Why Not Baden?

This is something that has always puzzled me. When Carl XII of Sweden died, his nearest male heir was his nephew, Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein. However, his younger sister, Ulrika Eleonora, Hereditary Princess of Hesse-Kassel, became queen instead. Ulrika abdicated in favour of her husband, who ruled as Frederik I. From what I can make out, there was still a Holstein party favouring the succession of Karl Friedrich at the Swedish court, when Ulrika Eleonora’s husband died. However, Karl Friedrich’s marriage to a Russian grand duchess scuttled his chances of becoming king of Sweden, but in the early 1740s there was talk of their orphan son succeeding the childless Frederik and Ulrika Eleonora. But the little duke had already been “adopted” by his aunt, the Russian empress, and Sweden was forced to go back to the drawing board.

This is what puzzles me. Since Carl XII’s siblings’ lines are extinguished or unavailable, the succession should’ve gone to any siblings of Carl XI (he had none legitimate), and thence to the siblings of Carl X. Now, Carl X’s only brother, Adolf Johann’s youngest son, Gustav Samuel Leopold, had succeeded to the Palatine appanages of the Swedish house of Bavaria, which were covered by Salic Law. Gustav had put forward his claim in 1718 to succeed, but he couldn’t find support for his succession claim in Sweden, so he was bypassed in favour of Ulrika or Karl Friedrich. His siblings had all married very late or not at all, and thus there were no nieces or nephews to succeed to his claim to Sweden, and the Palatinate appanages passed to the next branch of the house of Bavaria.

With the extinction of Adolf Johann’s line, the claim went to he and Carl X’s oldest sister, Christine Magdalene. Christine had married the margrave of Baden-Durlach, and had ten children. Their oldest surviving son, succeeded as Margrave Friedrich VII of Baden-Durlach, and married the younger sister of the Queen-Consort of Sweden, Hedwig of Holstein-Gottorp. Friedrich VII died in 1709, and was succeeded on the Badener throne by his son Karl III Wilhelm (b.1679), who had at one point been considered as a husband for one of Carl XII’s sisters. After Karl, there was another brother, Christof (b.1684) who married a princess of Leiningen and had three surviving sons with her. Karl and Christof’s youngest sister, Albertine Friederike married her Holstein cousin, Christian Albrecht, and her son was elected as King Adolf Frederik of Sweden.

Why was the Margrave of Baden (which clearly had the best claim) bypassed, not in favour of his younger brother (which would be understandable if Sweden wanted to avoid a messy personal union), but of his youngest sister, who had two older sisters, a Princess of Leinengen-Dagsburg (who had five children) and the duchess of Württemberg (who only had one son)? Surely one of the junior Badener princes had a better claim?

Also, how might the history of Sweden be different with King Christof I and his line? Since clearly although all three of his sons married morganatically, their line was luckier than the main Badener line in terms of male issue. To illustrate this, Christof’s eldest son, Karl August (b. 1712) had issue extincted in the male line in 1964; his second son, Karl Wilhelm Eugen (b.1713) who was for a time considered as a possible husband for the only child of the last Margrave of Baden-Baden, Elisabeth (b.1726), and remained unwed; and his youngest, Christof (b.1717), is still extant in the male-line.

My apologies for such a long monologue:eek:
 
On a mobile device at the moment so my resources are limited...

One interesting connection that I found was between Margrave Friedrich VII of Baden-Durlach and Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor through the margrave's mother, Magdalene of Julich-Cleves-Berg. I am still searching for an answer to your question but once I find something I will post it here.
 
On a mobile device at the moment so my resources are limited...

One interesting connection that I found was between Margrave Friedrich VII of Baden-Durlach and Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor through the margrave's mother, Magdalene of Julich-Cleves-Berg. I am still searching for an answer to your question but once I find something I will post it here.

Cool, thanks.

How do you think the history of Sweden would've been different with a house of Zähringen rather than a branch of the house of Oldenburg? Most likely one of the Badener princes will still marry Luise Ulrike of Prussia (when she was born, Ulrika Eleonora stood godmother to her, and it was already proposed that any son of Ulrika Eleonora (she hadn't given up hope of a child yet (IIRC she had stillbirth/miscarriage in 1718/9) OTL she only did around the late-1720s) marry Luise). But further I have no idea how things might go.
 
Out of curiosity, will this ATL have Christof becoming king after Charles XII died or further on?

EDIT: This will determine my thoughts on the matter and possibly answer your question.
 
Last edited:
Out of curiosity, will this ATL have Christof becoming king after Charles XII died or further on?

EDIT: This will determine my thoughts on the matter and possibly answer your question.

Well, OTL's events meant Ulrika was the johnny on the spot in Stockholm, and also her husband may be considered an idiot by some, but he urged/guided her in her actions while he accompanying Carl XII's corpse back to Stockholm, which indicates some political savvy.

Thus, most likely, Christof (or rather, his oldest son, since Christof shoved off in 1723) would succeed when Frederik dies. That would necessitate minimal butterflies, IMO.
 
There's a long tradition back since the days of elective monarchy (before 1544) for the Swedish parliament to resolve any succession crisis - the parliament have several times declared a monarch deposed and elected another even after the throne became heraditory (Erik XIV and Sigismund).

Sweden has never practised salic law, and thus Ulrika Eleonora was among the senior candidates to succession in 1718. She had been part of the regency council that ruled Sweden int he absence of Karl XII when he was in the Ottoman Empire and she was in the right spot at the right time. Facing a devastating war on several fronts, the parliament had no wish for a succession crisis, and Ulrika Eleonora was proclaimed Queen.

As for Adolf Fredrik. he was elected Crown Prince because the Russians were pressuring for it - it allowed Sweden to get a better peace deal out of the disastrous war of 1741-1743. At that time the King was a figure head and the parliament ruled anyway, so who was King mattered little.
 
From what I can remember, Ulrika succeeded her brother because she claimed the Crown by proximity of blood, being related in the first degree to the previous king unlike their shared nephew who was related to a lesser degree. As for Adolf Frederick inheriting through his mother's claim instead of one of his uncles, it was because Empress Yelizaveta of Russia demanded that he become Frederick's successor after that certain nasty war.
 
To tag along with the previous posts, if Christof's son, Karl August, were accepted then relations would get worse with Russia and Sweden would possibly lose Finland earlier than 1809.
 
To tag along with the previous posts, if Christof's son, Karl August, were accepted then relations would get worse with Russia and Sweden would possibly lose Finland earlier than 1809.

Maybe (not), as pointed out, the king's job by the time of Adolf Frederik's reign was to serve as a rubber stamp to the parliament. So, Russia MIGHT accept Carl XIII August IF he's gagged in a similar way. IDK anything about his personality though, so he could be seen as malleable until he inherits (just for the sake of Russia supporting him), and then as soon as he has sufficient power, stage a coup (Luise Ulrike tried twice, I think, for a royalist coup in her husband's reign before Gustaf III got it right) or just continue to be the roi-fainéant that the Riksdag would want. If Russia supports his succession (or at least there's enough reason/int'l pressure to force Russia to back down from supporting their candidate), I could see Elizabeth foisting her choice of consort ( a relatively unimportant candidate with few connexions (as she sought for Pyotr III in choosing Sophie of Zerbst over Maria Anna of Saxony), so as to be relatively unproblematic.
 
In regard to Karl August:

From what I can see in a source that I found he was martially inclined to a degree. At the moment, my German is sub par and I don't see much in regard to personality yet.

Once I get the source translated, I will be sure to post my findings.
 
No surprise then that Elizabeth supported Adolf OVER a Carl XIII who might be just as threatening as Carl XII.

As to the German, mine's a bit rusty, but if you want, you can PM the link to me (benefits of having a German dad, I guess) and I"ll post what I can find out
 
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