Eberhard IV. Graf von Württemberg

Eberhard IV, known as “the Younger,” was born on August 23, 1388, and died in Waiblingen on July 2, 1419. He was Count of Württemberg and was the son of Count Eberhard III and Antonia Visconti. As the only surviving child of his parents, he was designated early on as heir to the Württemberg lands. On November 13, 1397, Eberhard became engaged to Henriette of Mömpelgard. She was the eldest daughter and principal heir of Henry of Mömpelgard, who had died in 1396, one year before his father, Count Stephen of Mömpelgard. The marriage between Eberhard and Henriette was concluded by 1407 at the latest. Through this union, the County of Mömpelgard passed to Württemberg and became permanently connected with the Württemberg territories. Eberhard began to participate actively in the government of the country in 1407. From 1409 onward, he ruled the County of Mömpelgard jointly with Henriette. After his father’s death on May 16, 1417, he ultimately assumed the government of all Württemberg. His rule, however, lasted only a few years. When he died in 1419, his two sons, Ludwig and Ulrich, were only seven and six years old, respectively. A regency was therefore established, involving Henriette and as many as 32 Württemberg councillors. This arrangement was intended to safeguard the government until the underage heirs were able to rule themselves. Eberhard and Henriette had three children. The eldest was Anna, born in Waiblingen in 1408, who married Philip I of Katzenelnbogen in 1422. Their two sons, Ludwig I, born in Urach in 1412, and Ulrich V, born in 1413, later became Counts of Württemberg. Following their father’s early death, Ludwig I and Ulrich V initially remained under the aforementioned regency. In addition to his legitimate children, Eberhard had several other descendants with his mistress, Agnes of Dagersheim. They included Antonia of Dagersheim, who married Konrad Lyher, a chancellor in Stuttgart, as well as Anna of Dagersheim and Wilhelm of Dagersheim. Wilhelm was mayor of Stuttgart and was married to Margarethe of Enzberg, a daughter of the Bishop of Speyer. A tombstone was erected for him in Stuttgart’s Hospital Church, displaying the Württemberg antlers and a bend sinister and identifying him as a “bastard of Württemberg.” His daughter Agnes married the Stuttgart councillor Hans Welling. Their son Sebastian Welling later became mayor of Stuttgart and served as one of the co-regents of Württemberg during the regency for Duke Ulrich. Older genealogical accounts associated the Dagersheim family with extensive connections to later well-known figures. These included, among others, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Schelling, Friedrich Hölderlin, Ludwig Uhland, Eduard Mörike, Wilhelm Hauff, and Justinus Kerner. More recent research by Otto-Günter Lonhard has disproved these claims of descent or classified them as unsubstantiated. The genealogical relationships among the families of Volland, Lyher, and Dagersheim must therefore be assessed in part differently from what older pedigrees suggested. The descent of the children whom Anna of Dagersheim allegedly had with Hans Ferg, known as Vergenhans, also remains uncertain, since no reliable information about their mother has been preserved. Eberhard IV thus represented an important transitional period in Württemberg’s history. Through his marriage to Henriette, Mömpelgard became connected with Württemberg, and after his father’s death he brought the government of the country together under his own rule. His early death meant, however, that the next generation could not initially exercise power independently. The ensuing regency shaped Württemberg’s political development, while his sons Ludwig I and Ulrich V later became holders of the county’s rule.