Frederick Bernard, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen

Frederick Bernard was the eldest son of the Duke and Count Palatine John Charles of Gelnhausen (1638-1704) from his second marriage, Esther Maria (1665-1725), the daughter of Baron George Frederick of Witzleben-Elgersburg.

In 1704, he succeeded his father as Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen. He served in the French army as a colonel of the Royal Alsatian regiment. He was a knight of the Order of Saint Hubert. A treaty of 1736 with Caroline, the regent of Zweibrücken, granted Frederick Bernard an annual allowance of 12000guilders.[1]

Frederick Bernard died in 1739 without a male heir.[2] Gelnhause was inherited by his younger brother John.

Frederick Bernard married on 30 May 1737 in Arolsen to Ernestine Louise (1705-1782), the daughter of prince Frederick Anton Ulrich of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her mother was Frederick Bernard's cousin Louise of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler. Frederick Bernard and Ernestine Louise had two daughters:

• Caroline Louise (1738-1782)
• Ernestine Friederike Auguste (1739-1746)

• Johann Samuel Ersch: Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste. Section 2, H–N, part 21, Johann (Infant von Castilien) – Johann-Boniten, p. 189
• Maximilian V. Sattler: Lehrbuch der bayerischen Geschichte, Lindauer, 1868, p. 412
• Carl Renatus Hausen: Abhandlungen und Materialien zum neuesten deutschen Staatsrechte und Reichsgeschichte, vol. 5, p. 160 ff