... was the son of Charles's elder sister Elizabeth, who had married the Emperor Palatine Frederick V.
In 1619 the Protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and offered the crown of Bohemia to Frederick as an influential member of the Protestant Union, an organization founded by his father (Frederick IV) for the protection of Protestants in the Empire. After accepting the crown as Frederick I, he was abandoned by his allies in the Union and his brief reign as King of Bohemia ended with his defeat at the Battle of White Mountain – only two months after his coronation – and earned him the derisive nickname of 'the Winter King'. This defeat was followed by an Imperial invasion of Frederick's Palatinate lands and he was formally deprived of them by Imperial edict in 1623, after being forced to flee to Holland. He lived the rest of his life in exile with his wife and family at the Hague.
Rupert was born in Prague, which was then part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, in 1619. His sister, the Electress Sophia (born in The Hague in 1630) was the mother of George I of Great Britain. Rupert died in 1682 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
© Haydn Thompson 2017