In this period he co-operated politically with Landgrave Heinrich III of Hesse, Elector Palatine Friedrich I, the counts of Henneberg and Elector Rupert of Cologne, a relative of the Elector Palatine. In 1468, he decreed that the primogeniture rules would be followed in his part of the county, meaning that all but one of his sons would have to choose an ecclesiastical career. Militarily, he fought on the side of Emperor Friedrich in a conflict between the Holy Roman Empire and France over Burgundy and in a military campaign against the Turks.
