but not her father's title – and by redeeming the hitherto pledged County of Zweibrücken, Stephan founded a new County Palatine, as whose comital residence he chose the town of Zweibrücken: the County Palatine Zweibrücken – later a Duchy. Modern times Zweibrücken times Once Count Palatine Ludwig II introduced the Reformation into the Duchy of Palatinate Zweibrücken, Lauterecken townsfolk, too, had to convert to Lutheran beliefs. Ludwig II's death from the effects of overindulgence in drink in 1532 at the age of 30 steered the town and Amt of Lauterecken onto a whole new historical course. Ludwig's brother Ruprecht, who had once been a man of the cloth, took on, together with Ludwig's widow the regency for the underage Count Palatine and later Duke Wolfgang, who, as thanks to his uncle, later gave him his own county palatine, which at first was made up of the Ämter of Veldenz and Lauterecken. Ruprecht, who at first had taken up residence on the Remigiusberg, raised Lauterecken to residence town and commissioned the building of a great, representative palatial castle. Soon afterwards, however, in 1544, Ruprecht died, leaving his own underage son and heir, Georg Johannes I of Veldenz-Lauterecken (known as Jerrihans), whose regency was assumed by Duke Wolfgang. Jerrihans became a "mistrustful, most whimsical and withdrawn person who constantly had new plans in his head and plotted his sometimes good thoughts and advantageous designs, which, however, owing to a permanent lack of monies, or of trust of others, could not be carried out." "Georg Hans" did indeed end up in financial trouble, which he sought to overcome, to no avail, with his wife's inheritance, for she was Swedish King Gustav I's daughter. He borrowed monies from the Lords of Mentzingen and from rich townsmen from the city of Strasbourg, which he could never pay back, and he became entangled in a court case before the Reichskammergericht, which lasted long after his death. Many books have appeared about Georg Johannes's life, including one published by Paul Kittel in 2003. In 1566, the Duke managed to expand the duchy by adding Electoral Palatinate territories, in particular the County of Lützelstein in Alsace, where he later moved the seat of his residence. The county palatine now bore the name Veldenz-Lützelstein. During French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest, the county ended up in great distress. Since Lauterecken was, strictly speaking, still a Bishopric of Verdun