Louis William | |
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Margrave of Baden-Baden | |
Portrait in 1705
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Spouse(s) | Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg |
Issue | |
Noble family | House of Zähringen |
Father | Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden |
Mother | Louise of Savoy |
Born |
Hôtel de Soissons, Paris, France |
8 April 1655
Died | 4 January 1707 Schloss Rastatt, Germany |
(aged 51)
Buried | Stiftskirche, Baden-Baden |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden (8 April 1655 – 4 January 1707) was the ruling Margrave of Baden-Baden in Germany and chief commander of the Imperial army. He was also known as Türkenlouis ("Turkish Louis") for his many defeats of Turkish armies. After his death in 1707, his wife, Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, acted as regent of Baden-Baden during the minority of his eldest son, who succeeded him as Margrave of Baden-Baden.
Born in Paris, Louis was a son of Hereditary Prince Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden and his French wife, Louise of Savoy. His godfather was Louis XIV of France. His father was the elder son of Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden, whom he pre-deceased, leaving Louis to succeed as reigning Margrave of Baden-Baden and head of the Catholic branch of the House of Zähringen.
His mother's brother was the Count of Soissons, father of the renowned general Prince Eugene of Savoy, in whose military shadow Louis would live and fight, although the cousins would also be allied in service to the Holy Roman Emperor against the French. His parents being estranged, he was kidnapped as a child from his mother's home in Paris and re-patriated to Germany, where he was raised by his paternal step-grandmother.
Louis William served first under Raimondo Montecuccoli against Turenne, and then under the duke of Lorraine. At the siege of Vienna by the Turks, in 1683, he threw his forces into the city, and by a brilliant sally effected a junction with King Sobieski and the Duke of Lorraine, who had come to its relief. In 1689 he defeated the Turks at Nis.