Queen of Bohemia, grandmother of George I, king of England
Elizabeth Stuart was born 19 August 1596 to King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. Her father James ascended to the throne of England in 1603 and ruled England and Scotland until his death in 1625. She had two brothers: Henry (1594—1612) and Charles (born 1600, ruled England and Scotland 1625—1649, beheaded 1649).
Elizabeth married Frederick V, elector Palatine and head of the Union of Protestant Princes, on 14 February 1613, and lived in Heidelberg as electress Palatine 1613—1619. In 1619, Protestant Bohemians selected Frederick to rule in place of Ferdinand of Styria, the king chosen for Bohemia by the Habsburgs and supported by the Catholic Alliance. Frederick’s coronation in October 1619 resulted in war. Catholic forces stripped Frederick and Elizabeth of Heidelberg in August 1620 and of Prague in November 1620. Frederick and Elizabeth fled Prague and found refuge in The Hague. Elizabeth maintained a household in The Hague from 1621 until 1660 with financial support from various quarters, including England’s parliament and the Dutch estates.
Between 1614 and 1632, Elizabeth bore thirteen children. Two died in infancy; one drowned at age fifteen. Her second son, Charles Louis, ruled the Lower Palatinate after it was restored to the family as part of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Two other sons, Rupert and Maurice, fought for Cavalier forces during the English Civil War. Sophia, her twelfth child, married Ernst Augustus, duke of Brunswick-Luneberg; her son George, born 1660, ascended the English throne as George I in 1714.
Elizabeth Stuart died 13 February 1662 in London.
Karen Nelson
See also Power, Politics, and Women; Religious Reform and Women.
Bibliography
Primary Work
Baker, L. M., ed. The Letters of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. London:The Bodley Head, 1953.
Secondary Work
Ross, Josephine. The Winter Queen:The Story of Elizabeth Stuart. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979.
World History
