Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VII (Charles Albert; 6 August 1697 – 20 January 1745) was Prince Elector of Bavaria (from 26 February 1726) and Holy Roman Emperor (from 24 January 1742) until his death in 1745. He was also King of Bohemia as Charles Albert from 1741 to 1743. He was a member of the House of Wittelsbach, and his reign of Holy Roman Emperor thus marked the end of uninterrupted Habsburg rule of the Empire. But although he was related to the Habsburgs by blood and also marriage.
Life
change
Charles (Albert) (German: Karl Albrecht) was born in Brussels and the son of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska, daughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland.[1] On 5 October 1722, he married Maria Amalia of Austria, the daughter Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, and niece of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1726 his father died, thus he became the Elector of Bavaria (he succeeded his father). In 1742, he was elected the Holy Roman Emperor.
Holy Roman Emperor
change
In continuance of the policy of his father, Charles aspired to an even higher rank. As son-in-law of Emperor Joseph I, Charles rejected the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty against Maria Theresa, daughter of Emperor Charles VI, in 1740. By the Treaty of Nymphenburg, which was concluded in July 1741, Charles became allied with France and Spain against Austria.[2]
During the War of the Austrian Succession, Charles VII invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were instead redirected to Bohemia, capturing Prague in November 1741. That meant that Charles was crowned king of Bohemia in Prague on 19 December 1741, but when the Habsburgs had not yet been defeated. He was without opposition elected King of Germany on 24 January 1742 and became Holy Roman emperor upon his coronation on 12 February 1742. His brother Clemens (the Archbishop of Cologne), generally sided with the Habsburg-Lorraine party in the disagreement over the Habsburg succession, but casted his vote for him and personally crowned him the emperor at Frankfurt. King George II of Great Britain (as the Elector of Hanover) also voted to install him as the emperor, even though both Great Britain and Hanover were allied to Austria in this war. Charles VII was the second Wittelsbach emperor after Louis IV and the first Wittelsbach king of Germany since the reign of Rupert.[3][4][5]
Shortly after his coronation, most of Charles's territories were overrun by the Austrians, and Bavaria was occupied by the troops of Maria Theresa. The Emperor fled Munich and resided for almost three years in the Palais Barckhaus in Frankfurt. Most of Bohemia was lost in December 1742, when the Austrians allowed the French under the Duc de Belle-Isle and the Duc de Broglie an honourable capitulation. Charles was mocked as an emperor who neither controlled his own realm nor was in effective control of the empire itself, but the institution of the Holy Roman emperor had largely become symbolic in nature and powerless by then. A popular Latin saying about him was et caesar et nihil, meaning "both emperor and nothing", a word play on aut caesar aut nihil, meaning "either emperor or nothing". Bavarian General Ignaz Felix, Count of Törring-Jettenbach was compared to a drum, as people "heard about him only when he was beaten".[6]
The new commander of the Bavarian army, Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff, fought Austria in a series of battles in 1743 and 1744. In 1743, his troops and their allies took Bavaria, and Charles was able to return to Munich in April for some time before losing Bavaria again after his French allies were defeated and withdrew to the Rhine. Frederick II of Prussia's new campaign during the Second Silesian War finally forced the Austrian army to leave Bavaria and to retreat into Bohemia. In October 1744, Charles regained Munich and returned, this time for good. With former Vice-Chancellor Friedrich Karl von Schönborn as a go-between, the Emperor then sought to reach a compromise with Vienna but failed to get more military support from France.[7][1]
Marriage and children
changeIn 1722, Charles married the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, they had 7 children:
| Name | Portrait | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximiliane Maria Princess of Bavaria |
|
12 April 1723 | Died at birth. | |
| Maria Antonia Electress of Saxony |
|
18 July 1724 | 23 April 1780 | Married Friedrich Christian of Saxony in 1747, had issue. |
| Theresa Benedicta Princess of Bavaria |
|
6 December 1725 | 29 March 1743 | Died young (and before 18) and unmarried |
| Maximilian III Joseph Elector of Bavaria |
|
28 March 1727 | 30 December 1777 | Married Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony in 1747, no issue. |
| Joseph Ludwig Leo Prince of Bavaria |
.png)
|
25 August 1728 | 2 December 1733 | Died in childhood. |
| Maria Anna Josepha Margravine of Baden-Baden |
|
7 August 1734 | 7 May 1776 | Married Louis George, Margravine of Baden-Baden in 1755, no issue. |
| Maria Josepha Holy Roman Empress |
|
30 March 1739 | 28 May 1767 | Married the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in 1765, no issue. |
Illegitimate children
changeCharles had a son with his mistress Maria Caroline Charlotte von Ingenheim:
- Franz Ludwig, Count of Holnstein (4 October 1723 – 22 May 1780) married Anna Marie zu Löwenfeld (1735–1783), daughter of Clemens August of Bavaria. He had one son:
- Maximilian Joseph, Count of Holnstein, married to Princess Maria Josepha of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (1774–1824), daughter of Prince Charles Albert II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst.
Death
changeCharles died from gout on 20 January 1745 in the Nymphenburg Palace. He was 47 years old.
Coat of Arms
changeCharles VII, by the grace of God elected Holy Roman Emperor, forever August, King in Germany and of Bohemia, Duke in the Upper and Lower Bavaria as well as the Upper Palatinate, Count-Palatine of the Rhine, Archduke of Austria, Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg, etc. etc.[8]
 Coat of arms |
 Coat of arms (Shield variant) |
 Coat of arms (Shield variant with supporters) |
Ancestry
change| Ancestors of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
change- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG. Künker Auktion 108 – Bayern und das Haus Wittelsbach, Eine bedeutende Spezialsammlung – p. 59. Numismatischer Verlag Künker. GGKEY:PTBHSKFT0ZC.
- ↑ Simon Winder (2014). Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 177–. ISBN 978-0-374-71161-0.
- ↑ Die Herrscher Bayerns: 25 historische Portraits von Tassilo III. bis Ludwig III. C.H.Beck. 2006. pp. 244–. ISBN 978-3-406-54468-2.
- ↑ Hugh LeCaine Agnew (2004). The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Hoover Press. pp. 131–. ISBN 978-0-8179-4492-6.
- ↑ Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin (1993). Das Alte Reich, 1648–1806: Kaisertradition und österreichische Grossmachtpolitik (1684–1745). Klett Cotta. pp. 430–. ISBN 978-3-608-91489-4.
- ↑ William D. Godsey (2018). The Sinews of Habsburg Power. Oxford University Press. pp. 189–. ISBN 978-0-19-880939-5.
- ↑ Joachim Whaley (2012). Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648–1806. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-969307-8.
- ↑ Die Herrscher Bayerns: 25 historische Portraits von Tassilo III. bis Ludwig III. C.H.Beck. 2006. pp. 244–. ISBN 978-3-406-54468-2.
External links
change
Media related to Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor at Wikimedia Commons
Regnal titles
changeCharles VII, Holy Roman Emperor Born: 6 August 1697 Died: 20 January 1745
| ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Maximilian II Emanuel |
Elector of Bavaria 26 February 1726 – 20 January 1745 |
Succeeded by Maximilian III Joseph |
| Preceded by Maria Theresa |
King of Bohemia 19 December 1741 – 12 May 1743 |
Succeeded by Maria Theresa |
| Preceded by Charles VI |
Holy Roman Emperor King in Germany 24 January 1742 – 20 January 1745 |
Succeeded by Francis I |