A forgotten Fife-born princess who lived a life of exile has been honoured.
Elizabeth Stuart, eldest daughter of King James VI and I and grand-daughter of Mary Queen of Scots, lived for 40 years in The Hague and became a figurehead for thousands of Scottish mercenaries based in the Netherlands.
The god-daughter of Queen Elizabeth I was born in 1596 in either Falkland or Dunfermline Palace and is regarded as the little-known link between the Stuart and Hanoverian thrones thanks to her marriage to Elector Palatine Frederick V.
History has largely overlooked her but her memory has been resurrected by Edinburgh-based Fusion Whisky, which has come up with a blend of Scotch and Dutch single malt called Winter Queen.
The eldest daughter of James VI and I and Queen Anne of Denmark was caught up in the web of intrigue during the infamous Gunpowder Plot when she was still a child.
She married at 16 and the couple moved to Bohemia, where they reigned for just a year before being besieged and forced to flee to Prague, earning them the moniker, the Winter King and Queen.
Elizabeth spent the next four decades living in the Hague campaigning for her lost lands and establishing a royal court that became and artistic and diplomatic hub whose influence extended across Europe.
Dr Nadine Akkerman of Leiden University, a leading authority on Elizabeth Stuart, said: “More politically cunning than her grandmother, Mary Queen of Scots, and more belligerent than her godmother, Elizabeth I, she never relinquished the title Queen of Bohemia, even though she spent upwards of 40 years in exile in The Hague after but a year in Prague.”
Dr Akkerman said the thousands of letters Elizabeth wrote to statesmen and stateswomen, generals, lieutenants, ambassadors and other diplomats showed the complex, witty and influential character of Elizabeth.
She added: “During her years in exile, she changed court culture in the Netherlands and was matriarch to a family that included artists, warriors, natural philosopers and one queen mother.”
The Winter Queen is the third character-led blend of international whisky launched by Fusion Whisky.
Company director Graham Langley said: “Our Winter Queen whisky serves to honour this forgotten Scottish princess and to bring greater awareness to her remarkable life and influence.”
