Death : 24 April 1852 - Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden. At his birth, it seemed very unlikely that he would ever hold such a position. Born 29 August 1790, he was the eldest son of Margrave Karl Friederich of Baden, later the first Grand Duke of Baden (1806) and his second wife, Louise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg. Their marriage was deemed morganatic because she was regarded as of unequal rank to her husband .She never obtained the rank of Margravine / Grand Duchess, but instead created Baroness von Hochberg in 1787 and from 1796 Countess of Hochberg. Although Louise Carolines children were not initially legally recognised as of dynastic rank, on 20 February 1796 their father clarified in writing (subsequently co-signed by his elder sons) that the couples sons were eligible to succeed to the margravial throne in order of male primogeniture after extinction of the male issue of his first marriage, who were by then the only remaining dynasts of the House of Baden. The Margrave further declared that his marriage to their mother must in no way be seen as morganatic, but rather as a true equal marriage, In 1799 Louises sons were granted the title of Imperial Counts von Hochberg though the daughters remained baronesses. By 1817, the descendants of Karl Friederich 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. Also in the same year, Grand Duke Louis I arranged for Leopold to marry Sophie, daughter of former King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden by Grand Duke Charless sister, Frederica. Since Sophie was a granddaughter of Leopolds oldest half-brother, Charles Louis, this marriage united the descendants of his fathers (Grand Duke Karl Friederichs) two wives. Sophies undoubted royal blood would help to offset the stigma of Leopolds morganatic birth On 30 March 1830, Louis I died and as he was the last male descendant of Karl Friederichs first marriage, Leopold succeeded him as the Grand Duke of Baden and whose descendants continued to rule the Grand Duchy until the Revolution of 1918-19 that took place at the end of World War I.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 15:23:48 +0000