In 1480, the last Lord of Lichtenberg, Jakob of Lichtenberg, died childless. Philipp the Elder inherited one half of Lichtenberg, on behalf of his children, because his wife, Anna of Lichtenberg, who had been a niece of Jakob, had already died. The other half was inherited by Anna's sister, Elisabeth, who was married to Count Simon Wecker of Zweibrücken-Bitsch. By this inheritance, Philipp gained a substantial amount of territory, much of it in the Alsace, making the previously rather small Hanau-Lichtenberg almost as large as Hanau-Münzenberg. The Zimmern Chronicle comments in the inheritance: We can infer how much power and prestige the Barons of Lichterberg in the Alsace must have had, from the power and prestige their heirs, the houses of Bitsch and Hanau, have in our days.Zimmern Chronicle, vol. 1, p. 467
