From 1776 Etienne Sollicoffre, a banker Charles Eugene had met in Paris, befriended the Duke and acted as the agent of his purchases in the city.

[1] Between 1751 and 1759 Karl Eugen was involved in an increasingly bitter struggle with his adviser, the eminent Liberal jurist Johann Jakob Moser who strongly opposed the Duke's absolutist tendencies.

However, in 1764 Moser was released, due in part to the intercession of Friedrich the Great of Prussia, and was rehabilitated and restored to his position, rank and titles.

Charles Eugene was known for his interest in agriculture and travel and is considered the inspiration behind today's Hohenheim university,[3] part of which now occupies his former summer estate.

[4] His original botanical gardens form the basis for today's Landesarboretum Baden-Württemberg and Botanischer Garten der Universität Hohenheim, which still contain some of the specimens he planted.

[6] However, in 1780 he had him arrested for deserting his post as a regimental doctor in Stuttgart in order to attend the first performance of his play The Robbers in Mannheim.