Dorothea of Denmark, Electress Palatine
| Dorothea of Denmark | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Michiel Coxcie, 1545
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| Electress Palatine | |
| Tenure | 1544–1556 |
| Born |
10 November 1520 Copenhagen |
| Died | 31 May 1580 (aged 59) Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz |
| Burial | Holy Ghost Church in Heidelberg |
| Spouse | Frederick II of the Palatinate |
| House | Oldenburg |
| Father | Christian II of Denmark |
| Mother | Isabella of Burgundy |
Dorothea of Denmark and Norway (10 November 1520 – 31 May 1580) was a Danish, Norwegian and Swedish princess and an electress of the Palatinate as the wife of Elector Frederick II of the Palatinate. She was a claimant to the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish thrones and titular monarch in 1559-1561.
Princess Dorothea was born on 10 November 1520 to King Christian II of Denmark and Norway and Isabella of Burgundy, sister of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Dorothea had an elder brother, Johann "Hans", born 21 February 1518. Her elder twin brothers, Philip Ferdinand and Maximilian, born 4 July 1519, had both died before her birth, the latter in 1519 and the former in 1520. Her sister Christina was born two years later, in 1522, and was her only sibling to reach adulthood. Christina would marry twice, first to Francis II, Duke of Milan, and secondly to Francis I, Duke of Lorraine.
On 20 January 1523, disloyal nobles forced her father to abdicate and offered the throne to his uncle, Duke Frederick of Holstein. That month, her mother gave birth to a stillborn son. Three-year-old Dorothea and her sister and brother followed their exiled parents to Veere in Zeeland, the Netherlands, and were taken care of by the Dutch regents, their grandaunt and aunt, Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. Her mother died when she was five years old, on 19 January 1526. The Dutch court was an officially Catholic environment, but influenced with a sympathy for Protestantism, and Dorothea herself acquired Protestant sympathies early on.
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