“ In return for this Eberhard agreed to some limitations on the power of the count, and so in a sense founded the constitution of Württemberg. At the diet of Worms in 1495 the emperor Maximilian I. guaranteed the treaty, confirmed the possessions and prerogatives of the house of Württemberg, and raised Eberhard to the rank of duke. Eberhard, although a lover of peace, was one of the founders of the Swabian League in 1488, and assisted to release Maximilian, then king of the Romans, from his imprisonment at Bruges in the same year. ”

“ He took a keen interest in the new learning, founded the university of Tübingen in 1476, befriended John Reuchlin, whom he made his private secretary, welcomed scholars to his court, and is said to have learned Latin in later life. ”