1268, Charles of Anjou was victorious, and the two friends fled together in a fisherman's boat. They were speedily pursued, captured, and executed together in the market-place at Naples. Thus perished on the same day the last of the ancient house of Hohenstanfen, and the eldest branch of the house of Baden. Frederick was succeeded by his uncle Rodolph I.
The following are the most remarkable of the successors of Rodolph.
Bernhard I., son of Rodolph VII., surnamed the Long. In 1372 he divided with his brother, Rodolph VIII., the paternal domains; of which the inferior part, with Pforzheim and Durlach, fell to Bernhard, and Baden, with the superior part, to Rodolph; but the latter having died in 1391, the entire succession was left by his children to Bernhard, their uncle. Bernhard took an active part in the wars of the princes of the empire against the free towns of Germany. In 1412, he assisted Charles, duke of Lorraine, against Edward, duke of Baden, who had invaded his country. He subsequently involved himself in a contest with the people of Brisgau, on account of their receiving into their towns a number of his subjects, and permitting them to enjoy all the privileges of citizenship. These differences the Emperor Sigismund laboured in vain to reconcile; and in October, 1422, the towns entered into a confederation for five years against the margrave of Baden. Two years afterwards, the confederates, in conjunction with the count of Wurtemberg and the bishop of Spire, made an irruption into the margravate, burnt Rastadt, with many of the surrounding villages, and laid siege to Muhlberg. The siege had continued for three weeks, when Dietric, archbishop of Cologne, John, bishop of Wurtzbourg, and Albert, count of Hohenlohe, arrived as mediators. Through their friendly interference the belligerent parties were reconciled, and a treaty of peace, consisting of nine articles, was drawn up and signed on the 3d July, 1424.
James I. Margrave of Baden, son of the preceding; born 15th March, 1407; died in 1453. By his wisdom and his liberality to the church, he obtained the surname of Solomon. His dominions were at first disturbed by violent feuds and robberies, but by the rigour with which he punished delinquents, he soon established tranquility. He took part with the Emperor Frederick III. in his wars with the Swiss; but ultimately became one of the mediators for bringing about a peace.
Charles I., son and successor of the preceding, died of a pestilence, supposed to be cholera, in 1475. Being chosen as umpire in the quarrels, which at that period were frequent, between the states of Germany, he was raised to a distinguished place among the princes of the empire.
Christopher, Margrave of Baden, eldest son of Charles I., born 13th November, 1453; died 19th April, 1527. In 1469 he assisted the Archduke Maximilian in a war against France, and took, among other places, the town of Luxemburg. In 1515, beginning to sink under the infirmities of age, he divided his dominions among his three sons, Bernhard, Philip, and Ernest, and relinquished the government entirely into their hands, on condition that during his life they should exercise it in his name, and as his deputies. A contemporary writer, Philip Berould of Boulogne, says he surpassed all the princes of his time in the greatness of his mind, and the Germans unanimously accord to him a place among the greatest captains of the age.
Bernhard III., son and successor of the preceding, born 7th October, 1474; died 29th June, 1536. He was educated in the Low Countries at the court of Maximilian, and passed great part of his life at Bodemacher, a town in the vicinity of the court of Brussels. To him has been ascribed the introduction of the protestant religion into his dominions.
Philip, son of Christopher, died 17th September, 1533. In 1521 he assisted at the diet of Worms, and in 1525 at that of Spire; at the latter of which he acted as principal commissary, in the absence of the emperor, Charles V. By his will, dated at Muhlberg, 14th May, 1533, he bequeathed his dominions to his two brothers, Bernhard and Ernest. The family of Baden was thus divided into two branches, viz., Baden-Baden, which is now extinct, and Baden-Durlach, which still survives.—G. M.
MARGRAVES OF BADEN-BADEN.
William I., Margrave of Baden-Baden, born 15th July, 1593; died 22nd May, 1677. With a view to conciliate the favour of the emperor, Ferdinand III. of Austria, he endeavoured to re-establish the catholic religion in Baden. In 1631 he was nominated by the emperor to the command of the army of the Upper Rhine. He was, however, completely defeated by Gustavus Adolphus, under whose command the Swedish troops invaded and laid waste the margravate. In 1640 William opened the diet of Ratisbon, as plenipotentiary of the emperor; but all his efforts to effect a reconciliation between the catholic and protestant parties proved unavailing.
Lewis William I., Margrave of Baden-Baden, born at Paris, 8th April, 1655; died at Rastadt, 4th January, 1707. His mother, a princess of Carignan, was desirous of having him brought up in Paris; but, at the age of three years, he was, by order of his father and grandfather, removed to Baden, where he received a liberal education. He obtained his first instructions in the art of war under Montecuculi, with whom he served from 1674 to 1676 inclusive. In 1678, after the peace of Nimeguen, he returned to Baden; to the sovereignty of which he had succeeded the previous year. In 1703, when Vienna was besieged by the Turks, he returned to the army, threw himself into that city with a large body of German troops, and, by a most vigorous sally, helped to effect a junction between Sobieski, king of Poland, and the duke of Lorraine. In his subsequent military career he evinced equal skill and bravery as a leader. He distinguished himself at the battles of Barkan, Wissehrad, Offen, Belgrade, and Buda; he conquered Sclavonia and Bosnia; was victorious on the fields of Nissa and Widin, and at the great battle of Salenkemen, fought on the 19th of August, 1691. In 1697 he was a competitor for the throne of Poland, then vacant by the death of Sobieski; but failed to attain the object of his ambition. In his latter years his achievements were less brilliant; but he is entitled to hold a distinguished place among the warriors of that age. He took part in twenty-six campaigns and twenty-five sieges, and had the command in not fewer than thirteen battles.—G. M.
MARGRAVES OF BADEN-DURLACH.
George-Frederick I., Margrave of Baden-Durlach, born 30th January, 1573; died at Strasburg, 24th September, 1638. He succeeded his brother, Ernest-Frederick I.; and defended the protestants against Maximilian I., duke of Bavaria. In 1610 he joined the union of Halle, which had been formed against the house of Austria, under the auspices of Henry IV. He espoused the cause of the elector-palatine, Frederick V., who had been called to the throne of Bohemia, and to whom he continued faithful to the last. In 1622 he abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Frederick I., and levied an army of 16,000 men against the Count de Tilly, by whom he was totally defeated at the battle of Wimpfen. This disaster was followed by fresh calamities. His dominions were invaded by the Bavarians, and he himself compelled to take refuge in Geneva. Having obtained succour from Charles I., king of England, he again took the field in 1627. But his bad fortune continued to follow him, and having been defeated by Wallenstein, he retired to Strasburg, where he ended his days.
Frederick I., Margrave of Baden-Durlach, son of the preceding, born 6th July, 1594; died 8th September, 1659. After the peace of Westphalia he was reinstated in his dominions, which had been invaded by the Austrians, and his rights were guaranteed by France and Sweden.
Frederick II., son and successor of the preceding, lived in the second half of the seventeenth century. Having been intrusted with the command of the armies of Charles Gustavus, king of Sweden, he distinguished himself under Montecuculi in the war against the French.
Charles-William I., Margrave of Baden-Durlach, born in 1679; died 11th May, 1738. In 1715 he founded the city of Carlsruhe, about one league from Durlach, and in commemoration of that event established a new order, called "the Order of Fidelity." He had been a zealous student at Geneva, Lausanne, and Utrecht; and he continued through life to cultivate literature and science. He was at the same time fond of luxury, and addicted to gross sensuality. It is said that, imitating the example of Eastern princes, he kept a seraglio in his palace. He was succeeded by his grandson, Charles-Frederick.—G. M.
GRAND DUKES OF BADEN.
Charles-Frederick, at first margrave, subsequently elector, and finally grand-duke of Baden, born at Carlsruhe, 22nd November, 1728; died 11th June, 1811. He succeeded his grandfather, Charles-William, 11th May, 1738. Having finished his academical course at Lausanne, he visited France, England, Italy, and Holland and in 1750, having attained his majority,
