He became the fourth Duke of Württemberg in 1550. He grew up in Innsbruck at the court of Emperor Karl V as a result of his father, Ulrich, being exiled. After his father Duke Ulrich had regained rule over Württemberg in the battle near Lauffen in 1534 and had introduced the Reformation, Christoph also converted to Protestantism. In 1544 he married Anna Maria of Brandenburg-Ansbach from the Protestant dynasty in order to strengthen his confessional position. Following Ulrich's death in 1550, he was succeeded by Duke Christoph, who reorganized the entire state and church administration. Like many other castles and palaces, Christoph also had Leonberg Castle expanded, and therefore continued his father's building policy, which served the security of Württemberg.
The Württemberg Renaissance architect came from Stuttgart. From 1537 Tretsch served as an architect in the service of Duke Christoph. Tretsch played a leading role in the numerous building projects which Duke Christoph had carried out for the security and representation of the restrengthened Duchy of Württemberg. His main achievement is the conversion of the Old Palace (Altes Schloss) in Stuttgart from a well-fortified castle complex to a representative palace. Duke Christoph had the original town castle in Leonberg converted to a palace according to Tretsch's plans from 1560 to 1570.
The Count of Mömpelgard became the sixth Duke of Württemberg in 1593. He spent his youth at the Württemberg court in Stuttgart, where Duke Christoph saw to his education. In 1581 he married Sibylla of Anhalt and received the rank of Duke and power over the entire duchy in 1593 as the heir of Duke Ludwig of Württemberg. In 1599 Friedrich gave the order to build a new town at the eastern edge of the northern Black Forest, which was given the name Freudenstadt. Friedrich intended to expand the town to the new capital of Württemberg, as it was closer to Mömpelgard than Stuttgart. Friedrich's death in 1608 prevented this plan from being implemented.
Sibylla was born in Bernburg (Saale) and chosen as abbess of the free secular convent of Gernrode and Frose in 1577 while still under age due to pressure from her father. She resigned from her office in 1581 with her marriage to Friedrich I, which had been arranged by her stepmother, Eleonore of Württemberg. Sibylla married at the age of 16 and had 15 children in the 15 years that followed. After Friedrich's death in 1608 she moved back to Leonberg, where she had Leonberg Palace expanded and a bitter orange garden erected before the palace in the style of the Renaissance by Heinrich Schickhardt. She died in Leonberg in 1614.
He was the most important architect of the Renaissance in south-western Germany. Following his time as a journeyman, Heinrich Schickhardt became the assistant to the Württemberg court architect Georg Beer. He received orders from Duke Friedrich I, including for the expansion of the residential town of Mömpelgard (Montbéliard). In 1608 Heinrich Schickhardt was appointed state architect to the Duke of Württemberg. Between 1609 and 1614 he received the order to expand Leonberg Palace and lay out a terraced garden. Schickhardt matched the image of the typical Renaissance architect, who, as an all-around genius, was not only experienced in the art of building, but in garden architecture and other disciplines as well.
The Count of Gallas of Campo and Freyenthurn Palace was an imperial lieutenant general and field artillery general in the Thirty Years' War. Gallas soon received the rank of commander-in-chief over all troops on the Austrian and Hungarian border. On 6 September 1634 he won a victory near Nördlingen over Bernhard of Sachsen-Weimar, which returned control over south-western Germany to the Emperor. From 1634 to 1638 the Count resided with his imperial troops at Leonberg Palace. Following the Peace of Prague he led 20,000 men to Lorraine, who however died there as the result of epidemics and a shortage of provisions. After various defeats, he gave up his offices and died on 25 April 1647 in Trient. He was dogged by the ridicule of his contemporaries, who called him the "ruiner of the armed forces" (Heerverderber), until the end of his life.
She married the Duke Administrator of Württemberg, Julius Friedrich, in 1618. She founded the collateral line of Württemberg-Weiltingen, also called the Julianic Line. In 1631 Julius Friedrich assumed the guardianship of his under-aged nephew Eberhard. Following the death of her husband in 1635, Anna Sabina, Sibylla's daughter-in-law, moved back to her widow's seat at Leonberg Palace. She died there in 1659.
Raised by her aunt, the King's widow Hedwig Eleonora of Sweden, she took on the deeply religious view of the world, which was to mark her entire life, in Stockholm. She married Wilhelm Ludwig, the hereditary prince of Württemberg, in 1673. Six months after the wedding, the death of Duke Eberhard III put her husband, Wilhelm Ludwig, on the throne of Württemberg. Just four years later he died of a heart attack and Magdalena Sibylla assumed the regency over the Duchy of Württemberg at the age of 25. From 1678 to 1712 she resided not only at Stetten and Stuttgart Palace, but repeatedly also at Leonberg Palace. After her son took up the regency, she moved back to her widow's seat at Kirchheim Palace until her death in 1712.
Friedrich Schiller's mother was born in Marbach and married to the military barber and surgeon Johann Caspar Schiller at the age of 16. She moved as a widow into an apartment assigned to her in Leonberg Palace from 1796 to 1801. She was allowed to live there with her four still unmarried daughters and received a pension of one hundred guilders - half in cash and half in kind. At the beginning of 1802 the woman, who had been suffering from a stomach disorder for many years, was also plagued by gynecological problems and died shortly thereafter in Cleversulzbach.