John II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken
Johann II von Pfalz -Zweibrücken, called the Younger ( born March 26, 1584 Bergzabern; † August 9, 1635 in Metz ) was from 1604 until his death, Duke of Palatinate -Zweibrücken. He came from the younger branch of Zweibrücken.
Life
John was the eldest surviving son of the Duke and Count Palatine Johann I of Zweibrücken (1550-1604) from his marriage to Magdalena (1553-1633), daughter of Duke William of Jülich -Cleves -Berg. Johann was educated among others by Theodor Esich and William of Botzheim. Between 1600 and 1604, Johann was on his Grand Tour, which took him to France, among others.
After the death of his father in 1604 Johann told his brothers the country. Johann kept Zweibrücken, his younger brother Friedrich Kasimir received the castle and town of Landsberg, the youngest brother John Casimir Neucastel and Kleeburg. 1609 fell by feudal law Tiefthal and the rule Bischweiler in Alsace to Johann, who joined in the same year with his duchy of the Protestant Union. In Jülich- Kleve Succession dispute he failed in his attempt to make his mother Magdalena the female succession claim entitlement to the duchies of Jülich- Kleve -Berg of Palatinate -Zweibrücken.
As an ambassador of the Protestant Elector Johann went to the assassination of King Henry IV to France.
From 1610 to 1614 Johann II was guardian of young Elector Frederick of the Palatinate, in this function briefly after the death of Emperor Rudolf II in 1612 also imperial vicar of the Holy Roman Empire. To emphasize this, he left the Palatinate - Zweibrücken mint coins with the imperial double-headed eagle. As guardian of the Palatine Elector Johann resided in Heidelberg, where he allowed himself to pay homage and asserted itself with the help of scholars Marquard Freher against his uncle Philip Louis of Neuburg, which this office had actually been granted. After the election of Frederick V of the Palatinate as king of Bohemia, Johann 1620 was again governor of the Palatinate, where he could hardly, however, gain influence more.
John II founded in Zweibrücken a French Reformed congregation. Endeavors during the Thirty Years War and the dissolution of the Union to neutrality, Johann lost not only rights and income, but in 1628 the monastery of Hornbach to the Emperor. 1634 he joined the Heilbronn covenant. On June 13, 1635 Johann had to flee from the Imperial troops of Count Gallas to Metz with his family while his duchy was devastated. He died shortly after his escape in Metz and his remains were transferred in 1646 after only two bridges where they were buried in the Alexander Church in Zweibrücken.
Marriages and descendants
John II was twice married. His first wife was born on August 28, 1604 in Blain in Brittany Catherine de Rohan ( 1578-1607 ), daughter of René II de Rohan, Vicomte de Rohan and Comte de Porhoët. Catherine was a sister of the Huguenot leader Henri II de Rohan. From this marriage he had one daughter:
- Magdalena Katharina (1607-1648)
His second wife was on May 4, 1612 Heidelberg Luise Juliane ( 1594-1640 ), daughter of the Elector Frederick IV of the Palatinate, with whom he had seven children:
- Juliane Elisabeth Louise (1613-1667), Abbess in Herford
- Catherine Charlotte (1615-1651)
- Friedrich (1616-1661), Duke and Count Palatine of Zweibrücken
- Anna Sibylle (1617-1641)
- Johann Ludwig (1619-1647)
- Juliane Magdalene (1621-1672)
- Marie Amalie (1622-1641)