George John was born in 1543 as the only son of
Rupert, Count Palatine of Veldenz. George John's cousin,
Wolfgang, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, was a child when he inherited his title, so George John's father served as Wolgang's
regent. In 1543, when Wolfgang reached majority and took on the responsibility of office, he enacted the Marburg Contract, giving Rupert the
County of Veldenz. Rupert died the following year, and the one-year-old George John succeeded him. In 1563 he married
Anna of
Sweden, the daughter of King
Gustav I of Sweden, beginning a long-running connection between the
Electorate of the Palatinate and Sweden. In 1553 after the
Heidelberg War of Succession which regulated the mutual inheritance of all the lines of the
House of Wittelsbach, George John obtained
Palatinate-Lützelstein. He attempted to develop his
Alsatian territories to be the focus of his state, which led to him building the city of
Phalsbourg (Pfalzburg) in 1570 and populating it with
Protestant refugees from the
Duchy of Lorraine. The project was so grand and unaffordable that in 1583 he was forced to sell the city and half of Palatinate-Lützelstein to Lorraine. George John died in
Lützelstein in 1592 and was buried in the city's church. ==Marriage==