Frederick V., ELECTORAL PRINCE PALATINE

Frederick V., ELECTORAL PRINCE PALATINE, son of Frederick IV., was born at Amberg, 26th August 1596, and succeeded to the Palatine in 1610. He married, in 1613, Elizabeth (q.v.), the daughter of James I. of England, through whose ambitious counsels he was induced to put himself at the head of the Protestant union of Germany, and finally, although against his own inclinations, to accept the crown of Bohemia in 1619. His complete defeat at the battle of the Weisse-Berg, near Prague (1620), terminated his short-lived reign, in allusion to which he became henceforth known as the 'Winter King.' In the meantime the Palatine was occupied by the Spaniards and Bavarians. Frederick therefore took refuge in Holland. Declared under the ban of the empire in 1621, he lost his electoral principality two years later, when the emperor conferred it upon Maximilian of Bavaria. Frederick died at Mainz, 29th November 1632. His son got back the Palatine after the Treaty of Westphalia (1648).