1816: Frederick I, the Massive King of Stuttgart

The first king in the history of the German Württemberg dynasty died on this day in 1816. His name was Frederick I, and he belonged to the dynasty which had ruled Württemberg since medieval times (in the 11^th century the held the title of count, in the late Middle Ages they became dukes, but only Frederick I finally managed to become a king).

The Württemberg dynasty’s ancient seat of power was located near the town of Stuttgart in Germany. Stuttgart is still the capital of the German province of Baden-Württemberg, which was formed by merging Württemberg with the area of Baden, a territory in the Schwarzwald, west of Württemberg.

Frederick I was born as the Duke of Württemberg, and the country which he originally ruled over wasn’t particularly large. It was called the Duchy of Württemberg and encompassed the area around Stuttgart, including the cities of Ludwigsburg and Tübingen. Only in the age of Napoleon Bonaparte did Frederick I manage to greatly increase the territory of his country. He received the cities of Ulm, Rottweil, Heilbronn, Ellwangen, Gmünd, Biberach, and Friedrichshafen. The territory of his state basically doubled, and spread all the way to Switzerland.

In 1806, Württemberg became a kingdom, while Frederick I was its first king. In Frederick’s time, the Kingdom of Württemberg encompassed a land area of 1,950,800 hectares.

King Frederick I was an unusually big man. He was allegedly 211 centimeters tall and weighed over 200 kilos. Napoleon, who was responsible for making him king, organized a wedding between his youngest brother and Frederick’s daughter, Catherine. There are still living descendants of the royal dynasty, who consider themselves pretenders to the (currently defunct) throne of Württemberg.