Background
George John was born in 1543 as the only son of Rupert, Count Palatine of Veldenz. By the Marburg Contract in 1443 his father obtained the County of Veldenz from the line of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. The following year his father died and the one-year-old George John succeeded him.
In 1563 he married Anne of Sweden, the daughter of King Gustav I of Sweden, beginning a long-running connection between the Electorate of the Palatinate and Sweden.