Frederick V, was king of Bohemia from late 1619 through early 1620. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand was deposed by the Diet of Bohemia because the Diet was Protestant, whereas Ferdinand was a Roman Catholic. In his place, Fredrick V was asked to take the throne.

Minister Christian of Anhalt persuaded Frederick to accept, but he found little support. His father-in-law, James I of England along with various other European monarchs, refused to acknowledge Frederick as Emperor. Within a few months, his supporters were defeated at White Mountain. Frederick wound up losing Bohemia, and his short reign gave him the nickname of "the Winter King". He was put under imperial ban and was stripped of all his remaining territories. In place of Frederick, rule passed to Maximilian I of Bavaria. These political changes were the first events to trigger the Thirty Years' War.

Frederick's descendants wound up to be better monarchs than Frederick himself. His daughter Sophia was the mother of England's George I, thus starting the Hanoverian line of kings.