EBERHARD I

born Dec. 11, 1445, Urach, Ger. died Feb. 24, 1496, Tbingen byname Bearded Eberhard, German Eberhard Im Bart count, later 1st duke of Wrttemberg (from 1495), administrative and ecclesiastic reformer who laid the foundations for Wrttemberg's role in German history. Eberhard expanded his territories and in 1482 established primogeniture and settled the succession to his holdings. The towns of Stuttgart and Tbingen received charters, and Eberhard reformed convents and monasteries. Interested in Renaissance learning as a result of his travels to the Holy Land and Italy and of his having an Italian wife, he founded the University of Tbingen (1477). He was a leading member of the pro-Habsburg Swabian League and was created duke at the Diet (Reichstag) of Worms (1495), where the emperor Maximilian I recognized his rulings on primogeniture and territorial indivisibility.