Electorate of Bavaria

Electorate of Bavaria Kurfürstentum Bayern(German)
1623–1806
Electoral Standard Coat of arms (1623–1777)
Bavaria highlighted on a map of theHoly Roman Empirein 1648
Status	Electorate
Capital	Munich
Religion	Catholic Church
Demonym(s)	Bavarian
Government	Feudal monarchy
Elector of Bavaria
• 1623–1651	Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria
• 1651–1679	Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria
• 1679–1726	Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria
• 1726–1745	Karl Albrecht, Elector of Bavaria
• 1745–1777	Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria
• 1777–1799	Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria
• 1799–1805	Maximilian IV Joseph, Elector of Bavaria
Historical era	Early modern Europe
• Granted electoral dignity	1623
• Peace of Westphalia	1648
• Put underimperial ban	1706
• Imperial ban reversed	1714
•Personal unionwith Electorate of the Palatinate	1777
• Raised toKingdom	1806
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Bavaria Kingdom of Bavaria

TheElectorate of Bavaria(‹See Tfd›German:Kurfürstentum Bayern) was a quasi-independent hereditaryelectorateof theHoly Roman Empirefrom 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by theKingdom of Bavaria.

TheWittelsbachdynasty which ruled theDuchy of Bavariawas the younger branch of the family which also ruled theElectoral Palatinate.The head of the elder branch was one of the sevenprince-electorsof theHoly Roman Empireaccording to theGolden Bull of 1356,but Bavaria was excluded from the electoral dignity. In 1621,Frederick V, Elector Palatinewas put under theimperial banfor his role in theBohemian RevoltagainstFerdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor,and the electoral dignity and territory of theUpper Palatinatewas conferred upon his loyal cousin, DukeMaximilian I of Bavaria.Although thePeace of Westphaliawould create a new electoral title for Frederick V's son, with the exception of a brief period during theWar of the Spanish Succession,Maximilian's descendants would continue to hold the original electoral dignity until the extinction of his line in 1777. At that point the two lines were joined inpersonal unionuntil the end of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1805, after thePeace of Pressburg,the then-elector,Maximilian Joseph,raised himself to the dignity ofKing of Bavaria,and the Holy Roman Empire was abolished the year after.

Geography

The Electorate of Bavaria consisted of most of the modern regions ofUpper Bavaria,Lower Bavaria,and theUpper Palatinate.Before 1779, it also included theInnviertel,now part of modernAustria.This was ceded to the Habsburgs by theTreaty of Teschen,which ended theWar of the Bavarian Succession.There were a considerable number of independent enclaves and jurisdictions within those broad areas, however, including the principalities ofPalatinate-NeuburgandPalatinate-Sulzbachin the Upper Palatinate, which were held by cadet branches of the Palatinate line of the Wittelsbachs; the ecclesiastical states ofFreising,Regensburg,andPassau,and the imperial free city ofRegensburg.For administration purposes Bavaria was already from 1507 divided into fourstewardships(Rentamt):Munich,Burghausen,LandshutandStraubing.With the acquisition of the Upper Palatinate during theThirty Years' Warthe stewardshipAmbergwas added. In 1802 they were abolished by the ministerMaximilian von Montgelas.In 1805 shortly before the elevationTyrolandVorarlbergwere united with Bavaria, same as several of these enclaves.

Dignities

By virtue of his electoral title, the Elector of Bavaria was a member of the Council of Electors in theImperial Dietas well asArchstewardof the Holy Roman Empire; he also held the dignity ofImperial Vicarduring imperial vacancies along with theElector of Saxony,a duty he undertook in 1657–1658, 1740–1742, 1745, 1790, and 1792. In theCouncil of Princesof the Diet prior to the personal union of 1777 he held individual voices as Duke of Bavaria and (after 1770) Princely Landgrave ofLeuchtenberg.In theImperial Circleshe was, along with theArchbishop of Salzburg,co-director of theBavarian Circle,a circle territorially dominated by the elector's lands. He also held lands in theSwabian Circle.After 1777 these lands were joined by most of the Palatine lands, including theElectoral Palatinate,the Duchies ofJülichandBerg,Palatinate-Neuburg,Palatinate-Sulzbach,Palatinate-Veldenz,and other territories.The final Palatine territory ofPalatine Zweibrückenwas united with Bavaria in 1799 when its duke inherited the Bavarian and Palatine thrones.

History

Thirty Years' War

When he had succeeded to the throne of theDuchy of Bavariain 1597,Maximilian Ihad found it encumbered with debt and filled with disorder, but ten years of his vigorous rule effected a remarkable change. The finances and the judicial system were reorganised, a class of civil servants and a national militia founded, and several small districts were brought under the duke's authority. The result was a unity and order in the duchy which enabled Maximilian to play an important part in theThirty Years' War;during the earlier years of which he was so successful as to acquire theUpper Palatinateand theelectoral dignitywhich had been enjoyed since 1356 by the elder branch of the Wittelsbach family. In spite of subsequent reverses, Maximilian retained these gains at thePeace of Westphaliain 1648. During the later years of this war Bavaria, especially the northern part, suffered severely. In 1632 theSwedesinvaded, and when Maximilian violated theTreaty of Ulmin 1647, the French and the Swedes ravaged the land. After repairing this damage to some extent, the elector died atIngolstadtin September 1651, leaving his state much stronger than he had found it. The addition of the Upper Palatinate made Bavaria compact; the acquisition of the electoral vote made it influential; and the electorate was able to play a part in European politics which internal strife had rendered impossible for the past four hundred years.

Absolutism

Maximilian II Emanuel

The full coat of arms of the Electorate of Bavaria (1753)

Whatever lustre the international position won byMaximilian Imight add to the electoral house, on Bavaria itself its effect during the next two centuries was more dubious. Maximilian's son,Ferdinand Maria(1651–1679), who was a minor when he succeeded, did much indeed to repair the wounds caused by the Thirty Years' War, encouraging agriculture and industries, and building or restoring numerous churches and monasteries. In 1669, moreover, he again called a meeting of the diet, which had been suspended since 1612.

His constructive work, however, was largely undone by his sonMaximilian II Emanuel(1679–1726), whose far-reaching ambition set him warring against theOttoman Empireand, on the side ofFrance,in the great struggle of theSpanish succession.He shared in the defeat at theBattle of Blenheim,nearHöchstädt,on 13 August 1704. Placed under theimperial ban,his dominions were temporarily partitioned betweenAustriaand theelector palatineby theTreaty of Ilbersheim,and only restored to him, harried and exhausted, at theTreaty of Baden in 1714;the firstBavarian peasant insurrection,known asSendling's night of murder,having been crushed by the Austrian occupiers in 1706.

Untaught by Maximilian II Emmanuel's experience, his son,Charles Albert(1726–1745), devoted all his energies to increasing the European prestige and power of his house. The death of the EmperorCharles VIproved his opportunity: he disputed the validity of thePragmatic Sanctionwhich secured the Habsburg succession toMaria Theresa,allied himself with France, conqueredUpper Austria,was crownedking of BohemiaatPragueand, in 1742, emperor atFrankfurt.The price he had to pay, however, was the occupation of Bavaria itself by Austrian troops; and, though the invasion of Bohemia in 1744 byFrederick II of Prussiaenabled him to return to Munich, at his death on 20 January 1745 it was left to his successor to make what terms he could for the recovery of his dominions.

Maximilian III Joseph(1745–1777), by theTreaty of Füssensigned on 22 April 1745, obtained the restitution of his dominions in return for a formal acknowledgment of the Pragmatic Sanction. He was a man ofenlightenment,did much to encourage agriculture, industries and the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, founded theAcademy of Sciencesat Munich, and abolished theJesuitcensorship of the press. At his death, without issue, on 30 December 1777, the Bavarian line of the Wittelsbachs became extinct, and the succession passed toCharles Theodore,the elector palatine. After a separation of four and a half centuries, theElectoral Palatinate,to which the duchies ofJülichandBerghad been added, was thus reunited with Bavaria.

Palatinate-Bavaria

Charles Theodore

So great an accession of strength to a neighbouring state, whose ambition she had so recently had just reason to fear, proved intolerable to Austria, which laid claim to a number of lordships —forming one-third of the whole Bavarian inheritance – as lapsed fiefs of the Bohemian, Austrian, and imperial crowns. These were at once occupied by Austrian troops, with the secret consent of Charles Theodore himself, who was without legitimate heirs, and wished to obtain from the emperor the elevation of his natural children to the status of princes of the Empire. The protests of the next heir,Charles II, Duke of Zweibrücken(Deux-Ponts), supported by the king ofPrussia,led to theWar of Bavarian Succession.By thepeace of Teschen(13 May 1779) theInnviertelwas ceded to Austria, and the succession secured to Charles of Zweibrücken.

For Bavaria itself Charles Theodore did less than nothing. He felt himself a foreigner among foreigners, and his favourite scheme, the subject of endless intrigues with the Austrian cabinet and the immediate cause ofFrederick II's League of Princes (Fürstenbund) of 1785, was to exchange Bavaria for theAustrian Netherlandsand the title of king ofBurgundy.For the rest, the enlightened internal policy of his predecessor was abandoned. The funds of the suppressed order of Jesus, which Maximilian Joseph had destined for the reform of the educational system of the country, were used to endow a province of theknights of St John of Jerusalem,for the purpose of combating the enemies of the faith. The government was inspired by the narrowest clericalism, which culminated in the attempt to withdraw the Bavarian bishops from the jurisdiction of the great German metropolitans and place them directly under that of the pope. On the eve of theFrench Revolutionthe intellectual and social condition of Bavaria remained that of the Middle Ages.

Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods

The Electorate (1778) and the Kingdom of Bavaria (1816)

In 1792 theFrench Revolutionary Armyoverran the Palatinate; in 1795 the French, underJean Victor Moreau,invaded Bavaria itself, advanced to Munich – where they were received with joy by the long-suppressed Liberals – and laid siege toIngolstadt.Charles Theodore,who had done nothing to prevent wars or to resist the invasion, fled toSaxony,leaving a regency, the members of which signed a convention with Moreau, by which he granted an armistice in return for a heavy contribution (7 September 1796).

Count Montgelas

Between the French and the Austrians, Bavaria was now in a bad situation. Before the death of Charles Theodore (16 February 1799) the Austrians had again occupied the country, in preparation for renewing the war with France.Maximilian IVJoseph (ofPalatine Zweibrücken), the new elector, succeeded to a difficult inheritance. Though his own sympathies, and those of his all-powerful minister,Maximilian von Montgelas,were, if anything, French rather than Austrian, the state of the Bavarian finances, and the fact that the Bavarian troops were scattered and disorganized, placed him helpless in the hands of Austria; on 2 December 1800 theBavarian Armywas involved in theAustrian defeat at Hohenlinden,and Moreau once more occupied Munich. By theTreaty of Lunéville(9 February 1801) Bavaria lost the Palatinate and the duchies of Zweibrücken andJülich.

In view of the scarcely disguised ambitions and intrigues of the Austrian court, Montgelas now believed that the interests of Bavaria lay in a frank alliance with theFrench Republic;he succeeded in overcoming the reluctance of Maximilian Joseph; and, on 24 August, a separate treaty of peace and alliance with France was signed at Paris. By the third article of this theFirst Consulundertook to see that the compensation promised under the 7th article of the Treaty of Lunéville for the territory ceded on the left bank of theRhine,should be carried out at the expense of the Empire in the manner most agreeable to Bavaria (seede Martens,Recueil,vol. vii. p. 365).

In 1803, accordingly, in theterritorial rearrangementsconsequent on Napoleon's suppression of the ecclesiastical states, and of manyfree cities of the Empire,Bavaria received the bishoprics ofWürzburg,Bamberg,AugsburgandFreisingen,part of that ofPassau,the territories of twelve abbeys, and seventeen cities and villages, the whole forming a compact territory which more than compensated for the loss of her outlying provinces on the Rhine. Montgelas now aspired to raise Bavaria to the rank of a first-rate power, and he pursued this object during the Napoleonic epoch with consummate skill, allowing fully for the preponderance of France – so long as it lasted – but never permitting Bavaria to sink, like so many of the states of theConfederation of the Rhine,into a mere French dependency.

End of the Electorate of Bavaria

In September 1805, Bavaria signed the Bogenhausen Treaty with France. The primary consequence of the treaty was Bavaria's military support for Napoleon. Bavarian troops under GeneralKarl Philipp von Wredefought theAustriansat Iglau in Bohemia, which contributed to the simultaneous French victory atAusterlitzon 2 December 1805.

In thewar of 1805,in accordance with a treaty of alliance signed atWürzburgon 23 September, Bavarian troops, for the first time since the days ofCharles VII,fought side by side with the French, and by theTreaty of Prssburg,signed on 26 December, thePrince-Bishopric of Eichstätt,the Margravate ofBurgau,the Lordship ofVorarlberg,the countships ofHohenemsandKönigsegg-Rothenfels,the lordships ofArgenandTettnang,and the city ofLindauwith its territory were to be added to Bavaria. On the other hand, Würzburg, obtained in 1803, was to be ceded by Bavaria to theelector of Salzburgin exchange forTyrol.By the 1st article of the treaty the emperor already acknowledged the assumption by the elector of the title of king, as Maximilian I. The price which Maximilian had reluctantly to pay for this accession of dignity was the marriage of his daughter Augusta withEugène de Beauharnais.

The electorate existed until 1806, when Bavaria was proclaimed a kingdom. It had its origins in the Franco-Bavarian Treaty of Brno of 10–12 December 1805 and in the Peace of Pressburg on 26 December 1805 between the plenipotentiaries of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and theHoly Romanand Austrian EmperorFrancis II & Iconcluded a peace treaty, because Austria now had to cede the counties of Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Bavaria. Duke and Elector Maximilian IV Joseph was proclaimed King Maximilian I Joseph on 1 January 1806 in Munich as the first king of Bavaria. From 1 January 1806, the Bavarian royal title initially read:

"By the grace of God, King of Bavaria, Archpalatine Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Archtruchsess and Elector."

The formal exit of Bavaria from the Holy Roman Empire, renouncing the electoral dignity, did not take place until July 1806 with the Rheinbund Act. The new king still served as anelectoruntil Bavaria left the Holy Roman Empire (1 August 1806). On 15 March 1806 Max Joseph had ceded theDuchy of Bergto Napoleon. Shortly thereafter, theConfederation of the Rhinewas formed and Maximilian Joseph, with the other princes who joined that body, announced his secession from the Holy Roman Empire. On 6 August 1806, theHoly Roman Empire was dissolvedafter surviving for a thousand years.

See also

• Holy Roman Empire portal