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Author Topic: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen  (Read 19115 times)

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Offline Prince_Lieven

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Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« on: September 01, 2005, 01:28:32 PM »
I thought this amazing woman deserved her own thread. She was born in 1596 to James VI of Scotland and Anna of Denmark. When she was 7 her father became King of England so she went to live in London. The culprits of the gunpowder plot intended to seize her persona and make her Queen. When she was 16 she married her exact contemporary, Frederick, the Elector Palatine of the Rhine (the two were then styled 'Prince and Princess Palatine'). In 1619, Frederick accepted the Crown of Bohemia, but was driven out by the Hapsburgs after one winter - hence Elizabeth's name 'the Winter Queen.'

Her marriage was quite happy, and she seemed to inspire personal devotion from people who knew her, not unlike her grandmother, Mary Stuart.

She was so popular, she was often called 'The Queen of Hearts' (as, some 300 years later, Diana, Princess of Wales would be called).

After living most of her life in exile in the Hague, she died in 1662.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Prince_Lieven »
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Offline Prince_Lieven

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2005, 01:32:10 PM »


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Offline Prince_Lieven

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2005, 01:34:18 PM »
As a fresh faced and pretty youngster:



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Offline umigon

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2005, 02:06:07 PM »
Quote

After living most of her life in exile in the Hague, she died in 1662.



She died in London, didn't she? I don't know much about Elizabeth! Do you know any intimate aspects of her marital life? Or her relationship with her children? I know her first son died aged 15 and drowned, but I don't know about the circumstances of his death!
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Offline Prince_Lieven

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2005, 02:11:18 PM »
Yes, I beleive she did die in London. LOL - I'm in the middle of reading a book about her, and others, the Stuart Princesses so I'll tell you more when I read it!  :D

She and Frederick were in love apprently, and their married life seems to have been happy. When they had to flee from Prague, a solider saw a small bundle left behind, so he picked it up and threw it into a wagon. Only when it started crying did he realise it was Prince Rupert, Elizabeth's youngest son!  :o

When she was in exile, she suffered a lot of financial trouble, and her son Charles Louis (now restored to the Electorate) tried to help her out from time to time - he seemed to be fond of her.

Her children appear to have been devoted to her - especially her daughters.
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Offline Prince_Lieven

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2005, 02:19:29 PM »
Here's all Elizabeth's children:

   * Heinrich-Friedrich 1614-1629
   * Karl Ludwig I 1617-1680
   * Elisabeth 1618-1680
   * Rupert 1619-1682
   * Maurice 1621-1652
   * Louise Hollandine +1709
   * Eduard 1625-1663
   * Henrietta Maria 1626-1651
   * Sophie 1630-1714

Obviously, because Sophia was the mother of George I, Elizabeth is the ancestor of every British monarch since.

Rupert was the famous 'Prince Rupert of the Rhine' who fought on the royalist side for his uncle Charles in the English Civil War and terrorised the Roundheads, who thought he was the devil!

One of Karl Ludwig's daughters was 'Liselotte' who married Philippe 'Monsieur' d'Orleans, whose first wife was Charles I's daughter Minette.
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Offline umigon

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2005, 02:40:58 PM »


I wpould like to add some children to your list, Prince, if you don't mind! ;)

* Stillborn son in 1615.
* Stillborn son in 1616.
* Ludwig (1623-1624).
* Johann Philip Friedrich (1627-1650).
* Charlotte (1628-1631).
* Gustav Adolph (1632-1641).
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Offline Prince_Lieven

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2005, 02:46:46 PM »
Oooh, I didn't know about them: my source must have been not including children who died so young. Elizabeth had children at very stressful times in her life - 18 years between the eldest and the youngest! She was obviously very fertile, and Frederick very virile.  ;)
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Offline bell_the_cat

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2005, 03:00:36 PM »
Elizabeth's daughter Elisabeth (1618-1680) was a very interesting woman. Highly intellectual, she corresponded with Descartes (about mathematics!) for a long time. She became a protestant abbess!
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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #9 on: September 01, 2005, 03:02:50 PM »
I don't think any of Elizabeth's daughters produced children . . . except Sophia of course!  :)
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Offline umigon

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2005, 03:30:07 PM »


Tell us more about Louise Hollandine, please!


Well, it doesn't seem like they did. I read somewhere that Henrietta Maria was expecting a child when she died in Transilvania, but I think the source was not very reliable, so...

What did Henrietta die of?
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Offline Prince_Lieven

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #11 on: September 01, 2005, 03:59:47 PM »
Louise Hollandine was born when Elizabeth and Frederick were in exile in the Hague. The Dutch were very generous to them, and Elizabeth gave her daughter the name 'Hollandine' as a thank you, and the Dutch states general were her godparents . . . She died in 1709 at the age of 86.

I'm afraid I can't find any info on what Henrietta died of . . .  :-/ perhaps someone else can help?
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Offline trentk80

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #12 on: September 01, 2005, 04:32:54 PM »
Frederick and Elizabeth were in love during all their lives. If I remember correctly, Shakespeare wrote The Tempest for their wedding, or at least, it was performed during the festivities.

Yes, Elizabeth died in London while visiting her nephew King Charles II.
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Offline trentk80

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #13 on: September 01, 2005, 04:54:26 PM »
Quote
I know her first son died aged 15 and drowned, but I don't know about the circumstances of his death!


In 1629 Elizabeth's eldest son Frederick Henry drowned in a boating accident. His father, King Frederick was devastated and never quite recovered his spirits, dying two years later.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by trentk80 »
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Offline bell_the_cat

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Re: Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2005, 04:24:01 AM »
I feel a bit sorry for her -she had her moment of glory to early and the rest of her life always seem like a bit of a postscript somehow - she reminds me of an aging silent movie star. She still called herself Queen of Bohemia in the 1660s, when it must have seemed a bit absurd.

As Prince Lieven says, the Gunpowder plotters wanted to put her on the throne of England and Scotland. I think they figured James, Anne and Henry would be wiped out in the explosion, leaving the nine-year old Elizabeth at home. They thought they would thus be able to impose a more tolerant policy towards the catholics. (What would they have done with Charles?).

I'm not surprised her daughters didn't marry. They had been brought up as the daughters of a king and nieces of Charles I. The Elector Palatine lost quite a lot of his lands as a result of the Bohemian fiasco, and I think they were pretty hard up. After 1645 they couldn't even count on the English connection. Therefore they couldn't make the top-notch marriages Elizabeth would have wanted for them. It says a lot for Sophia that she was the exception that proves the rule.

Her sons seem to have suffered from similar high expectations matched by lack of real opportunity. Rupert  made a career fighting for his uncle -  others seem to have caused Elizabeth a lot of grief with various escapades.

The restoration must have been a relief. I'm not surprised she returned to London. Samuel Pepys mentions her in his diaries, recording her death in February 1662 in Leicester House on the North side of Leicester Square. The note in my copy says she had moved there only five days before from Drury House in
Drury Lane " the residence of Lord Craven, to who it has been asserted that she was married".

Probably just good friends though!

Pepys had met her in May 1660: "she seems a very debonair, but a plain lady."
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