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In 1803, Napoleon made it an Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire but then, when he abolished the Empire in 1806, the Duchy was elevated to a Kingdom. Having gone along with the French Empire, Württemberg then went along with the German Empire in 1871, and the Kings survived until all the princely states were abolished in 1918.

History
Frederick II. (1754-1816), a prince whose model was Frederick the Great, took part in the war against France in defiance of the wishes of his people, and when the French again invaded and devastated the country he retired to Erlangen, where he remained until after the conclusion of the peace of Luneville in 1801. By a private treaty with France, signed in March 1802, he ceded his possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, receiving in return nine imperial towns, among them Reutlingen and Heilbronn, and some other territories, amounting altogether to about 850 sq. m. and containing about 124,000 inhabitants. He also accepted from Napoleon the title of elector. These new districts were not incorporated with the duchy, but remained separate; they were known as New Wurttemberg and were ruled without a diet. In 1805 Wurttemberg took up arms on the side of France, and by the peace of Pressburg in December 1805 the elector was rewarded with various Austrian possessions in Swabia and with other lands in the neighbourhood. On the 1st of January 1806 Frederick assumed the title of king, abrogated the constitution and united old and new Wurttemberg. Subsequently he placed the property of the church under the control of the state. In 1806 he joined the Confederation of the Rhine and received further additions of territory containing 160,000 inhabitants; a little later, by the peace of Vienna in October 1809, about 110,000 more persons were placed under his rule. In return for these favours Frederick joined Napoleon in his campaigns against Prussia, Austria and Russia, and of 16,000 of his subjects who marched to Moscow only a few hundreds returned. Then after the battle of Leipzig he deserted the waning fortunes of the French emperor, and by a treaty made with Metternich at Fulda in November 1813 he secured the confirmation of his royal title and of his recent acquisitions of territory, while his troops marched with those of the allies into France. In 1815 the king joined the Germanic Confederation, but the congress of Vienna made no change in the extent of his lands. In the same year he laid before the representatives of his people the sketch of a new constitution, but this was rejected, and in the midst of the commotion Frederick died on the 3othof October 1816.

At once the new king, William I., took up the consideration of this question and after much discussion a new constitution was granted in September 1819. This is the constitution which, with subsequent modifications, is still in force, and it is described in an earlier section of this article. A period of quietness now set in, and the condition of the kingdom, its education, its agriculture and its trade and manufactures, began to receive earnest attention, while by frugality, both in public and in private matters, King William helped to repair the shattered finances of the country. But the desire for greater political freedom had not been entirely satisfied by the constitution of 1819, and after 1830 there was a certain amount of unrest. This, however, soon passed away, while trade was fostered by the inclusion of WiirUemberg in the German Zollverein and by the construction of railways. The revolutionary movement of 1848 did not leave Wurttemberg untouched, although no actual violence took place within the kingdom. The king was compelled to dismiss Johannes Schlayer (i 792-1860) and his other ministers, and to call to power men with more liberal ideas, the exponents of the idea of a united Germany. A democratic constitution was proclaimed, but as soon as the movement had spent its force the liberal ministers were dismissed, and in October 1849 Schlayer and his associates were again in power. By interfering with popular electoral rights the king and his ministers succeeded in assembling a servile diet in 1851, and this surrendered all the privileges gained since 1848. In this way the constitution of 1819 was restored, and power passed into the hands of a bureaucracy. Almost the last act of William's long reign was to conclude a concordat with the Papacy, but this was repudiated by the diet, which preferred to regulate the relations between church and state in its own way.

In July 1864 Charles I. (1823-1891) succeeded his father William as king and had almost at once to face considerable difficulties. In the duel between Austria and Prussia for supremacy in Germany, William I. had consistently taken the part of the former power, and this policy was e'qually acceptable to the new king and his advisers. In 1866 Wurttemberg took up arms on behalf of Austria, but three weeks after the battle of Koniggratz her troops were decisively beaten at Tauberbischofsheim, and the country was at the mercy of Prussia. The Prussians occupied the northern part of Wurttemberg and peace was made in August 1866; by this Wurttemberg paid an indemnity of 8,000,000 gulden, but at once concluded a secret offensive and defensive treaty with her conqueror.

The end of the struggle was followed by a renewal of the democratic agitation in Wurttemberg, but this had achieved no tangible results when the great war between France and Prussia broke out in 1870. Although the policy of Wurttemberg had continued antagonistic to Prussia, the country shared in the national enthusiasm which swept over Germany, and its troops took a creditable part in the battle of Worth and in other operations of the war. In 1871 Wurttemberg became a member of the new German empire, but retained control of her own post office, telegraphs and railways. She had also certain special privileges with regard to taxation and the army, and for the next ten years the policy of Wurttemberg was one of enthusiastic loyalty to the new order. Many important reforms, especially in the realm of finance, were introduced, but a proposal for a union of the railway system with that of the rest of Germany was rejected. Certain reductions in taxation having been made in 1889, the reform of the constitution became the question of the hour. The king and his ministers wished to strengthen the conservative element in the chambers, but only slight reforms were effected by the laws of 1874, 1876 and 1879, a more thorough settlement being postponed. On the 6th of October 1891 King Charles died suddenly, and was succeeded by his cousin William II. (b. 1848), who continued the poKcy of his predecessor. The reform of the constitution continued to be discussed, and the election of 1895 was memorable because of the return of a powerful party of democrats. King William had no sons, nor had his only Protestant kinsman, Duke Nicholas (1833-1903); consequently the succession would ultimately pass to a Roman Catholic branch of the family, and this prospect raised up certain difficulties about the relations between church and state. The heir to the throne in 1910 was the Roman Catholic Duke Albert (b. 1865).