Christian IV, in 1775.[1] He was heir presumptive to his childless cousin Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria whom, however, he predeceased. He ceded to his younger brother Maximilian Joseph the County of Rappoltstein in 1776, having inherited it when their father died in 1767.[1]
Rejected suitor
He wanted to marry Archduchess
Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, a grandson of the French king, Louis XV. This was to be Maria Amalia, due to the death of another daughter, Maria Josepha
.
Maria Amalia's older brother, Emperor
Isabella. So in 1769, Maria Amalia was married to Ferdinand against her will. This decision not only permanently embittered Charles against the empress and Austria but also Maria Amalia against her mother.[2]
Bavarian claims
His cousin
prince elector. However, Charles Theodore had no legitimate children to inherit his combined holdings in Bavaria and the Electoral Palatinate, so Charles August became the heir to the Wittelsbach territories of: Zweibrücken (his own duchy), the duchies of Neuburg, Sulzbach, Jülich and Berg, in addition to the electorates of the Palatinate and Bavaria (though exercising only one electoral vote in the College of Electors, as stipulated in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648). Charles Theodore preferred the Palatinate and therefore tried to exchange parts of his Bavarian inheritance with Joseph II of Austria in return for parts of the Austrian Netherlands. Although Charles Theodore would have preferred to exchange the entire complex of territories of Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, the Austrian court would not countenance an outright exchange and a final arrangement was never concluded.[3]
Portrait by Johann Kaspar Pitz, 1783
Charles August, being next in line for the Bavarian territories, objected strenuously. He obtained the active support of
alliance with Austria
.
The
Inn River, known as the Innviertel, assigned to Austria by the Treaty of Teschen (May 1779). A second attempt to make the exchange in 1784 was also opposed by Charles August, again with Prussian support, and also failed. However, Charles Theodore outlived Charles August who, dying in 1795 without sons, left his claim to Bavaria to his brother, Maximilian Joseph, who would succeed in vastly enlarging that realm and, in 1806, becoming its king.[4][1]
Marriage
In
Maria Amalia of Saxony, daughter of Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony (and granddaughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor). Their only child, Charles Augustus Frederick, died at the age of eight on 21 August 1784.[1] Upon the death of Charles II August the title of duke of Zweibrücken was inherited by his brother Maximilian, future king of Bavaria, who reunited the long separate Wittelsbach holdings.[1]
Charles August was the principal owner of the famous Karlsberg Castle. He died at Mannheim in 1795.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken
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