Christian I

 
-, 1568-1630

Fyrste af Anhalt, kommandør for protestanterne under Trediveårskrigen.

Christian of Anhalt, 1568–1630, prince of Anhalt (1603–30). He was a firm Calvinist and a skilled diplomat. As adviser to Frederick IV, Elector Palatine, he sought to build a strong Protestant alliance against the Catholic states and achieved limited success with the formation (1608) of the Protestant Union. Christian guided Frederick's son and successor, Frederick V, Elector Palatine (later to be known as the Winter King of Bohemia) and arranged his election (1619) to the Bohemian throne in place of the Roman Catholic king, Ferdinand II, also Holy Roman emperor. Supported by the Catholic League under Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, Ferdinand sent an army to subdue the Bohemian rebels. When military aid that Christian counted on was not forthcoming - partially because of the failure of James I of England to embrace and support the Protestant Union, although he was Frederick's father-in-law, having wed his daughter Elizabeth (Stuart, later to be known as the Winter Queen of Bohemia), to the young Elector Palatine - Christian was utterly defeated at the Battle of White Mountain, where he had been in command of Frederick's forces. He was put under the imperial ban, but was pardoned in 1624.