Palatinate-Zweibrücken dynasty

Monument to the founder of the dynasty
Carl X Gustav in Malmo

The Palatinate-Zweibrücken dynasty ( Swede. Pfalziska ätten, Pfalziska huset ) was the Swedish royal dynasty that ruled from 1654-1720.

It was one of the branches of the South German Wittelsbach family ( Bavaria , Palatinate ). In 1410, a line of the Zimmern palatinates emerged from the oldest branch of the family that ruled the Palatinate condemnation . In 1453, the Zweibrücken - Neuburg pfalz graph line separated from it.

In 1579, the descendant of the fifth-generation founder of the palette-count, Zweibrücken Johann I (1550-1604), married Magdalena Juelich-Klevska (1553-1633). The third son from this marriage, Palatine Count Johann Casimir (1589-1522) inherited from his father the small principality of Cleburg in Alsace and became the founder of the line of paletgraphs of the Zweibrücken-Cleburgsky. In 1615 he married the daughter of the Swedish king Charles IX Katharine .

From this marriage were born the eldest daughter Christina Magdalena Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Kleeburg , as well as the sons Karl Gustav (1622–1660) and Adolf Johann (1629–1689). The first of them in 1649 was appointed heir to the Swedish throne, which he occupied in 1654. Adolf Johann continued the Pfalzgraf line of the genus, which died out with the death of his son in 1731.

The Palatinate-Zweibrücken dynasty occupied the Swedish throne for three generations. After the death of Charles XII in 1718, who left no descendants, Ulrik Eleanor (1688-1741) ascended the throne, who in 1720 renounced the crown in favor of her spouse Fredrik I of Hesse-Kassel (1676-1751). With her death in 1741, the dynasty stopped completely.