duchy · Germany and Central Europe

Palatinate-Veldenz

1543 CE – 1694 CE · capital Lauterecken

A small Wittelsbach duchy on the Glan and in the northern Vosges, created in 1543 for a younger branch of the Zweibrücken line.

Origins

By the Treaty of Marburg in 1543, Count Palatine Rupert, uncle and former guardian of Duke Wolfgang of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, received the old County of Veldenz with Lauterecken and lands in the Vosges, founding the line of Palatinate-Veldenz.

Rule and society

The dukes ruled from Lauterecken and from Lützelstein (La Petite-Pierre) in the northern Vosges, a scattered and poor territory of farming villages. They were Lutheran, and Duke George John founded the town of Phalsbourg in 1570. The Thirty Years' War and Louis XIV's Reunions, which claimed the Vosges lands for France after 1680, devastated the little state.

Decline and legacy

When Duke Leopold Louis died without male heirs in 1694, a long inheritance dispute followed among the Palatine branches. It was settled only in 1733, when the lands were shared among the Electoral Palatinate and other Wittelsbach lines.

Lineage

Palatinate-Zweibrücken 1453 CE – 1797 CEPalatinate-Veldenz

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Palatinate-Veldenz. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palatinate-veldenz
MLA
“Palatinate-Veldenz.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palatinate-veldenz. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Palatinate-Veldenz.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palatinate-veldenz.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Palatinate-Veldenz’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/palatinate-veldenz (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻