Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
FREDERICK V (1596 – 1632) was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and served as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the nickname of "the Winter King"
Frederick was the son of Frederick IV and of Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau, the daughter of William the Silent and Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier, he succeeded his father as Prince-Elector of the Rhenish Palatinate in 1610.
In 1612 Frederick married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I of England and VI of Scotland. Shortly before the ceremony, Frederick was inducted into the Order of the Garter and he wore the Order's chain during the wedding ceremony. He wears the medal on a sash in this portrait.
In 1618 the largely Protestant Estates of Bohemia rebelled against their Catholic King Ferdinand, triggering the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. Frederick was asked to assume the crown of Bohemia. He accepted and was crowned on 4 November 1619. The Estates chose Frederick since he was the leader of the Protestant Union, a military alliance founded by his father, and hoped for the support of Frederick's father-in-law, James VI of Scotland and I of England. However, James opposed the takeover of Bohemia from the Habsburgs and Frederick's allies in the Protestant Union failed to support him militarily by signing the Treaty of Ulm (1620). His brief reign as King of Bohemia ended with his defeat at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620 – a year and four days after his coronation.
After this battle, he had to flee to his uncle Prince Maurice, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic in 1622. An Imperial edict formally deprived him of the Palatinate in 1623. He lived the rest of his life in exile with his wife and family, mostly at The Hague, and died in Mainz in 1632.
His eldest surviving son Charles Louis, Elector Palatine, returned to power in 1648 with the end of the war. His daughter Princess Sophia was eventually named heiress presumptive to the British throne, and is the founder of the Hanoverian line of kings.
ELIZABET STUART (1596 – 13 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. She is often referred to as The Winter Queen.
Elizabeth was the second child and eldest daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and his wife, Anne of Denmark. If the Gunpowder Plot had succeeded then she would have been Queen in 1605.
With the demise of the Stuart dynasty in 1714, Elizabeth's grandson succeeded to the British throne as George I of Great Britain, initiating the Hanover line of succession.
GERRIT VAN HONTHORST ( 1592 – 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, sister of Charles I of England and Electress Palatine, then in exile in the Netherlands, commissioned Honthorst as a painter and employed him as a drawing-master for her children.
Through her he became known to King Charles I, who invited him to England in 1628. There he painted several portraits, and a vast allegory, now at Hampton Court, of Charles and his queen as Diana and Apollo in the clouds receiving the Duke of Buckingham as Mercury and guardian of the King of Bohemia's children.
Honthorst had two large studios in the Netherlands where the work included making replicas of his royal portraits, employing a large number of pupils and assistants.
SIZE: 31 x 26 inches framed.
PROVENANCE: Old Sussex Collection.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
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Portrait of Frederick of Bohemia (The Winter King) C.1620; After Gerrit Van Honthorst.
