The Winter King and Queen, were officially known as Frederick and Elizabeth, King and Queen of Bohemia. They lived in Heidelberg and in Holland and acquired an extensive collection of paintings, furniture, silver, tapestries, books and other valuable objects.
In the exhibitioncatalogue Der Winterkönig (Amberg 2003) Willem Jan Hoogsteder describes how the paintings may have hung in the Rhenen palace of Frederick and Elizabeth. Rhenen Dutch Rhenen German
In his doctoral thesis for Utrecht University (1986) Willem Jan Hoogsteder discusses all the paintings connected with the royal couple.
Doctoral thesis Willem Jan Hoogsteder, January 1986
Part I
Part II
Part III
The story of the Winter Queen
Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I, king of England, Ireland and Scotland became known as the Winter Queen. Her official title was Queen of Bohemia. The Winter Queen outlived her husband for 30 years and became a popular historical figure.
Elizabeth married Frederick V, prince of the Palatinate, in 1613. They were the same age - which was rare for royal couples at the time - and remained deeply in love for the rest of their lives. In 1613, the newly weds moved into Frederick's lavish castle at Heidelberg. Later, in 1619, the couple were elected king and queen of Bohemia and they took up residence at the immense Hradschin Palace in Prague. Emperor Ferdinand was not pleased and sent troops to oust them from `his` Bohemia. No match for the mighty emperor, the couple left Prague within the year. In their propaganda, the Jesuits referred to Frederick and Elizabeth as having been king and queen for a winter. It was the sad truth and the name stuck.
Forced to flee, the couple came to Holland, arriving at The Hague in 1621. Frederick's mother was a daughter of William of Orange, so the Orange princes Maurits and Frederick Henry were direct cousins. At The Hague, the royal couple moved into Wassenaer Hof on Kneuterdijk, the confiscated home of Jan van Oldenbarneveldt. The royals lived in great splendor, well beyond their means. Fortunately for them, their influence grew when one of Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting, an impoverished German countess, married Frederick Henry. She was Amalia van Solms, soon the most powerful woman in Holland.
Several years later, the Winter King commissioned Bartholomeus van Bassen to transform the derelict Cunera cloister at Rhenen into a hunting lodge. Frederick enjoyed it for barely a year. He died in 1632, on campaign in Germany. Elizabeth dressed in black the rest of her life, but never stopped lobbying to reclaim her Palatinate realm. Following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, her son Charles Louis was finally reinstated. Elizabeth had always wanted to return to England, but was prevented by the Civil War. Only after Charles II was restored was she able. Once again she was held back, now by local commercial interests, to whom she owed a combined debt of 900,000 guilders. The States General and the king of England came to an arrangement and in 1661 Elizabeth eventually returned to her native England. She died within the year and was buried in Westminster Cathedral with a state funeral.
In 1714, one of her grandsons became king of England as George I. Her most illustrious son was certainly Prince Rupert of the Rhine.