Charles II (german: Karl II.; 10 April 1651, in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
– 26 May 1685, in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
) was
Elector Palatine
The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...
from 1680 to 1685.
He was the son of
Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, and
Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel
Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (20 November 1627 – 26 March 1686), was a German princess of the House of Hesse-Kassel and by marriage Electress Palatine during 1650–1657 as the first wife of Charles I Louis, although the validity of the divorce wa ...
.
Rule
His short reign was not glamorous. He appointed his incompetent former tutor Paul Hachenberg as chief minister, leaving his half-siblings, the "Raugraves", out of favour. He brought back his mother from Kassel and paid her immense debts. Charles was of a weak and timid nature, marked by familial childhood experiences. He showed a superficial enthusiasm for military life. Charles was a strict
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
. In 1671, his aunt, Electress
Sophia of Hanover, arranged his marriage to
Princess Wilhelmine Ernestine of Denmark
Wilhelmine Ernestine of Denmark and Norway ( da, Vilhelmine Ernestine; 20 or 21 June 1650 – 22 or 23 April 1706) was an Electress of the Palatinate. She was the third of five daughters of King Frederick III of Denmark and Sophie Amalie of Bruns ...
, daughter of King
Frederick III of Denmark. Their marriage was childless.
Upon his death, the
Electoral Palatinate
The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...
passed to the Catholic
Neuburg branch of the family. The rival claims to the Palatinate of his sister,
Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans,
Louis XIV of France
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of ...
's sister-in-law, was the pretext for the French invasion of the Palatinate in 1688, which began the
Nine Years War
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...
.
Ancestry
References
1651 births
1685 deaths
Nobility from Heidelberg
House of Palatinate-Simmern
Prince-electors of the Palatinate
Burials at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Heidelberg
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