The Congress of Vienna had, in 1815, recognised the eventual claims of Austria and Bavaria to parts of Baden which it allocated to Charles Frederick in the Upper Palatinate and the Breisgau, anticipating that upon his imminent demise those lands would cease to be part of the Grand Duchy. He asked the princely congress in Aachen on 20 November 1818, just weeks before his death, to confirm the succession rights of the sons of Louise Caroline.īut this proclamation of Baden's succession evoked international challenges. On 4 October 1817, as neither he nor the other sons from his grandfather's first marriage had surviving male descendants, Charles confirmed the succession rights of his half-uncles, granting each the title, Prince and Margrave of Baden, and the style of Highness.
This act was, yet again, signed by all other males of the House of Baden (i.e., his three eldest sons), but was not promulgated.Ĭharles Frederick died in 1811 and was succeeded (his eldest son being already deceased) by his grandson, Charles, Grand Duke of Baden. On 10 September 1806, after the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire and assumption of the fully sovereign title Grand Duke of Baden, Charles Frederick confirmed the dynastic status of the sons of his second marriage. But in 1799 Louise's sons were granted the title of Imperial Counts von Hochberg (retroactive to 1796).
The Margrave further declared that his marriage to their mother must "in no way be seen as morganatic, but rather as a true equal marriage", although the daughters remained baronesses and the sons were only assigned the title Count von Hochberg at that time. Sons' inheritance Īlthough Louise Caroline's children were not initially legally recognised as of dynastic rank, on 20 February 1796 their father clarified in writing (subsequently co-signed by his elder sons) that the couple's sons were eligible to succeed to the margravial throne in order of male primogeniture after extinction of the male issue of his first marriage, who were by then the only remaining dynasts of the House of Baden. She never obtained the rank of an Imperial princess, nor that of Margravine, the title borne by Charles Frederick's first wife. In July 1799 letters patent were issued by the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, of retroactive effect to, elevating her to the Imperial title Countess of Hochberg. In the same proclamation, co-signed by the three sons of his first marriage, he reserved decision on the title and succession rights of sons to be born of the marriage. Following the wedding, the Margrave declared that his wife would bear the title of Baroness von Hochberg. Marriage to Margrave Charles Frederick Īlthough referred to at the wedding on 24 November 1787 by the title "Baroness Geyer von Geyersberg" by her fiance, her marriage to the Margrave Charles Frederick, who had been widowed since 1783, was at the time deemed morganatic because she was regarded as of unequal rank to the prince. Later she attended the court of Baden-Durlach as a lady in waiting to the Hereditary Princess Amalie. Louise Caroline attended a private school in Colmar. Nonetheless, prior to Louise Caroline's marriage, written references to her at the court of Baden omit any baronial title. While in the service of Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg his son, Christian Heinrich, self-assumed the title of baron in 1729, having married Christiane von Thummel the previous year. Sometime after 1675 Louise Caroline's great-grandfather, Christophe Ferdinand, substituted a more aristocratic version of the surname, "Geyer von Geyersberg". In 1625 Emperor Ferdinand II authorised them to add the noble suffix "von Geyersberg". Louise Caroline descends from a family of Lower Austria surnamed Geiger Walther Geiger, a postal administrator in Vienna, being ennobled in the Holy Roman Empire, along with some collateral relatives, in 1595. The latter was the niece-in-law of Leopold Eberhard, Duke of Württemberg-Montbéliard. 2 Marriage to Margrave Charles FrederickĬountess Louise Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg was the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Heinrich Philip Geyer von Geyersberg (1729-1772) and his wife, Countess Maximiliana Hedwiger von Sponeck.