He was the first-born son of Frederick III, Elector Palatine and Marie of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. As presumptive heir of the Electorate in the Palatinate, he was already participating in government affairs at the court of Otto Henry, Elector Palatine. Unlike his father, he gave preference to Lutheranism over Calvinism, purging Calvinists from positions at the University of Heidelberg.
To learn French, the young prince Louis visited the Burgundian University Dole in 1554. Since 1563, he was governor of the Upper Palatinate. The Calvinist theologians found protection at the court of Prince John Casimir, the brother of Louis, in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse and established the "Casimirianum Neustadt".
During the Cologne War Louis VI was the only Lutheran imperial prince who stood on the side of Cologne"s Elector and Archbishop Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg.
With the Lutheran reorganization of the country Louis adopted a new court constitution, a police constitution and in 1582, a grand country constitution.
