ELIZABETH (1596-1662), consort of Frederick V., elector palatine and titular king of Bohemia, was the eldest daughter of James I. of Great Britain and of Anne of Denmark, and was born at Falkland Castle, Fifeshire, in Aug. 1596. She was en trusted to the care of the earl of Linlithgow, and after the de parture of the royal family to England, to the countess of Kil dare, subsequently residing with Lord and Lady Harington at Combe Abbey in Warwickshire. In Nov. 1605 the Gunpowder Plot conspirators formed a plan to seize her person and proclaim her queen after the explosion, in consequence of which she was removed by Lord Harington to Coventry. In 16o8 she appeared at court, where her beauty soon attracted admiration and became the theme of the poets, her suitors including the dauphin, Maurice, prince of Orange, Gustavus Adolphus, Philip III. of Spain and Frederick V., the elector palatine. A marriage with the elector palatine was finally arranged, in spite of the queen's opposition, in order to strengthen the alliance with the Protestant powers in Germany; it took place on Feb. 14, 1613, midst great rejoicing and festivities, described in Nichols's Progresses of James I. Among the many poems written in commemoration of the marriage is the Epithalamion by John Donne. The prince and princess entered Heidelberg on June 17. On Aug. 26, 1618, Frederick, as a leading Protestant prince, was chosen king by the Bohemians, who de posed the emperor Ferdinand, then archduke of Styria. Elizabeth accompanied Frederick to Prague in Oct. 1619, and was crowned on Nov. 7. Here her unrestrainable high spirits and levity gave great offence to the citizens. But in misfortune she showed great courage and fortitude. She left Prague on Nov. 8, 162o, after the fatal battle of the White Hill, for Ki.istrin, travelling thence to Berlin and Wolfenbiittel, finally with Frederick taking refuge at The Hague with Prince Maurice of Orange.
It was not until the peace of Westphalia in 1648 that her son, Charles Louis, regained a portion of his dominions, the Rhenish Palatinate. Meanwhile, the payment of Elizabeth's Eng lish annuity of ceased after the outbreak of the troubles with the parliament ; the execution of Charles I. in 1649 put an end to all hopes from that quarter; and the pension allowed her by the house of Orange ceased in 165o. Her children abandoned her, and her son Charles Louis refused her a home in his restored electorate. Nor did Charles II. at his restoration show any desire to receive her in England. Parliament voted her f 20,000 in 166o for the payment of her debts, but Elizabeth did not receive the money, and on May 1 o, 1661, she left The Hague for England, where Charles, who had opposed her coming, ultimately granted her a pension. She died on Feb. 13, 1662, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her beauty, grace and vivacity exercised a great charm over her contemporaries, who were also moved by her misfortunes incurred in the Protestant cause. As the ancestress of the Protestant Hanoverian dynasty, she became a prominent figure in English history. She had 13 children-Frederick Henry, drowned at sea in 1629; Charles Louis, elector palatine, whose daughter married Philip, duke of Orleans, and became the an cestress of the elder and Roman Catholic branch of the royal family of England ; Elizabeth, abbess and friend of Descartes; Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, who died unmarried; Louisa, abbess; Edward, who married Anne de Gonzaga, "princesse pala tine," and had children ; Henrietta Maria, who married Count Sigismund Ragotzki, but died childless; Philip and Charlotte, who died childless; Sophia, who married Ernest Augustus, elector of Hanover, and was mother of George I. of England; and two others who died young.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. See the article in Dict. of Nat. Biography and Bibliography. See the article in Dict. of Nat. Biography and authorities there collected ; Five Stuart Princesses, ed. by R. S. Rait (1902) ; A. Wendland, Briefe der Elizabeth Stuart . . . an . . . den Kurf idrsten Carl Ludwig von der Pfalz (Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins, 228, Stuttgart, 1902) ; J. O. Opel, "Elizabeth Stuart," in Sybel's Historische Zeitschrift, xxiii. 289; Thomason Tracts (Brit.
Mus.), E., 138 (14), 122 (12), 118 (4o), 119 (18). Important material regarding the princess exists in the MSS. of the earl of Craven, at Combe Abbey.