Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden

Born in Karlsruhe, he was the son of Margrave Charles Frederick (who in 1803, after Charles Louis's death, became the elector and in 1806 the first Grand Duke of Baden) and Landgravine Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt (11 July 1723 - 8 April 1783), the daughter of Landgrave Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt.

He was an ancestor of Franz Joseph I of Austria, Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, Nicholas II of Russia and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), Lord Mountbatten and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, among others.

On 15 July 1774, Charles Louis married his first cousin Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt (20 June 1754 – 21 July 1832). She was the daughter of Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

They had eight children:

• Princess Amalie of Baden (13 July 1776 – 26 October 1823)
• Princess Karoline of Baden (13 July 1776 – 13 November 1841); married on 9 March 1797 the then Count Palatine Maximilian of Zweibrücken (27 May 1756 – 13 October 1825), as his second wife (and became maternal grandmother of Empress Sisi and her husband, Franz Joseph I of Austria). In 1799 her husband became Elector Palatine and Elector of Bavaria, and in 1804 King of Bavaria (her titles accordingly being Duchess, then Electress, then Queen).
• Princess Louise of Baden (24 January 1779 – 16 May 1826); married on 9 October 1793 Tsar Alexander I of Russia (23 December 1777 – 1 December 1825).
• Princess Frederica of Baden (12 March 1781 – 25 September 1826); married on October 1797 Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. They divorced in 1812.
• Princess Marie of Baden (7 September 1782 – 29 April 1808); married on 1 November 1802 Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick (9 October 1771 – 16 June 1815).
• Charles Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Baden (13 September 13, 1784 – 1 March 1, 1785); died prior to succeeding.
• Charles, Grand Duke of Baden (8 June 1786 in Karlsruhe – 8 December 1818 in Rastatt); married on 8 April 1806 Stéphanie de Beauharnais (28 August 1789 – 29 January 1860). Among his descendants are the royal families of Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, Monaco, and two branches of the House of Habsburg.
• Princess Wilhelmina of Baden (10 September 10, 1788 – 27 January 27, 1836); married on 19 June 19, 1804 her double first cousin Grand Duke Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (26 December 26, 1777 – 16 June 16, 1848), and was mother of Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse) as well as great-grandmother of both Nicholas II of Russia and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse).

Works of history mention that his children succeeded well in marriage market and that the Hereditary Prince was the force behind that. At the time of his death in Arboga, Sweden (which occurred during the visit to his fourth daughter, the Queen of Sweden), two of his other daughters were, respectively, Electress of Bavaria and the newly ascended Empress of Russia.