Margraviate of Baden-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.

Until 1660, the theoretically independent County of Eberstein, which encompassed the middle stretch of the Murgtal and had its main city at Gernsbach, was de facto part of Baden-Baden.

The wealthy sovereigns Louis William and Sibylle maintained an expensive court culture and built many secular and religious structures in the Baroque style.

He was the grandson of Bernhard III by his son Christopher II and had grown up in London, receiving his name from Queen Elizabeth I, who was his godmother.

Edward sought to resolve this issue by giving two Italians, Francesco Muskatelli and Paul Pestalozzi, free rein of the basement vaults of Yburg, where they were to work on alchemy and counterfeit money.

George Frederick, who became Margrave of Baden-Durlach after his brother's death in 1604, took both portions of Baden into the Thirty Years' War on the Protestant side.

That same summer, the victorious Catholics installed William, son of Edward Fortunatus, as Margrave of Baden-Baden, ending the Upper Baden Occupation.

While the city of Baden burnt on 24 August 1689, Louis William was fighting against the Turks in the Balkans, where he was promoted to the position of Commander in Chief of the Imperial Army on 6 September 1689.

As a result of his battles with the Turks, he brought substantial wealth (the Karlsruhe Turkish booty [de]) with him and the couple began to rebuild the Margraviate.

However, since he did not consider this a sufficient residence for an Imperial Lieutenant General, he had a new palace in the baroque style built by Domenico Egidio Rossi in the village of Rastatt, for around twelve million guilder.

After the conclusion of the peace treaty, Sibylle returned to Rastatt and focussed her energies on the government, construction work and court life.

She was a strong regent and did not allow Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and Duke Leopold of Lorraine, whom Louis William had named as her legal guardians in his will, to take power from her.

The court Kapellmeister was another Bohemian, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, who had produced his first published work in 1695, during the reign of Louis William, and retained the position until his death in 1746.

He was succeeded by his brother, Augustus George, who had initially been a priest, but received permission to leave the priesthood from Pope Clement XII in 1735 and married Marie Victoire d'Arenberg.

The treaty also stated that surviving members of the Margravial family would be financially supported and that Catholic institutions, like Lichtenthal Abbey and the Stift of Baden-Baden, would retain their possessions.

In order to protect the religious freedom of his subjects, Augustus George pursued the beatification of his medieval ancestor, Bernhard II, which he successfully achieved in 1769.

The Bavarian governor, Schwarzenberg, initially took harsh action against the Protestant councils and later also forced the population to hold Catholic beliefs and to attend church regularly.

Chancellor Samuel Hornmold [de], first appointed in 1573, was fired from his position by Schwarzenberg in 1574 and expelled from Baden-Baden, because he had not pursued the Re-Catholicisation as he had hoped.

In Autumn 1585, an unmarried townswoman, "seven bad spirits were cast out" of Anna Koch over a three-month period by Andrea Vermatt, who worked as a Cathedral preacher and exorcist in Speyer.

[15] At the beginning of the Upper Baden Occupation, the Margraves of Baden-Durlach had promised the Emperor that they would not change the religion of Baden-Baden and they did not interfere with religious matters initially.

When he later returned to the city and begged to be allowed to stay on account of his age and previous service, he was given a heavy fine and again presented with the choice of converting or leaving.

[17] A townswoman, Anna Weinhag, who had written to William begging that she not be required to convert, was charged with witchcraft and was tortured for several days in December 1627.

As an Imperial general, Louis William received a large income and his wife Sibylle von Saxe-Lauenburg brought a substantial fortune into the marriage.

Sustained investment in infrastructure did not occur; Louis William's interest in developing the economy in a mercantilist direction was not continued by his wife and sons.

The Court Treasurer Dürrfeld wrote in 1765 that there were open latrines in Baden city and "no princely guest could step foot outside without being surrounded and accosted by a gang of beggars or followed by them on his journey.

The main crops were rye, oats, spelt, and barley, then peas, lentils, beans, and fruit, and finally flax for linen.

By the Rhine, people also made their livings from fishing, smuggling, and the manufacture of wooden shoes from poplar, willow, and alder wood.

Jakob Kast, a merchant and Murgschiffer [de] from Hörden, who had become rich from a state monopoly could afford to lend George Frederick 27,000 guilder to finance his military expansion programme in 1611.

On his death in 1615, Kast left an estate worth around 480,000 guilder, consisting mainly of investments in various farms, cities, monasteries, and private individuals.

For example, Bühl, which historically had belonged to the territory of Ortenau, had different measurements from those used in Rastatt and Baden, which had been part of Ufgau in the High Middle Ages.