celebrating the victory against the
Ottoman Empire at Slankamen, obverse. Louis William served first under
Raimondo Montecuccoli against
Turenne, and then under the
duke of Lorraine. His career was stimulated by his uncle
Hermann of Baden-Baden, later president of the
Hofkriegsrat. Together with his uncle, Louis took part in the
capture of Philippsburg in 1676. At the
siege of Vienna by the
Turks, in 1683, he threw his forces into the city, and by a brilliant sally effected a junction with
Jan III Sobieski and the Duke of Lorraine, who had come to its relief. In 1689 he defeated the Turks at
Niš. Louis came to be called the
Türkenlouis or
shield of the empire. The Turks called him the
red king, because his red uniform jacket made him very visible on the battlefield. He was known as a defender of Europe against the Turks, as was Eugene of Savoy. As a military commander in the service of the
Holy Roman Empire, in 1689 he was made chief commander of the
Imperial army in
Hungary, where he scored a resounding victory against the
Ottomans at
Slankamen in 1691. Louis saw
Osijek as a location of exceptional strategic importance in the war against the Ottomans. He urged the repair of the city walls, and proposed construction of a new fort called
Tvrđa, according to
Vauban's principles of
military engineering. After a fruitless campaign in 1692 due to a lack of funds and soldiers, he was appointed to the Upper Rhine at the request of the
Swabian and
Franconian Imperial circles. At the head of the circle troops that formed the
Army of the Holy Roman Empire he defended the Rhine against superior French forces in the
War of the Grand Alliance. Despite his military successes, his opposition against the elevation of the
Prince of Calenberg to
Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg made him enemies at the Vienna Court. In 1701, he built the
Lines of Stollhofen, a line of defensive earthworks designed to protect northern
Baden from French attack. He later commanded the imperial army at the Upper Rhine in the
War of the Spanish Succession where he successfully concluded the
Siege of Landau in September 1702, but soon had to withdraw across the
Rhine and was defeated by the French under the
Duke of Villars at
Friedlingen. In 1704 however, he participated in the successful German campaign of
Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy. He distinguished himself in the
Battle of Schellenberg and besieged and conquered
Ingolstadt and
Landau, thus drawing Bavarian troops away from the decisive
Battle of Blenheim. At the Battle of Schellenberg in July 1704, Ludwig Wilhelm had suffered a wound that did not fully heal. He continued to command on the Upper Rhine without treating the injury and died as a result of this wound on January 4, 1707 at the age of 51 in his unfinished
Schloss Rastatt. His wife took up a regency for their son, Louis George. The latter took over the government from his mother in October 1727. ==Marriage and children==