Louise Hollandine (1622–1709), granddaughter to Britain's King James I (1566–1625) and “scion of the most staunchly Protestant branch of the Stuart dynasty” was born in The Hague. It was in this city that her parents, Frederick V, Elector Palatine and short-lived King of Bohemia (1596–1632) and Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), dwelt in exile following their flight from Prague in 1620. When Louise Hollandine is now remembered at all, it is usually for her intrepid social and religious transformation in the late 1650s from Protestant princess to runaway Catholic nun and eventual Abbess of Maubuisson in Paris. Yet she was also an artist, as we are reminded by a youthful self-portrait in which the princess meaningfully presents herself with a mahlstick in hand (Figure 5.1). Having received her childhood education primarily at her family's Prinsenhof, or nursery palace, in Leiden, Louise Hollandine is reputed to have begun drawing lessons at the age of six. Later, along with a number of her many siblings, she advanced her studies under the tutelage of Gerard van Honthorst (1590–1656). As the Memoirs of her younger sister Sophia of Hanover (1630–1714) detail, Louise Hollandine “completely devoted herself to painting” in her youth, and “so great was her talent that she could capture peoples’ likeness without them having to sit for her.” What is more, as a second self-portrait indicates, she continued these artistic pursuits even after taking the veil (Figure 5.2).