Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden (* 29 August 1790; † 24 April 1852). 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). ...

Leopold was born as the first son of the second marriage of Margrave Charles Frederick of Baden and his second wife Louise Caroline, born Geyer von Geyersberg. Since the mother was not of equal birth with the father, children of the marriage were deemed incapable to succeed to the princely status and sovereignty of the House of Baden (because the marriage was against the House Laws). The marriage was thus held to be morganatic. The mother eceived the surname and title of Hochberg. The children used that name. The father gained some more lands during the Napoleonic wars in Germany, and was elevated firstly to the title of Elector (Kurfurst) of the Holy Roman Empire and then that of Grand Duke of Baden.

Since there were plenty of descendants from the father's first marriage, no one expected the Hochberg children to have any royal role in Baden. However, the male line of the first marriage began to go extinct in 1810's (only females remaining) and other males lines of the House of Baden had already died out. A male succession seemed impossible to maintain.

Meanwhile, Leopold von Hochberg has acted as an officer in Fench army.

1818 the reigning Grand Duke, Charles, Leopold's great-nephew, having only daughters and an only aging uncle, made a new Succession Law of the House of Baden, altering the status of the children of the second Hochberg marriage. They became full princes and princesses of Baden. Leopold became a hereditary prince of the Grand duchy of Baden. His position was enhanced also by marrying him with Sophia, a granddaughter of his late half-brother, thus aiming to unite the blood of the first marriage to the veins of their future children and producing future heirs with double dose of ancestry in the Baden family.

The next Grand Duke, Louis I (= the aging uncle), died 1830, and Leopold succeeded as the fourth Grand Duke of Baden.

Marriage ad Issue

Leopold married, as explained above, 25 July 1819 Sophie Wilhelmine von Holstein-Gottorp (* 21 May 1801; † 6. July 1865), the eldest daughter of former King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Queen Frederika, who hereslf was daughter of Crown Prince Charles Louis of Baden (Leopold's half-brother) and granddaughter of the first Grand DukeSophia and Leopold had following children. July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... 1819 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... Events January 1 - Legislative union of Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... 1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Gustav IV Adolf (1778-1837), king of Sweden, of the house Holstein-Gottorp, was the son of Gustav III of Sweden and Sophia Magdalena of Denmark, and born at Stockholm on November 1, 1778. ...

• Alexandrine (1820-1904), married with Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1818-93)
• Ludwig (1822-22)
• Louis II of Baden (1824-58), the Grand Duke 1852-58, incapable to reign
• Frederick I of Baden (1826-1907), Grand Duke 1858-1907, Regent 1852-58
• Ludwig Wilhelm August von Baden (1829-97), Prince, Prussian General, ancestor of younger line of princes of Baden, for example father of 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), married Grand duke Michael Nikolayevich of Russia (1832-1902), Governor General in Tbilisi