European Kingdoms

Württemberg

During the general collapse of East Francia, or Germany, in the twelfth century, Swabia's dissolution left the way clear for its main successors to emerge from the shadows. Württemberg and Baden grew to encompass most of Swabia's former territory.

The collapse of Swabia was effectively triggered by the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. Duke Frederick II of Swabia put himself forward as a candidate for the imperial title but was defeated by the successful election of Lothar II. Conflict erupted between the two, and the rivalry had a destabilising effect on Germany as a whole and Swabia in particular. In 1137 the county of Württemberg was formed in western central Swabia as another step towards the total disintegration of the duchy during the general political crisis, although it took a further century to complete the process.

County of Württemberg
AD 1137 - 1495

(Additional information from Ulwencreutz's The Royal Families in Europe V, Lars Ulwencreutz.)

1137 - 1181

1137 - 1154

1181 - 1201

1201 - 1228

1228 - 1241

1241 - 1265

1265 - 1279

1279 - 1325

1313

With the death of John Parricide, any claim to the former Swabian duchy dies with him. Large areas of its territory have already gone to the established county of Württemberg and the margraviate of Baden. Territory formerly belonging to the Alemanni people also later forms parts of Austria (Vorarlberg), France (Alsace) and Switzerland, as well as the Bavarian Swabia region of Bavaria.

1325 - 1344

1344 - 1392

Acted as regent for John I of Lorraine, his future son-in-law.

1344 - 1366

1392 - 1417

1417 - 1419

Son.

1419 - 1441

Urach. d.1450.

1419 - 1480

1457 - 1496

Urach. Became Duke Eberhard I.

1480 - 1495

Became Duke Eberhard II.

Duchy of Württemberg
AD 1495 - 1806

(Additional information from Ulwencreutz's The Royal Families in Europe V, Lars Ulwencreutz.)

1495 - 1496

Formerly Count Eberhard V.

1496 - 1498

Formerly Count Eberhard VI. d.1504.

1498 - 1519

1519 - 1534

1525

The monastic state of the Teutonic Knights is secularised during the Protestant Reformation and replaced with a duchy in eastern East Prussia. The new master of the Knights moves the headquarters to Bad Mergentheim in the northernmost tip of the duchy of Württemberg.

Introduced in 1560, the system of imperial states replaced the now-outdated feudal system, with an imperial circle ('reichskreis') being a regional grouping of the imperial states (click or tap on map to view full sized)

1534 - 1550

Restored?

1550 - 1568

1568 - 1593

1593 - 1608

1608 - 1628

1628 - 1674

1674 - 1677

1677 - 1733

1733 - 1737

1737 - 1793

1780

The future Duke Frederick III marries Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel on 15 October 1780 at Brunswick. Augusta is the maternal great-granddaughter of King George II of Great Britain and Hanover.

1793 - 1795

1795 - 1797

1797 - 1806

Elector (1803). Became King Frederick.

Kingdom of Württemberg
AD 1806 - 1918

The duchy was elevated to a kingdom by France's Napoleon Bonaparte when it joined his Confederation of the Rhine. Thanks to the marriage between Frederick and Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1780, their children, including the future William I, were direct descendants of King George II of Great Britain and Hanover.

(Additional information from Ulwencreutz's The Royal Families in Europe V, Lars Ulwencreutz,and from The First World War, John Keegan (Vintage Books, 2000).)

1806 - 1816

First king of Württemberg. Formerly Duke Frederick III.

1806 - 1817

Duke.

1816 - 1864

Son of Frederick.

1836

The younger brother of William I is Prince Paul of Württemberg. Prior to his marriage in 1805, Paul has a mistress named Friederike Porth by whom he fathers an illegitimate daughter named Karolina von Rothenburg (born 1805, shortly after her father's marriage). Despite his marriage, the child grows up around her father and finds a supportive and loving uncle in William I.

In 1836, Karolina falls pregnant by Karl, Baron (Freiherr) von Pfeffel of Bavaria. Paul is the one to make arrangements behind the scenes to ensure that his daughter receives a wedding which takes place before important dignitaries in the private chapel of the Bishop's Palace in Augsburg. The great-great-great-grandson of this union is Boris Johnson, mayor of London (2008-2012). This also makes him a direct (if illegitimate) descendant of George II of Great Britain and Hanover (as backed up by the BBC television series, Who Do You Think You Are).

Following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte 1814, the Congress of Vienna took on board much of his vital restructuring of the German principalities, with the result that a map of the new Confederation of German States in 1815-1817 looked very different to maps of the previous century (click or tap on map to view full sized)

1864 - 1891

1871

Württemberg becomes a sub-kingdom in Prussia's German empire.

1891 - 1918

Died 1921.

1918

Wilhelm of Urach, a member of the royal house, is briefly elected king of Lithuania in the hope that this will bring about a form of independence. Instead, Germany's collapse in 1918 brings about the creation of a republic. Worse still for Württemberg, all German monarchies are abolished upon the defeat of the German empire at the end of the First World War. Württemberg becomes a constituent part of the new federal Germany and its future fortunes would be tied to this new political creation.