ABSTRACT
Duke Wilhelm-Ludwig died in 1677. His heir, Eberhard-Ludwig, being a minor, regency was instituted comprising his mother the Duchess, and two of his uncles. Eberhard-Ludwig’s main preoccupation was to give his court the requisite lustre, but he lacked the necessary elements in his circle to accomplish this. One day he bit off half the cheek of von Forstner, a courtier, and this bite earned him the name of Melac, after the French general who had just ravaged the Rhine valley. The newcomer, a resolute intriguer, soon won the protection of von Stafforth, the Hofmarschall, and that of the Duke of Zollern, an ambitious courtier who, although admitting to being ‘an old clown’, had the Prince’s confidence. Von Gravenitz finally secured the favours of a Frau von Ruth, who wielded a certain influence at court. The newly married couple returned to Württemberg and settied in Schloss Hohentubingen, an old medieval fortress where v. Sophia Wilhelmina set about organizing her court.
