John II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken


John II the Younger was the Duke of Zweibrücken from 1604 until 1635.

Life

John was born in Bergzabern in 1584 as the eldest son of John I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken and his wife, Magdalene of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. He succeeded his father in 1604 and in 1606 he took back possession of the lordship of Bischweiler in Alsace for the House of Wittelsbach from a vassal, Flach von Schwanzenberg. In 1611 he executed his late father's dispositions in favour of his younger brothers, Friedrich Casimir and Johann Casimir, giving them, respectively, the appanages of Landsberg and Neukastell, retaining for his own realm most of Zweibrücken.
From 1610 until 1612 he was the guardian of Frederick V, Elector Palatine. In this function he was briefly the deputy of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II in 1612, and he minted coins with the Imperial two-headed eagle on reverse.
His first wife having died in 1607, he remarried a cousin, daughter of the Elector Palatine at Heidelberg in May and two months later purchased the estate of Birlenbach, which included dependent manors from Eberhard, Count of Ribeaupierre.
John died in 1635 in Metz and was buried in the Alexander Church in Zweibrücken.

Family and children

John married Catherine de Rohan, daughter of René II, Viscount of Rohan on 26 August 1604 and had the following daughter:
  1. Magdalena Catherine, married to Christian I, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler
John married Louise Juliana, daughter of Frederick IV, Elector Palatine, on 13 May 1612 and had the following children:
  1. Elizabeth Louise Juliana, Abbess of Herford
  2. Catherine Elizabeth Charlotte, married to Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg
  3. Frederick
  4. Anne Sybille
  5. John Louis
  6. Juliana Magdalena, married to Frederick Louis, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken
  7. Maria Amalie

    Ancestors