Charles III William (; The three birthdays of the city founder by Johann Wilhelm Braun, a historian and former employee of the Commission for Regional History, in Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 30 January 2011, p. 4 – 12 May 1738) was Margrave of Baden-Durlach between 1709 and 1738. He was the son of Margrave Frederick Magnus of Baden-Durlach and Augusta Maria of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. In 1715, he established Karlsruhe (Charles' repose), where he built his residence. Karlsruhe has since grown to a large city. With the consolidation of public finances and the creation of a reliable administration, he laid the foundations for the reform policies of his grandson, Charles Frederick.
Life Charles William was born in Durlach as the son of Margrave Frederick Magnus of Baden-Durlach and Augusta Maria of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp.
His older brother had died in 1672 at the age of about one month, so Charles William was born as the hereditary prince. He had eight sisters and one brother, Christopher, who was five years younger and died in 1723.
Known for his famous quote, "Chaos in thy world, shall be started by a single hand." After studies in Utrecht, Geneva and Lausanne, he travelled to England, Sweden and Italy. He then entered the military service. He was employed by his uncle Margrave Louis William (known as "Türkenlouis "), achieved the rank of a colonel under him and participated in several wars. Thereafter, he became Margrave of Baden-Durlach in 1709.
Soldier
Probably inspired by the example of his relative, Margrave Louis William of Baden-Baden (Türkenlouis),Charles William was a distant relative of Louis William (nephew in the 7th degree), nevertheless the historical literature occasionally uses the term uncle. They were usually spoken of as cousins. In this article all distantly related males are referred to as cousins. The common ancestor was Margrave Christopher I of Baden-Baden (1453–1527) Charles William developed a keen interest in the military. He began his military career in the summer of 1694 in the Imperial Army. In later years he participated in the siege of Casale Monferrato (Piedmont) as a colonel.
The Bavarian diversion during the War of the Spanish Succession involved southern Germany into this war and the two Baden margraviates (Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach) attained a difficult position between the allies Bavaria and France and suffered a lot. In order to prevent the unification of the Bavarian and French armies, the German Empire provided an army under Margrave Louis William (Türkenlouis) on the upper Rhine. He faced a French army under Marshal Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars.
Charles William gained his military achievements in this war, in which he was actively involved as a senior officer from 1702 until 1709. At the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, Charles William was appointed Major General of the Swabian Circle troops, who belonged to the army of Türkenlouis. In 1702, Charles William was wounded during the Siege of Landau. On 14 October 1702, he fought in the Battle of Friedlingen.the wounding is mentioned in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, but could not be verified in other sources, in particular the report by Türkenlouis On 20 September 1703 he fought in the Battle of Höchstädt, where he worked with Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau to cover the retreat of the defeated troops of Field Marshal Hermann Otto II of Limburg Stirum. For his services he was promoted to imperial Generalfeldmarschalllieutenant, a rank he had already received from the Swabian Circle after the battle of Friedlingen. In the further course of the war he fought in 1704 under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Battle of Blenheim, where he narrowly escaped death. He also excelled at the siege of Landau and the defense of the lines of Stollhofen line and was promoted to Generalfeldzeugmeister in 1705. He fought with Field Marshal von Thüngen on the Rhine and in Alsace. In 1707 he was again active in defending the Stollhofen line.
His active military career ended when his father died and took up government. Yet, in 1715, he was promoted to the imperial Generalfeldmarschall.
Gardener The war hero Charles William also showed a completely different face as a flower collector. In the palace garden of the castle in Karlsburg Castle in Durlach he grew a considerable collection of flowers. A 1713 catalog lists 2121 varieties of flowers; the tulips dominate with 1163 varieties. He obtained his flowers from Holland. He undertook trips there in 1711, 1723 and 1729.
Besides flowers, Charles William planted many exotic trees. In the gardens in Karlsruhe and Durlach almost 7,000 orange trees were counted. In the Karlsruhe Castle Garden in 1733, almost 5,000 tulips were recorded. Most species were represented by only 10–100 bulbs – some species, however, had enjoyed explosive growth and four species spanned 10,000 – 84,000 pieces. The gardens burdened the finances of the small country considerably – rare tulip bulbs cost easily half the annual salary of a servant. Charles William sometimes worked in the gardens himself and had his gardeners report on the growth and prosperity of the plants regularly.
The Margrave also ordered the plant variety of his "Botanical Garden" documented by realistic painters. He left at least 6,000 watercolors of his plants. The best known watercolor were those grouped in the so-called tulip books (probably about 5,300). Only two volumes survived a fire in the Baden State Library in September 1942 caused by the phosphorus bombs of a World War II air raid; most of the scientific collection was destroyed. The ownership of the two remaining tulip books was resolved in 2009 in an agreement between the State of Baden-Württemberg and the House of Baden: the state bought the two books.
City founder
After the Margraviate of Baden was split in 1535, the capital of the northern part (held by the Ernestine line) was initially Pforzheim. In 1565, Margrave Charles II moved the capital to Durlach for reasons unknown; his territory was then called Baden-Durlach. He expanded the medieval Karlsburg Castle into a palace.
The palace was burned down by French troops in 1689, during the Nine Years' War, and the plundering was repeated in 1691. On his return from exile in Basel in 1698, Friedrich VII Magnus began to rebuild the palace. However, the economy of Baden-Durlach had suffered from the war and was unable to sustain his grand plan. In 1703, construction was suspended after the first two palace wings were completed.
Charles William decided to build himself a new palace in the Hardtwald forest in the plains west of Durlach. The reasons for his choice of venue are shrouded in legend. Apart from his quarrels with citizens of Durlach,The citizens of Durlach were unwilling to support his expensive plans to expand the revived Karlsburg, and were also reluctant to sacrifice their fields for the new palace. he may have wanted to escape from the confines of the city and from the company of his unloved wife. On 17 June 1715, the foundation stone for the new Karlsruhe Palace was laid.
The central building of the palace and whole city was the so-called Lead Tower.so named because the roof was made of lead From this central tower 32 avenues radiated in all directions, marking a uniform distance in all directions. This outline shapes the map of the "fan city" of Karlsruhe to this day.
The construction of the castle and town was swift and already on 5 July 1717 he held his first audience in the new palace. By 1718, the Court had moved and in 1719 Charles William ordered all court officials to move to Karlsruhe, to the regret and anger of the citizens of Durlach. To promote the influx Charles William granted its citizens legal, religious and financial privileges in a decree dated 24 September 1715.; the privileges included as a separate Citizens Council, a 20-year tax exemption, a free building site and freedom of religion
In 1719 Karlsruhe already had 2,000 inhabitants. The rapid implementation and the lack of money meant that the buildings – except for the lead roof of the tower – had to be made of wood. The wooden houses were painted red (an inexpensive concoction often seen on wooden barns), and this cause Karlsruhe to be called the "Red City". The wooden construction increased the risk of fire. Inevitably in 1747 the city and palace were burned.
Absolute ruler Early in his reign (1709), his territory measured approximately and had about 70,000 inhabitants. There were only two significant cities, Pforzheim and Durlach. No self-confident middle class had developed and there was hardly any land-owning nobility. The Estates had been removed from power in 1668 by Margrave Frederick VI. The war lasted until 1714; when it ended, the administration of the territory was in a bad state. Charles William thus met with little resistance when he pursued his absolutist ambitions. He focused the government and administration on his person and checked the various official bodies closely. He introduced a general audience, held every week and open to all the subjects, which also served to enhance his control of the country.
Forming a devoted civil service During the war communications between the rulers – who were often in exile in Basel – on the one hand, and the State Government in Durlach and officials in the widely separated districts on the other hand, had led to the officials operating autonomously, with open disregard for instructions from the central government. State officials often sought their own gain, corruption and embezzlement were widespread; the office was often perceived only as a side business.
Charles William began his reign with a declaration of his principles. In 1709 and 1710 he issued regulations that required absolute obedience to himself and required officials to protect the interests of the Margrave and his subjects – tardiness and negligence were punished with pay cuts. He fought corruption and embezzlement with harsh penaltieseven the death penalty was considered for serious cases of embezzlement and with incentives for State's witnesses and whistle blowers.The measures described by Dietrich can properly be described with these modern terms
The size of this problem is illustrated by the fact that Charles William had to adopt five so-called regulations against bribery during his reign. At each appointment or promotion, an official had to swear a special oath that contained the duties to be fulfilled. They were to continuously send reports to their superiors were sent and local conditions were the subject of frequent on-site inspections.
Although the payment of officials was significantly worse than in the larger territories (e.g. in Bavaria) and their incomes were cut by his activities, Charles William was able to create a class of devoted public servants during his active reign (1709–1734);in the last four years before his death in 1738, his health compelled him to hand management of the administration back into the hands of the various secret councils and councilors this made effective government much easier for his successor.
Economic recovery When Charles William inherited his country in 1709, it was still heavily indebted and its economic activity was at a miserable level. The aims of his economic policies included securing the revenue required to finance a reliable state apparatus (bureaucracy and military) and avoiding a loss of territory by pledges.
Charles William followed the mercantilist theories of his time. The first two decades of his government were marked by opposition to his general parsimony (buildings, officials pay), which contrasted with special luxuries for himself (mistresses, zoological and botanical gardens). In 1732 a rigorous fiscal program was started. These drastic austerity measures covered the royal household as well as civil servants; fair taxation covered all subjects.