Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden

Biography

Louis William of Baden-Baden was the most consistently successful Imperial commander of the Great Turkish War. Born into the margraviate of Baden-Baden, he entered Imperial military service young and fought his first campaign against the Ottomans at the siege of Vienna in 1683, where he commanded an Imperial cavalry regiment. He proved himself so capable that he was given increasingly important commands over the following years. His greatest achievement was the Battle of Slankamen in 1691, where his army met the Ottoman counteroffensive under Grand Vizier Fazıl Mustafa Pasha. The battle was a murderous clash — both armies fought with desperate ferocity for hours — and was decided when a musket ball killed the Grand Vizier. The Ottoman army collapsed, and the counteroffensive was permanently broken. Louis of Baden earned the nickname 'Türkenlouis' from a grateful German public and became a national hero. He went on to serve as commander on the Rhine in the War of the Spanish Succession, where his cautious, methodical style was less suited to the faster-moving campaigns against the French. He built the famous Türkenlouis defensive lines in Baden and died in 1707 at Rastatt, where the palace he built as a victory monument still stands.

Key Battles