Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden

Charles Frederick
Portrait by Johann Ludwig Kisling, 1803
Grand Duke of Baden
Reign	25 July 1806 – 10 June 1811
Successor	Charles
Elector of Baden
Reign	27 April 1803 – 6 August 1806
Margrave of Baden (unified)
Reign	21 October 1771 – 27 April 1803
Predecessor	Augustus George, Margrave of Baden-Baden
Margrave of Baden-Durlach
Reign	12 May 1738 – 21 October 1771
Predecessor	Charles III William
Born	(1728-11-22)22 November 1728
Died
Spouse	Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt Louise Caroline, Baroness Geyer of Geyersberg
Issue	Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden Prince Frederick Louis I, Grand Duke of Baden Princess Louise Auguste Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden Prince William Prince Frederick Alexander Princess Amalie Prince Maximilian
House	Zähringen
Father	Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Baden-Durlach
Mother	Princess Amalia of Nassau-Dietz
Religion	Lutheran

Charles Frederick (22 November 1728 – 10 June 1811) was Margrave, Elector and later Grand Duke of Baden from 1738 until his death.

Biography

Born at Karlsruhe, he was the son of Hereditary Prince Frederick of Baden-Durlach and Amalia of Nassau-Dietz (13 October 1710 – 17 September 1777), the daughter of Johan Willem Friso of Nassau-Dietz.

He succeeded his grandfather as Margrave of Baden-Durlach in 1738 and ruled personally from 1746 until 1771, when he inherited Baden-Baden from the catholic line of his family. This made him the protestant ruler of a state that was overwhelmingly catholic, however the Imperial Diet permitted this because the Elector of Saxony had converted to Catholicism from Lutheranism and had been permitted to retain control of the Protestant body of the Imperial Diet. Upon inheriting the latter margraviate, the original land of Baden was reunited. He was regarded as a good example of an enlightened despot, supporting schools, universities, jurisprudence, civil service, economy, culture, and urban development. He outlawed torture in 1767, and serfdom in 1783. He was elected a Royal Fellow of the Royal Society in 1747.

In 1803, Charles Frederick became Elector of Baden, and in 1806 the first Grand Duke of Baden. Through the politics of minister Sigismund Freiherr von Reitzenstein, Baden acquired the Bishopric of Constance, and the territories of the Bishopric of Basel, the Bishopric of Strassburg, and the Bishopric of Speyer that lay on the right bank of the Rhine, in addition to Breisgau and Ortenau.

In 1806, Baden joined the Confederation of the Rhine.

Together with his architect, Friedrich Weinbrenner, Charles Frederick was responsible for the construction of the handsome suite of classical buildings that distinguish Karlsruhe. He died there in 1811, and was one of the few German rulers to die during the Napoleonic era.

Charles Frederick and the Catholics

Ever since Charles II (1556) the margraviate of Baden-Durlach was Protestant, Catholics representing a small minority (about 5%) — only a handful of parishes were Catholic. At least they were allowed to hold services in the residence city of Karlsruhe, and in 1768 they were allowed to establish a prayer house there. However, the margrave still financed the conversion of Catholics at the beginning of his reign.

After the unification of the margraviate of Baden-Durlach (Protestant) and Baden-Baden (Catholic), the integration of the newly accrued Catholic territories was one of the great challenges for the Protestant sovereign. In general, there was no discrimination against Catholics under Charles Frederick, but he took over only two court councillors and two court chamber councillors each from the Rastatt court.

By the end of his reign, his tolerant attitude had spread to the citizens, and Karl Drais reported, "Many bailiffs and pastors of both confessions, acted with reason on their subordinates, so that the blind zeal of individual zealots faded into empty haze." This still affects the way the confessions treat each other in Baden today.

Charles Frederick and Physiocracy

The margrave became a follower of French physiocrats — especially Mirabeau and Du Pont — due to his study of these ideas. In 1769, Charles Frederick began a correspondence with Mirabeau. In the summer of 1771, the margrave traveled to Paris, where he also met Mirabeau and Dupont in person. With Du Pont, the margrave continued to be in active exchange and in 1773 Du Pont visited the Karlsruhe court.

Charles Frederick himself wrote a summary of physiocratic ideas entitled Abrégé des Principes de l'Économie Politique, which Mirabeau popularized in Paris in 1772.

The margrave's lively interest in national economics is also attested to by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who briefly stayed at the Karlsruhe court on his trip to Switzerland in 1775: "The reigning margrave, as one of the princely seniors, but especially highly revered among German regents for his excellent governmental purposes, enjoyed talking about state economic affairs."

In 1763, Karl Friedrich appointed the leading German representative of physiocracy, Johann August Schlettwein, to the court in Karlsruhe as a chamber and police councillor.

Both Karl Friedrich and Schlettwein were anxious to achieve practical improvements in agriculture on the basis of these ideas. Thus, the only known attempt worldwide to introduce the physiocratic system was launched in the three villages of Dietlingen, Bahlingen and Teningen in Baden, where the "Einsteuer" (single tax) was introduced.

In Dietlingen, the experiment began in 1770 and, after a modification (1795), was definitely discontinued in 1801. In Bahlingen and Teningen, the experiment began in 1771 and was terminated as early as 1776. Schlettwein left the court as early as 1773 because he believed, after differences with Du Pont, that he no longer had the margrave's trust.

Marriages and children

Charles Frederick married Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt on 28 January 1751. She was the daughter of Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt, was born on 11 July 1723 and died on 8 April 1783.

Charles Frederick and Caroline Louise had the following children:

• Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden (14 February 1755 – 16 December 1801); his son, Charles, succeeded Charles Frederick as Grand Duke upon the latter's death in 1811.
• Prince Frederick of Baden (29 August 1756 – 28 May 1817); married on 9 December 1791 Louise of Nassau-Usingen (16 August 1776 – 19 February 1829), the daughter of Duke Frederick of Nassau-Usingen.
• Prince Louis of Baden (9 February 1763 – 30 March 1830); had three illegitimate children by Katharina Werner, created Countess of Gondelsheim and Langenstein in 1818. Louis succeeded his nephew Charles as Louis I, 3rd Grand Duke in 1818.
• Son (29 July 1764 – 29 July 1764).
• Princess Louise Auguste of Baden (8 January 1767 – 11 January 1767).

Charles Frederick statue in front of the Karlsruhe Palace (Schloss)

Charles Frederick married Louise Caroline, Baroness Geyer of Geyersberg as his second wife on 24 November 1787. She was the daughter of Lt. Col. Louis Henry Philipp, Baron Geyer of Geyersberg and his wife Maximiliana Christiane, Countess of Sponeck. She was born on 26 May 1768 and died on 23 July 1820. This was a morganatic marriage, and the children born of it were not eligible to succeed. Louise was created Baroness of Hochberg at the time of her marriage and Countess of Hochberg in 1796; both titles were also borne by her children.

They had the following children:

• Prince Leopold of Baden (29 August 1790 – 24 April 1852); later succeeded as HRH Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden. Married on 25 July 1819 in Karlsruhe his half-grand-niece, HRH Princess Sophie of Sweden (21 May 1801 – 6 July 1865), eldest daughter of the former King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Frederica of Baden.
• Prince William of Baden (8 April 1792 – 11 October 1859).
• Prince Frederick Alexander of Baden (10 June 1793 – 18 June 1793).
• Princess Amalie of Baden (26 January 1795 – 14 September 1869); married on 19 April 1818 Charles Egon II of Fürstenberg (28 October 1796 – 22 October 1854); their daughter, Princess Pauline von Fürstenberg, was the mother of Princess Margarethe of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (b. Slawentzitz, 27 December 1865 - d. Dresden, 13 June 1940), who was the second wife of Wilhelm, Count of Hohenau (himself a son of Prince Albert of Prussia
• Prince Maximilian of Baden (8 December 1796 – 6 March 1882).

By 1817, the descendants of Charles Frederick by his first wife were dying out. To prevent Baden from being inherited by the next heir (his brother-in-law King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria), the reigning Grand Duke, Charles (grandson of the first Grand Duke), changed the succession law to give the Hochberg family full dynastic rights in Baden. They thus became Princes and Princesses of Baden with the style Grand Ducal Highness, like their elder half-siblings. Their succession rights were reinforced when Baden was granted a constitution in 1818, and recognised by Bavaria and the Great Powers in the Treaty of Frankfurt, 1819. Leopold's descendants ruled the Grand Duchy of Baden until 1918. The current pretenders to the throne of Baden are descendants of Leopold.

Leopold, the eldest son from the second marriage, succeeded as Grand Duke in 1830.

References

• Borchardt-Wenzel, Annette (2006). Karl Friedrich von Baden: Mensch und Legende. Gernsbach: Casimir Katz Verlag.
• Schwarzmaier, Hansmartin (1986). "Die Markgrafen von Baden." In: Die Zähringer – Eine Tradition und ihre Erforschung. Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke Verlag.

External links

• Works by Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden at Gallica

Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden House of Zähringen Born: 22 November 1728 Died: 10 June 1811
Regnal titles
Preceded by Charles III	Margrave of Baden-Durlach 1738–1771	Reunification of Baden
Preceded by Augustus George Simpert	Margrave of Baden-Baden 1771
Preceded by Himself as Margrave of Baden-Durlach	Margrave of Baden 1771–1803	Elevated to electorate
New title Electorate established	Elector of Baden 1803–1806	Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
New title Grand Duchy of Baden established	Grand Duke of Baden 1806–1811	Succeeded by Charles