Maximilian III Joseph

Maximilian III Joseph (28 March 172730 December 1777) was the prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria from 20 January 1745 to his death. He was the last of the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach. Because of his death, the War of the Bavarian Succession started. He was the son of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Amalia of Austria.

Marriage and death
Marriage
179px|left|thumb|His wife, Maria Anna Sophia, was a first cousin by her mother, who was a sister of Maximilian’s mother. Her father was Augustus III of Poland.

Maximilian III married Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony in 1747 at the age of 20, but, they had no children, which led to the War of the Bavarian Succession.

Death

In December 1777 Maximilian Joseph rode in his carriage through Munich; on the ride, as he passed one of the tower clocks, the mechanism broke, and the clock struck 77 times. Commenting to the passengers, Maximilian Joseph decided this was an omen and that his years had run out. Within days, he was stricken with a strange disease. None of his 15 doctors could diagnose it, but by Christmas, it had become clear that it was a particularly virulent strain of smallpox, called "purple small pox" at the time.Paul Bernard. Joseph II and Bavaria: Two Eighteenth Century Attempts at German Unification. Hague: Martin Nijoff, 1965, p. 40.

Ancestry

Regnal titles

Notes

References

Category:1727 births
Category:1777 deaths
Category:Electors and Electresses
Category:People from Munich
Category:House of Wittelsbach