Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden

Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden (February 14, 1755 – December 16, 1801) was heir apparent of the Margraviate of Baden. He was born in Karlsruhe.

He was the son of Margrave Charles Frederick (who in 1803, after Charles Louis's death, became the elector and in 1806 the first Grand Duke of Baden) and Landgravine Karoline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt (July 11, 1723 - April 8, 1783), the daughter of Landgrave Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt.

He was an ancestor of Franz Joseph I of Austria, Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), Lord Mountbatten and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, among others.

Marriage and issue

Charles Louis married his first cousin Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt (June 20, 1754 – July 21, 1832, on July 15, 1774). She was the daughter of Landgrave Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt.

They had eight children:

• Amalie (July 13, 1776 – October 26, 1823)
• Karoline (July 13, 1776 – November 13, 1841) married on March 9, 1797 the then Count Palatine Maximilian of Zweibrücken (May 27, 1756 – October 13, 1825 as his second wife (and became maternal grandmother of Empress Sisi and her husband Franz Joseph I of Austria). In 1799 her husband became Elector Palatine and Elector of Bavaria, and in 1804 King of Bavaria (her titles accordingly being Duchess, then Electress, then Queen).
• Louise (January 24, 1779 – May 16, 1826) married on October 9, 1793 Tsar Alexander I of Russia (December 23, 1777 – December 1, 1825).
• Frederica (March 12, 1781 – September 25, 1826) married on October 31, 1797 King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. They divorced in 1812.
• Marie (September 7, 1782 – April 29, 1808) married on November 1, 1802 Duke Frederick William of Brunswick (October 9, 1771 – June 16, 1815).
• Charles Frederick (September 13, 1784 – March 1, 1785)
• Charles, the future 2nd Grand Duke of Baden (June 8, 1786 in Karlsruhe – December 8, 1818 in Rastatt) married on April 8, 1806 Stéphanie de Beauharnais (August 28, 1789 – January 29, 1860).
• Wilhelmina (September 10, 1788 – January 27, 1836) married on June 19, 1804 her first cousin Grand Duke Grand Duke Louis II of Hesse (December 26, 1777 – June 16, 1848) and was great-grandmother of both Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse).

Works of history mention that his children succeeded well in marriage market and that the Hereditary Prince was the force behind that. At the time of his death in Arboga, Sweden (which occurred during the visit to his fourth daughter, the Queen of Sweden), two of his other daughters were, respectively, Electress of Bavaria and the newly ascended Empress of Russia.

Ancestry