William Louis of Baden-Durlach (14 January 1732 – 17 December 1788) was the brother of the first Grand Duke of Baden, Charles Frederick. In 1753 he became governor of the province of

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

based in Arnhem. In 1766 he was appointed by the Netherlands States-General to lieutenant general. After 1769 William Louis was also active as an industrialist.

Life

William Louis was the son of Prince Friedrich von Baden-Durlach and

Amalia of Nassau-Dietz Princess Amalia of Nassau-Dietz (Anna Charlotte Amalie; – 18 September 1777) was the wife of Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Baden-Durlach, and mother of Charles Frederick, the first Grand Duke of Baden. Life Anna Charlotte Amalia was the ...

, the daughter of Prince John William Friso of Nassau-Dietz-Orange. After his father died in 1732 and his mother was suffering from a mental illness, his grandmother, Countess

Magdalena Wilhelmine of Württemberg Magdalena Wilhelmine of Württemberg (7 November 1677, Stuttgart – 30 October 1742, Karlsburg Castle, Durlach) was a margravine of History of Baden, Germany#18th century, Baden. She had a place in the regency during the minority of her gran ...

, took care of the education of William Louis and his brother Charles Frederick. William Louis received his higher education at the

Académie de Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switze ...

from 1743 to 1745. In 1745 and 1746 he traveled to Paris and the Netherlands, where he stayed with his uncle William IV of Orange, the later

stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

of the

Republic of the Seven United Provinces The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

. His uncle came to the conclusion that the undisciplined William Louis exerted a bad influence on his older brother, the Hereditary Prince Charles Frederick. When Charles Frederick took the journey home to Karlsruhe in order to take over the government, his uncle ordered William Louis to pursue a military career in the Netherlands. With permission of the Margrave Charles Frederick, William Louis married Wilhelmine Christine Schortmann

morganatically Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spou ...

. The children from this union were ennobled on January 27, 1777, by Charles Frederick. They were created barons of Seldeneck call and allowed to use the Seldeneck arms. The original Seldenecks were a Frankish noble family already extinct in 1583. The son, Wilhelm Ludwig von Seldeneck. (Born January 14, 1766; † January 10, 1827) is considered the common ancestor of all Seldenecks.Becke-Klüchtzner p. 434 William Louis bought land in

Mühlburg Mühlburg, formerly a town on its own right, is a borough located in the west of Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name ''Mühlburg'' could be translated as 'Mill Castle' and refers to a water mill and a water castle located at the site w ...

and in 1769 he founded a dye plant, which was converted in 1770 into a

Brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

and from 1771 also produced

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with ...

. This was the nucleus of the baronial Seldeneck brewery that existed until 1921.

Life

References

Further reading