MAXIMILIAN I

born May 27, 1756, Mannheim, Palatinate died Oct. 13, 1825, Munich also called (as elector of Bavaria) Maximilian Iv Joseph first Wittelsbach elector of Bavaria (17991806) and first king of Bavaria (180625), whose alliance with Napoleon gained him a monarch's crown and enabled him to turn the scattered, poorly administered Bavarian holdings into a consolidated, modern state. Maximilian Joseph, the second son of Prince Frederick Michael of Palatinate-Zweibrcken, served in the French regiment of Alsace from 1777 to the outbreak of the French Revolution, developing the affinity for France that he was to retain for the rest of his life. In 1795, when he succeeded his older brother as duke of Zweibrcken, France was already in possession of the duchy; but on the death of the elector Charles Theodore of Bavaria and the Palatinate in 1799, he inherited all of the Wittelsbach territories as Maximilian IV Joseph. Widely scattered and ill-administered, most of them were occupied by Austria. With his able minister Maximilian, Graf von Montgelas, the new elector was to make Bavaria into an efficient, liberal state. Forced by Austrian pressure to enter the war against France (1799), Maximilian IV Joseph signed a separate peace in 1801, which, though formalizing the loss of his lands west of the Rhine, guaranteed compensation elsewhere. Distrustful of Austria, which tried repeatedly to annex Bavarian territories, the elector remained faithful to his French alliance for more than a decade. In 1803 he received Wrzburg, Bamberg, Freising, Augsburg, and other lands. In 1805 Ansbach was added, and on Jan. 1, 1806, the elector crowned himself king of Bavaria as Maximilian I. Bavaria's membership in the Confederation of the Rhinethe league of German princes sponsored by Napoleonand contributions to the French war effort against Austria (1805), Prussia and Russia (180607), and, again, Austria (1809), led to the acquisition of most of Western Austria. Thirty thousand men of the Bavarian contingent fought with Napoleon in Russia, but after the French defeat there Maximilian entered into an alliance with Austria in return for a guarantee of the integrity of his kingdom. After returning sections of Western Austria in 1814 and 1816, Bavaria received sizable territories on the west bank of the Rhine. With the restoration of peace (1815), Maximilian reorganized his administration. He dismissed Montgelas (1817) largely on the insistence of his son, the future Louis I; and the kingdom, which already had received a liberal constitution in 1808, was granted a new charter in 1818, providing for a bicameral parliament. These measures made Bavaria one of Germany's most liberal states during the last years of Maximilian's reign. born March 22, 1459, Wiener Neustadt, Austria died Jan. 12, 1519, Wels archduke of Austria, German king, and Holy Roman emperor (14931519), who made his family, the Habsburgs, dominant in 16th-century Europe. He added vast lands to the traditional Austrian holdings, securing the Netherlands by his own marriage, Hungary and Bohemia by treaty and military pressure, and Spain and the Spanish empire by the marriage of his son Philip. He also fought a series of wars against the French, mostly in Italy. His grandson succeeded to the vast Habsburg realm and the imperial crown as Charles V. born April 17, 1573, Munich died Sept. 27, 1651, Ingolstadt, Bavaria duke of Bavaria from 1597 and elector from 1623, an effective champion of the Roman Catholic side during the Thirty Years' War (161848). After a strict Jesuit education, Maximilian succeeded to the ducal throne on his father's abdication in 1597. Bavaria, debt-ridden and ill-administered, was soon restored to solvency and sound government by the energetic young duke. He revised the law code, built an effective army, and tightened control over his lands and the church. To counteract the newly created Protestant Union, Maximilian formed the defensive Catholic League in February 1610. His Catholic faith did not prevent him from being a rival of the Habsburgs; yet after reorganizing the league to curb that dynasty's power, he came to the aid of Austria in 1619, defeating the Bohemians and their Protestant king Frederick (the Palatine elector Frederick V) in 1620. Austria had promised Maximilian the Palatine electorship and territories, and from 162223 the duke's general, Johann von Tilly, conquered both the Upper and Rhenish Palatinates and the electorship for Maximilian, whose army then drove the Danes from northern Germany (1626). Maximilian's position as leader of the Catholic coalition became threatened, however, by the creation of an independent imperial army under Albrecht von Wallenstein. The elector forced the general's dismissal (1630) and the disbanding of his army; but with Sweden's entry into the conflict, Wallenstein was reinstated. Maximilian then engineered Wallenstein's downfall in 1634. Bavaria fell to the Swedes (1632) but was liberated again after the Battle of Nrdlingen (1634); and Maximilian, now reasonably secure, was content to defend his realm. Defeated by France and Sweden, he concluded a separate armistice (1647). By the Peace of Westphalia (1648) kept the electorship and the Upper Palatinate, restoring only the Rhenish lands to Frederick V's heir. Additional reading R.W. Seton-Watson, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1902); and Christopher Hare (pseud. of Marian Andrews), Maximilian the Dreamer: Holy Roman Emperor, 14591519 (1913), are the most important of the older presentations in English. Glenn Elwood Waas, The Legendary Character of Kaiser Maximilian (1941, reissued 1966), is primarily concerned with his character and personality and offers an imposing bibliography. Gerhard Benecke, Maximilian I (14591519) (1982), describes the ruler's career and character and presents the social history of the land he governed.