He moved the capital to Stuttgart and in July 1495 he was elevated to Duke of Württemberg by Emperor Maximilian I. Eberhard was acquainted with a number of scholars and held education in high esteem.

However, in 1459, assisted by Frederick I, Elector Palatine, he threw off this restraint, and undertook the government of the district of Urach as Count Eberhard V. He neglected his duties as a ruler and lived a reckless life until 1468.

He invited the Brethren of the Common Life and the community of devotio moderna to his country and founded collegiate churches in Urach, Dettingen an der Erms, Herrenberg, Einsiedel near Tübingen and Tachenhausen.

Eberhard, although a lover of peace, was one of the founders of the Swabian League in 1488, and assisted to release Maximilian I, from his imprisonment in Bruges in the same year.

Frederick III, Elector of Saxony and the Imperial Marshal, then led Eberhard I to Württemberg's seat in the Reichstag, between the Duke of Jülich and the Landgrave of Hesse.

To confirm Württemberg's elevation to a Duchy, the Emperor hosted a banquet attended by his person, the electors, and the other princes of the Diet.

In the hierarchy of the Holy Roman Empire, this put Württemberg's status above all the Margraves and Counts, but behind all the existing Duchies.

In the Swabian anthem "Preisend mit viel schönen Reden" by Justinus Kerner, he is praised as: "Eberhard the one with the beard, Württemberg's beloved ruler."