Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria

Maximilian I Josef King of Bavaria
Portrait by Joseph Stieler, 1822 Reign as Elector of Bavaria April 1, 1795- December 26, 1805As King of Bavaria December 26, 1805- October 13, 1825Born May 27, 1756Birthplace SchwetzingenDied October 13, 1825(aged 69) Place of death MunichPredecessor Charles ISuccessor Ludwig IConsort i) Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt
ii) Karoline of BadenIssue Louis, Augusta, Charlotte, Charles Theodore, Charles Frederick, Elisabeth, Amalia, Sophie, Maria Anna, Louise, Maximiliana Royal House WittelsbachFather Frederick Michael of Zweibrücken-BirkenfeldMother Maria Francisca of Sulzbach

This page refers to King Maximilian I of Bavaria. For the seventeenth century Elector Maximilian I, see Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria

Maximilian I (also known as Maximilian Joseph) (May 27, 1756 – October 13, 1825) was prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1805, king of Bavaria (as Maximilian I) from 1805 to 1825.

1 Biography
2 Private life and family
3 Ancestry
4 See also
5 References

Biography

Early life

Maximilian was the son of the count palatine Frederick Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Maria Francisca of Sulzbach, and was born at Schwetzingen - between Heidelberg and Mannheim.

He was carefully educated under the supervision of his uncle, Duke Christian IV of Zweibrücken, became Count of Rappoltstein in 1776 and took service in 1777 as a colonel in the French army and rose rapidly to the rank of major-general. From 1782 to 1789 he was stationed at Strasbourg, but at the outbreak of the French Revolution he exchanged the French for the Austrian service, taking part in the opening campaigns of the revolutionary wars.

Duke of Zweibrücken and Elector of Bavaria and the Palatinate

On April 1, 1795 he succeeded his brother, Charles II, as duke of Zweibrücken, and on February 16, 1799 became Elector of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Arch-Steward of the Empire, and Duke of Berg on the extinction of the Sulzbach line with the death of the elector Charles Theodore.

The sympathy with France and with French ideas of enlightenment which characterized his reign was at once manifested. In the newly organized ministry Count Max Josef von Montgelas, who, after falling into disfavour with Charles Theodore, had acted for a time as Maximilian Joseph's private secretary, was the most potent influence, an influence wholly "enlightened" and French. Agriculture and commerce were fostered, the laws were ameliorated, a new criminal code drawn up, taxes and imposts equalized without regard to traditional privileges, while a number of religious houses were suppressed and their revenues used for educational and other useful purposes. He closed the University of Ingolstadt in May 1800 and moved it to Landshut.

In foreign politics Maximilian Joseph's attitude was from the German point of view less commendable. With the growing sentiment of German nationality he had from first to last no sympathy, and his attitude throughout was dictated by wholly dynastic, or at least Bavarian, considerations. Until 1813 he was the most faithful of Napoleon's German allies, the relation being cemented by the marriage of his eldest daughter to Eugène de Beauharnais. His reward came with the Treaty of Pressburg (December 26, 1805), by the terms of which he was to receive the royal title and important territorial acquisitions in Swabia and Franconia to round off his kingdom. The style of king he actually assumed on January 1, 1806. On March 15 he ceded the Duchy of Berg to Napoleon.

Bavarian Royalty
House of Wittelsbach
Maximilian IChildren Ludwig I Princess Augusta Princess Amalie Marie Princess Charlotte Prince Karl Theodor Prince Karl Friedrich Elisabeth Ludovika, Queen of Prussia Princess Amalie Auguste Archduchess Sophie of Austria Princess Maria Anna, Queen of Saxony Princess Ludovika Princess Maximiliana Ludwig IChildren Maximilian II Mathilde, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine Otto, King of the Hellenes Princess Theodelinde Prince Regent Luitpold Adelgunde, Duchess of Modena Archduchess Hildegarde of Austria Princess Alexandra Prince AdalbertGrandchildren Ludwig II Ludwig III Prince Leopold Princess Therese Prince Arnulf Prince AlfonsGreat Grandchildren Princess Elisabeth Marie Archduchess Auguste of Austria Prince Georg Prince Konrad Prince Heinrich Maximilian IIChildren Ludwig II Otto I Ludwig II

Otto I

Ludwig IIIChildren Crown Prince Rupprecht Princess Adelgunde Maria, Duchess of Calabria Prince Karl Prince Franz Princess Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Prince Wolfgang Princess Hildegarde Princess Notburga Wiltrud, Duchess of Urach Princess Helmtrud Princess Dietlinde Princess Gundelinde Children of Crown Prince Rupprecht Prince Luitpold Princess Irmingard Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria Prince Rudolf Prince Heinrich Princess Irmingard Princess Editha Princess Hilda Gabrielle, Duchess of Cröy Sophie, Duchess of Arenberg Children of Duke Albrecht Princess Marie Gabrielle Princess Marie Charlotte Franz, Duke of Bavaria Prince MaxChildren of Prince Max Princess Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein Princess Marie-Caroline Princess Hélène Princess Elizabeth Princess Maria Anna

King of Bavaria

The new king of Bavaria was the most important of the princes belonging to the Confederation of the Rhine, and remained Napoleon's ally until the eve of the Battle of Leipzig, when by the Treaty of Ried (October 8, 1813) he made the guarantee of the integrity of his kingdom the price of his joining the Allies.

By the first Treaty of Paris (June 3, 1814), however, he ceded Tirol to Austria in exchange for the former duchy of Würzburg. At the Congress of Vienna too, which he attended in person, Maximilian had to make further concessions to Austria, ceding Salzburg and the quarters of the Inn and Hausruck in return for the western part of the old Palatinate. The king fought hard to maintain the contiguity of the Bavarian territories as guaranteed at Ried but the most he could obtain was an assurance from Metternich in the matter of the Baden succession, in which he was also doomed to be disappointed.

At Vienna and afterwards Maximilian sturdily opposed any reconstitution of Germany which should endanger the independence of Bavaria, and it was his insistence on the principle of full sovereignty being left to the German reigning princes that largely contributed to the loose and weak organization of the new German Confederation. The Federal Act of the Vienna Congress was proclaimed in Bavaria, not as a law but as an international treaty. It was partly to secure popular support in his resistance to any interference of the federal diet in the internal affairs of Bavaria, partly to give unity to his somewhat heterogeneous territories, that Maximilian on May 26, 1818 granted a liberal constitution to his people. Montgelas, who had opposed this concession, had fallen in the previous year, and Maximilian had also reversed his ecclesiastical policy, signing on October 24, 1817 a concordat with Rome by which the powers of the clergy, largely curtailed under Montgelas's administration, were restored. The new parliament proved to be more independent than he had anticipated and in 1819 Maximilian resorted to appealing to the powers against his own creation; but his Bavarian "particularism" and his genuine popular sympathies prevented him from allowing the Carlsbad Decrees to be strictly enforced within his dominions. The suspects arrested by order of the Mainz Commission he was accustomed to examine himself, with the result that in many cases the whole proceedings were quashed, and in not a few the accused dismissed with a present of money.

Maximilian died at Nymphenburg Palace, near Munich, on October 13, 1825 and was succeeded by his son Ludwig I. Maximilian is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich.

Private life and family

In private life Maximilian was kindly and simple. He loved to play the part of Landesvater, walking about the streets of his capital en bourgeois and entering into conversation with all ranks of his subjects, by whom he was regarded with great affection.

Maximilian married twice and had a total of thirteen children:

Auguste Wilhelmine Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt — (April 14, 1765 – March 30, 1796), married on September 30, 1785 in Darmstadt
- Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786 – 1868), married Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen
- Augusta Amalia Ludovika Georgia, Princess of Bavaria and Duchess of Leuchtenberg (June 21, 1788 – May 13, 1851), who married Eugène de Beauharnais
- Amalie Marie Auguste Countess Palatine of the Rhine of Zweibrücken (October, 1790 – January 24, 1794)
- Charlotte Auguste Princess of Bavaria and Empress of Austria (February 8, 1792 – February 9, 1873) wife of William I of Württemberg, then Francis I of Austria
- Karl Theodor Maximilian August Prince of Bavaria (July 7, 1795 – August 16, 1875)

Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine of Baden, daughter of Margrave Karl Ludwig of Baden — (July 13, 1776 – November 13, 1841), married on March 9, 1797 in Karlsruhe
- Stillborn son (September 5, 1799)
- Karl Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Maximilian Joseph Prince of Bavaria (October 28, 1800 – February 12, 1803)
- Elisabeth Ludovika Princess of Bavaria and Queen of Prussia ("Elise") (November 13, 1801 – December 14, 1873), wife of Frederick William IV of Prussia
- Amalie Auguste Princess of Bavaria and Queen of Saxony (November 13, 1801 – November 8, 1877), wife of John I of Saxony
- Sophie, Princess of Bavaria and Archduchess of Austria (1805–1872) mother of Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico
- Marie Anne Leopoldine Elisabeth Wilhelmine Princess of Bavaria (January 27, 1805 – September 13, 1877), wife of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony
- Marie Ludovika Wilhelmine Princess of Bavaria (1808–1892). Married Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria.
- Maximiliana Josepha Caroline Princess of Bavaria (July 21, 1810 – February 4, 1821)

Ancestry

Maximilian's ancestors to the third generation Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria Father:
Frederick Michael of Zweibrücken-BirkenfeldPaternal Grandfather:
Christian of Zweibrücken-BirkenfeldPaternal Great-Grandfather:
Christian II of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld Paternal Great-Grandmother:
Katharina Agathe, Countess of Rappoltstein Paternal Grandmother:
Karoline of Nassau-Saarbrücken Paternal Great-Grandfather:
Ludwig Kraft of Nassau-Saarbrücken Paternal Great-Grandmother:
Philippine Henriette of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Mother:
Maria Francisca of SulzbachMaternal Grandfather:
Joseph, Count Palatine of SulzbachMaternal Great-Grandfather:
Theodor Eustach of Sulzbach Maternal Great-Grandmother:
Eleonore Marie Amalie of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg Maternal Grandmother:
Elizabeth Augusta of NeuburgMaternal Great-Grandfather:
Karl III Philip, Elector PalatineMaternal Great-Grandmother:
Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł