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The Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken (German: Herzogtum Pfalz-Zweibrücken; French: Duché de Palatinat-Deux-Ponts or Comté palatin de Deux-Ponts) was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire with full voting rights to the Reichstag. Its capital was Zweibrücken. The reigning house, a branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was also the Royal House of Sweden from 1654 to 1720.
Palatine Zweibrücken was established as a separate principality in 1459, when Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken divided his territory, Palatinate-Simmern and Zweibrücken, between his two sons. The younger son, Louis I, received the County of Zweibrücken and the County of Veldenz.
Palatine Zweibrücken ceased to exist in 1797 when it was annexed by France. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, some parts of it were returned to the last Duke, King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, who joined them with other former territories on the left bank of the Rhine to form the Rheinkreis, later the Rhenish Palatinate.
The County Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken had been created in 1410 for Stephen, the third surviving son of prince-elector King Rupert. In 1444, Stephen inherited the County of Veldenz from his father-in-law, Frederick III, Count of Veldenz. In 1444, Stephen decided to divide his possessions between his sons, Frederick I and Louis I. When Stephen abdicated in 1453, the elder son Frederick I received the County of Sponheim and the northern half of the County Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken. The younger son, Louis I, received the County of Veldenz from his grandfather's inheritance and the southern half of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Simmern, which included the former County of Zweibrücken, acquired by the Palatinate in 1385. Among Stephen's titles were Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke in Bavaria. Both sons inherited the right to use these titles, which is why the two newly formed principalities of Palatine-Simmern and Palatine-Zweibrücken were usually described as Counties Palatine.
When Palatine Zweibrücken was created in 1444, it consisted of the districts of Armsheim, Landsberg, Lauterecken, Burg Lichtenberg, Meisenheim and Veldenz from the County of Veldenz. In 1459, the districts Falkenburg Castle, Guttenberg, Haßloch, Kirkel, Lambsheim, Oggersheim, Wachenheim, Wegelnburg and Zweibrücken from Palatine Simmern were added.
An Amt was an administrative district; an Oberamt was a larger district, subdivided into Unterämter.
Guttenberg, Seltz and Hagenbach and Bischwiller were French fiefs, the others were German.
During the reign of Louis I, who conducted four unsuccessful feuds against his cousin Frederick I, Elector Palatine, the districts of Lambsheim, Wachenheim and Waldböckelheim were lost to the Electoral Palatinate. Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also in conflict with the Electoral Palatinate, appointed Louis I as his field marshal and recognized Palatine Zweibrücken as a duchy. Louis I stimulated mining and simplified the administration of the duchy.
Initially, Meisenheim was the capital. In 1477, the Electoral Palatinate threatened Meisenheim and the capital had to be moved to Zweibrücken, where it remained until 1793.
Alexander's Church (Alexanderskirche) is the oldest church in Zweibrücken, a late-Gothic Protestant hall church built from 1493 to 1514 as a gift from Alexander, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken after his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; descendant counts and dukes of the line are buried in its crypt.
After Louis' death, the duchy was not divided. His testament required dukes Alexander and Kaspar to rule the duchy jointly. However, Alexander declared his older brother mentally ill, locked him up and ruled the duchy alone. Alexander also waged war on the Electoral Palatinate; his troops looted the Palatinate during the Landshut War of Succession. In 1505, when the war ended with an imperial decision, some territory was transferred from the Electoral Palatinate to Palatine Zweibrücken. Alexander concluded an inheritance treaty with the new Elector Philip, which considerably improved relations between the two countries.
Alexander and Louis II introduced primogeniture, the rule that the whole of the principality would henceforth be inherited by the eldest son. Bischweiler was acquired in 1542, during the regency of Count Palatine Rupert of Veldenz. In 1544, the cadet branch of Palatine Veldenz split off. In 1553, the County of Lützelstein (now La Petite-Pierre in Alsace) was purchased from the Electoral Palatinate. Count Palatine Wolfgang dissolved the monasteries in his territory, thereby augmenting his revenues, and acquired the territory of the Disibodenberg Abbey. In 1557, he inherited Palatine Neuburg, half of the Hinder ("Further") County of Sponheim and half of the Lordship of Guttenberg from the Palatinate under the Treaty of Heidelberg; this more than doubled his territory. In 1558, he dissolved Hornbach Abbey and took its territory and half the County of Molsheim. In 1559, the Electoral line died out and Wolfgang inherited a share in the Further County of Sponheim. He used these large gains to give each of his five sons some territory: the independent Palatine Neuburg and Palatine Zweibrücken, which fell to John I's second son in 1569, and the non-sovereign collateral lines Palatine Sulzbach, Palatine Vohenstrauß-Parkstein and Palatine Birkenfeld.
During the Thirty Years' War, the duchy was occupied by imperial forces and Count Palatine John II of Zweibrücken had to flee to Metz. His son and successor Frederick returned in 1645. When Frederick died without a male heir in 1661, he was succeeded by his cousin Frederick Louis. During his reign, the land was occupied by France in 1676. Zweibrücken was a fief of the Bishopric of Metz, which had been annexed by France. In 1680, France, therefore, annexed Zweibrücken as well. In 1681, Frederick Louis died in exile, without male descendants.
The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick returned the duchy to its rightful owner, who was a cousin-once-removed of Frederick Louis, Count Palatine Charles II of Kleeburg, who was also king of Sweden as Charles XI.
The personal union with Sweden lasted until the death of Charles XII of Sweden in 1718. When Charles XII died without children, the Swedish crown was inherited by his sister Ulrika Eleonora, while Zweibrücken went to his cousin Gustav, Duke of Zweibrücken. Because of this, exiled Polish King Stanisław Leszczyński who had been named Count Palatine of Zweibrücken as a Prince exercising the head of state's authority on behalf of Charles XII in 1714 was forced to leave a year after his death in 1719.
From 1725 to 1778, the counts palatine resided in Zweibrücken Castle; they then moved to Karlsberg Castle near Homburg, to emphasize their claim to inherit the Duchy of Bavaria. Members of the ruling family were buried in the castle church in Meisenheim and later in the Alexander Church in Zweibrücken (badly damaged in World War II).
Gustav was the last Count Palatine of the Kleeburg line; when he died in 1731 without a male heir, the duchy was seized by the Empire. In 1734, the Emperor invested Count Palatine Christian III of Birkenfeld with Zweibrücken. Birkenfeld had been split off from Zweibrücken for a cadet line in 1584. His son Christian IV converted to Catholicism in 1758.
During Christian IV's reign, the fragmentation of the area was reduced by exchange of territories. For example, in 1768, Odernheim and half of Molsheim where transferred to the Electoral Palatinate, in exchange for Neuburg, the district of Hagenbach, district of Selz and Selz Abbey. In 1776, the "Hinder" County of Sponheim was divided between Zweibrücken and Baden, with Zweibrücken receiving Kastellaun, Traben-Trarbach with Starkenburg and Allenbach, and Baden receiving Birkenfeld, Frauenburg and Herrstein.
In 1793 the French First Republic occupied the Left Bank of the Rhine, including the territory of Zweibrücken. The French annexation of this territory was recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in a secret clause of the Treaty of Campo Formio signed on 17 October 1797. On 4 November 1797, the occupied territory was incorporated into the newly founded French département of Mont-Tonnerre, with its capital at Mainz. The 1799 extinction of the senior Wittelsbach branches made the last Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, Maximilian Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, as Maximilian IV Joseph, as well as Elector Palatine, as Maximilian II Joseph.
Christian IV Reign, Regiment Royal Deux-Ponts (Zweibrücken) French Expeditionary Regiments in the American Revolution.
Palatine Zweibrücken formally ceased to exist by the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801, which reaffirmed and recognised internationally the French acquisitions laid out in the Treaty of Campo Formio.
In 1806, Maximilian Joseph became King of Bavaria, as Maximilian I Joseph, and the role of Elector ceased to exist.
After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, some parts of the former County Palatine were returned to Maximilian Joseph, now King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, together with parts of the former Electorate and territories formerly owned by different families. Maximilian Joseph merged these left-bank territories to form the Rheinkreis, known after 1837 simply as Pfalz (Palatinate) and sometimes called Rheinpfalz (Rhenish Palatinate). This area largely corresponds with the modern Palatinate region and Saarpfalz-Kreis.
In the duchy, there was no authority that would have limited the power of the Duke. Even the urban population were legally serfs until that status was repealed by John I on 21 April 1571 (although the situation in the city of Zweibrücken had already been somewhat eased by decrees from the years 1352 and 1483). Young men were required to serve six years in the militia.
The highest administrative body was the cabinet; in whose meetings the Duke participated. The treasury was responsible for finance, mining and forestry. There was no separation between the judiciary and the administration. Justice was meted out by officials with the rank of Schultheiß. The highest court in the land was the Court of Appeals in Zweibrücken; its traditions are continued today by Zweibrücken's Oberlandesgericht. After 1774, appeals from the court in Zweibrücken to the Reichskammergericht were no longer possible. In the Alsatian parts of the country, however, appeals to the Conseil souverain d’Alsace in Colmar were possible from about 1680. Important statutes were the Court Judicial Order of 1605, the Lower Court Order of 1657, and later the Criminal Procedure of 1724, and Marriage and Guardianship Regulations. In areas where no state law was available, imperial law applied.
Administratively, the country was divided into eight districts: Zweibrücken, Homburg, Lichtenberg, Meisenheim, Trarbach, Kastellaun, Bergzabern and Guttenberg.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Palatine Zweibrücken”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.