Philipp III, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg

During the War of the Succession of Landshut (1503–1505) between Bavaria and the Electorate of the Palatinate, Philipp's father had remained neutral.

The Palatinate side lost the war and an imperial ban was issued by the King of the Romans and later Emperor, Maximilian I, against their leaders, who were accused of breaching the peace.

Due to his siding with the Palatinate during the Landshut War of Succession, Count Philipp III was under an imperial ban when he succeeded his father in 1504.

Nearly two decades later, in 1521, he was partly compensated by Hesse and the Palatinate for his losses after the Landshut War of Succession, with Kleestadt and Langstadt and cash payment of 16000florins.

In 1513, Ludwig received the district of Buchsweiler, but he later swapped it for an annual pension of 500 florins plus the right to use the Hanau-Lichtenberg residence in Strasbourg.

Philipp also had a never-ending series of disputes with the City of Strasbourg, due to their conflicting economic, religious and political interests.

Under the reign of Count Philipp III, the Reformation slowly took hold in the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg from 1525 onwards.

Factors he was taking into account included the revolutionary ideas that had been spread among the peasants, his foreign policy, in particular with regard to the neighbouring Archbishopric of Mainz, his aversion to the bourgeois, Protestant Strasbourg and his wife, who was devoted uncompromisingly to the Roman-Catholic faith.

Philipp III died on 15 May 1538 in Buchsweiler and was buried in the family crypt in the St. Nikolaus Church in Babenhausen.

January 1504 in Baden-Baden with Margravine Sibylle of Baden (born: 26 April 1485; died: 10 July 1518), daughter of the Margrave Christoph I of Baden-Sponheim.