Christian I, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler

Christian I
Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler
Count Palatine by Rhine, Duke in Bavaria, Count to Sponheim etc.
Born	(1598-11-03)3 November 1598 Birkenfeld
Died	6 September 1654(1654-09-06) (aged 55) Neuenstein
Burial	Bischwiller
Spouse	Magdalene Catherine, Countess Palatine of Zweibrücken ​ ​ (m. 1630; died 1648)​ Maria Joanna of Helffenstein ​ ​ (m. 1648)​
Issue Detail	Dorothea Catherine, Countess of Nassau-Ottweiler Countess Palatine Louise Sophie Christian II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen Anna Magdalena, Countess of Hanau-Lichtenberg
House	Wittelsbach
Father	Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld
Mother	Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Christian I (3 November 1598 – 6 September 1654) was the Duke of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler from 1600 until 1654.

Christian was born in Birkenfeld in 1598, member of the House of Wittelsbach, as the youngest son of Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld by his wife, Duchess Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1570-1649), member of the House of Welf.

His father's lands were partitioned after his death and Christian received the territory around Bischwiller (German: Bischweiler) in Alsace, at that time part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Christian married Magdalena Catherine of Palatinate-Zweibrücken (26 April 1607 – 20 January 1648), daughter of Duke John II, on 14 November 1630 and had the following children:

1. unnamed son (13 September 1631)
2. Gustavus Adolph (2 July 1632 – 4 August 1632)
3. John Christian (16 June 1633 – 19 August 1633)
4. Dorothea Catherine (3 July 1634 – 7 December 1715)
5. Louise Sophie (16 August 1635 – 25 September 1691)
6. Christian (1637 – 26 April 1717)
7. John Charles (17 October 1638 – 21 February 1704)
8. Anne Magdalena (14 February 1640 – 12 December 1693)
9. Claire Sybille (20 February 1643 – 27 March 1644)

After the death of his first wife, Christian married for the second time to Countess Maria Johanna of Helfenstein-Wiesensteig (8 September 1612 – 20 August 1665), daughter of Count Rudolph III of Helfenstein-Wiesensteig (1585-1627) and his wife, Countess Eleonora of Fürstenberg (1578-1651), widow of Maximilian Adam, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg, on 28 October 1648 and had the following son:

1. unnamed son (1648)

Christian I died on 6 September 1654, in Neuenstein, aged 55. His second wife Maria Johanna outlived him by eleven years. He was interred, along with both of his wives, in the Reformierte Pfarrkirche (Église protestante de Bischwiller), Bischwiller,