Finally, as promised – Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, and her husband Frederick V of the Palatinate had thirteen children but she outlived most of them.

Elizabeth denied that she was pregnant with her first child, Frederick Henry, named after her husband and her brother who was born on 1 January 1614. As his father’s heir Frederick Henry went with his father to Prague when the elector accepted the Crown of Bohemia in 1618. When Prague was threatened by the Holy Roman Emperor’s armies, Frederick Henry went to safety with his Uncle Louis – and his mother’s jewels – in Holland but he didn’t rejoin the rest of his family until the Spring of 1621 in exile in The Hague.

Frederick Henry set up a court for their children at Leiden and it was there that the prince was educated before being sent to Leiden University. By 1629 he was coming to the end of his studies. He expressed a wish in January of that year to see the captured Spanish treasure fleet which was at Amsterdam. The prince and his father, who was home from campaigning to try to regain the Palatinate, travelled there on the 7 January. By the time they arrived darkness was falling, it was both foggy and cold. As they crossed the Haarrlemmermeer there was an accident with a barge and Frederick Henry drowned.

Elizabeth’s second child, Charles Louis, born in 1617, became heir to the Palatinate. Charles Louis and is mother had a difficult relationship after Charles regained the electorship in 1648. First of all, he supported Parliament during England’s Civil War – possibly because he blamed the king for not supporting Frederick and his family earlier. Secondly, he refused to pay his mother’s jointure and she was deeply in debt by that time . There were other irritations for Elizabeth to bear, so the relationship was strained. He was unhappily married to Charlotte of Hesse-Kessel and took the decision to divorce her. It was her children who inherited the Palatinate.

Elizabeth, born in 1618, was left with her grandmother, Louise Juliana, as was Charles Louis, when Frederick became king of Bohemia. It was Louise who fled with her grandchildren to Brandenburg in 1621 when the Holy Roman Empire invade the Palatinate. She only joined her mother in Holland in 1627. Elizabeth enjoyed an extensive classical education as well learning music, dancing and painting. She wrote letters to Descartes from 1643 until his death; refused a proposal because it would have meant changing her faith to Catholicsm and became an abbess at the Lutheran convent at Herford in Germany in 1667.

Rupert of the Rhine was born in 1619 while Elizabeth was Queen of Bohemia. When the family fled Prague he was discovered in his cradle in the royal nursery, on the verge of being forgotten.

Maurice of the Palatinate. Maurice is closely associated with his brother Rupert. He served in his uncle’s army during the English Civil War. He died in 1652, when as vice-admiral of his brother’s fleet, he was court in a hurricane and went down with his ship.

Louise Hollandine was born in 1622. It is said that she was in love with James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose. In 1657 she fled to France, converted to Catholicism and became a nun. She went on to become the Abbess of Maubuisson Abbey. Her mother attempted to have her arrested before she lief Holland and never recovered from her daughter’s decision. She received no mention in Elizabeth of Bohemia’s will.

Edward, who was educated in France, married Anne Gonzaga who was a French aristocrat. She had claimed to be married to her cousin, the Duke of Guise, but he denied it. The pair married when Edward converted to Catholicism and lived comfortably on her inheritance. He died in 1663 after fathering three daughters.

Henritte Marie was born in 1626 and married, in 1651, into the Hungarian royal family. She died unexpectedly at the end of the same summer.

John Philip John Philip was educated at the French court along with his brother Edward. When they took Charles Louis prisoner, the pair were sent back to The Hague at their mother’s request. In 1646, John Philip killed a French exile and refused to answer for his actions in front of a Dutch court. it was said that Jacques de l’Epinay had boasted of a romantic liaison with John Phillip’s older sister, Louise, and also with Elizabeth of Bohemia. He chose to become a mercenary, in the service of the Duke of Lorraine. he was killed in 1650 at the Battle of Rethel.

Charlotte was born in 1628 and died at the beginning of January 1631.

Sophia married Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover. Her son George became George I of Great Britain after her death. From 1701 onwards she was heiress to the throne under the Act of Settlement. Charles II courted her but she thought he was after her mother’s political support.

Gustavus Adolphus was born in 1632. He was Elizabeth and Frederick’s last child. Frederick died the same year. Gustavus died in 1641 when he was 8-years-old.