History of Baden-Württemberg

Philipp the Fair (1478 - 1506), Archduke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy, was the son of the German king Maximilian I. Since 1494 he had ruled over the Habsburgian Netherlands. His trip through Swabia and Franconia was only a small part of a larger voyage. By 1501, he had already departed the Netherlands for Spain, where he remained for two years. On the return trip he intended to seek out his father, King Maximilian, in Innsbruck in the Tirol. Across southern France he reached Savoy. Thereafter he arrived in his ancestral Burgundy and finally, via Belfort, into Habsburgian Alsace, where he found himself on 22 August in Ensisheim, the seat of government at that time.

It was a mighty procession of about 250 people and 400 horses and mules. Thus it was not always easy to find lodgings for them all. Only in "good, large cities" could the entourage remain together. A Netherlandish noble from Philipp's retinue left a report. He enjoyed comparing all of the cities visited with the cities of his homeland.

"On Wednesday, (23 August) my Lord went to Breisach, 3 miles (1 of these miles equaled about 15 kilometers or about 9 of today's English miles) from there, through beautiful and good land and crossed the Rhine on a 400-pace long wooden bridge. A city the size of Nivelles (a city in Flanders) would fit onto a mountain and into a valley. It is the first city of the Breisgau..."

"On Thursday, the 24th (August) my Lord took lodging at Freiburg in the Breisgau... a good city, very pretty, full of springs, lying in a beautiful and fertile land ... where he was received with crosses and flags.... In the neighborhood of Freiburg one finds the jasper, from which rosaries are made."

After this Habsburgian town the next station was Neustadt (26 August). "This town belongs to the Count of Fürstenberg, who paid the expenses there for my Lord and his entire retinue, men and horses." There were 600 troopers there for the welcoming.

"On Sunday (27 August), the forementioned troopers escorted my Lord for one mile, for there was the border of Switzerland, and he billeted three miles from Neustadt in Villingen ... belonging to the Duke of Austria, from which 120 - 140 well armed and equipped men came out to meet him and to him.... made a gift of wine, fish and oats according to the custom of the country."

On 28 August, he arrived in the Württembergish town of Tuttlingen... "lying on the Danube, which river in contrast to all others flows to the Levant (east), and has its origin and beginning in a source 3 miles from Tuttlingen at the foot of the Black Forest and on the borders of the Swiss." Switzerland is mentioned again, and surely because the Habsburgs could swallow only with difficulty that the little Swiss nation had decisively shaken off Habsburg rule only a few years before.

"On Tuesday (29 August), my Lord took lodging three miles from Tuttlingen in Sigmaringen in the Danube district. The city lies below, and the castle above on a mountain, they are of the size of Hal (city in Brabant). The Duke of Württemberg, the lord of the place, hosted my Lord there quite festively, and paid for the accommodation of all his knights." One cannot blame the reporter, a stranger in the land, for mixing up Württemberg with Werdenberg. It must have been the Count of Werdenberg. The city had belonged to the Werdenbergs for over 100 years.

The next two stations were once again Austrian possessions: the cities of Riedlingen (30 August) and Ehingen (31 August) "in a very beautiful country, full of grain, woods and meadows."

On 1 September, Philipp the Fair took "shelter in the good and strong imperial city of Ulm, the best armed city known ... and it is said that it is one of the richest cities of Germany, and there is a beautiful, high and gigantic church of Our Beloved Lady. They gave my Lord 2 wagon loads of wine, five wagon loads of oats and a large quantity of fish. Receiving him, there was in this place the Duke of Württemberg with a large retinue." This time it was really Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, who had no idea that 20 years later Philipp's son Ferdinand would temporarily take up residence in Stuttgart as regent, and he himself would be exiled from his land.
A great dance festival was described in detail, and Philipp did not move on until 4 September. Via Augsburg, where the Duke of Württemberg appeared again, and other places, he finally arrived in Innsbruck on 13 September.

By the beginning of October, he was with his father Maximilian and then traveled through Swabia, Franconia and the Rhineland back to Brussels (November 1503). On 16 and 17 October he stopped in, among other places, Stuttgart, "a fairly nice city ... in a valley between mountains, full of vineyards, and it is very dirty and badly paved.'

The Electorate Palatine was also on the route as Philipp the Fair continued his homeward journey from Stuttgart. Before he arrived at the residence of the Count Palatine in Heidelberg on 20 October, he stayed with the Margrave of Baden in Pforzheim, then in Bruchsal, which belonged to the Bishop of Speyer. The court in Heidelberg made a big impression: "The Count Palatine, to whom the city belonged, has there a residence in a very beautiful castle on a hilltop in the city, a very beautiful and strong place that surrounded four groups of buildings, all of freestone and roofed with slate. Each building would be sufficient to accommodate a very great king..."

The Electorate Palatine was not, like Anterior Austria, the neighboring land of a ruling family. In spite of that, it was quite an unconnected creation. On his travel to Cologne "rushing along on the Rhine current," Philipp the Fair touched upon various territories: the Free Imperial City of Worms, also the seat of the Bishop of Worms, the Palatinish Oppenheim, the episcopal city of Mainz and finally Bacharach, another Palatine city. Among other things, there lay in the middle of the current the "Palatine Kaub" (Pfalzgrafenstein), an important customs station of the Counts Palatine.

Along this prince's route we recognize the European importance and interlacing of the House of Habsburg that prevailed shortly before its rise as a world power. What were the Margrave of Baden and the Dukes of Württemberg in comparison with such a power? And despite that, in the fragmented German southwest, the Habsburgs were obliged to respect many other lords and free cities. And things remained in this complexity up to the beginning of the 19th century.
Just as Anterior Austria in the south, the Electorate Palatine in the north was constantly in conflict with the Margraviate of Baden and with Württemberg. Between 1462 and 1504 it came to serious military conflicts.

In the year 1462, it particularly heated up. In a war between the emperor and the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach on one side and Bavaria and the Electorate Palatine on the other side, Count Ulrich of Württemberg and Margrave Karl of Baden were on the side of the emperor. Ulrich and Karl and his cousin, the Bishop of Metz, countered an incursion by the Count Palatine up to the area around Stuttgart with a vengeful campaign on the lower Neckar by Heidelberg. Near Seckenheim on 30 June the slaughter began. The Count Palatine was victorious, and the three lords with their companions were taken into captivity. For a year, Count Ulrich of Württemberg and Margrave Karl of Baden remained in the Heidelberg castle, imprisoned like criminals, sometimes even in chains. The Count Palatine had them pay dearly for their freedom with money and sovereign authority. The Württemberger had to mortgage Bottwar and Waiblingen, almost even Stuttgart, as well as to transform the city and district of Marbach into a Palatine fiefdom.

About 40 years later, in 1504, Duke Ulrich avenged himself for the fall of Seckenheim and plundered the Maulbronn monastery.