Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg

Duke Eberhard Louis (18 September 1676 – 31 October 1733) was Duke of Württemberg from 1692 until 1733.

Eberhard Louis was the third and eldest surviving child of William Louis, Duke of Württemberg, and his wife, Princess Magdalena Sibylla of Hesse-Darmstadt. Following the premature and unexpected death of his father, Eberhard Louis inherrited the ducal throne at the age of nine months, with his mother as regent.

Having reached his majority in 1693, Eberhard Louis showed little interest in governmental affairs and was described by contemporaries as impressionable, and his duchy was largely ruled by a council and his advisors while he focused largely on hunting. This however changed when he visited the court of King Louis XV of France and planned to make Württemberg an absolutist state and raised taxes and laid foundation for Ludwigsburg Palace, although finances remained an obstacle.

In 1697, Eberhard Louis was married to Princess Joanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach, eldest daughter of Margrave Frederick VII, although the union was unhappy, and he took Wilhelmine von Grävenitz as a mistress; they were later married bigamously in 1707. Under pressure from Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, the marriage was dissolved, and after the untimely death of his son and heir Friedrich Ludwig, Eberhard Louis returned to his wife Joanna in order to produce another heir due to the looming threat of the throne passing to his cousin, Charles Alexander of Württemberg-Winnental, who had converted to Catholicism.

Eberhard Louis suffered a stroke in 1733 and died at the age of 57, leaving the throne to Charles Alexander.