Johanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach

Johanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach (3 October 1680 – 2 July 1757), was a Duchess of Württemberg by marriage.

Marriage Johanna of Baden-Durlach was born in the Karlsberg, Durlach, the third child of Friedrich VII Magnus, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1647–1709) and his wife Auguste Marie of Holstein-Gottorp (1649–1728).

In 1697, she was married in Baden-Wurttemberg in a double-wedding to Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg (1676–1733). His parents were Duke Wilhelm Ludwig of Württemberg and Magdalena Sibylla of Hesse-Darmstadt. The couple tied the two leading Lutheran dynasties of southern Germany together. Joanna's marriage was celebrated in Switzerland, where Baden's court stayed in exile due to repeated French invasions.

Her spouse returned in 1710 when Wilhelmine of Grävenitz, through a sham marriage to Hofmeister Count von Würben, was able to return to Württemberg as well. They lived largely in Ludwigsburg. In 1718, the residence was also officially moved to Ludwigsburg. Johanna Elisabeth, meanwhile, continued to live in the Old Palace in Stuttgart. She refused, however, to file for divorce, and the marriage was not dissolved.

The early death of Prince Friedrich Ludwig in 1731 threatened to move Württemberg to a Catholic secondary line. Because of this danger, Duke Eberhard Ludwig broke his connection to Wilhelmine of Grävenitz and hoped to conceive an heir from his legitimate and long-ignored wife, Johanna Elisabeth. The advanced age of the couple and the imminent death of the Duke on 31 October 1733, however, thwarted these efforts.

Johanna Elizabeth survived her husband by more than twenty years. She lived as a widow at Kirchheim Castle, and died in Schloss Stetten, Stetten in the Rems Valley. She was buried in the Ludwigsburg Castle Church.

Children

Friedrich Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Württemberg (1698–1731); married, in 1716, Henrietta Maria of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1702–1782).