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Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria
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Karl Theodor, Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria (December, 1724 – February 16, 1799) reigned as Prince-Elector and Count Palatine from 1742, as Duke of Jülich and Berg from 1742 and also as Prince-Elector and Duke of Bavaria from 1777, until his death. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Sulzbach, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.
as of the Wittelsbach house Palatinate-Sulzbach. His parents were John Christian, Count of Palatinate-Sulzbach and Marie Anne Henriëtte Leopoldine de La Tour d'Auvergne, a grandniece of Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne.
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Karl Theodor, Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria (December, 1724 – February 16, 1799) reigned as Prince-Elector and Count Palatine from 1742, as Duke of Jülich and Berg from 1742 and also as Prince-Elector and Duke of Bavaria from 1777, until his death. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Sulzbach, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.
Biography
He was of the Wittelsbach house Palatinate-Sulzbach. His parents were John Christian, Count of Palatinate-Sulzbach and Marie Anne Henriëtte Leopoldine de La Tour d'Auvergne, a grandniece of Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne. Born in Drogenbos near Brussels, and educated in Mannheim, Karl Theodor was margrave of Bergen op Zoom from 1728 onwards. He succeeded his father as Count of Palatinate-Sulzbach in 1733 and inherited the Electoral Palatinate and the duchies of Jülich and Berg in 1742.
As reigning Prince of the Palatinate, he won the hearts of his subjects by founding an academy of science, stocking up the museums' collections and supporting the arts. When Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria died in 1777, Karl Theodor became also Elector and Duke of Bavaria and moved to Munich.
He instantly managed to make everyone in Bavaria his enemy by proposing to Emperor Joseph II to exchange parts of Bavaria for some Austrian possessions along the Rhine and in today Belgium close to his dominions the Palatinate, Jülich and Berg. This plan was strongly opposed by Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, the former Bavarian Electress, and Karl Theodor's cousin Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, the head of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld and next heir of Bavaria and the Palatinate.
The ensuing diplomatic crisis led to the outbreak of the War of the Bavarian Succession; in the Peace of Teschen (1779), it was established that Karl's descendants (he had no surviving legitimate children) would not inherit the throne of Bavaria.
Karl Theodor never became popular as a ruler in Bavaria; in the following years, he constantly tried without success to exchange the ducal lands of Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands and a royal crown, and he never managed to control the mounting social tensions in Bavaria. After a dispute with Munich's city council Karl Theodor even moved the residence in 1788 to Mannheim but returned only one year later.
Since 1785 Count Rumford reorganized the state. Karl Theodor is also known for disbanding Adam Weishaupt's order of the Illuminati in 1785.
When the revolutionary armies of France occupied the Duchy of Jülich in 1794 and invaded the Palatinate in 1795 and then proceeded towards Bavaria in 1796, Karl Theodor begged Francis II for help which in essence would have made Bavaria a puppet state of Austria. When he died of a stroke in Munich in 1799, the population in Munich celebrated for several days. He is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich.
Despite the mutual dislike and distrust between the Duke and his Bavarian subjects, Karl Theodor left a distinctive mark on the city of Munich: it was under his reign that the English Garden, Munich's largest park, was created, and the city's old fortifications were dismantled to make place for a modern, expanding city.
One of Munich's major squares, Karlsplatz, is named after Karl Theodor. Munich natives, however, seldom use that name, calling the square instead Stachus, after the pub "Beim Stachus" that was located there until construction work for Karlsplatz began. One of the main reasons for this is that Karl Theodor, as noted above, never enjoyed the popularity in Bavaria that he enjoyed in the Palatinate.
Cultural legacy
Karl Theodor was a great lover of the arts, including drama and especially music. His Mannheim court orchestra was considered one of the finest in its time. The Mannheim School (including composer Christian Cannabich and conductor Johann Stamitz) did groudbreaking work that the celebrated Wiener Klassik would later draw upon. Mozart applied for a position with the Mannheim orchestra in 1777, but was turned down, as the court was about to move to Munich. In 1780, Karl Theodor commissioned Idomeneo from the composer. Mozart quotes him as saying "No music has ever made such an impression on me. It is magnificent." (David Cairns, Mozart and his operas, 2006, p.48)
In keeping with the customs of the time, an Italian opera company as well as a troupe of French actors were employed at Mannheim, each performing in their respective tongues. Later, the Nationaltheater (national theatre) was established, one of the first theatres in Germany to exclusively showcase plays in the native tongue (most notably, the first staging of Schiller's "Die Räuber" in 1782).
In the visual arts, a massive collection of plaster casts taken from celebrated antique works was assembled at Mannheim. The preexisting Düsseldorf gallery, including many works by Rubens, was first transferred to Mannheim, then to Munich, where it was later incorporated in the Alte Pinakothek. While none of the Mannheim painters are particularly notable today (with the possible exception of Kobell, primarily a master of landscapes), the elector had several highly talented sculptors at his disposal, among them Verschaffelt, Simon Peter Lamine and Konrad Linck. Linck also distinguished himself as a designer of porcelain figurines at Frankenthal.
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Karl Theodor’s chief architect Nicolas de Pigage was charged to complete the Mannheim Palace, design the gardens at Schwetzingen Palace ( including numerous pavilions, among them several artificial “Roman” ruins and a “mosque”) as well as Benrath palace. While these works are in a pure contemporary French style (marked by the transition from late Baroque to early classicism), some of the other architects employed by Karl Theodor were proponents of a more Italianate style. This mixture of influences is, in fact, typical of many German courts of the period.
Karl Theodor liked to style himself as a prince of peace, in contrast to other princes like his chief political opponent, the great warrior Frederick II of Prussia. Allegorically, Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and protectress of the arts, is often depicted as a stand-in for the elector himself. This self-view is best summed up in the inscription of a small monument at Schwetzingen:
“A field of war and death of Romans and Germans has been discovered, through the unearthing of weapons, urns and bones, in the year 1765. - To the arts of peace, which are the sole joys of his life, the elector Charles Theodore has dedicated this spot, excavated to the height of seven feet, and had this monument erected in 1768.”
Family and children
Issue
Charles Theodore married 17. January 1742 in Mannheim princess Elisabeth Auguste, daughter of Joseph Karl Emanuel von Pfalz-Sulzbach and his consort Elisabeth Auguste Sophie of Palatinate, they had a son:
- Franz Ludwig Joseph (28 June 1762, Schwetzingen - 29 June 1762, Schwetzingen)
His second marriage was concluded in Innsbruck 15 February 1795 with Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este. They had no children.
Illegitimate children
From his liaison with the actress Françoise Després-Verneuil (died 1765), later Countess von Parkstein:
- Karoline Franziska Dorothea, Countess von Parkstein (1762 - 7 September 1816, Ickelheim); married Friedrich Wilhelm, Prinz zu Isenburg-Büdingen-Birstein (13 December 1730, Birstein - 12 October 1804, Mannheim)
- son (1764 - 1765)
From his liaison with Maria Josefa Seyfert, Countess von Heydeck (1748–1771):
- Karoline Josepha von Bretzenheim (27 January 1768 - 27 April 1786); married 1784 Maximilian Josef Count of Holnstein (20 May 1760 - 1838)
- Karl August, Count of Heydeck and Reichsfürst von Bretzenheim, (24 December 1769 - 27 February 1823) married 27 April 1788, Oettingen, Maria Walburga von Oettingen-Spielberg (29 August 1766 - 8 May 1833)
- Eleonore Karoline von Bretzenheim (born November 1770 - 23 December 1832); married 21 November 1787 (divorced 1801) Fürst Wilhelm Karl von Leiningen (5 July 1737 - 26 January 1809)
- Friederike Karoline von Bretzenheim (9 December 1771 - 2 March 1816); married 1796 Graf Maximilian von Westerholt-Gysenberg (1772 - 19 April 1854)
See also
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