Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. The couple's selection for the crown by the nobles of Bohemia was part of the political and religious turmoil that set off the Thirty Years' War. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted over only one winter, she is called "The Winter Queen" (German: Die Winterkönigin, Czech: Zimní královna).
Princess Elizabeth was the only surviving daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and his queen, Anne of Denmark; she was the elder sister of Charles I. Born in Scotland, she was named in honour of her father's cousin and predecessor on the English throne, Elizabeth I. During Elizabeth Stuart's childhood, unbeknownst to her, part of the failed Gunpowder Plot was a scheme to replace her father with her on the throne, and forcibly raise her as a Catholic.
Her father later arranged for her marriage to the Protestant Frederick V, a senior prince of the Holy Roman Empire. They were married in the Chapel Royal in the Palace of Whitehall, and then left for his lands in Germany. Their marriage proved successful, but after they left Bohemia, they spent years in exile in The Hague, while the Thirty Years' War continued. In her widowhood, she eventually returned to England at the end of her own life during the Stuart Restoration of her nephew and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
With the death in 1714 of Elizabeth's great-niece, Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the last Stuart monarch, the British throne passed to her grandson (by her daughter Sophia of Hanover) as George I, initiating the rule of the House of Hanover.
Elizabeth was born at Dunfermline Palace, Fife, on 19 August 1596 at 2:00 am. King James rode to the bedside from Callendar, where he was attending the wedding of the Earl of Orkney. At the time of her birth, her father was King of Scotland, but not yet King of England. Named in honour of Elizabeth I of England, her godmother, the young Elizabeth was christened on 28 November 1596 in the Chapel Royal at Holyroodhouse, and was then proclaimed by the heralds as "Lady Elizabeth". During her early life in Scotland, Elizabeth was brought up at Linlithgow Palace, where she was placed in the care of Lord Livingstone and his wife, Eleanor Hay. A couple of years later the king's second daughter, Margaret, was placed in their care as well. Elizabeth "did not pay particular attention to this younger sister", as even at this young age her affections were with her brother, Henry.
When Queen Elizabeth I of England died in 1603, Elizabeth Stuart's father, James, succeeded as King of England and Ireland. The Countess of Kildare was appointed the princess's governess. Along with her elder brother, Henry, Elizabeth made the journey southward to England with her mother "in a triumphal progress of perpetual entertainment". On her father's birthday, 19 June, Elizabeth danced at Worksop Manor with Robert Cecil's son.
Elizabeth remained at court for a few weeks, but "there is no evidence that she was present at her parents' coronation" on 25 July 1603. It seems likely that by this time the royal children already had been removed to Oatlands, an old Tudor hunting lodge near Weybridge. There was plague in London, and Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth were moved to Winchester. Her mother, Anne of Denmark, produced a masque to welcome them. On 19 October 1603 "an order was issued under the privy seal announcing that the King had thought fit to commit the keeping and education of the Lady Elizabeth to the Lord Harrington [sic] and his wife".
Under the care of Lord and Lady Harington at Coombe Abbey, Elizabeth met Anne Dudley, with whom she was to strike up a lifelong friendship. On 3 April 1604, Princess Elizabeth and her ladies rode from Coombe Abbey to Coventry. The Mayor and Aldermen met her at "Jabet's Ash on Stoke-green". She heard a sermon in St Michael's Church and dined in St Mary's Hall.
Part of the intent of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was to assassinate Elizabeth's father King James and the Protestant aristocracy, kidnap the nine-year-old Elizabeth from Coombe Abbey, and place her on the throne of England – and presumably the thrones of Ireland and Scotland – as a Catholic monarch. The conspirators chose Elizabeth after considering the other available options. Prince Henry, it was believed, would perish alongside his father. Charles was seen as too feeble (having only just learnt to walk) and Mary too young. Elizabeth, on the other hand, had already attended formal functions, and the conspirators knew that "she could fulfil a ceremonial role despite her comparative youth".
The conspirators aimed to cause an uprising in the Midlands to coincide with the explosion in London and at this point secure Elizabeth's accession as a puppet queen. She would then be brought up as a Catholic and later married to a Catholic bridegroom. The plot failed when the conspirators were betrayed, and Guy Fawkes was caught by the King's soldiers before he was able to ignite the powder.
Elizabeth was given a comprehensive education for a princess at that time. This education included instruction in natural history, geography, theology, languages, writing, music, and dancing. She was denied instruction in the classics as her father believed that "Latin had the unfortunate effect of making women more cunning". By the age of 12, Elizabeth was fluent in several languages, including French, "which she spoke with ease and grace" and would later use to converse with her husband. She was also an excellent rider, had a thorough understanding of the Protestant religion, and had an aptitude for writing letters that "sounded sincere and never stilted". She also was extremely literary, and "several mementoes of her early love of books exist".
As the daughter of a reigning monarch, the hand of the young Elizabeth was seen as a very desirable prize. Suitors came from across the continent and were many and varied. They included:
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, son (and later successor) of the King of Sweden
Frederic Ulric, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Theophilus Howard, Lord Howard of Walden, later second Earl of Suffolk
Otto, Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Kassel, son of Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
Victor Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont, the King of Spain's nephew and heir to the Duke of Savoy
Philip III of Spain, newly widowed in 1611, and rumoured to be interested, although it was unlikely that the staunchly Catholic Spanish monarch would have wanted to marry a Protestant princess.