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 FREDERICK III. (1515–1576), called “the Pious,” elector palatine of the Rhine, eldest son of John II., count palatine of Simmern, was born at Simmern on the 14th of February 1515. In 1537 he married Maria (d. 1567), daughter of Casimir, prince of Bayreuth, and in 1546, mainly as a result of this union, adopted the reformed doctrines, which had already made considerable progress in the Palatinate. He lived in comparative obscurity and poverty until 1557, when he became count palatine of Simmern by his father’s death, succeeding his kinsman, Otto Henry (1502–1559), as elector palatine two years later. Although inclined to the views of Calvin rather than to those of Luther, the new elector showed great anxiety to unite the Protestants; but when these efforts failed, and the breach between the followers of the two reformers became wider, he definitely adopted Calvinism. This form of faith was quickly established in the Palatinate; in its interests the “Heidelberg Catechism” was drawn up in 1563; and Catholics and Lutherans were persecuted alike, while the churches were denuded of all their ornaments. The Lutheran princes wished to root out Calvinism in the Palatinate, but were not willing to exclude the elector from the benefits of the religious peace of Augsburg, which were confined to the adherents of the confession of Augsburg, and the matter came before the diet in 1566. Boldly defending his position, Frederick refused to give way an inch, and as the Lutherans were unwilling to proceed to extremities the emperor Maximilian II. could only warn him to mend his ways. The elector was an ardent supporter of the Protestants abroad, whom, rather than the German Lutherans, he regarded as his co-religionists. He aided the Huguenots in France and the insurgents in the Netherlands with men and money; one of his sons, John Casimir (1543–1592), took a prominent part in the French wars of religion, while another, Christopher, was killed in 1574 fighting for the Dutch at Mooker Heath. In his later years Frederick failed in his efforts to prevent the election of a member of the Habsburg family as Roman king, to secure the abrogation of the “ecclesiastical reservation” clause in the peace of Augsburg, or to obtain security for Protestants in the territories of the spiritual princes. He was assiduous in caring for the material, moral and educational welfare of his electorate, and was a benefactor to the university of Heidelberg. The elector died at Heidelberg on the 26th of October 1576, and was succeeded by his elder surviving son, Louis (1539–1583), who had offended his father by adopting Lutheranism.

See A. Kluckhohn, Friedrich der Fromme (Nördlingen, 1877–1879); and Briefe Friedrichs des Frommen, edited by Kluckhohn (Brunswick, 1868–1872).

FREDERICK IV. (1574–1610), elector palatine of the Rhine, only surviving son of the elector Louis VI., was born at Amberg on the 5th of March 1574. His father died in October 1583, when the young elector came under the guardianship of his uncle John Casimir, an ardent Calvinist, who, in spite of the wishes of the late elector, a Lutheran, had his nephew educated in his own form of faith. In January 1592, on the death of John Casimir, Frederick undertook the government of the Palatinate, and continued the policy of his uncle, hostility to the Catholic Church and the Habsburgs, and co-operation with foreign Protestants. He was often in communication with Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France, and like him was unremitting in his efforts to conclude a league among the German Protestants, while he sought to weaken the Habsburgs by refusing aid for the Turkish War. After many delays and disappointments the Union of Evangelical Estates was actually formed in May 1608, under the leadership of the elector, and he took a prominent part in directing the operations of the union until his death, which occurred on the 19th of September 1610. Frederick was very extravagant, and liked to surround himself with pomp and luxury. He married in 1593 Louise, daughter of William the Silent, prince of Orange, and was succeeded by Frederick, the elder of his two sons.

See M. Ritter, Geschichte der deutschen Union (Schaffhausen, 1867–1873); and L. Häusser, Geschichte der rheinischen Pfalz (Heidelberg, 1856).

FREDERICK V. (1596–1632), elector palatine of the Rhine and king of Bohemia, son of the elector Frederick IV. by his wife, Louisa Juliana, daughter of William the Silent, prince of Orange, was born at Amberg on the 26th of August 1596. He became elector on his father’s death in September 1610, and was under the guardianship of his kinsman, John II., count palatine of Zweibrücken (d. 1635), until he was declared of age in July 1614. Having received a good education, Frederick had married Elizabeth, daughter of the English king James I., in February 1613, and was the recognized head of the Evangelical Union founded by his father to protect the interests of the Protestants. In 1619 he stepped into a larger arena. Before this date the estates of Bohemia, Protestant in sympathy and dissatisfied with the rule of the Habsburgs, had been in frequent communication with the elector palatine, and in August 1619, a few months after the death of the emperor Matthias, they declared his successor, Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand II., deposed, and chose Frederick as their king. After some hesitation the elector yielded to the entreaties of Christian I., prince of Anhalt (1568–1630), and other sanguine supporters, and was crowned king of Bohemia at Prague on the 4th of November 1619. By this time the emperor Ferdinand was able to take the aggressive, while Frederick, disappointed at receiving no assistance either from England or from the Union, had few soldiers and little money. Consequently on the 8th of November, four days after his coronation, his forces were easily routed by the imperial army under Tilly at the White Hill, near Prague, and his short reign in Bohemia ended abruptly. Soon afterwards the Palatinate was overrun by the Spaniards and Bavarians, and after a futile attempt to dislodge them, Frederick, called in derision the “Winter King,” sought refuge in the Netherlands. Having been placed under the imperial ban his electorate was given in 1623 to Maximilian I. of Bavaria, who also received the electoral dignity.

The remainder of Frederick’s life was spent in comparative obscurity, although his restoration was a constant subject of discussion among European diplomatists. He died at Mainz on the 29th of November 1632, having had a large family, among his children being Charles Louis (1617–1680), who regained the Palatinate at the peace of Westphalia in 1648, and Sophia, who married Ernest Augustus, afterwards elector of Hanover, and was the mother of George I., king of Great Britain. His third son was Prince Rupert, the hero of the English civil war, and another son was Prince Maurice (1620–1652), who also assisted his uncle Charles I. during the civil war. Having sailed with Rupert to the West Indies, Maurice was lost at sea in September 1652.

In addition to the numerous works which treat of the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War see A. Gindely, Friedrich V. von der Pfalz (Prague, 1884); J. Krebs, Die Politik der evangelischen Union im Jahre 1618 (Breslau, 1890–1901); M. Ritter, “Friedrich V.,” in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, Band vii. (Leipzig, 1878); and Deutsche Lieder auf den Winterkönig, edited by R. Wolkan (Prague, 1899).

FREDERICK I. (1369–1428), surnamed “the Warlike,” elector and duke of Saxony, was the eldest son of Frederick “the Stern,” count of Osterland, and Catherine, daughter and heiress of Henry VIII., count of Coburg. He was born at Altenburg on the 29th of March 1369, and was a member of the family of Wettin. When his father died in 1381 some trouble arose over the family possessions, and in the following year an arrangement was made by which Frederick and his brothers shared Meissen and Thuringia with their uncles Balthasar and William. Frederick’s brother George died in 1402, and his uncle William in 1407. A further dispute then arose, but in 1410 a treaty was made at Naumburg, when Frederick and his brother William added the northern part of Meissen to their lands; and in 1425 the death of William left Frederick sole ruler. In the German town war of 1388 he assisted Frederick V. of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, and in 1391 did the same for the Teutonic Order against Ladislaus V., king of Poland and prince of Lithuania. He supported Rupert III., elector palatine of the Rhine, in his struggle with King Wenceslaus for the German