Elector Ruprecht III (ruled 1398-1410)
In 1400 Elector Ruprecht III became the first German king and called himself Ruprecht I von der Pfalz. He built the oldest still recognizable residential building of Heidelberg Palace, the "Ruprechtsbau" (Ruprecht Building). Under his rule the erection of the "Heiliggeistkirche" (Church of the Holy Ghost) in the town was also begun. Ruprecht III is also responsible for founding the university. At the time of his death in 1410, the Palatinate was divided up between his 4 sons.
Elector Otto Heinrich (ruled 1556-1559)
Elector Otto Heinrich ruled for only three years, however he is among the most important electors. He introduced the Reformation in his principality. Otto Heinrich had a Palace of great artistic importance, the "Ottheinrichsbau" (Ottheinrich Building) erected. It is an excellent example of German Renaissance architecture.
Friedrich IV (ruled 1592-1610)
Elector Friedrich IV, the founder of the city of Mannheim, added another palace with the proportions of the "Ottheinrichsbau" - the so-called "Friedrichsbau" (Friedrich Building). It was intended to house the church, the electoral suite of rooms and the gate structure. The courtyard facade of this building is adorned with sixteen ornate statues of princes.
Friedrich V (ruled 1610-1632)
Under Friedrich V Heidelberg experienced its greatest splendor. The climax of his life was his election to King of Bohemia in 1619. The troops of the "Winter King" were defeated by the imperial forces in 1620, and in 1622 Heidelberg was occupied and destroyed, sealing the fate of the magnificent court. With the "Prager Ereignisse" (Prague Events), the Thirty Years' War broke out.
Following his flight to The Hague, Friedrich was put under the ban of the Empire, the Bavarian Wittelsbach family became the Palatinate electors and the Palatinate was invaded.
The buildings ("Englischer Bau", "Elisabethentor") and gardens (Hortus Palatinus) of Friedrich V were among the most original built at that time in a German princely court.
Elisabeth Stuart (1596-1662)
The daughter of Jacob I, King of Scotland (from 1603 also King of England), and the granddaughter of Maria Stuart was a descendant of the European higher nobility and was christened with the name of the English Queen Elisabeth I. She was instructed in all subjects of courtly education of that age and married Palgrave Friedrich V on 14 February 1613. The couple was considered the "perfect couple" of that time. In 1619 she became Queen of Bohemia. She fled together with her husband in 1620 after the battle against the Catholic League was lost.
Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz (1652-1721)
Liselotte von der Pfalz was born the granddaughter of Friedrich V at Heidelberg Palace. She spent part of her childhood with her Aunt Sophie in Hanover and accompanied her father, Karl Ludwig, on many journeys through the Palatinate. At 19 she was married for political reasons and against her will to the brother of the French King and had to relinquish all hereditary claims to the Palatinate. When her brother Karl died childless in 1685, Louis XIV raised hereditary claim to the Palatinate and invaded it.
Liselotte spent 50 years at the court of the Sun King (Louis XIV) and wrote approx. 60,000 letters there in which she painted a humorous but critical picture of the customs and manners of her era. She met nearly all of Europe's influential princes and personages in Versailles.
Up until her death in 1722 she never returned to her Palatinate home.