Daughters of the Winter Queen : Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots

Elizabeth Stuart's life was transformed when her father, James I, ascended to the throne of England. Her marriage to a German count fat below her rank was arranged with the understanding chat James would help her husband achieve the crown of Bohemia. Her father's terrible betrayal of this promise would, ruin "the Winter Queen," as Elisabeth would forever be known, and launch a war that would last thirty years. Forced into exile, the Winter Queen found refuge in Holland, where the glorious art and culture of the Dutch Golden Age formed the backdrop to her daughters' education. The eldest, scholarly Princess Elizabeth, counted the preeminent philosopher René Descartes as her closest friend. The lively Louise Hollandine was a gifted artist. Beautiful Henrietta Maria would marry into royalty, although at great cost. But it was the youngest, Sophia, a heroine in the tradition of a Jane Austen novel, who fulfilled the promise of her great-grandmother Mary, a legacy that endures to this day. Book jacket.