Rulers of Baden

Monarchy of Baden
Provincial/State
Royal Coat of arms
Frederick II
Details
Style	His Royal Highness
First monarch	Berthold I (as Count)
Last monarch	Frederick II (as Grand Duke)
Formation	962
Abolition	22 November 1918
Appointer	Hereditary
Pretender(s)	Maximilian (as Margrave)

Baden was a state of the Holy Roman Empire and later one of the German states along the frontier with France primarily consisting of territory along the right bank of the Rhine opposite Alsace and the Palatinate.

The territory evolved out of the Breisgau, an early medieval county in the Duchy of Swabia. A continuous sequence of counts is known since 962; the counts belong to the House of Zähringen. In 1061, the counts first acquired the additional title of margraves of Verona. Even though they lost the March of Verona soon thereafter, they kept the title of margrave. In 1112, the title of Margrave of Baden was first used.

For most of the early modern period, the Margraviate of Baden was divided into two parts, one ruled by the Catholic Margraves of Baden-Baden, and the other by the Protestant Margraves of Baden-Durlach. In 1771, the main Baden-Baden line became extinct, and all of the Baden lands came under the rule of Baden-Durlach. The reunited margraviate existed until 1803.

During the Napoleonic era, in the imperial reorganisation of 1803, Baden gained a great deal of additional territory, and its rulers were made one of the few prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. However, this pre-eminent dignity lasted only for three years, until the end of the Empire in August 1806, eight months after the crushing Battle of Austerlitz, when the Electorate of Baden ceased to exist. Consequently, in that year, the Margraves took on the title of Grand Duke of Baden, and gained additional territory. The Grand Duchy of Baden, within approximately the borders of 1806, continued to exist until the fall of the German monarchies in 1918, when it became a republic.