List of Rulers of Baden

List Of Rulers Of Baden

Baden was a state of the Holy Roman Empire and later one of the German states along the frontier with France primarily consisting of territory along the right bank of the Rhine opposite Alsace and the Palatinate.

The territory evolved out of the Breisgau, an early medieval county in the Duchy of Swabia. A continuous sequence of counts is known since 962; the counts belong to the House of Zähringen. In 1061, the counts first acquired the additional title of margraves of Verona. Even though they lost the March of Verona soon thereafter, they kept the title of margrave. In 1112, the title of Margrave of Baden was first used.

For most of the early modern period, the Baden lands were divided into two parts, one ruled by the Catholic Margraves of Baden-Baden, and the other by the Protestant Margraves of Baden-Durlach. In 1771, the main Baden-Baden line became extinct, and all of the Baden lands came under the rule of Baden-Durlach.

During the Napoleonic era, in the imperial reorganisation of 1803, Baden gained a great deal of additional territory, and its rulers were made one of the few prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. However, this pre-eminent dignity lasted only for three years, until the end of the Empire in August 1806, eight months after the crushing Battle of Austerlitz. Consequently, in that year, the Margraves took on the title of Grand Duke of Baden, and gained additional territory. The Grand Duchy, within approximately the borders of 1806, continued to exist until the fall of the German monarchies in 1918, when it became a republic.