Charles Eugene (German: Carl Eugen; 11 February 1728 – 24 October 1793), Duke of Württemberg, was the eldest son, and successor, of Charles Alexander; his mother was Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis. Life Born in Brussels, he succeeded his father as ruler of Württemberg at the age of 9, but the real power was in the hands of Administrators Carl Rudolf, Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt (1737–1738) and Carl Frederick von Württemberg-Oels (1738–1746). He was educated at the court of Frederick II of Prussia. In the Seven Years' War against Prussia, Charles Eugene advanced into Saxony. He ruled until his death in 1793, when he was succeeded by his younger brother. He was an early patron of Friedrich Schiller. He also studied keyboard with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in the 1740s (Bach's "Württemberg" sonatas, published in 1744, were dedicated to Charles Eugene). In 1761, Charles Eugen founded an Académie des Arts in Stuttgart (now the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart), in 1765 a public library in Ludwigsburg (now the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart), and he was responsible for the construction of a number of other key palaces and buildings in the area including the New Palace which still stands at the centre of the Schlossplatz, Castle Solitude and Castle Hohenheim. Charles Eugene married twice, first in Bayreuth on 26 September 1748 to Margravine Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie of Brandenburg-Bayreuth with whom he had one daughter, Friederike Wilhelmine Augusta Luise Charlotte, who was born in Stuttgart on 19 February 1750 and died after 13 months in Stuttgart on 12 March 1751. Elisabetha left Charles Eugene in 1756 to return to her parents' court in Bayreuth although they never divorced. In the meantime, Charles Eugene kept a string of mistresses and fathered eleven children by them. The last of these mistresses was Franziska von Hohenheim, whom he raised to the status of Countess and married in Stuttgart on 10 or 11 January 1785. Charles Eugene was known for his interest in agriculture and travel and is considered the inspiration behind today's Hohenheim university. His original botanical gardens form the basis for today's Landesarboretum Baden-Württemberg and Botanischer Garten der Universität Hohenheim, which still contain some of the specimens he planted. He also built a large number of palaces and bankrupted his lands through courtly extravagance, accepting huge French government loans in exchange for maintaining large numbers of support troops in Württemberg. In his early