Count Palatine Wolfgang of Zweibrücken | |
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Count Palatine Wolfgang of Zweibrücken
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Spouse(s) | Anna of Hesse |
Issue
Countess Palatine Christine
Philipp Ludwig of Pfalz-Neuburg John I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken Countess Palatine Dorothea Agnes Countess Palatine Elisabeth Countess Palatine Anna Countess Palatine Elisabeth Otto Henry, Count Palatine of Sulzbach Frederick, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Vohenstrauss-Parkstein Barbara, Countess of Oettingen-Oettingen Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld Maria Elisabeth, Countess of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg Countess Palatine Susanna |
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Noble family | House of Wittelsbach |
Father | Louis II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken |
Mother | Elisabeth of Hesse |
Born |
Zweibrücken |
26 September 1526
Died | 11 June 1569 Nexon, Haute-Vienne |
(aged 42)
Buried | Meisenheim |
Count Palatine Wolfgang of Zweibrücken (German: Pfalzgraf Wolfgang von Zweibrücken; 26 September 1526 – 11 June 1569) was member of the Wittelsbach family of the Counts Palatine and Duke of Zweibrücken 1532–1559.
He was the only son of Louis II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken and his wife Elisabeth of Hesse, daughter of William I, Landgrave of Hesse. His father died in 1532, so the regency of Palatinate-Zweibrücken passed to Louis' younger brother Rupert until 1543. In 1557 Wolfgang received the territory of Palatinate-Neuburg in accordance with the Contract of Heidelberg. In 1548 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V occupied his Protestant territories and reintroduced Catholic practices. This imposition ended in 1552. The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 ended the religious conflict, and in 1557 several ecclesiastical states in Germany were secularised, a few of which Wolfgang obtained. In 1566 he served as a cavalry officer in the Turkish Wars.
In 1569 he came to the aid of French Huguenots with 14,000 mercenaries during the "Third War" of the French Wars of Religion (his intervention was financed by Queen Elizabeth I of England). He invaded Burgundy, but was killed in the conflict.