Stuart, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia

Akkerman, N.N.W. (2025)

Part of book or chapter of book

Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), Electress Palatine of the Rhine (1613–19) and sometime queen of Bohemia (cr. 1619) was the daughter of King James VI of Scotland and Anna of Denmark. She was a stateswoman who soon found herself at the epicenter of the Thirty Years War, with her Calvinist husband having accepted the crown of Bohemia. They ruled for a single year before being declared outlaws and having to fight off Spanish, Bavarian, and imperial armies. The Palatinate being overrun by the enemy, they set up court in the Dutch Republic, which was soon transformed into a cultural center as a result of the rivalry between Elizabeth and her former lady-in-waiting Amalia von Solms, whose marriage to the new prince of Orange she arranged in 1625. As a widow, her two courts in the Dutch Republic—The Hague and Rhenen—attracted political refugees during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (that is, the civil wars of her brother King Charles I), and their aftermath, when the restoration of her nephew Charles II encouraged her to return to England. She was one of the most prolific letter writers of the era, using her eloquence to win allies to her cause, the restitution of the Palatinate. Her love of masques and plays enabled her to make political statements, especially at times when she appeared at her most powerless.

• Elizabeth Stuart
• Queen of Bohemia
• Correspondence
• Masques
• Cryptography
• Thirty Years' War
• Exile
• Art collecting
• Charles I
• Charles II

• All authors: Akkerman, N.N.W.
• Editor(s): Suzuki, M.
• Date: 2025-08-01
• Title of host publication: The Palgrave encyclopedia of early modern women's writing
• Pages: 1 - 9
• ISBN (electronic): 9783030015374
• DOI: doi:10.1007/978-3-030-01537-4_466-1
• Link: https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-030-01537-4_466-1
• Sponsorship: Horizon 2020(H2020)
• Grant number: 864635