Ludwig Camerarius

Ludwig Camerarius (22 January 1573, in Nuremberg – 4 October 1651, probably in Heidelberg) was a German statesman, lawyer, minister and head of Frederick V's government-in-exile in The Hague.

The Collectio Camerariana collection of letters (now held in the Staatsbibliothek München) includes his correspondence from 1621 as well as several letters from Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Jakob Micyllus, Desiderius Erasmus and the poet Georg Fabricius, mostly written to his grandfather Joachim—these form an important source for the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.

He is thought to be the originator of the plan to put up Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria as an opponent to Ferdinand II at the 1619 imperial election.

After Frederick's fall in November 1620, Camerarius followed him into exile in the Netherlands and wrote pamphlets and books attempting to refute the Palatinate's causing the Thirty Years' War.

Especially after his appointment as head of Frederick's government-in-exile, Camerarius was convinced that Protestantism's main priority was to lead a Europe-wide war against the Habsburgs and the Catholic League.