The daughter of James I, Elizabeth Stuart married Frederick V, Elector Palatine, in 1613 and took up residence at Heidelberg Castle, where a magnificent garden was created for her. In 1619 Frederick was offered the throne of Bohemia, where the couple reigned until their defeat at the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620. The brevity of their reign earned them the nicknames 'Winter King' and 'Winter Queen'. The couple spent their remaining years in exile in the Dutch Republic, though Queen Elizabeth returned to England for the last year of her life. The Hanoverian claim to the throne (and that of all subsequent British monarchs) derives from the Act of Settlement of 1701, which named the Electress Sophia of Hanover (1630-1714), Elizabeth of Bohemia's youngest daughter, as the most direct Protestant heir to the throne.

This is the portrait of a tragic heroine, who lost her kingdom in 1620 and her husband in 1632 (which is why she wears a black bow on her left arm in this portrait of c. 1635). It was commissioned by a devoted admirer, Sir Henry Wotton, who wrote of the ‘Winter Queen’ words which are inscribed on the canvas: ‘though you were born within the chance, yet without the power of fortune’ (intra Fortunae sortem extra imperium). The idea is one frequently expressed in the fashionable Neo-Stoic philosophy of the day: that a virtuous mind can experience reversals of fortune with equanimity.

The portrait was painted while the sitter was living in exile in Rhenen in Holland.