Duke of Wuerttemberg
| Duchy of Württemberg | ||||||||||
| Herzogtum Württemberg | ||||||||||
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 The Duchy of Württemberg (in yellow) and the other territories of Swabia. This map is an oversimplification since there were about 80 distinct territories within the Circle of Swabia and hundreds of enclaves and exclaves. Published by Mattäus Seutter, circa 1750.
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 Topographical single sheet map of the duchy Württemberg in southern Germany from circa 1619 AD
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| Capital | Stuttgart | |||||||||
| Languages | Swabian German | |||||||||
| Religion |
Roman Catholic Lutheran |
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| Demonym | Württemberger | |||||||||
| Government | Duchy | |||||||||
| Duke of Württemberg | ||||||||||
| • | 1495–1496 | Eberhard I | ||||||||
| • | 1496–1498 | Eberhard II | ||||||||
| • | 1503–1550 | Ulrich I | ||||||||
| • | 1550–1568 | Christoph I | ||||||||
| • | 1568–1593 | Louis III | ||||||||
| • | 1593–1608 | Frederick I | ||||||||
| • | 1608–1628 | John Frederick | ||||||||
| • | 1628–1674 | Eberhard III | ||||||||
| • | 1674–1677 | William I | ||||||||
| Historical era |
Early modern Napoleonic |
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| • | Diet of Worms | 21 July 1495 | ||||||||
| • | Poor Conrad | May 1514 | ||||||||
| • | Made Electorate | 1803 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Germany France
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The Duchy of Württemberg (German: Herzogtum Württemberg) was a duchy located in the south-western part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a member of the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1806. The dukedom's long survival for nearly four centuries was mainly due to its size, being larger than its immediate neighbors. During the Protestant Reformation, Württemberg faced great pressure from the Holy Roman Empire to remain a member. Württemberg resisted repeated French invasions in the 17th and 18th centuries. Württemberg was directly in the path of French and Austrian armies who were engaged in the long rivalry between the House of Bourbon and the House of Habsburg. In 1803, Napoleon raised the duchy to be the Electorate of Württemberg of the Holy Roman Empire. On 1 January 1806, the last Elector assumed the title of King of Württemberg. Later this year, on 6 August 1806, the last Emperor, Francis II, abolished (de facto) the Holy Roman Empire.
Much of the territory of the Duchy of Württemberg lies in the valley of the Neckar river, from Tübingen to Heilbronn, with its capital and largest city, Stuttgart, in the center. The northern part of Württemberg is wide and open, with large rivers making for decent arable land. The southern part of Württemberg is mountainous and wooded, with the Black Forest to the west and the Swabian Alb to the east. The very southeastern part of the Duchy, on the other side of the Swabian Alb, is Ulm and the Danube river basin. The Duchy of Württemberg was over 8,000 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi) of pastures, forests, and rivers. Politically, it was a patchwork of 350 smaller territories governed by many different secular and ecclesiastical landlords. As early as the 14th century, it had dissolved into many districts (called Ämter or Vogteien in German), which originally were called "Steuergemeinde," a "small, taxable community." By 1520, the number of these districts had rose to 45, from 38 in 1442, and would number 58 by the end of the 16th century. These varied in size vastly, with Urach containing 76 outlying villages to Ebingen, which only contained its eponymous town.
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