Born in Scotland, raised in England, destined for Germany but, after a failed venture in Bohemia, she spent the rest of her life in The Netherlands.
As a 17-year-old she was married to the Elector Palatine who was regarded as a suitable Protestant Prince. Theirs may have been an arranged marriage but it proved to be a love match. Yet, as successful as was their private life, their public life became a disaster.
In 1618 her husband, Friedrich V, was invited to become King of Bohemia and, in 1619, they went to Prague to become King and Queen. However, these Protestants were not tolerated by the Catholic Habsburgs and, after only one winter as King and Queen, they were defeated by the Catholic forces and had to flee. They were not allowed to return to the Palatinate, which was savaged by the Imperial forces, so they fled to The Netherlands.
It was in exile that Friedrich V died at only 36 years of age. Elizabeth had to pawn her jewels and, even though there was no money at times, the tradesmen continued their deliveries. One supporter was William, Lord Craven, who had placed his immense fortune at the disposal of the Palatine family; however, her youngest daughter, Sophie, teased him mercilessly.
By being exiled from the Palatinate, her family soon became dispersed. In 1645 her son Eduard went to Paris, became a Catholic, and married the eight-years-older Anna Gonzaga. Having threatened to strangle any of her children who would become a Catholic, she forgave Eduard surprisingly quickly; perhaps Elizabeth, too, had succumbed to Anna Gonzaga's charms.
Her son Philipp was the next to cause concern; taking offense at the attention paid to his mother by the Marquis d'Epinay, he stabbed the Marquis to death and Philipp was forced to leave the country.
Elizabeth took so much offense towards her son Philipp that when her daughter, Elisabeth, tried to restore peace in the family, she too had to leave The Netherlands.
At last, in 1648, the Palatinate was restored to the rightful Elector, her eldest son, Karl Ludwig. It was her nephew, Charles, Prince of Wales and recently escaped from England, who came to
congratulate her and as well caused a stir amongst her daughters, for it had been hoped that Charles might marry her youngest daughter, Sophie.
The news of the restoration of her family may have been good news, but the execution of her brother Charles I in January 1649 caused horrified consternation. The restoration of the family's fortune had come too late for Elizabeth's daughters, Elisabeth and Louise Hollandine, as both were now past marriageble age. Her daughter, Henriette, already twenty-five years old, did marry but died soon after her marriage to Prince Rakoczi. Shortly after her death, the errant Philipp was killed in the battle at Rethel.
The restauration did not improve the financial predicament of "The Winter Queen". She failed when she begged her eldest son for money to retrieve her jewelry from the money lenders. Occasionally she would discuss her return to Heidelberg but claimed that she first had to settle her debts.
In 1652 her son, Moritz, was lost at sea, probably taken by pirates after a hurricane off Anguilla. Reputedly he was sold on either the slave-market of Algiers or to a sugar plantation on Barbados. Whatever may have happened to him, Moritz was never heard off again.
After the restoration of her nephew, the English King Charles II, she set out to visit him in London, not to wait for an invitation sure enough of her welcome. And there she died on 14 February 1662
 

Source: Leo van de Pas.