Christian I.

Christian I of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler was born on September 3, 1598, in Birkenfeld, and died on September 6, 1654, in Neuenstein. From 1630, he was Count Palatine of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler. He belonged to the House of Wittelsbach and, through his descendants, became an important figure in the later dynastic development of Bavaria. Christian was the youngest son of Count Palatine and Duke Charles I of Palatinate-Birkenfeld and his wife Dorothea, a daughter of Duke William V of Brunswick-Lüneburg. When his father died in 1600, Christian was still an infant. His aunt, Countess Maria Elisabeth of Leiningen, initially took charge of his upbringing. Later, his uncle, Duke Philip William of Palatinate-Neuburg, oversaw the education and care of the young prince. Christian played his most important political and military role during the Thirty Years’ War. He fought with distinction and entered Swedish service, where he rose to become a general of cavalry. In 1632, he recruited an army in Baden-Durlach and joined it with the forces of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus at Würzburg. The following year, Christian advanced into the Electorate of Cologne. During these campaigns, he besieged Heidelberg, Philippsburg, Haguenau, and Breisach. At the beginning of 1634, Christian supported the Swedish field marshal Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar in the struggle for Regensburg. To facilitate Bernhard’s operations, he occupied several towns in the Upper Palatinate, including Sulzbach, Vilseck, Auerbach, and Hirschau. After the Battle of Nördlingen in September 1634, a severe defeat for the Swedish-Protestant side, Christian ended his military service. He subsequently reconciled with the emperor and turned more fully to his dynastic and territorial responsibilities. His first marriage brought a decisive change in his life. Through his marriage to Magdalena Catherine of Zweibrücken, Christian acquired the lordship of Bischweiler in 1630. There he had a castle built, which became his residence from 1640 onward. Through his rule, he founded the line of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler. This line later gained great importance, as the Bavarian royal house descended from it. In 1644, Christian’s children received French indigenate from King Louis XIV, recognizing their legal affiliation with the French nobility and state. After the end of the Thirty Years’ War, Christian worked to rebuild his territories, which had been severely affected by the long conflict. His activities were therefore shaped not only by military campaigns and dynastic alliances, but also by the task of restoring living conditions and strengthening governmental structures in his domains. Christian was buried in the Reformed parish church of Bischwiller near Haguenau. Alongside his political and military activities, Christian belonged to the Fruitbearing Society, an important linguistic and literary association of the seventeenth century. He used the society name “Der Schnäbelnde” and held membership number 205. Christian married twice. He concluded his first marriage on November 14, 1630, in Zweibrücken, to Magdalena Catherine, daughter of Count Palatine and Duke John II of Zweibrücken. The couple had several children. Some of their sons, including a son born in 1631 as well as Gustavus Adolphus and John Christian, died in infancy or childhood. Their daughter Dorothea Catherine married Count John Louis of Nassau-Ottweiler in 1649. Louise Sophie lived from 1635 to 1691. Their son Christian II, born in 1637, later became Count Palatine of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler-Rappoltstein. In 1667, he married Countess Catherine Agatha of Rappoltstein. John Charles, Christian’s son born in 1638, became Count Palatine of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen. He was first married to Princess and Countess Palatine Sophie Amalie of Zweibrücken and entered a second marriage with Esther Marie of Witzleben in 1696. The youngest daughter, Anna Magdalena, married Count John Reinhard II of Hanau-Lichtenberg in 1659. After the death of his first wife in 1648, Christian married Countess Maria Johanna of Helfenstein-Wiesensteig in Bischweiler. She was the widow of the last Landgrave of Leuchtenberg. This second marriage remained childless. Christian’s lasting importance lies in the development of his family. Through his son Christian, he became the ancestor of the later Bavarian kings, and through his son John Charles, the ancestor of the dukes in Bavaria. From 1799 onward, only these two Wittelsbach lines remained. According to tradition, all Wittelsbachs living today descend from Christian I.