Elizabeth (queen consort)

Elizabeth (queen consort), queen consort of Frederick, king of Bohemia (1619-1620), born in Fife, Scotland, daughter of James VI, king of Scotland, later James I of England. At the age of 17 she was married to Frederick V, elector of the Palatinate. Frederick, a Protestant, was chosen king of Bohemia in 1619. In the following year he was defeated and deposed by the Roman Catholic Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand II, a rival claimant to the Bohemian throne. Frederick and Elizabeth were forced to seek asylum abroad, eventually settling in The Hague. After her husband's death in 1632, Elizabeth was active in the Protestant cause on the Continent, but she finally returned to England, where she died and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Because of her long struggle, many in Protestant Europe regarded her as a heroine. Her 13 children included Sophia, electress of Hannover, who was the mother of George I of England.