Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria

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Maximilian II Emanuel

Maximilian II Emanuel (July 11, 1662 - February 26, 1726) was a Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and an elector (Kurfürst) of the Holy Roman Empire. An able soldier, his ambition led to conflicts that limited his ultimate dynastic achievements.

He was born in Munich to Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy (d.1676). His maternal grandparents were Victor Amadeus I of Savoy and Christine Marie of France. Christine Marie was the second daughter of Henry IV of France and his second wife Marie de' Medici.

Maximilian inherited the elector's mantle while still a minor in 1679. By 1683 he was already embarked on a military career, fighting in the defense of Vienna against the attempt of the Ottoman Empire to extend their Islamic conquests further into Europe. Returning to court for long enough to marry Maria Antonia, daughter of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and Margaret of Spain, on 15 July 1685, his fame was assured when, in 1688, he led the capture of Belgrade from the Turks. In the War of the Grand Alliance he again fought on the Habsburgs' side, and, being the Emperor's son-in-law, was appointed governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1692.

His Netherlands adventure catalysed Max Emanuel's dynastic ambitions, but in the year of his appointment as governor, Maria Antonia died. An alternative avenue for his ambition was offered by his 12 January 1694, marriage to Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, the death in that same year of whose father, the elected King of Poland Jan III Sobieski, offered a potential avenue of influence in Polish affairs.

However, he concentrated his interests in Western Europe and making his sons by Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, Charles Albert and Klemens August, the principal outlets for his ambitions. In 1699 Max. Emanuel's first son Joseph Ferdinand, appointed heir of the Spanish crown, had died. By the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701, he had developed a plan for the Wittelsbachs to supplant the Habsburgs as Holy Roman Emperors. Allying himself with the French against the Habsburgs, his plans were frustrated by the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. In the ensuing evacuation of his court to the Netherlands, Max. Emanuel's family became separated and his sons were held prisoners for several years in Austria, Klemens August being brought up by Jesuits. Bavaria was partitioned between Austria and the elector palatine, leading to bloody uprisings of the people against the Austrian imperial troops. Max. Emanuel was again forced to flee the Netherlands after the Battle of Ramillies and found refuge at the French court in Versailles.

Family tree

The war was finally ended in 1713 in the Treaty of Utrecht which restored Max. Emanuel. Only in 1715 was the family re-united in Munich.

Back in Bavaria Max. Emanuel patronised the arts even more than before. Not only the Nymphenburg Palace was enlarged during his reign but also the New Palace of Schleissheim Palace was erected. In 1724 he founded a union of all lines of the Wittelsbach dynasty. In 1726 he founded the Royal Order of Saint George for the Defense of the Immaculate Conception, a dynastic Order of the Royal House of Bavaria.

Sixteen years after Max. Emanuel's death in Munich, his son Charles VII Albert finally realised Wittelsbach aspirations when the male Habsburg line became extinct. Based upon his marriage to a daughter of the eldest of the two Habsburg brothers who successively ruled as the line ended, he was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1742, but he died within three years and the Empire reverted back to the Habsburgs through a daughter of the youngest deceased Habsburg brother.

Max Emanuel is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich.