Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden (29 August 1790 –24 April 1852) succeeded in 1830 as the fourth Grand Duke of Baden. August 29 is the 241st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (242nd in leap years), with 124 days remaining. ... 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Baden was a territory in the southwest of what later became unified Germany. ...

Although a younger child, Leopold was the first son of Margrave Karl Friederich of Baden by his second wife Luise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg. Since Luise Karoline was not of equal birth with the Margrave, the marriage was deemed morganatic and the resulting children were incapable of inheriting their father's princely status or the sovereign rights of the Zähringen House of Baden. Luise Karoline and her children were given the titles of count or countess of Hochberg. Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden (November 22, 1728 in Karlsruhe--June 10, 1811 in Karlsruhe) was the son of Margrave Friedrich of Baden and Anna of Nassau-Dietz-Orange (October 13, 1710--September 17, 1777), the daughter of William Friso of Nassau-Dietz-Orange. ... A morganatic marriage is a type of marriage which can be contracted in certain countries, usually between persons of unequal social rank (unebenbürtig in German), which prevents the passage of the husbands titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage. ... Zähringen is the name of an old and influential German noble family, taken from the castle and village of that name. ... Baden was a state in the southwest of Germany, primarily consisting of territory along the right bank of the Rhine opposite Alsace and the Palatinate. ...

Baden gained territory during the Napoleonic Wars. As a result, Margrave Karl Friederich was elevated to the title of Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire (Kurfurst). With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, he took the title Grand Duke of Baden. Combatants Allies: • Great Britain (until 1801)/United Kingdom(from 1801) • Prussia • Austria • Sweden • Russia • Portugal • Spain • and others • France • Denmark-Norway • Poland Casualties Full list The Napoleonic Wars comprised a series of global conflicts fought during Napoleon Bonapartes rule over France (1799 - 1815). ... The prince-electors or electoral princes of the Holy Roman Empire — German: Kurfürst (singular) Kurfürsten (plural) — were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Emperors of Germany. ... The Holy Roman Empire and from the 16th century on also The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was a political conglomeration of lands in Central Europe in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. ... A grand duchy is a territory whose head of state is a Grand Duke or Grand Duchess. ...

The Hochberg heir

Since there were plenty of descendants from Karl Friederich's first marriage to Karoline of Hesse-Darmstadt, no one expected the Hochberg children of his second wife to be anything except a family of counts with blood ties to the grand ducal family but no dynastic rights. With no prospects of advancement in Baden, Leopold von Hochberg followed a career as an officer in the French army.

Starting in 1817, events resulted in a dramatic change in the situation of the Hochberg children when it became apparent that the Baden male line descended from Karl Friederich's first wife would die out. One by one, the males of the House of Baden died without leaving male descendants. By 1817, there were only two males left, the reigning Grand Duke Karl I and his childless uncle Ludwig. Both of Karl's sons died in infancy. The dynasty faced a serious succession problem. ... ...

A series of agreements provided that Baden would be inherited by the Wittelsbach kings of Bavaria at the extinction of the Zähringen male line in Baden. King Maximilian I of Bavaria was married to Grand Duke Karl's oldest sister, Katharina Karoline. The female most closely related to the last male often inherited in such circumstances (sometimes called Semi-Salic succession). As a result, Maximilian had a strong claim to Baden under the normal rules of inheritance and various agreements added weight to his claims. Following the Congress of Vienna, a treaty of April 16, 1816 between Bavaria and Austria secured the Wittelsbach rights to Baden. The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria. ... The Free State of Bavaria  (German: Freistaat Bayern), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria. ... The King of the Franks, in the midst of the Military Chiefs who formed his Treuste, or armed Court, dictates the Salic Law (Code of the Barbaric Laws). ... The Congress of Vienna by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1819. ...

To save his dynasty from extinction, Grand Duke Karl needed to find a way to preserve the Zähringen line. Granting succession rights to his half-uncles seemed the ideal solution. Accordingly, in 1817 Karl issued a new succession law under which the children of the Hochberg marriage became princes and princesses of Baden with full dynastic rights. Leopold von Hochberg became His Grand Ducal Highness, Prince Leopold of Baden and second-in-line to the throne after his remaining half-brother, Ludwig.

In 1818, Karl granted a liberal constitution to the people of Baden. This constitution ensured the succession rights of the offspring of Luise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg. Finally, on July 10, 1819, a few months after Karl's death, the great powers (Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia) joined with Bavaria and Baden in the Treaty of Frankfurt which recognized the succession rights of the former Hockberg morganatic line. Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 Prussia (German: ; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Lithuanian: ; Polish: ; Old Prussian: Prūsa) was, most recently, a historic state originating in East Prussia, an area which for centuries had substantial influence on German and European history. ...

After Grand Duke Karl died on December 8, 1818, his full-uncle (the son of Karl Friederich's first marriage) succeeded as Ludwig I. To further improve the status of his half-brother and heir, Ludwig arranged for the new Prince Leopold to marry his great-niece, Sophia, daughter of former King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden by Grand Duke Karl's sister, Frederica. As a granddaughter of Leopold's oldest half-brother, Karl Ludwig this marriage united the descendants of his father, Grand Duke Karl Friederich's, two wives. Sophia's undoubted royal blood would help to offset the stigma of Leopold's morganatic birth. ... Gustav IV Adolf (November 1, 1778 – February 7, 1837), was King of Sweden from 1792 until his abdication in 1809. ... Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden (March 1781 - 1826) was Queen consort of Sweden from 1797 to 1809. ... Karl Ludwig of Baden (February 14, 1755 in Karlsruhe--December 16, 1801 in Arboga, Sweden) was Margrave of Baden. ...

When Grand Duke Ludwig died on March 30, 1830, he was the last male of the House of Baden not descended from the morganatic marriage of Karl Friederich and Luise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg. The former morganatic child Leopold von Hochberg, recently raised to princely rank, now succeeded as the fourth Grand Duke of Baden. March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in leap years). ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Marriage and issue

On 25 July 1819, Leopold married his (half) great-niece Sophie of Sweden (* 21 May 1801; † 6 July 1865), the eldest daughter of the former King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Queen Frederika, who herself was a daughter of Hereditary Grand Duke Karl Ludwig of Baden (Leopold's half-brother). July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... 1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Princess Sophie of Sweden (Swedish: ), sometimes called Sofia Wilhelmina of Vasa (May 21, 1801 - July 6, 1865), was a Princess of Sweden. ... May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Gustav IV Adolf (November 1, 1778 – February 7, 1837), was King of Sweden from 1792 until his abdication in 1809. ... Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden (March 1781 - 1826) was Queen consort of Sweden from 1797 to 1809. ... Karl Ludwig of Baden (February 14, 1755 in Karlsruhe--December 16, 1801 in Arboga, Sweden) was Margrave of Baden. ...

Sophia and Leopold had the following children.

• Alexandrine (1820-1904), married Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1818-93), childless marriage due to which Ernest's later brother Albert's British issue succeeded in that duchy, divorced.
• Ludwig (1822-22)
• Ludwig II (1824-58), reigned as Grand Duke 1852-58, deemed mentally unfit to rule
• Friedrich I (1826-1907), Grand Duke 1858-1907, Regent 1852-58
• Ludwig Wilhelm August von Baden (1829-97), Prince, Prussian General, ancestor of the younger line of princes of Baden and father of Prince Max of Baden, German Chancellor, and later the heir of Grand Duchy
• Karl (1832-1906), married Rosalie von Beust (morganatic)
• Marie (1834-99), married Prince Ernest of Leiningen (1830-1904)
• Cecilie (1839-91), known as Olga Fedorovna, married Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia (1832-1902), Governor General in Tbilisi