circle of Michiel Jansz van Miereveld: Portrait of Frederick Henry of the Palatinate (1629)

(Private Collection)

A Portrait by an unknown Dutch artist. The boy on this painting is Frederick Henry of the Palatinate, son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine (also known as the Winter King). Frederick V was Elector Palatine but when in 1618 the protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Frederick V was asked by the rebels to join their cause. Frederick accepted and was crowned  King of Bohemia on 26 August 1619. The Bohemian rebellion however was quickly crushed by the imperial Habsburg army of Ferdinand II with the devastating defeat of the rebels at the Battle of White Mountain (8 November 1620). Frederick V quickly fled after this defeat with his wife and child and he ended up in the prostestant Netherlands (a safe haven for him as Frederick V was a nephew of the Dutch prince Maurice of Orange and prince Frederick Henry of Orange). On 17 January 1629 Frederick V suffered a personal tragedy. During his trip to Amsterdam to see the Spanish treasure captured by the Dutch West India Company his boat boat capsized while crossing the Haarlemmermeer and his eldest son Frederick Henry of the Palatinate drowned. Frederick V himself also serious physical injuries which took 15 months for him to recover. This painting of Frederick Henry of the Palatinate was made in 1629, the year of his death.