by Johan
Dynasty: House of Württemberg
Capital: Stuttgart
Last Ruler: King William II (1848-1921) ruled 1891-1918
Official residences: Ludwigsburg Palace, New Schloss, Old Schloss, Wilhelmspalais, Schloss Friederichshafen, etc.
Württemberg in Southern Germany benefited from the Mediatisation that happened at the beginning of the 19th century. The Kings of Württemberg already had a long rule that started in the year 1089 when Conrad I became the Count of Württemberg. The family steadily increased it’s holdings till by 1806 the country became a Kingdom.
Württemberg at first joined Napoleon as an ally but by 1813 had turned against him, which meant that Württemberg didn’t lose as much territory at the peace table like states like Saxony lost.
The 1st King was King Frederick I (1754-1816) who ruled since 1797. After taking the title of King, he raised his children to the title of Prince & Princess whilst the rest of his family kept the title of Duke & Duchess of Württemberg. He was 211cms (6ft 11in) tall and obese whereas his contemporary, Napoleon Bonaparte was only 169cm tall. Frederick was married twice; firstly (1780) to Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbutel, a niece of King George III of England, who died in 1788 from complications after the birth of an illegitimate child. He later married her cousin Princess Charlotte, daughter of King George III. Frederick’s sister, Sophie, married Tsar Paul of Russia and is an ancestor of a lot of European Royalty (including Prince Charles of Wales, Queen Sophia of Spain, Queen Margarethe of Denmark, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany).
His daughter Catharina (1783-1835) was married to Prince Jerome Bonaparte and their descendants are the main Bonaparte claimant since the death of Napoleon III’s son. Her brother William (1781-1864) succeeded their father in 1817. William was married 3 times and had a total of 5 children from his last 2 marriages. His daughter Sophie (1818-1877 – from his 2nd marriage to his cousin Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna 1788-1818 of Russia) was married to King William III of the Netherlands, and his son and heir Charles (1823-1891) was from his 3rd marriage to his cousin Duchess Pauline (1800-1873) of Württemberg.
Another Russian connection came in 1846 when King Charles married Grand Duchess Olga, daughter of Tsar Nicholas I. They didn’t have children (maybe due to the rumour of the King’s homosexuality). One of the King’s reported lovers was an American, Charles Woodcock, who was created Baron Savage. In 1870 they adopted Olga’s niece, Vera (daughter of Grand Duke Constantine, and sister of Queen Olga of Greece).
Charles was succeeded in 1891 by King William II (1848-1921). He was the son of Charles’s sister who was married to a male line grandson of King Frederick of Württemberg. William was married twice, but only one daughter from his first marriage survived into adulthood. William served as a senior army officer during World War I, and to his surprise, he (along with all the other reigning nobles of Germany) was deposed at the end of 1918.
After William died in 1921, the next heir was his distant Catholic cousin, Duke Albrecht of Württemberg (1865-1939). His grandmother Princess Marie was a daughter of King Louis Philippe of France, and his great-grandmother was Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (aunt of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom). Albrecht was able to inherit these rights due to the morganatic marriage of the Dukes of Urach and the Duke of Teck (ancestors of Queen Mary, wife of King George V of the United Kingdom). Charles married in 1893 Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria (1870-1902), sister of the ill-fated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and aunt of the last Austrian Emperor Charles I. She died in Gmunden in Austria where the Württemberg and Hanover families had properties and where Emperor Franz Joseph visited them yearly at the beginning of summer.
After they were deposed the family was able to keep Schloss Altshausen and Schloss Friedrichshaven. Other properties like the New Schloss and Ludwigsburg Palace were turned over to the state.
The next heir was their son Duke Phillip Albrecht(1893-1975). Phillip Albrecht was married twice, to 2 sisters. His first wife, Archduchess Helena of the Tuscan branch (1903-1924) died shortly after giving birth to their only child and daughter. Phillip contracted a 2nd marriage with her sister, Rosa (1906-1983) and had 6 children.
The oldest son, Duke Ludwig (born 1930) married morganatically and his younger brother, Duke Carl (born 1936) became the next heir and is the current head of the family. Carl and his sister Duchess Marie (born 1934) married the Bourbon-Orleans siblings. (The Bourbon-Orleans dynasty ruled in France from 1830-1848) Marie married (and divorced) the current head of the Bourbon-Orleans family, Henri (b 1933), and Carl married Princess Diane of Bourbon-Orleans and they have 6 children.
The oldest son and heir, Friedrich (b 1961) married, in 1993, Princess Wilhelmine of Wied (b 1973). They have 1 son and 2 daughters securing the succession for the next generation. Wilhelmine is a great-granddaughter of Princess Pauline (1877-1965) of Württemberg, the only daughter of King William II of Württemberg, thereby reintroducing the senior bloodline into the family.