Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria
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Maximilian III Joseph, "the much beloved" (28 March 1727 – 30 December 1777), was a
Biography
Born in Munich, Maximilian was the eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII and his wife, Maria Amalia of Austria, daughter of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. Upon his father's death in January 1745, he inherited a country in the process of being invaded by Austrian armies (see War of the Austrian Succession). The 18-year-old Maximilian Joseph wavered between the Peace-party, led by his mother Maria Amalia and Army Commander Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff and the War-party, led by Foreign Minister General Ignaz Count of Törring and the French envoy Chavigny. After the decisive defeat in the Battle of Pfaffenhofen on 15 April Maximilian Joseph quickly abandoned his father's imperial pretenses and made peace with Maria Theresa in the Treaty of Füssen, in which he agreed to support her husband, Grand Duke Francis II Stephen of Tuscany, in the upcoming imperial election.
In 1747, Maximilian married his first cousin, Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, but the marriage remained childless. During the Seven Years' War Bavarian forces then fought on the Habsburg side. Maximilian Joseph's sister Maria Josepha of Bavaria was married in 1765 to Maria Theresa's son Archduke Joseph. But long-term weakening of Prussia was not in the Bavarian interest, as that country offered the only counterweight to the Habsburg monarchy. Maximilian Joseph tried, as far as possible, to keep Bavaria out of the wars. Apart from militia troops, he sent only a small force of 4,000 men to join the Austrian army. In 1758/1759 (only a year and half into the war), he withdrew Bavarian auxiliary troops from Austrian service. Together with the Wittelsbach Elector Charles Theodore of the Palatinate he enforced the neutrality of the Empire during the conflict.
Maximilian Joseph was a progressive and
By the last day of the month he was dead without leaving an heir. Maximilian III Joseph is buried in the crypt of the
Succession
As the last of the
Maximilian's widow Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony and Maximilian's sister Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria as well as Maria Anna of Palatinate-Sulzbach, the widow of the former Bavarian crown prince Duke Clement Francis of Bavaria negotiated with Max's reluctant heir and intervened together with Frederick II. of Prussia and the new elector's presumptive successor, Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, to secure Bavaria's independence from Austria. The Prussian king had to threaten both the emperor and Bavaria itself with war. Austria had already invaded portions of the duchy immediately after the Elector's death and the new elector had less than any interest in his new realm. Instead, Charles Theodore, much to public annoyance, repeatedly tried to change it for Further Austria or the Austrian Netherlands, even better, for proximity to his Palatinian homelands.[2]
Cultural legacy
Maximilian III Joseph ordered in 1751
In 1770 Maximilian III Joseph established the precursor of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.