| Philipp Wolfgang | |
| Noble Family: | House of Hanau |
| Father: | Johann Reinhard I, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg |
| Mother: | Countess Maria Elisabeth of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Weikersheim |
| Spouse: | Johanna of Oettingen Dorothea Diana of Salm |
| Birth Date: | 31 July 1595 |
| Birth Place: | Bouxwiller |
| Death Place: | Bouxwiller |
| Burial Place: | Lichtenberg |
Philipp Wolfgang (31 July 1595, Bouxwiller (German: Buchsweiler) -, Bouxwiller) was a count of Hanau-Lichtenberg. He ruled the county from 1625 until his death.
Philipp Wolfgang was a son of Count Johann Reinhard I of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1569–1625) and his wife Countess Maria Elisabeth of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Weikersheim (1576–1605). He attended the University of Strasbourg. His Grand Tour took him via Germany to France, Italy and England.
The focus of the government of Count Philipp Wolfgang were the problems caused by the Thirty Years' War. It is reported that he mostly led the government personally and consequently had to travel a lot.[1] This is inconsistent with the later references, which report that he was frequently ill.
His father had initiated a relatively successful policy of neutrality. He tried to continue this policy, but failed. In 1631, the war hit the district of Babenhausen, where imperial troops occupied and looted the city and Babenhausen Castle. One year later, a Swedish army led by Wolf Heinrich von Isenburg invaded the district.[2] Between 23 February and 28 March 1635, the city was (unsuccessfully) besieged by the imperial army, led by Philipp von Mansfeld.[3] In 1636, the Archbishopric of Mainz occupied Babenhausen.
The Hanau-Lichtenberg possessions in the Alsace and at the Upper Rhine were also hit. The imperial troops looted and pillaged numerous villages there, too. Philipp Wolfgang's army captured imperial redoubts at Drusenau and Lichtenau. But overall, his limited means meant that he stood little chance of asserting himself successfully in this conflict. In 1633, the Swedish troops reached the Upper Rhine part of the county. They fought battles and looted in Hanau-Lichtenberg and neighbouring territories. In Pfaffenhofen, for example, only two families survived the war. Bouxwiller, “capital” of the county, was ransacked by Croat troops in 1638. The Swedes formed an alliance with the French, who then occupied Pfaffenhofen, Bouxwiller and Ingweiler. The French occupation force was attacked by imperial troops under Field Marshal Matthias Gallas. The city of Woerth was sacked twice. The next wave of incoming soldiers was the Protestant army under Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, who established his headquarters in Brumath. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimat was a competent military leader, but did not possess his own territory. It was rumoured that he intended to create a separate territory from areas he had conquered in the Alsace. This brought him into conflict with France, which wanted to annex the Alsace to itself. So Philipp Wolfgang placed himself under the protection of the French king and spent much of his time at his residence in Strasbourg for security reasons. All cities and villages in his territory were affected by the war. Like his predecessor, Philipp Wolfgang did not participate in witch hunts, which were spreading rapidly, so these were rare in Hanau-Lichtenberg.
In his will, Philipp Wolfgang named his eldest son Friedrich Casimir as his sole heir. His younger sons received residences, but no sovereignty. Johann Philipp received the district of Babenhausen; Johann Reinhard received Lichtenberg.
Philipp Wolfgang died on in Bouxwiller.[4] He was buried in Lichtenberg.
Wolfgang Philipp married twice: