[1] Froben Christoph was born at Mespelbrunn Castle in the Spessart as the son of Johann Werner and his wife Katharina of Erbach.

In 1533, Froben Christoph and his elder brother Johann began studying at the University of Tübingen.

After a short stay at home, the travelled to Leuven in November 1539, intending to continue his studies in Spain.

On 23 February 1540 in Paris, he completed his first historical work, the liber rerum Cimbriacarum, which is virtually a first (short) version of his Zimmern Chronicle.

Shortly after Easter 1540 Froben traveled to Angers, together with his younger brother Gottfried, whom he had met in Paris.

After his recovery, he made a hasty return to Meßkirch, because he, because he feared for his life, due to a feud against his family.

In Speyer, he lived in the house of his uncle Wilhelm Werner, who was at that time assessor at the Reichskammergericht and would be promoted to a full judge in 1548.

In July 1542, Wilhelm Werner temporarily suspended his work for the Reichskammergericht, and Froben Christoph finished his studies.

It is therefore not surprising that Froben spent the years until he'd inherit the county in Meßkirch with his uncle Gottfried Werner, rather than at Falkenstein Castle with his father.

This included paying his father's mistress and securing his brother's renunciation of his rights to inherit.

After Gottfried Werner died on 12 April 1554, Froben immediately ask his subjects to swear an oath of fealty to him.

When his brother-in-law Philipp of Eberstein married Countess Joanna of Donliers in St. Omer in 1556, Froben and his relatives used the occasion to organize a journey to Flanders via Zweibrücken, Trier, Liège, Tongeren, Leuven and Brussels.