Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia Worksheets
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Summary
- Early Life and Education
- Marriage
- Short Reign as Queen of Bohemia
- Exile
- Later Life
- Death and Legacy
Key Facts And Information
Let’s find out more about Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia!
Elizabeth Stuart was the daughter of King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) and Queen Anne of Denmark. Born in 1596, she became famous across Europe for her brief reign as Queen of Bohemia alongside her husband, Frederick V. Known as the “Winter Queen” due to their short rule, she spent much of her life in exile after political defeat.
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia
Early Life and Education of Elizabeth Stuart
- Elizabeth Stuart was born at Dunfermline Palace in Fife, Scotland, on 19 August 1596 to King James VI of Scotland and Queen Anne of Denmark. Elizabeth was named in honour of Queen Elizabeth I of England, who also acted as her godmother. She was christened on 28 November 1596 in the Chapel Royal at Holyroodhouse, and she was then formally announced by the royal heralds as “Lady Elizabeth”.
- In her early years in Scotland, Elizabeth was brought up at Linlithgow Palace and was cared for by Lord Livingstone and his wife, Eleanor Hay. Later, her younger sister Margaret was placed in their care too. However, Elizabeth did not pay much attention to Margaret as she was especially close to her older brother, Prince Henry.
- In 1603, after Queen Elizabeth I of England died, Elizabeth Stuart’s father became James I of England and Ireland, uniting the crowns of England and Scotland. Elizabeth travelled south to England with her mother and her brother. Once in England, she briefly stayed at court. However, because there was a plague outbreak in London, she and her brother were moved to Winchester for safety.
- Soon after, on 19 October 1603, her education and care were officially given to Lord Harington and his wife, Lady Harington. They looked after her at Coombe Abbey, near Coventry. There, she made a lasting friendship with Anne Dudley, who remained close to her throughout her life.
- In 1605, during the Gunpowder Plot, Catholic rebels planned to kill King James and many other leaders. They also planned to kidnap nine-year-old Elizabeth from Coombe Abbey and place her on the throne as a Catholic queen. The plot failed when Guy Fawkes was discovered before he could set off the explosives.
- Elizabeth received a good education as she learned a variety of subjects such as natural history, geography, theology, music, dancing, and languages. However, her father did not allow her to study Latin, as he believed it might make women too clever and tricky. Even so, by the age of 12, she was already fluent in several languages, including French. She was also a lover of books and reading. She left behind many signs of her early interest in literature.
Marriage
- As the daughter of a reigning king, Elizabeth was seen as a valuable match in the royal marriage market. Many princes and noblemen across Europe wished to marry her. Among her suitors were: Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (future king), Frederic Ulric (Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel), Prince Maurice of Nassau, Otto (Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Kassel), Victor Amadeus (Prince of Piedmont), and Philip III of Spain.
- Each potential match offered political benefits, and Elizabeth’s marriage was viewed as a key part of England’s role in European affairs, especially now that her father was king of both England and Scotland. Most suitors were turned down, often because they were not Protestant, had no strong family ties, or were involved in conflicts that England wanted to avoid.
- Eventually, Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, was chosen. He came from a noble German family with royal ancestors, including kings of Aragon and Sicily, and was closely related to many European rulers. Frederick and Elizabeth even shared a common ancestor, Henry II of England. Importantly, he was also a strong Protestant leader, which pleased King James, who wanted to strengthen Protestant alliances across Europe.
- Frederick arrived in England in October 1612, and he and Elizabeth seemed to like each other straight away. Although King James supported the match for political reasons, Queen Anne was not pleased. She believed he was not high enough in rank for her daughter, and she hoped Elizabeth might marry someone who would make her a queen.
- Shortly after Frederick’s arrival, Prince Henry died suddenly in November 1612. Elizabeth became second in line to the throne after her younger brother Charles. She and Frederick were married on 14 February 1613, St Valentine’s Day, at the royal chapel in Whitehall Palace. The wedding was hugely popular with the English people and cost nearly £50,000, an amount very large at the time, nearly emptying King James’s treasury.
- After weeks of celebration in London, Elizabeth and Frederick travelled to his lands in the Palatinate, in present-day Germany. Their journey included many stops, where they were welcomed with music, food, gifts, and performances. In Heidelberg, Frederick had prepared for her arrival by creating new spaces in Heidelberg Castle, including the English Building, a zoo, and a new garden called the Hortus Palatinus. The garden was designed by Elizabeth’s former tutor, Salomon de Caus, and was so impressive that it was called the “Eighth Wonder of the World”.
- In Heidelberg, Elizabeth gave birth to three children: Frederick Henry in 1614, Charles in 1617, and Elisabeth in 1618.
Short Reign of Elizabeth Stuart as Queen of Bohemia
- In 1619, Elizabeth Stuart became Queen of Bohemia when her husband, Frederick V, was invited to take the Bohemian crown. Bohemia (now mostly part of the Czech Republic) was a kingdom where the nobles had the power to choose their king, and people of different religions had lived in peace for many years.
Engraving of Frederick and Elizabeth as king and queen of Bohemia
- Things changed after the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Matthias, died in March 1619. The man who was supposed to take his place, Ferdinand of Styria, was already King of Bohemia. But Ferdinand was a strong Catholic, and he had treated Protestants badly in the past. The Bohemian nobles were afraid he would do the same in Bohemia, so they decided to remove him from the throne.
- The nobles looked for someone else to become king and in the end, they offered the crown to Frederick V because he was a well-known Protestant and came from a royal family. At first, Frederick didn’t want to accept, but Elizabeth encouraged him. She reminded him that he was a prince and a Christian, and she promised to support him.
- After Frederick agreed, the couple moved to Prague, the capital of Bohemia. Frederick was crowned king on 4 November 1619, and Elizabeth was crowned queen three days later. Their fourth child, Prince Rupert, was born only a month later in Prague. However, their time as king and queen didn’t last long. The old king, Ferdinand, had now become Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and he refused to give up Bohemia.
- On 8 November 1620, just one year later, Frederick’s army lost to Ferdinand’s forces at the Battle of White Mountain. The royal family had to flee the country quickly, leaving behind their crown and their new home. Because their reign lasted only one winter, Elizabeth was called the “Winter Queen”, and Frederick the “Winter King”.
Exile of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia
- After losing the crown of Bohemia in November 1620, Elizabeth and her husband had to flee quickly to avoid being captured. Even before the final battle at White Mountain, Elizabeth had already left Prague. She was heavily pregnant and went to Cüstrin Castle, near Berlin. On 6 January 1621, she gave birth to her fifth child, Maurice.
- There was now no hope of returning to Prague, and they couldn’t go back to their home in the Palatinate either, because Catholic and Spanish troops had taken over the land. The whole family had to go into full exile. They were invited to live in The Hague, in the Netherlands, by the Prince of Orange.
- Elizabeth arrived in The Hague in the spring of 1621, bringing only a small royal household with her. Her lady-in-waiting, Amalia van Solms, later married the Prince of Orange, Frederick Henry, in 1625. This made her very powerful, and she became somewhat of a rival to Elizabeth at the Dutch court.
- During her long exile, Elizabeth gave birth to eight more children. Her last child, Gustavus, was born on 2 January 1632, and was baptised in the Cloister Church, where two of her other children, Louis and Charlotte, who had died young, were also buried.
- That same month, Frederick said goodbye to Elizabeth and left to join King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in battle, hoping for support to win back their lost lands. However, the Swedish king gave conditions that Frederick did not agree to, so the alliance never truly worked out. On his way back to The Hague, Frederick became very ill, and on 29 November 1632, he died before reaching Elizabeth.
- Though Charles Louis regained the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1648, Elizabeth still did not return to live there. Instead, she remained in the Dutch Republic and became involved in art and culture. She acted as a patron of the arts and commissioned paintings that honoured her family and her lost position.
Triumph of the Winter Queen painting
- One famous painting, the Triumph of the Winter Queen, showed her with her children and symbolised her hope and dignity. She also had a marble bust made around 1641 and a portrait of herself as a widow painted in 1642 by the artist Gerard van Honthorst.
- Elizabeth spent much of her time writing letters and arranging marriages for her many children. Between her husband’s death in 1632 and her own in 1662, she saw four of her ten surviving children die: Gustavus in 1641, Philip in 1650, Henriette Marie in 1651, and Maurice in 1652.
- In 1649, her brother Charles I was executed, which caused her more grief. The Stuart family was forced into exile during the English Commonwealth, and Elizabeth grew more isolated.
- Her relationships with her surviving children were not always close. Over the years, she became a somewhat distant figure to them. Still, she found joy in her growing number of grandchildren. In 1661, after nearly forty years in exile, Elizabeth finally returned to England, following the restoration of the monarchy with her nephew Charles II on the throne.
Death and Legacy of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia
- Elizabeth arrived in London on 26 May 1661 and was welcomed quietly, with little public attention. By that time, she was no longer just remembered as the former Queen of Bohemia, but more widely known as the mother of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the famous royalist general of the English Civil War.
- At first, Elizabeth stayed at Drury House in London. By July 1661, she had decided not to return to The Hague and arranged for her remaining belongings to be brought from the Netherlands to England. On 29 January 1662, she moved to Leicester House in Westminster. Her health later became seriously ill with pneumonia and she began coughing up blood on 10 February. She died soon after midnight on 13 February 1662, at the age of 65. Her body was buried in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey, near her brother, Prince Henry, and among her royal ancestors.
- Elizabeth’s legacy lived on long after her death, both through her family and through the places named after her. One of the most important parts of her legacy is her link to the British royal family. In 1701, a law called the Act of Settlement said that only Protestants could become king or queen of England and Scotland. It chose Elizabeth’s youngest daughter, Sophia of Hanover, and her children as the next in line. When Queen Anne died in 1714 without children, Sophia’s son became King George I. Since then, every British king and queen has been a descendant of Elizabeth Stuart.
- Elizabeth’s name was also given to places in America. The Elizabeth River in Virginia and Cape Elizabeth in Maine were both named in her honour. When explorer John Smith gave his map to King Charles I, the king changed many Native American place names to English ones. Only a few of those names are still used today, and Cape Elizabeth is one of them.
- In England, a nobleman called William Craven built Ashdown House in Berkshire for Elizabeth. He helped her during her years in exile. Elizabeth died before the house was finished, but it still stands today to remember her and show how much people respected her.
Image Sources
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Workshop_of_Michiel_Jansz._van_Miereveldt_Elizabeth_Stuart_Queen_of_Bohemia.jpg/800px-Workshop_of_Michiel_Jansz._van_Miereveldt_Elizabeth_Stuart_Queen_of_Bohemia.jpg
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Frederick_V_King_of_Bohemia%3B_Elizabeth%2C_Queen_of_Bohemia.jpg
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Gerrit_van_Honthorst_-_Triumph_of_the_Winter_Queen.jpg/1920px-Gerrit_van_Honthorst_-_Triumph_of_the_Winter_Queen.jpg
Frequently Asked Questions About Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia
- Who was Elizabeth Stuart?
Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662) was the daughter of King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. She became known as the "Winter Queen" after a brief reign as Queen of Bohemia alongside her husband, Frederick V of the Palatinate.
- Why was she called the "Winter Queen"?
Elizabeth earned the nickname "Winter Queen" because her reign as Queen of Bohemia lasted only one winter (1619–1620) before she and her husband were deposed following the Battle of White Mountain.
- Who did Elizabeth Stuart marry?
Elizabeth married Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, a leading Protestant prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Their marriage was both politically significant and personally affectionate.