Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden


Charles Frederick was Margrave, Elector and later Grand Duke of Baden from 1738 until his death.

Biography

file:Philipp Heinrich Kisling - Charles Frederick of Baden-Durlach.png|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of Charles Frederick by Philipp Heinrich Kisling, late 1830s/early 1840s
Born at Karlsruhe, he was the son of Hereditary Prince Frederick of Baden-Durlach and Amalia of Nassau-Dietz, daughter of Johan Willem Friso of Nassau-Dietz.
He succeeded [Charles III William, Margrave of Baden|Margrave of Baden-Durlach|his grandfather] as Margrave of Baden-Durlach in 1738 and ruled personally from 1746 until 1771, when he inherited the Margraviate of 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, the civil service, the 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.

Marriages and children

Charles Frederick married Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt, on 28 January 1751.
They had five children:
file:Karl Friedrich von Baden by Johann Ludwig Kisling.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of Charles Frederick by Johann Ludwig Kisling, 1803
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 Maximiliana Christiane, Countess of Sponeck. 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 them.
They had five children:
By 1817, the descendants of Charles Frederick by his first wife were dying out. To prevent Baden from being inherited by the next heir, the reigning Grand Duke, Charles, 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.