Eberhard-Louis of Wurtemberg

See also: Eberhard of Wurtemberg (homonymy)

The duke Eberhard-Louis of Wurtemberg , or Eberhard X of Wurtemberg , born the September 18th 1676 with Stuttgart, deceased the October 31st 1733 with Ludwigsbourg (Germany), was the tenth duke of Württemberg between 1692 with 1733. He belongs to the first branch, known as branch elder of the Maison of Wurtemberg.

He was the third child of the duke Guillaume Louis of Wurtemberg and Magdalena Sibylla of Hesse-Darmstadt. After the unexpected death of his father (1677), his uncle Frederic-Charles of Wurtemberg-Winnental took care of his education.

Biography

As of his majority (16 years) the emperor Léopold Ier of Germany invites it and incites it with the load of the businesses of the government (1693). The young duke does not show any interest for this new spot. Described like surface and subjected by its contemporaries, he prefers hunting, and leaves the administration of his country between the hands of his advisers.

In 1697 it marries Johanna Elisabeth von Baden-Durlach († 1757) (girl of the Margrave Frederic VII Magnus de Bade-Durlach (House of Bade). Impassioned by the weapons and the uniforms, it begins a brilliant military career which leads it to the participation of the battle of the Höchstädt in 1704. Being valiantly beaten, it is named commander-in-chief of the armies of the Rhine. In 1707, he becomes Impérial marshal as a chief of the troops Souabe S at the time of a battle of the War of succession of Spain.

Little before 1700 it visits the palate of Versailles (France) of the king Louis XIV, and astonished by this splendor, it projects the construction of a castle worthy of the family of Württemberg. It increases the taxes and poses on May 7th 1704 the first stone of its new residence of Ludwigsbourg. To compensate for and compensate the efforts for the workers engaged on the site, it exempts taxes during 15 years those which remain in the vicinity. The town of Ludwigsbourg will develop later, as from 1711, and especially 1718, when it makes its main home of it.

Arrival in Montbeliard

July 18th 1723, Eberhard-Louis succeeds execrable the Léopold-Eberhard of Wurtemberg as count of Montbeliard. The urban Magistrate is pleased with this arrival and endeavors to give the best indication of the city with regard to the sovereign. It is also the occasion for the Magistrate (municipal Body) to be able to make share with the prince of its concerns, and to obtain its support and various liberalities. The duke Eberhard-Louis remains six weeks in Montbeliard; August 2nd, it receives officially the oath of fidelity of the inhabitants and that of the surrounding campaigns by the means of their representatives. It makes profitable its stay to be made present the detailed accounts of the situation of the country, and names the count of Graevenitz governor of the Principality.

One as of its first measurements is to put under sequestration the goods given by Léopold-Eberhard to his/her natural children, a few years before. It makes defense with the farmers discharge the product of their beams to the profit of his illegitimate descent, under penalty of heavy fines; these royalties were to return to the field of the county. Consequently of what, the counts of Coligny are dispossessed of their goods; the whole is versed with the profit of the prince. During his nomination, the duke had also committed himself discharging the inhabitants from the taxes whose Léopold had overpowered them. As one can imagine it, the requests are long little in arising… In the county of Montbeliard and the ground of Étobon which was attached to him, it restore the population in the advantages of which she had been deprived, and reduce the drudgeries and the royalties seigneuriales to the rate where they were under the reign of the count Georges II.

Spoliations of Léopold-Eberhard left many marks; the new prince informed all those which thought of being stripped grounds or goods during the reign of fire Léopold, that they could provide in justice, since their complaints were founded. Unquestionably, the country was reserved of a good prince… A contrario, the French government which had seized itself of the Four Grounds at the time of the preceding reigns, maintained his/her children illegitimate in the fields and pensions which the king had authorized to them.

The prince restores also the discipline in the Church. He publishes a supplement with the ecclesiastical ordinance of 1559 and made take care by his Council of Regency of his application. He makes new modifications to the operation of the schools: gymnase" (in German: college) so that youth can be better informed and thus, to be in a position to reach the various academies … It gives its farm of Souaberie to the city to convert it into college. It prohibits at the rural communities of congédier their teachers without being authorized there. The pastors, guards of this measurement, must undertake regular visits in the schools of their parishes, and the parents must imperatively send their offspring to it.

Descent

Of her marriage with Jeanne-Elisabeth, girl of Frederic VII, margrave de Bade-Durlach, it had an only son:

Frederic-Louis of Wurtemberg (1698 - 1731). In 1716 it married Henriette de Brandebourg-Schwedt, of the House of Hohenzollern. It did not have a enfant.

Eberhard-Louis died in the autumn 1733, regretted inhabitants of the Principality of Montbeliard. Its States passed to his/her cousin Charles-Alexandre of Wurtemberg, converted with Protestantism.

Sources

the Novel of a Principality D. Seigneur. Editions Cêtre - Besancon.

See too

List of the counts de Montbéliard
List of the dukes of Wurtemberg

Random links: