Frederick V
Elector Palatine, King of Bohemia (1596–1632)
Biography
Frederick V ruled the Palatinate on the Rhine and inherited one of the seven electoral votes that chose the emperor. He was a Calvinist and led the Protestant Union, a defensive alliance of Protestant princes. At sixteen he married Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England, and for a time many saw him as the hope of Protestant Europe.
In 1619 the Bohemian nobles deposed Ferdinand II as their king and offered the crown to Frederick. Most of his advisers were against it: it meant open defiance of the emperor, and his father-in-law in England had made clear he would give no help. Frederick took it anyway, believing it was a chance to defend his faith, and set out for Prague.
But he had no army, no money and no dependable allies. He also lost the sympathy of ordinary Bohemians by having images and ornaments they cherished cleared out of their churches in the Calvinist manner. At the Battle of White Mountain in November 1620 his army broke in less than two hours, and he fled Prague into exile. Because his reign had lasted barely one winter, people called him the Winter King.
Defeat cost him dearly. The emperor took away his electoral title and gave it to the Duke of Bavaria, and he lost the Palatinate as well. He spent his remaining years in exile in the Dutch Republic trying to win his lands back, and died in 1632 without succeeding. Yet the descendants of his daughter Sophia later inherited the British throne, so his line lived on in the royal houses of Europe.