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 (1618-1648).

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 Friedrich V. (1596-1632)) in 1620. Austria had promised Maximilian the Palatine electorship and territories, and from 1622–23 the duke's general, Johann Tserclaes (1559-1632), 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 Nördlingen (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.

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Sources

• Encylopedia Britannica 2002, Expanded Edition DVD

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