Distant relations: The Palatine family, propaganda and print in early Stuart Britain

The marriage of Elizabeth Stuart to Frederick V, Elector Palatine, in February 1613, offered a lavish counter-attraction to the solemn mourning which had accompanied the death of her brother, Henry, Prince of Wales, just a few months before. Amidst dynastic rupture, the match fortuitously shifted focus onto the future of the line, rather than its recent loss. Indeed, following the birth of Prince Frederick Henry in 1614, and for the next sixteen years, until the birth of a healthy son to King Charles I and his consort, Queen Henrietta Maria, the ever-growing Palatine brood represented the next stage in the Stuart succession. Separated by distance from their potential subjects, it was important that the electoral couple continued to cultivate ties with the British people and, as their family grew, a familiarity with the prospective royal line was encouraged.

A steady stream of printed images was enlisted in this campaign, designed to introduce the public back home to the Palatine family. Tracing the development of their visual portrayal in line with the shifting fortunes of the royal couple and their children, this article explores how these representations sought to naturalise a foreign royal family, forging cross-European dynastic loyalties. Whether portrayed as lineal standby or even alternative, images of Elizabeth’s family might endorse or, indeed, complicate dynastic rhetorics. As I shall argue, the affective bonds encouraged in word and image actually risked splitting Stuart allegiances.