Shep's Place Family Tree

Only Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, forgot nothing. He did not forget the "natural rights" of his country upon the Rhine and land on the left bank of the Rhine, and he again brought the horrors of war upon the country. The land was forced to pay 15,000 Gulden war tax, and the subjects of the defeated Elector paid. By 1665 the troops from Lorraine had taken the last through robbery and pillaging.
After the death of Elector Karl Ludwig, Louis XIV demanded the greater part of the Palatinate ‎[Pfalz]‎ for his brother, Duke Philipp of Orleans, who was married to Liselotte of the Palatinate. When the king brought his troops to the Rhine in 1688, he was opposed by many German princes, but the preparation of the side of the Germans was done slowly and carefully, and soon the entire Rhine was under French control. The French minister Louvois, suggested the entire destruction of a broad strip of land on the border between France and Germany as a protection against a possible attack. The Palatinate became a heap of rubbish. Louvois is said to have had a list of 1200 towns and villages which he planned to destroy. Many inhabitants of the Palatinate left the ruined land. We know that at this time Andreas von Nida left his home and emigrated to Baden, where his son attained riches and honors.
The Peace of Minweg ‎(1679)‎ and that of Resiweg ‎(1697)‎ ‎[these terms are satirical, meaning "take away" and "tear away"]‎ did not end the suffering in the Palatinate. France had entrenched itself in Landau, and after this peace treaty made some of their well-known excursions into the neighboring territory.....