He was born as the sixth child and fourth son of William I, Count of
Sayn-Wittgenstein (24 August 1488 – 18 April 1570) and his wife, Countess Johannetta of
Isenburg-Neumagen (born 1500). He received his first schooling at Wittgenstein Castle from the vicar of Weidenhausen. In 1543, Louis and his brothers went to
Cologne to receive further education. He learned
Greek and
Latin, as well as
English,
French,
Italian, and some
Spanish. From 1545, Louis and two of his brothers studied at the Universities of
Leuven,
Paris and
Orléans. Between 1553 and 1556, he made a
Grand Tour, visiting
Padua,
Malta,
Savoy,
France and
England. he briefly served
Pope Pius IV as treasurer. When he returned to Wittgenstein Castle in 1556, Louis found that his father had issued a moderate
Lutheran Church Order (Lutheran). He studied the new faith and converted to Lutheranism. His elderly father William I (died 18 April 1570) had appointed Louis' elder brother William II as Regent in 1551. In 1558, William II died in Brussels and Louis I took up the regency. Count Louis was raised in a humanist fashion. He frequently corresponded with his contemporaries, especially with other Calvinists. He travelled to the
Netherlands and visited the grave of
Erasmus. He began an intensive correspondence with various scholars of his time. As a result of this correspondence, he increasingly turned to the
Reformed doctrine. In 1568, he travelled to
Zurich, where he met numerous leading Reformed, with whom he also started an intense correspondence. Between 1574 and 1577, he served as Lord High Stewart at the Reformed court of Elector Palatine
Frederick III in
Heidelberg. During this period, he carried out numerous political tasks. In Heidelberg, he also came into close contact with Reformed theologicians and scholars. After the Palatinate reverted to Lutheranism under Elector
Louis VI, his service in Heidelberg ended. Louis returned to his county and brought the reformer
Caspar Olevian with him. Reformed church orders had been issued in 1563 and 1565; in 1578, the conversion to the Reformed faith was made official and altars and religious imagery were banned. Louis of Wittgenstein was a very close friend of his neighbour, Count
John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, who was also reformed, and was almost the same age. In 1584, the two counts jointly founded
Herborn Academy. From 1592 to 1594, he again served as Lord High Steward in the Electoral Palatinate, after the Palatinate had again converted to Calvinism. Louise and his first wife Anna moved their residence from the ancestral
Wittgenstein Castle on a hilltop overlooking
Bad Laasphe to a former hunting lodge near
Berleburg. Here he began keeping a diary. Parts of his extensive diaries have preserved in the Princely Archive in Berleburg. Some excerpts were printed in the 19th century. His diaries are an important source of information about the intellectual and political history of his time. His extensive correspondence has not yet been fully evaluated by historians. == Family and children ==