Frederick V, Elector Palatine - Definition and Overview

Frederick V, Elector Palatine

Frederick V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia (August 16, 1596 -November 29, 1632) was, as the son and heir of Frederick IV, Elector Palatine, the Elector of the Rhine Palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire upon his father's death in 1610. In 1619 the Protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and offered the crown of Bohemia to Frederick as an influential member of the Evangelical Union, an organisation founded by his father for the protection of Protestants in the Empire. After accepting the crown he was abandoned by his allies in the Union and his brief reign as the King of Bohemia ended with his defeat at the Battle of White Mountain - only two months after his coronation - and earned him the derisive nick name of 'the Winter King'. This defeat was followed by an Imperial invasion of Frederick's Palatinate lands and he was forced to flee to Holland in 1622, being formally deprived of them in 1623 by Imperial edict. He lived the rest of his life in exile with his wife and family at the Hague.

He married Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of James I of England and Anne of Denmark and had three surviving sons and one daughter:

• Karl Ludwig von Simmern(1610-1680), or Charles Louis, who was granted a new title of Elector Count Palatine of the Rhine, Archtreasurer of the Empire, as well as most of his father's lands as part of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 at the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War.
• Rupert von Simmern(1615-1682), otherwise known as Prince Rupert of the Rhine, of English Civil War fame.
• Maurice von Simmern(1620-1652) who also served in the English Civil War.
• Sophia of Hanover (1630-1714), who married Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, afterwards elector of Hanover, and was the mother of George I of Great Britain.