Jacob, Margrave of Baden-Baden

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Jacob I of Baden (15 March 1407, Hachberg–13 October 1453, Mühlburg), was Margrave of Baden-Baden from 1431 to 1453.

He was the elder son of Bernard I, Margrave of Baden-Baden and Anna von Oettingen. Jacob I was a man of deep religious beliefs, well-known as a founder of churches. He founded the monastery at Fremersberg and was a major benefactor of the Stiftskirche at Baden-Baden.

According his father's precepts, only two of his sons were to be considered heirs of the margravate. Therefore only Karl and Bernhard received a secular education; the other children had a strict religious upbringing. Georg, after making a religious profession in his youth, returned briefly to the world, but in 1454 reverted to holy orders and later became Bishop of Metz.

Jacob I was the opposite of his father; Enea Silvio de Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) characterized him as famous among the Germans for his justice and intelligence.

In his early years he was ruler of the family possessions in Hohenberg, until at the age of 24 he succeeded to the government of Baden. He was described as a pugnacious knight and a frugal father of the state and was popular among the princes as a mediator. Both Emperor Sigismund and Emperor Frederick III, under whom he served, thought highly of him.

When as the result of a miscarriage his sister Agnes fled in the middle of a conflict about inheritance, the Margrave lost his claim to the Duchy of Schleswig. He was so angry that he confined Agnes for the rest of her life in the castle of Alt-Eberstein. (The incident is remembered as the "Double Disaster of Gottorf").

When in 1427 the Treaty of Sponheim came into force, he gained possessions on the Moselle. In 1442 he bought for 30,000 guilders from the descendants of Walter von Geroldseck half the lordship of Lahr and Mahlberg.