Background
Gustavus Samuel Leopold was born at Stegeborg Castle near Söderköping in 1670 as the youngest son of Adolph John I, Count Palatine of Kleeburg. He succeeded his father in 1689.
Count Palatine Duke of Zweibrücken
Gustavus Samuel Leopold was born at Stegeborg Castle near Söderköping in 1670 as the youngest son of Adolph John I, Count Palatine of Kleeburg. He succeeded his father in 1689.
His titles included: 5th Duke of Stegeborg (in Sweden), Count Palatine of the Rhine, and Duke in Bavaria. The king"s death also made him one of the eligible candidates for the Swedish throne. From 1720 until 1725 he moved his residence to a palace built by Jonas Erickson Sundahl.
Gustavus Samuel Leopold died in Zweibrücken in 1731 and was buried in the Alexanderkirche.
In the annals of that chivalric institution and of the Vatican, Gustav is referred as a Duke of Bavaria. Gustav failed in his aspirations, and the grand-mastership was confirmed in 1701 by the pope to be hereditary in the House of Farnese and its successors (the Dukes of Castro).
The Farnese duke was later succeeded in the position by his nearest male kinsman, the future king Charles III of Spain. Duke Gustav had the baroque Residenz of Zweibrücken constructed in the 1720s, the Swede Jonas Eriksson Sundahl being the builder.
He would have become king Gustav III, had he succeeded.
However, no strong faction or party in Sweden took up his cause, and his succession rights are not much remembered by history. Duke Gustav died during the reign of Frederick I of Sweden.
He was the last male member of the Kleeburg line of the House of Wittelsbach to reign. As the last male member of his branch of the House of Wittelsbach, his territories were inherited by Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld.