Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken

Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken was a state of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

based around the Duchy of Zweibrücken in modern

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

, Germany. Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken was created in 1731 when Christian III of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld inherited the Duchy of Zweibrücken. Christian soon died in 1735 and was succeeded by his son Christian IV. Christian IV began his reign obtaining politically favourable conditions for his state, and in this end he formed a close relationship with the court of France. Although he bankrupted the state through his

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, art collecting, construction work and a failed attempt to establish a

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

industry in Zweibrücken, he was considered a good Duke, especially in comparison to his nephew

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

who succeeded him in 1775. Charles III began his reign as an absolutist ruler, and in the first two years he endeavoured to dismiss the court and restore the financial situation of the state. He greatly expanded the size of the

household A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

of the Duchy which quickly developed into a financial burden itself, further increasing his unpopularity. In 1778/ 9 the Potato War was fought on Charles' behalf by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

to prevent Charles Theodore, Duke of Bavaria, exchanging the

Duchy of Bavaria The Duchy of Bavaria () was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarians, Bavarian tribes and ruled by List of rulers of Bavaria, dukes (''duces'') ...

for the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

as Charles was the heir of Bavaria. When the French Revolution broke out he managed to obtain the neutrality of his state by the French, but in 1795 the French invaded and annexed Zweibrücken and Charles fled to

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

and later Heidelberg-Rohrbach. He was succeeded in title by his brother Maximilian Joseph in 1795. In 1797 Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken was formally ceded to France, although two years later Maximilian inherited Bavaria. House of Wittelsbach Counties of the Holy Roman Empire {{Germany-hist-stub