Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden

Louis William, Margrave of Baden (born April 8 1655 in Paris and died January 4 1707 at his unfinished palace in Rastatt), was the ruler of Baden-Baden in Germany and chief commander of the Imperial army. He was also known as "Türkenlouis" (Turk Louis).

Family

Louis was a son of Prince Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden (23 September 1625 – 4 November 1669) and Princess Louise Christine of Savoy-Carignan (1 August 1627 – 7 July 1689). His father was the elder son of Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden, whom he pre-deceased, leaving Louis to succeed as reigning Margrave of Baden-Baden and head of the Catholic branch of the House of Zähringen.

His mother's brother was the Count de Soissons, father of the renowned general Prince Eugene of Savoy, in whose military shadow Louis would live and fight, although the cousins would also be allied in service to the Holy Roman Emperor against the French. His parents being estranged, he was kidnapped as a child from his mother's home in Paris and re-patriated to Germany, where he was raised by his paternal step-grandmother.

Military career

Louis was called the "Türkenlouis" or "shield of the empire". The Turks called him the "red king" because his red uniform jacket made him very visible on the battlefield. He was a defender of Europe against the Turks, as was Eugene of Savoy.Louis was a military commander in the service of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1689 he was made chief commander of the imperial army in Hungary, where he scored a resounding victory against the Ottomans at Slankamen in 1691. Shortly afterward he was sent to head the army of the Rhine in the War of the Grand Alliance.

He later led the imperial army in the War of the Spanish Succession where he captured Landau in September 1702, but soon had to withdraw across the Rhine and was defeated by the French under the Duke de Villars at the Friedlingen. In 1704 however, he participated in the successful German campaign of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy.He distinguished himself in the Battle of Schellenberg and besieged and conquered Ingolstadt and Landau, thus drawing Bavarian troops away from the decisive Battle of Blenheim.

Marriage and children

The Emperor gave him a young heiress to wed, Princess Sibylle Auguste of Saxe-Lauenburg. They had the following children:
*Leopold Wilhelm Günsburg, (1694 – 1695 in Günsburg)
*Karl Josef, (1697 in Augsburg – 1703 in Schlackenwerth)
*Margrave Ludwig Georg Simpert, (7 June 1702 in Ettlingen – 22. October 1761 in Rastatt)
*Wilhelm Georg Simbert, (1703 in Aschaffenburg – 1709 in Baden-Baden)
*Margrave August Georg Simpert, (14 January 1706 – 21. October 1771 in Rastatt)
*Charlotte, (1696 Günsburg – 1700)
*Wilhelmine, (* 1700 in Schlackenwerth – 1702 in Schlackenwerth)
*Luise, (1701 in Nürnberg – 1707)
*Auguste Marie Johanna, (10. November 1704 in Aschaffenburg – 8. August 1726 in Paris)

Ironically, for a soldier-prince who fought France most of his martial career, seventeen years after the margrave's death the only one of his daughters to survive childhood, Princess Auguste, married Louis, Duke of Orléans, son of the infamous French Regent and, at the time of the wedding, first in the line of succession to the throne of France. His descendant through this marriage became King Louis-Philippe of the French in 1830. [cite book |last= Montjouvent|first= Philippe de|title= Le comte de Paris et sa Descendance|year= 1998|publisher= Éditions du Chaney|location= Charenton|language= French|isbn= 2-913211-00-3|pages= page 471]

After the death of Louis, his widow built Schloss Favorite castle as a summer residence in memory of her husband.

References

* [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=ajd6870.0001.001;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=529 Article in the Encyclopædia Americana]