George William, Count Palatine of Zweibr%C3%BCcken Birkenfeld

George William , titular Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke in Bavaria, Count of Veldenz and Sponheim was the Duke of ZweibrckenBirkenfeld from 1600 until 1669.

George William was born in Ansbach in 1591 as the eldest son of Charles I, Count Palatine of ZweibrckenBirkenfeld. He succeeded his father in 1600 as Count of Sponheim. He was joint ruler in the Sponheimish condominium together with Margrave Wilhelm of Baden, whose counterreformationist movements he laboriously repelled. George William finished the expansion of Castle Birkenfeld, which his father had begun, and set the ground stone for the castle chapel. He is seen as an economical and prudent regent, though he could not do much through the Thirty Years War. His lands were invaded during the Thirty Years War in 1635, and in the same year the plague broke out killing 416 people. In the year 1666 he appointed Gnter Heyler as court preacher to Birkenfeld. George William died in Birkenfeld in 1669. He was buried in the parish church of Birkenfeld later his tomb was moved to the chapel of Birkenfeld castle and finally to Meisenheim.

Source: Wikipedia