupert, Duke of Cumberland (1619-1682), had two illegitimate children; a daughter married the brother of 1st Viscount Howe of Earl Howe lineage.
5. Maurice (1620-1652) - (Drowned)
6. Louise Marie of the Palatine (18 April 1622-11 February 1709)
7. Ludwig (21 August 1624-24 December 1624)
8. Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern (1625-1663), married Anna Gonzaga, had issue
9. Henrietta Maria (7 July 1626-18 September 1651); married Prince Sigismund of Siebenbuergen on 16 June 1651
10. Johann Philip Frederick (26 September 1627-15 December 1650); also reported to have been born on 15 September 1629
11. Charlotte (19 December 1628-14 January 1631)
12. Sophia, Electress of Hanover (14 October 1630-8 June 1714), married Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, had issue including King George I of Great Britain
13. Gustavus Adolphus (14 January 1632-1641)

The Elizabeth River in Southeastern Virginia was named in honor of the princess, as was Cape Elizabeth, a peninsula and today a town in the U.S. state of Maine. John Smith explored and mapped New England and gave names to places mainly based on the names used by Native Americans. When Smith presented his map to Charles I he suggested that the king should feel free to change the "barbarous names" for "English" ones. The king made many such changes, but only four survive today, one of which is Cape Elizabeth.^[1]

In WG Sebald's novel Vertigo (1990), a woman appears whom the narrator, travelling through Heidelberg by train in 1987, recognizes instantly "without a shadow of a doubt" as Elizabeth when she enters his carriage.

The Winter Queen also plays a seminal role in Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle by giving birth to many children.

• Thirty Years' War

• Gorst-Williams, Jessica (1977), Elizabeth, the Winter Queen, ISBN 020072472X 
• Ross, Josephine (1979), The Winter Queen: The Story of Elizabeth Stuart, ISBN 0312882327  (alternative ISBN 0297776037)
• Oman, Carola (2000), The Winter Queen: Elisabeth of Bohemia, ISBN 1842120573 
• Stevenson, Jane (2002), The Winter Queen: A Novel, ISBN 0618149120  (alternative ISBN 0618382674)
• Yates, Frances (1972), The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, ISBN 0710073801 , devotes its early chapters to describing her 1613 wedding and the reputation she and her husband had in Europe at the time.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia

• Archival material relating to Elizabeth of Bohemia listed at the UK National Register of Archives