Margraviate of Baden-Baden

This article is about early modern state. For city, see Baden-Baden.

Map of the Margraviate of Baden-Baden

Schloss Rastatt, the palace of the margraves in the 18th century

The Margraviate of Baden-Baden was an early modern southwest German territory within the Holy Roman Empire. It was created in 1535 along with the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach as a result of the division of the Margraviate of Baden. Its territory consisted of a core area on the middle stretch of the Upper Rhine around the capital city of Baden, as well as lordships on the Moselle and Nahe.

While Protestantism took hold in Baden-Durlach, Baden-Baden was Catholic from the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) onwards. After the complete destruction of the territory in the Nine Years' War (1688-1697), Margrave Louis William, the "Turkishlouis", moved the capital to Rastatt and built Schloss Rastatt there, the first baroque palace on the Upper Rhine. Under the regency of his widow, Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, further baroque structures were built. When her second son Augustus George died without heirs in 1771, Baden-Baden was inherited by the rulers of Baden-Durlach, reuniting the two margraviates.

Territory

Ruins of Schloss Hohenbaden above Baden-Baden, the "old castle" and original seat of the house of Baden.

Kastellaun Castle in the county of Sponheim, residence of Edward Fortunatus.

Gräfenstein Castle in Rodalben, centre of the Lordship of Gräfenstein.

The Margraviate of Baden-Baden consisted of a core area on the right bank of the middle Upper Rhine, centred on the cities of Baden and Rastatt, as well as further territories in the Upper Rhine region and west of the Rhine. Some of these belonged to the Swabian imperial circle, others to the Upper Rhenish Circle.

Rastatt and Baden

The core territory extended from Ettlingen to Steinbach. It was bordered to the north by the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach, to the west by the Rhine river, to the east by the Duchy of Württemberg, and in the south by the Hanauerland. Other important neighbours were Electoral Palatinate, the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, and the Free imperial city of Strasbourg.

The Margrave's residence and capital city was Baden until 1705 and Rastatt thereafter. The cities of Ettlingen, Kuppenheim, Steinbach, and Stollhofen served as administrative centres, through which smaller settlements and the countryside were administered. The Alsatian towns of Seltz and Beinheim on the left bank of the Rhine directly opposite Rastatt also belonged to Baden-Baden. Malsch, which was initially part of Württemberg, became part of Baden in 1603. Illingen was an exclave, belonging to Speyer, but entirely surrounded by Baden-Baden territory.

Until 1660, the theoretically independent County of Eberstein, which encompassed the middle stretch of the Murgtal and had its main city at Gernsbach, was defacto part of Baden-Baden. After the extinction of the Eberstein line in 1660, Baden-Baden split the territory with Speyer.

In 1688, the core territory was extended south to Bühl, which replaced Steinbach as the local adminsitrative centre over the course of the 18th century. In this period, Kuppenheim was also eclipsed as an administrative centre by Rastatt.

Other Upper Rhenish territories

Until 1629, Baden-Baden shared control of Lahr-Mahlberg with Nassau-Saarbrücken. After that, they partitioned the territory, with Lahr going to Nassau-Saarbrücken, while Mahlberg, Kippenheim, and Friesenheim went to Baden-Baden. In 1693, Margrave Louis William acquired Staufenberg near Durbach. After the French abandoned Kehl, Emperor Leopold I assigned it to Baden-Baden in 1698. In 1701, Baden-Baden also received the rights to the Landvogty of Offenburg.

County of Sponheim

On the Moselle and Nahe rivers and in the Hunsrück, Baden-Baden shared sovereignty over the Fore and Hinter Counties of Sponheim with the Electoral Palatinate and various collatoral lines of the Palatinate. The Hinter County encompassed the modern districts of Bernkastel-Wittlich and Birkenfeld. Its administrative centres were Birkenfeld, Allenbach, Dill, Herrstein, Winterburg, Kastellaun und Trarbach. The Fore County lay in Hunsrück and on the Nahe, and extended into Rhenish Hesse. The most important cities were Kirchberg, Gemünden, Kreuznach und Sprendlingen.

Other territories west of the Rhine

The Margraves controlled Rodemachern, Useldingen and Hespringen in the modern territory of France. In the Palatinate Forest, they owned the Lordship of Gräfenstein, which they had shared with the Leiningen family until 1557. After Gräfenstein Castle was destroyed in 1635, the margrave shifted the administration to Rodalben.

History

The Margraviate of Baden-Baden was created in 1535, as a result of the division of the Margraviate of Baden. In the 16th century, it was heavily influenced by Bavaria. Between 1594 and 1622, the territory came under the occupation of the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach. The territory was heavily damaged by the Thirty Years' War and the Nine Years' War. The wealthy sovereigns Louis William and Sibylle maintained an expensive court culture and built many secular and religious structures in the Baroque style. After the death of Augustus George in 1771, the margraviate was inherited by Charles Frederick of Baden-Durlach.

Creation

Bernhard III of Baden-Baden, regent from 1535 to 1536 and namesake of the Bernhardine line of the House of Baden.

The Margraviate of Baden-Baden was created as a result of two territorial divisions of the Margraviate of Baden.

In 1503, Margrave Christopher I had reunited the Margraviate of Hachberg-Sausenberg with the main Margraviate of Baden (from which it had been separated in 1306) and ruled over a geographically scattered but politically unified territory, which included the area around his residence in the city of Baden, lordships in the southern part of the Upper Rhine region, and estates to the west of the Rhine. He intended to avoid a re-partition of the margraviate by establishing his son, Philip as sole heir. However, Philip's older brother Bernhard did not accept his father's will and was exiled to Burgundy as punishment. Philip's younger brother, Ernest also rebelled with the help of his father-in-law, Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Christopher finally gave in and divised a division of his territory into three parts in 1515: Bernhard received the areas west of the Rhine, Philip got the core territory around Baden, and Ernest received the estates to the south.

When Philip died in 1533, without male heirs, Bernhard and Ernest initially planned to rule the core territory together. However, they soon came into conflict and decided to divide it. Bernhard set the dividing line (which mostly followed the River Alb) and Ernest was given the choice of portions. He chose the area north of the Alb. The territories which each of the brothers had received in 1515 remained unchanged by this deal. After the new division, Bernhard thus ruled over the areas west of the Rhine and the portion of the core territory south of the Alb. Ernest moved his residence to Pforzheim and was referred to thereafter as the Margrave fo Baden-Pforzheim, while Bernhard remained in Baden and was called the Margrave of Baden-Baden. The brothers carried on further negotiations about details of the division and only finalised an agreement through the mediation of Louis V of Palatine at the end of 1536. This agreement was documented by a treaty which was signed in Heidelberg.

Bernhard's heirs, who continued to rule his Margraviate of Baden-Baden until 1771, are called the "Bernhardine line" of House Baden, after him.

See also

• Baden
• List of rulers of Baden

Bibliography

• Kurt Andermann, in: Der Landkreis Rastatt, Band 1. Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-1364-7.
• Armin Kohnle: Kleine Geschichte der Markgrafschaft Baden. Verlag G. Braun, Karlsruhe 2007, ISBN 978-3-7650-8346-4.
• Dagmar Kicherer: Kleine Geschichte der Stadt Baden-Baden. Verlag G. Braun, Karlsruhe 2008, ISBN 978-3-7650-8376-1.
• Staatsanzeiger-Verlag (Hrsg.): Sibylla Augusta. Ein barockes Schicksal, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-929981-73-5.
• Gerhard Friedrich Linder: Die jüdische Gemeinde in Kuppenheim. Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher 1999, ISBN 3-89735-110-2.
• Landesarchivdirektion Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): Der Landkreis Rastatt (Band 1). Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-1364-7.
• Friedrich Wielandt: Badische Münz- und Geldgeschichte. Verlag G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1979, ISBN 3-7650-9014-X.