by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2025
Friedrich V, Elector Palatine; Credit – Wikipedia
Through his marriage to Elizabeth Stuart, Princess of England and Scotland, the daughter of James I, King of England (also James VI, King of Scots) and Anne of Denmark, Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, is an important footnote in the history of the succession to the British throne. It was through his wife Elizabeth that the Hanovers inherited the British throne after the Stuart line died out. The first Hanover monarch, King George I of Great Britain, was the grandson of Friedrich and Elizabeth. King George I was born Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Luneburg, the eldest child of Ernst August, Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Friedrich and Elizabeth’s daughter, Sophia of the Palatinate, commonly referred to as Electress Sophia of Hanover. Through their daughter Sophia, Friedrich and Elizabeth are the ancestors of the British royal family and most other European royal families, including those of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, as well as the former royal families of Greece, Romania, Prussia, and Russia.
The Electorate of Palatinate was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-Electors who elected the Holy Roman Emperor. The territories of the Palatinate were spread out, ranging from the west bank of the Rhine River in the current German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, adjacent parts of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, and on the east bank of the Rhine River in the present-day German states of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg.
Friedrich was born on August 26, 1596, at the hunting lodge in Deinschwang, Palatinate, now Lauterhofen in the German state of Bavaria. He was the eldest of the four sons and the third of the eight children of Friedrich IV, Elector Palatine and Louise Juliana of Nassau. Friedrich’s paternal grandparents were Ludwig VI, Elector Palatine and Elisabeth of Hesse. Willem I (the Silent), Prince of Orange and his third wife, Charlotte de Bourbon-Monpensier, were Friedrich’s maternal grandparents.
Friedrich had seven siblings, but three died in childhood:
- Luise Juliane of the Palatinate (1594 – 1640), married Johann II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, had four children
- Katharina Sofie of the Palatinate (1595 – 1626)
- Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (1597 – 1660), Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, had three children
- Anna Eleonore of the Palatinate (1599 – 1600)
- Ludwig Wilhelm of the Palatinate (born and died 1600)
- Moritz Christian of the Palatinate (1601 – 1605)
- Ludwig Philipp, Count Palatine of Simmern-Kaiserslautern (1602 – 1655), married Marie Eleonore of Brandenburg, had seven children, only two survived childhood
Elizabeth Stuart in 1612; Credit – Wikipedia
On September 19, 1610, Friedrich’s father, Friedrich IV, died, aged thirty-six, and fourteen-year-old Friedrich V became the Elector Palatine. On February 14, 1613, 17-year-old Friedrich married 17-year-old Princess Elizabeth of England and Scotland in the Chapel Royal at the Palace of Whitehall in London, England.
Friedrich V, Elector Palatine in 1613; Credit – Wikipedia
Friedrich and Elizabeth had thirteen children:
- Heinrich Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate (1614 – 1629), unmarried, drowned
- Karl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine (1617 – 1680), married (1) Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel, had issue including Elizabeth Charlotte, second wife of Philippe, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of King Louis XIV of France; (2) morganatically, Marie Luise von Degenfeld, had issue; (3) morganatically, Elisabeth Hollander von Bernau, had issue
- Elisabeth of the Palatinate (1618 – 1680), unmarried, Princess-Abbess of Herford Abbey
- Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine (1619 – 1682), unmarried, had two illegitimate children
- Maurice of the Palatinate (1620 – 1652), unmarried, drowned
- Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate (1622 – 1709), unmarried, converted to Roman Catholicism, was a nun and then abbess at the Cistercian Maubuisson Abbey
- Ludwig (born and died 1624)
- Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern (1625 – 1663), converted to Roman Catholicism, married Anna Gonzaga, had issue
- Henriette Marie of the Palatinate (1626 – 1651), married Sigismund Rákóczi, no issue
- Johann Philip Friedrich of the Palatinate (1627 – 1650), unmarried, killed in battle
- Charlotte of the Palatinate (1628 – 1631), died in childhood
- Sophia of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover (1630 – 1714); married Ernst August, Elector of Hanover, had issue, including King George I of Great Britain; the British Act of Settlement 1701 gave the British succession to Sophia and her Protestant heirs
- Gustavus Adolphus of the Palatinate (1632 – 1641), died in childhood
As part of the marriage negotiations, Friedrich agreed to expand Heidelberg Castle. These renovations were completed in 1615, and the “Elizabeth Entrance” to Heidelberg Castle was dedicated. This was the beginning of a large building campaign, designed to glorify the Electorate of Palatinate. Politically, Friedrich was a leader of the Protestant princes in the Holy Roman Empire and a defender of the liberty of the German nobles against the Roman Catholic Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor.
Friedrich as King of Bohemia; Credit – Wikipedia
In August 1619, Friedrich was elected King of Bohemia and was crowned in Prague on November 4, 1619. Elizabeth, who was in late pregnancy with her son Rupert, was crowned two days later. The crown of Bohemia had been in Habsburg hands for a long time, and the Habsburg Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, refused to accept Friedrich as King of Bohemia. Friedrich’s reign as King of Bohemia ended with his defeat by Ferdinand at the Battle of White Mountain, one of the early battles of the Thirty Years’ War, on November 8, 1620.
After Friedrich’s defeat in the Battle of White Mountain against the troops of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand imposed the imperial ban on Friedrich. He lost not only the Kingdom of Bohemia, but also the Palatinate and his position as Elector. Friedrich and Elizabeth are called the Winter King and the Winter Queen, referring to their short reign as King and Queen of Bohemia. Friedrich and Elizabeth had sought refuge in Berlin but were forced to leave in January 1621 when Friedrich was banished from the Holy Roman Empire.
Friedrich, Elizabeth, and their family were given refuge in The Hague by Maurits, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland. The last eight of their thirteen children were born in The Hague. In January 1632, their last child was born, and later that same month, Friedrich left The Hague to fight alongside King Gustavus Adolphus II of Sweden in the Thirty Years’ War. Beginning in October 1632, Friedrich suffered from an infection that continually worsened. Doctors determined nothing could be done, and Friedrich died on November 29, 1632, at the age of 36.
Friedrich’s internal organs were interred at St. Catherine’s Church in Oppenheim, and his embalmed body was taken to Frankenthal, both towns then in the Electorate of Palatinate, now in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. On June 9, 1635, with Spanish troops approaching, Friedrich’s brother, Ludwig Philipp, Count Palatine of Simmern-Kaiserslautern, fled to Kaiserslautern with Friedrich’s coffin. It is believed that Ludwig Philipp transferred his brother’s coffin to the French town of Sedan in September 1637, but Friedrich’s burial site is unknown.
Elizabeth as a widow, 1642; Credit – Wikipedia
Elizabeth was devastated by Friedrich’s death. Her brother King Charles I of England invited her to return to England, but she refused as she felt she had to fight for the rights of her eldest son, Karl Ludwig. She raised a small army on his behalf, and finally, in 1648, the Palatinate was restored to him. Between her husband’s death in 1632 and her death in 1662, Elizabeth suffered the death of four of her children and the execution of her brother, King Charles I of England, in 1649. In 1660, Elizabeth’s nephew, King Charles II, was restored as King of England, and Elizabeth decided to visit England. She arrived in England on May 26, 1661, and by July, she was determined to remain there. She first lived in Drury House on Wych Street in London. In January 1662, she moved to Leicester House on the north side of present-day Leicester Square. On February 13, 1662, Elizabeth died of bronchitis at the age of 65 and was buried in the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey.
Works Cited
- Autoren der Wikimedia-Projekte. (2003). Kurfürst der Pfalz, König von Böhmen (1619–1620). Wikipedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_V._(Pfalz)
- Flantzer, Susan. (2016). Elizabeth Stuart, Electress Palatine of the Rhine [Review of Elizabeth Stuart, Electress Palatine of the Rhine]. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/elizabeth-stuart-electress-palatine/
- Frederick V of the Palatinate. (2022). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_V_of_the_Palatinate
