Philipp was born on 29 July 1573 in Neuenkamp, which later became
Franzburg in
Pomerania, as the eldest son of Duke
Bogislaw XIII of Pomerania-Barth and his first wife, Clara of Brunswick. He grew up in his father's small residence in Barth. Although he was the second-born son of Duke
Philip I of Pomerania-Wolgast, when Philip I's inheritance was divided among the Pomeranian dukes on 1569, waived his rights to a share, in favour of his younger brother
Ernest Louis. He had been compensation with an
apanage consisting of the
district of
Barth and the secularized
Cistercian monastery at Neuenkamp. As a child and teenager, Philip received the usual education for a son of a German prince during the late
Renaissance era. Soon, however, his artistic and scientific interests grew soon beyond the usual level. Even at the age of twelve, he owned a collection of books and pictures. He wrote his first scientific papers at the age of 17. His art was not just an expression of his royal representation, but emerged from an inner need. At age 18, he wrote: ''It is may pleasure to collect good, selected books, portraits from a master's hand, and ancient coins of all kinds. From these I learn how to improve myself and also how I can be beneficial to the general public.'' According to the customs of his time he undertook numerous
grand tours, which led him to many European countries and the local courts. The two-year stay in
Italy at the end of his final grand tour, was cut short in 1598 when his mother fell seriously ill. Five years later, government business caught up with him. In 1603, Duke
Barnim X had died and Philip's father, Bogislaw XIII, became the ruling duke in the
Teilherzogtum of Pomerania-Stettin. Apparently, Bogislaw XIII felt he was too old to actually govern, so he appointed his son Philip II as governor of Pomerania-Stettin. When Bogislaw XIII died in 1606, Philip became the ruling duke in Stettin in his own right. Characteristic elements of his reign were his patronage of the arts (described in more detail below), but also his rural regulations of 1616, in which a legal basis for
serfdom was created. On 10 March 1607 he married Sophia (1579–1658, in
Treptow an der Rega, her
dower), daughter of
John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg and his first wife
Elisabeth of Brunswick-Grubenhagen. The marriage was, however, childless, like all the marriages in the last generation of the Dukes of Pomerania, so after the death of Philip's brother
Bogislaw XIV, the House of Griffins died out in the male line. Philip's special penchant for
melancholy became apparent early on and was certainly reinforced by his sickly constitution. From the first decade of the 17th century, he suffered from
gout. This made life more difficult, and he withdrew more and more from public life. It prevented him from attending in person the wedding of his brother
Francis with
Sophia of Saxony in
Dresden in 1610, and the investiture of Emperor
Matthias at the Diet of Regensburg in 1613. In 1612, he visited a recently discovered
health spa in
Lüneburg, but it brought him no relief from his suffering. He died on , before the age of 50, like most male members of the last generation of the
House of Griffins. == Funding the arts ==