Eberhard I of Württemburg, whose motto is…
1477 CE
Eberhard I of Württemburg, whose motto is attempto ("I dare"), founds the University of Tübingen in 1477; its first rector is the Swabian historian and humanist Johannes Nauclerus.
Eberhard, a civic and ecclesiastic reformer who has become absorbed in the Renaissance revival of learning during his travels to Italy, also orders the expulsion of all Jews living in Württemberg.
He invites the Brethren of the Common Life and the community of devotio moderna to his country and founds collegiate churches in Urach, Dettingen an der Erms, Herrenberg, Einsiedel near Tübingen and Tachenhausen.
He takes interest in reforms of the church and monasteries.
Despite not being able to speak Latin, he holds education in high esteem and has a great number of Latin texts translated into German.
Parts of his large library have been preserved.
Born at Urach, Eberhard is the son of Ludwig I, Count of Württemberg-Urach, and his wife Mechthild of the Palatinate, born as countess palatine by the Rhine.
As Count Eberhard V, he officially took charge of the government of Württemberg-Urach when he was still underage.
Württemberg has been divided since 1442.
At first he had a legal guardian, a respected nobleman who had mentored his father as a youth, Rudolph von Ehingen of Kilchberg.
A fencing manual had been created for Eberhard in 1467 by Hans Talhoffer.
The manuscript is currently held by the Bavarian State Library.
The following year, in 1468, he had traveled to Jerusalem and became a knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
To commemorate this he chose the palm as his symbol.
In Urach on April 12 (or July 4), 1474, he had married a prestigious bride, Barbara, daughter of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua.
The only daughter out of this marriage, Barbara, was born in Urach on August 2, 1475 and died on October 15 of that year.
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