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Charles (German: Karl Ludwig Friedrich; 8 June 1786[1] – 8 December 1818[1]) was Grand Duke of Baden from 11 June 1811 until his death in 1818. He was born in Karlsruhe.
At the age of 15, Charles went on a journey to visit his sisters in their courts in St. Petersburg and Stockholm. He was on his way home with his father, when his father died in a fall from his coach on 15 December 1801. Charles was a witness to this accident.[1]
Due to the strong influence of France on the court of Baden, Charles was forced to marry Emperor Napoléon I's adopted daughter, Stéphanie de Beauharnais, in Paris on 8 April 1806, this despite his own protests and those of his mother and sisters. Charles apparently preferred the hand of his cousin Princess Augusta of Bavaria. It would be five years before the couple would produce an heir.[1]
In 1808, Charles returned to the side of his grandfather. His grandfather's age was beginning to show and Charles became co-regent. Charles was 25 years old when he succeeded his grandfather Charles Frederick upon the latter's death on 11 June 1811.[1]
On 4 October 1817, as neither he nor the other sons from his grandfather's first marriage had surviving male descendants, Charles confirmed the succession rights of his half-uncles from the Hochberg morganatic line, granting each the title, Prince and Margrave of Baden, and the style of Highness. He asked the princely congress in Aachen on 20 November 1818, just weeks before his death, to confirm the succession rights of the sons of Louise Caroline, Countess of Hochberg, morganatic second wife of Grand Duke Charles Frederick.
But this proclamation of Baden's succession evoked international challenges. The Congress of Vienna had, in 1815, recognised the eventual claims of Austria and Bavaria to parts of Baden which it allocated to Charles Frederick in the Upper Palatinate and the Breisgau, anticipating that upon his imminent demise those lands would cease to be part of the Grand Duchy. The disputes were resolved by the Treaty of Frankfurt, 1819, under which Baden ceded a portion of Wertheim, already enclaved within Bavaria, to that Kingdom, whereupon the succession as settled in 1817 was recognized by Bavaria and Austria.
Events that occurred during his reign
The end of Napoleon I's rule and the Congress of Vienna, which confirmed the territorial gains Baden had made during the Napoleonic era.
As Grand Duke Charles did not have any surviving male children, upon his death in Rastatt, he was succeeded by his uncle Louis I. It has been speculated that the foundling Kaspar Hauser was his son, and therefore the actual hereditary prince. Since Kaspar was unmarried and childless when stabbed to death in 1833 his heavily disputed claim reunited with the actual succession then held by Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, since Louis I also died unmarried and childless three years earlier.
The generations indicate descent from Charles Frederick, the first Grand Duke of a united Baden. Only princes notable enough for standalone articles are included. Later generations do not legally hold a title due to the abolition of the monarchy in 1918.
