Clément-Auguste Ferdinand Marie Hyacinthe de Bavière

## Kurfürst-Erzbischof von Köln

Monsieur des Cinq Églises

Portrait of the Prince-Archbishop-Elector of Cologne during his episcopal tenure.

## Clerical Posts

### Successor

Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels

## Titles & Occupations

### Secular Titles

Prinz von BayernHerzog von München

Hochmeister des Deutschen Ordens

### Court Posts

Première Aumônier de la Cour (1733-present)Maître de l'Oratoire (1730-1733)

## Biography

### Full Name

Clemens August Ferdinand Maria Hyazinth von Bayern

### Clerical Allegiance

Roman Catholic Church (1716-1739)Protestant Reformed Church (1739-1761)

### Born

16th August, 1700, Palais du Coudenberg, Brussels, Austrian Dominion of the Netherlands

### Died

6th February, 1761, Kurfürstliches Schloss zu Köln, Koblenz, Prince-Archbishopric of Cologne (aged 61)

### Burial

Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus zu Köln, Kurköln

### Religion

Protestant-Lutheranism

**Clemens August von Bayern** (16th August 1700) was a Holy Roman Elector, Archbishop, and military leader during his life.

## Birth and Childhood

Clemens August was the fourth son and fifth child of Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria and his second wife Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, a daughter of the Polish King Jan Sobieski. He had nine siblings and five half-siblings from other connections of his father. A brother was Karl Albrecht, later Elector of Bavaria and as Charles VII Roman-German Emperor. His brother Ferdinand Maria was imperial field marshal of the empire. Johann Theodor was Bishop of Regensburg, Freising and Liege. An uncle was his predecessor as Archbishop of Cologne, Joseph Clemens.

At the time of his birth, his father was a general owner in the Spanish Netherlands. With the War of the Spanish Succession, the family returned to Bavaria. His father allied himself with France and opposed the emperor and the empire. He lost the Battle of Höchstädt in 1704 against Prince Eugene, his former comrade-in-chief in Hungary. The father was ostracized and fled into exile. Clemens August spent the time from1706 to 1712 in Klagenfurt and then until the end of the war in 1715 in Graz in Austrian honorary detention. He received, above all, a proper education from Jesuits under imperial supervision. It was only after this more than ten-year separation that he saw his parents again when his father regained his rule in 1715.

## Early Years

Clemens August von Bayern was born into a period of instability for his native Bavaria. Following the death of King Charles II in 1700, the war of Spanish Succession would find its way into Bavaria. The Habsburg Austrians invaded and occupied the lands forcing Clemens to convert to Catholicism. During this occupation his father, Maximillian, escaped and found asylum at Versailles whilst the rest of the family was placed under house arrest for the remainder of the war.

His father pursued undaunted European political goals out of dynastic power interests, trained his four sons accordingly and did not leave marriages to chance. Clemens August, like his brothers Philipp Moritz and Johann Theodor, he chose the spiritual status. They were to take on important positions in the Reichskirche in order to increase the Influence of Bavarian-Wittelsbach. Originally, Clemens August was to become bishop of Freising, Regensburg and Speyer, while his brother Philipp Moritz was to receive spiritual dignity in northwest Germany. In 1715 Clemens August received his first tone and became coadjutor of the Diocese of Regensburg and the Prince Propstei Berchtesgaden. From 1716 to 1719 he was Bishop of Regensburg. In 1718 he became provost of the monastery of Altötting. He held this office until 1721. In 1719 he also received a dominature in Cologne, which he kept until 1723 and another cathedral office in Liege, which he did not give up until 1757.

From 1717 to 1719 he went to Rome together with his brother Philipp Moritz to deepen his theological studies. During this time, the father worked hard to obtain further offices and dignity for the two sons. In 1719, after the death of his brother, who was originally intended for these posts and died in Rome of Blattern, he became Prince-Bishop of Münster and Paderborn. He had to give up the Diocese of Regensburg for this. His father urged his reluctant brother, Elector-Archbishop Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, to accept his nephew as coadjutor of the Archdiocese of Cologne in 1722 with the right to succeed him. Ferdinand von Plettenberg in particular took care of the approval of the cathedral masters in a future election. He had to overcome certain resistance stumbling upon the Cologne Cathedral Provost and Cardinal Christian August of Sachsen-Zeitz, who made various claims for a nephew. As a result, imperial and papal approval had to be obtained for the accumulation of office. With their consent, the cathedral masters confirmed Clemens August as coadjutor. Already in 1723, with the death of his uncle Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, he was able to succeed him in Cologne.

The attempt to have him elected in Liege as the successor to Joseph Clemens failed due to the resistance of the Emperor and France. Instead he became Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim in 1724 and Osnabrückin 1728. In 1732 he was elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order with particular pride. In 1731 he became the holder of the imperial infantry regiment "Deutschmeister".

This concentration of spiritual lordships in one hand was unique until then. It was actually contrary to the decisions of the Council of Trent, but was tolerated by the Curia. Clemens August had moved up to the Reichsfürstenstand as Elector and multiple bishop and thus had not only state-glorious violence in a large part of northwest Germany, but also several seats and votes in the Reichstag.

Clemens August himself contributed little to his ascent. In particular, his prime minister and Prime Minister Ferdinand von Plettenberg influenced the elections in his favor. The reports of spiritual observers from his time in Rome attested to Clemens August's "good qualities and virtues", and one was also convinced in Munich that he was capable of his government office. In 1723, the papal nuncio in Rome praised in particular the religious zeal of the then coadjutor. He himself, however, had little inclination to be ordained a priest. He once said to his father that he would represent the priesthood unworthy. Before consecration, he wanted to renounce his spiritual ministry and the electorate if necessary. His father quickly disaled him from these thoughts. Pope Benedict XIII insisted on the ordination of priests in return for the confirmation of the election of the Bishop of Hildesheim.After Clemens August finally decided to do so, he was ordained a priest in 1725 in The Palace of Swabia near Munich. His father died in 1726. A year later, Clement August was personally ordained bishop by Pope Benedict XIII.To this end, the Pope had come to visit him for the consecration of the church of Santa Maria della Quercia in Viterbo.

## Military Career

In his dual role as spiritual and secular ruler, Clemens August had the regiments of his territories associated with personal union. Since the leadership of wars of aggression could hardly be reconciled with his office as Prince-Bishop, his troops had to perform mainly defensive tasks. These included the defense of the territory, the position of contingents to the Imperial Army and executions at county level. The troops of the Elector were also involved in the dynastic politics of the Wittelsbachs. In the treaty text of the Wittelsbacher Hausunion with Bavaria, the Palatinate and Trier of 1724, he committed himself in the defense case to the position of 3000 men on horseback and 7000 men on foot.

Clemens August excelled militarily during the War of the Polish Throne, when he undertook to upgrade his army under a subsidies treaty with France. In a camp near Plittersdorf, he brought together newly established regiments and turned the swearing-in of the troops into a courtly feast, although the Bavarian Wittelsbachers originally planned secrecy. The Kurköln estates then refused all tax payments. At the end of August 1734, desertions took hold among the new troops, due to the lack of pay. The camp of Plittersdorf had to be abolished in October 1734. In the Reich and in Vienna, Clemens August's attempt to upgrade caused consternation, as he was previously at least officially unable to make his contingent to the Imperial Army for the war against France. The Vabanque game of the Elector was sanctioned with quarters by the Imperial Army.

 Prince Bishopric of Münster
 Prince Bishopric of Paderborn
 Prince Bishopric of Osnabrück
 Prince Bishopric of Hildesheim

The training of the soldiers under Clemens August was based on the leading military powers of the Holy Roman Empire. Since 1730, all territories of the Personal Union have been trained on the model of the Imperial Executive Regulations. After the War of the Austrian Succession, the Prussian Executive Regulations were rapidly disseminated in Europe. In Münster and Kurköln, training was held in 1752 according to the Prussian executive regulations. The contemporary verdict on the troops of the Cologne Elector was neutral to positive: the French Marshal Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise, classified two Münster regiments as good and three Electoral Regiments as mediocre in the Seven Years' War.