sentences:  According to the 1364 document in which Erdesbach's first documentary mention is found, the inhabitants of the "Unteramt" of Altenglan, and thus also the inhabitants of Erdesbach, had to support the young Prince Heinrich (later Heinrich III of Veldenz) and his wife Loretta of Sponheim with a special tax.The last Count of Veldenz, Friedrich III, died in 1444 without a male heir and the county thus passed to his son-in-law, Count Palatine Stephan, whose wife was Friedrich's daughter, Anna.Stephan took some Palatinate territory that he held and, combining it with his wife's inheritance, founded the new County Palatine of Zweibrücken, which later came to be seen as a duchy.