Editing Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (section)

==Holy Roman Emperor==
[[File:Karl VII.jpg|thumb|left|[[Allegory|Allegorical]] depiction of Charles's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor (1742)]]
[[File:Albrecht-KaiserKarl-Taler1743.JPG|thumb|left|[[Thaler]] coin of Charles VII, dated 1743]]

In continuance of the policy of his father, Charles aspired to an even higher rank. As son-in-law of [[Emperor Joseph I]], Charles rejected the [[Pragmatic Sanction of 1713]] and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty against [[Maria Theresa]], daughter of [[Emperor Charles VI]], in 1740. By the [[Treaty of Nymphenburg]], which was concluded in July 1741, Charles became allied with [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[History of Spain (1700-1808)|Spain]] against Austria.<ref name="Winder2014">{{Cite book |last=Simon Winder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TVT1AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA537 |title=Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe |year=2014 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-71161-0 |pages=177–}}</ref>

During the [[War of the Austrian Succession]], Charles invaded [[Upper Austria]] in 1741 and planned to conquer [[Vienna]], but his allied French troops under the [[Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle|Duc de Belle-Isle]] were instead redirected to [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]], capturing [[Prague]] in November 1741. That meant that Charles was crowned [[king of Bohemia]] in Prague on 19 December 1741, when the Habsburgs had not yet been defeated. He was [[1742 imperial election|unanimously elected]] [[king of Germany]] on 24 January 1742 and became [[Holy Roman emperor]] upon his coronation on 12 February 1742. His brother [[Klemens August of Bavaria|Clement August]], the [[archbishop-elector of Cologne]], generally sided with the Habsburg-Lorraine faction in the disputes over the Habsburg succession but cast his vote for him and personally crowned him emperor at [[Frankfurt am Main|Frankfurt]]. King [[George II of Great Britain]], as the elector of [[Electorate of Hanover|Hanover]], also voted to install Charles as emperor even though both [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]] and Hanover were allied with Austria in the ongoing war. Charles VII was the second [[Wittelsbach]] emperor after [[Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Louis IV]] and the first Wittelsbach king of Germany since the reign of [[Rupert of Germany|Rupert]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQUNNfK5524C&pg=PA244 |title=Die Herrscher Bayerns: 25 historische Portraits von Tassilo III. bis Ludwig III. |publisher=C.H.Beck |year=2006 |isbn=978-3-406-54468-2 |pages=244–}}</ref><ref name="Agnew2004">{{Cite book |last=Hugh LeCaine Agnew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Db76shTEM60C&pg=PT131 |title=The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown |publisher=Hoover Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8179-4492-6 |pages=131–}}</ref><ref name="Aretin1993">{{Cite book |last=Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6v4QdEnA20oC&pg=PA561 |title=Das Alte Reich, 1648–1806: Kaisertradition und österreichische Grossmachtpolitik (1684–1745) |publisher=Klett Cotta |year=1993 |isbn=978-3-608-91489-4 |pages=430–}}</ref>

Shortly after his coronation, most of Charles's territories were overrun by the Austrians, and [[Electorate of Bavaria|Bavaria]] was occupied by the troops of Maria Theresa. The Emperor fled Munich and resided for almost three years in the ''Palais Barckhaus'' in [[Frankfurt]]. Most of Bohemia was lost in December 1742, when the Austrians allowed the French under the Duc de Belle-Isle and the [[François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie|Duc de Broglie]] an honourable capitulation. Charles was mocked as an emperor who neither controlled his own realm nor was in effective control of the empire itself, but the institution of the Holy Roman emperor had largely become symbolic in nature and powerless by then. A popular [[Latin]] saying about him was ''et caesar et nihil'', meaning "both emperor and nothing", a word play on ''aut caesar aut nihil'', meaning "either emperor or nothing". Bavarian General Ignaz Felix, Count of Törring-Jettenbach was compared to a drum, as people "heard about him only when he was beaten".<ref name="Godsey2018">{{Cite book |last=William D. Godsey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8wpDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA427 |title=The Sinews of Habsburg Power |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-19-880939-5 |pages=189–}}</ref>

Charles VII tried to boost his prestige from Frankfurt with numerous legal acts, such as  granting imperial privilege to the [[University of Erlangen-Nuremberg|University of Erlangen]] in 1743 and creating several new imperial nobles. [[Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg]], was declared to be of full age in 1744, ahead of time. [[Alexander Ferdinand, 3rd Prince of Thurn and Taxis]] served as Principal Commissioner for Charles VII at the [[Perpetual Diet of Regensburg]] and in 1744 the [[Thurn und Taxis]] dynasty were appointed the hereditary Postmasters General of the Imperial [[Kaiserliche Reichspost |Reichspost]].<ref name="Stollberg-Rilinger2018">{{Cite book |last=Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3OYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 |title=The Holy Roman Empire: A Short History |year= 2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17911-7 |pages=106–}}</ref><ref name=heb/>

The new commander of the Bavarian army, [[Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff]], fought Austria in a series of battles in 1743 and 1744. In 1743, his troops and their allies took Bavaria, and Charles was able to return to Munich in April for some time before losing Bavaria again after his French allies were defeated and withdrew to the Rhine. [[Frederick II of Prussia]]'s new campaign during the [[Second Silesian War]] finally forced the Austrian army to leave Bavaria and to retreat into Bohemia. In October 1744, Charles regained Munich and returned, this time for good. With former Vice-Chancellor [[Friedrich Karl von Schönborn]] as a go-between, the Emperor then sought to reach a compromise with Vienna but failed to get more military support from France.<ref name="Whaley2012">{{Cite book |last=Joachim Whaley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NeqGLXvgH7YC |title=Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648–1806 |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-19-969307-8}}</ref><ref name="KG" />

Suffering severely from [[gout]], Charles died at [[Nymphenburg Palace]] in January 1745. He is buried in the crypt of the [[Theatinerkirche (München)|Theatinerkirche]] in Munich. His heart was separately buried in the [[Shrine of Our Lady of Altötting]].<ref name="bio" /> [[Georg Philipp Telemann]] composed his requiem "I was Hoping for Light". King [[Frederick the Great]] of Prussia wrote in 1746, "This death robbed me of the emperor, who was my friend".<ref name="SchindlingZiegler1990">{{Cite book |last1=Anton Schindling |author-link1=Anton Schindling |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTg43WtvPnQC |title=Die Kaiser der Neuzeit, 1519–1918: Heiliges Römisches Reich, Österreich, Deutschland |page=230 |last2=Walter Ziegler |author2-link=Walter Ziegler |publisher=C.H. Beck |year=1990 |isbn=978-3-406-34395-7}}</ref>

Charles' brother Klemens August was more pro-Austrian, and Charles' son and successor [[Maximilian III, Elector of Bavaria|Maximilian III Joseph]] made peace with Austria. With the [[Treaty of Füssen]], Austria recognized the legitimacy of Charles's election as Holy Roman Emperor.<ref name="KG" />