Charles II, Count of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Charles II, Count of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (German: Karl II, Graf von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen) (1547 – 8 April 1606) became Count of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1576 and remained so until his death. He was the fifth but second surviving son of Charles I, Count of Hohenzollern and Anna, daughter of Ernest, Margrave of Baden-Durlach.

Initially, he was educated in Vienna, and later in Freiburg im Breisgau jointly with his older brother Eitel Friedrich. Later, he assisted to the Aulic Council in Vienna, where his father served as president; there, he gained the trust and friendship of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria (son of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I) and went into his service to Tyrol, being able to established good connections with the Holy Roman Empire, which was seen in 1570 when he was appointed Supreme Captain and Governor in Alsace. Two years later, Charles II took over the guardianship of Count Jakob of Geroldseck.

Under the rule of his father Charles I the possessions of the county of Zollern (who in the narrow sense where the districts of Sigmaringen, Böhringen, Haigerloch and Wehrstein) was still united. The three oldest sons were entitled to jointly inherit, but in 1576 they decided to contract a pact of inheritance, where they received each of them an economically equivalent part of the County, founding the three lines of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Hohenzollern-Haigerloch, and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

Charles II received the district of Sigmaringen with the monasteries of Hedingen and Inzigkofen and the County of Veringen. However, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen had high inheritance taxes to paid to the Holy Roman Empire. A judgment of the Reichskammergericht in 1588 stated that the County of Sigmaringen was an imperial fief. However, this assessment was until 1806 called into question.

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